Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon

by Bryan Chapell

preachers who complain about having to illustrate too easily blinded by their academic interests and unable to see the human factors that are as essential to excellent preaching as propositional proofs?

Illustrations do not allow mere intellectual knowledge. By grounding biblical truths in situations that people recognize, illustrations unite biblical truth with experience and, in so doing, make the Word more accessible, understandable, and real in ways that propositional statements alone cannot.11

Clyde Reid surveyed religious professionals and presented their conclusions: 1) Preachers tend to use complex, archaic language which the average person does not understand; 2) most sermons today are dull, boring, and uninteresting; 3) most preaching today is irrelevant; 4) preaching today is not courageous preaching; 5) preaching does not communicate; 6) preaching does not lead to change in persons; 7) preaching has been overemphasized. Reuel Howe spoke to laypeople and catalogued similar complaints: 1) sermons often contain too many complex ideas; 2) sermons have too much analysis and too little answer; 3) sermons are too formal and too impersonal; 4) sermons use too much theological jargon; 5) sermons are too propositional, not enough illustrations; 6) too many sermons simply reach a dead end and give no guidance to commitment and action.13

With rare exceptions, the most valued preaching throughout history has consistently relied on the inner eye. Had not the apostles punctuated their words with images of the full armor of God, the race course, living stones, olive trees, or walking in the light, we would strain to remember their instruction. Had not Jonathan Edwards dangled sinful spiders over a pit of flame, no one would know “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” If William Jennings Bryan had not decried, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,” his political “sermon” would have been forgotten the next day. If Martin Luther King Jr. had not led us through a “dream” and onto a “mountaintop,” would the march on Washington have been anything more than a ragged hike across a majestic mall?

Well-known preacher Steve Brown asserts even more boldly, “If you can’t illustrate it, it’s not true. We forget that doctrine isn’t for doctrine’s sake and theological propositions are not for theological propositions’ sake.

The Bible says of Jesus, “He did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Mark 4:34).42 Relating truth through illustrative narratives, parables, allegories, and images was Jesus’ method of communicating. His was not an age of visual literacy (at least in terms of modern technologies and media), yet illustrative materials pervaded his expressions.

Ralph Lewis argues that it took three centuries for the church to abandon Christ’s pattern of teaching and institutionalize the homiletical style of “universal abstractions” and “hortatory accent with fewer examples.”53 Even highly doctrine-oriented Paul sprinkled his epistolary messages with allusions to the narrative history of Israel, the arena, the sports field, the military, the marketplace, the temple, the home, and the school.54 David Calhoun suggests that the chief differences among the four Pauline sermons to unbelievers in the Book of Acts are the allusions Paul chose in relation to the four cultures of those audiences.55

An illustration thus becomes a snapshot from life. It captures a mood, a moment, or a memory in a narrative frame and displays that slice of life for the mind to see and the heart to know. The process of isolation and association does not require a particular order. Sometimes preachers see in an experience something that reminds them of an associated concept (a child being rescued from a well’s darkness reminded me of how God saves souls from sin’s darkness). They may then file that isolated event (in memory or a catalog system) until they preach on a passage whose explanation will benefit by such an association. Other times they first formulate a concept or a proposition and then try to isolate an associated experience that enables them to show others what they mean.

A preacher who wants to use illustrations well must cultivate the ability to isolate and associate experiences. To do this a preacher must learn to see everything as a passing parade of potential illustrations—every event, face, feature, and fantasy holds illustrative promise. A preacher is much like a photojournalist, constantly framing one moment, one event, one sequence after another to find what best communicates the truths of existence. By doing this, what looks common to the ordinary eye becomes significant. Preachers should continually take those snapshots of life’s grandeur and simplicity so as to relate both to the consistently awesome nature of God and to the too frequent tedium of their listeners’ experience.

D. W. Cleverley Ford writes: Admittedly, to quote from Dante, Dumas, Dostoievsky, and Dickens is impressive, but . . . what a congregation will most readily hear is references by the preacher to objects, events, and people’s comments which he has seen and heard himself in the recent past in the locality. An illustration drawn from the derelict house in the next street, the aftermath of a recent storm, a local flower show, a current play at the theatre, is the kind that is most serviceable.59

If a historical event is used for illustration, it should be presented as a slice of life with enough description of setting, drama, and characters that today’s listeners can find themselves in that event. If you must refer to the Spanish Armada, take care to capture the event in identifiable description. Isolate its human features. Let the listeners see the cannons flash, feel the storm, and fear the shoals. No parishioner wants to endure another fourth-grade lecture on the history of England and Spain, hoping it may mean something now, even though it never did before. Meaning occurs when an account is made real (i.e., related) to listeners’ experience.

Dawson C. Bryan, who wrote decades earlier, “Practically every illustration should be as technically perfect in form as a short story.” He was not merely advocating conscientious preparation but indicating the essential form that illustrations should take.63 Good illustrations take a story form. An illustration usually has an introduction, descriptive details, movement through crisis (i.e., creating suspense that leads to a climax), and a conclusion.64

An unobtrusive yet effective way to introduce an illustration is simply to pause. Briefly put in the clutch, as it were, to prepare for the gear shift.67

When a preacher begins with, “It was five minutes to midnight, and she still wasn’t home,” listeners move to a dimension of experience separate from where they are.

The introduction of an illustration begins this transporting process by separating listeners from their immediate experience and placing them in the context of another.

Bryan writes, “It is wise to begin at once with the example. The introduction of author, title, and chapter usually has a deadening effect, and, because of such, many an otherwise good illustration is brought forth stillborn.”

Maintain pastoral integrity by using phrases such as, “The story is told of . . . ,” or “I’ve heard it said that . . .” Such phrases do not damage an illustration but do protect a pastor from accusations or impressions of plagiarism.

“Don’t hurry the telling of your illustrations. Tell them well. Build up the background, picture the whole scene, and make it live before the eyes of the congregation.”

Anything that moves you can move your listeners—provided they are brought into firsthand encounter with stimuli that produced the emotion.”

An illustration should not merely reflect the concepts of the explanation; it should echo the terminology of the explanation as well. Ordinarily this means we rain the key words of the subpoints (or the key terms of the main point when there are no subpoints) into the sentences we use to tell the illustration.

The English teachers who taught us to write essays would advise changing terms to avoid redundancy, but in an oral medium, the repetition of key terms orients the ear to what is important and ties thoughts together. The key terms of the subpoints that were the listeners’ signposts through the concepts in the explanation now function in the illustration, enabling it to reinforce the specific truths of the explanation. Dispensing with these verbal trail guides in the illustration invites confusion and loses listeners. Not only does the lack of expositional rain disconnect the verbal cues linking the explanation and the illustration, but the lack of term consistency actually erodes the credibility of the preacher. In the latter decades of the twentieth century, many speakers were advised to begin public addresses with anecdotes.

If preachers do not bring an audience to the edge of wonder, grief, anger, confusion, fear, or discovery, then their words have no point—no hook on which to hang meaning. The internal tensions of illustrations hold a congregation because they spotlight the very types of experiences that bring people to hear the minister.

Grouping statements demonstrate similarities between an illustration’s details and the sermon’s truths. A preacher might conclude an illustration with phrases such as “Even as so-and-so discovered this path, we must . . .” or “In the same manner . . .” or “We too must . . .” or “We learn from this account that just as . . .” An alternative is to cap an illustration with an application phrased in wording parallel to a key phrase or thought that occurred within the illustration. An illustration might end with the statement, “Without his guide, Joe could never have found his way back.”

Mass communication studies have indicated that it is often best to use an illustration immediately after the first statement of an expositional principle in a main point’s development.86 The technique intrigues while introducing a subject and thus allows the point to be made with a minimum of attention drop or listener argument.87 This method is especially popular with broadcast preachers.88

Do not portray family, friends, or parishioners in embarrassing accounts unless you have secured their permission and indicate in the sermon that you have done so.

The only one you have a right to poke fun at from the pulpit is yourself. (Corollary: The only one you cannot pat on the back in the pulpit is yourself.)

Never be the hero of your own illustrations. If any good results, give the credit to God (1 Cor. 1:31).

Application justifies exposition. If there is no apparent reason for listeners to absorb exegetical insights, historical facts, and biographical details, then a preacher cannot expect what seems inapplicable to be appreciated. No doctor will have much success saying to patients, “Take these pills,” without explaining why. Application explains why listeners should take a sermon’s expositional pills.

An informed preacher uses every aspect of a sermon as leverage to move the message’s application based on sound exposition

But preachers have only a few minutes each week to expound what a passage means. How do they choose what to say? Application answers by forcing them to determine what information most strongly supports particular responses a passage requires of listeners in light of the Fallen Condition Focus (FCF) of the message. The application points to the FCF, saying, “This is what you must do about that problem, need, or fault on the basis of what this passage means.” Preachers select explanatory arguments and facts from the infinite possibilities on the basis of how readily they will support the application. Application gives exposition a target on which to focus

Therefore, although preachers should not definitively determine application until completing their study of a passage (i.e., not deciding what a text requires before determining what it means), they should have the thrust of application clearly in mind before beginning sermon construction. If they start writing a message before determining what a sermon needs to accomplish, then the components of the message are not appropriately geared toward the sermon’s goal. Application—at least its general direction—must precede final decisions about structure, exegetical emphases, wording, and even the tone of a message, or else a preacher will be designing a highway without knowing its destination.

One of the most insightful paragraphs in the book

A simple and effective way of ensuring the cohesion of explanatory principles and sermonic applications is to use the key concepts and terminology of a main point’s explanation to frame the application (see fig. 8.3 and the discussion of expositional rain in chap. 7). For example, preachers could use subpoints indicating that devoted prayer is “consistent” and “fervent” to frame and phrase the instruction that people should pray “consistently” and “fervently.” By phrasing the application’s instruction with the key terms of the explanation, preachers help listeners not only understand why they were listening to the explanation but also connect the instruction of the preacher with the authority of Scripture.21 When preachers apply a text with the same terms that they have explained a text, listeners conclude, “We must do this because it is what the Bible says.” Again, although an English teacher would encourage you to use different terms in a written essay, in an oral presentation, the repetition of key terms is one of your most powerful communication tools. Apply what you explain and the way you explain.

The following categories of common concern may help you begin to consider specifics in your congregation that need application of the principles in a text: 1. Building proper relationships (with God, family, friends, coworkers, church people, etc.) 2. Reconciling conflicts (in marriage, family, work, church, etc.) 3. Handling difficult situations (stress, debt, unemployment, grief, fatigue, etc.) 4. Overcoming weakness and sin (dishonesty, anger, addiction, lust, doubt, lack of discipline, etc.) 5. Lack or improper use of resources (time, treasures, talents, etc.) 6. Meeting challenges and using opportunities (education, work in or out of church, witnessing, missions, etc.) 7. Taking responsibility (home, church, work, finances, future, etc.) 8. Honoring God (worship, confession, prayer, devotions, not compartmentalizing life, etc.) 9. Concern for social/world problems (poverty, racism, abortion, education, injustice, war, etc.)

Applications that are true to the goals of expository preaching explain how believers today have to live in specific situations to remain faithful to Scripture. This is no easy task. In fact, the strain of developing balanced, relevant, and fair situational specificity underscores why application is the most difficult task of expository preaching.30 The biblical text contains information for instructional specificity, but the experience, courage, care, and spirituality of a preacher provide the material for situational specificity (i.e., instructional specificity is supplied to you; situational specificity is supplied by you). Without situational specificity, sermons will typically run out of steam after the preacher repeats the standard encouragements to practice the means of grace more: pray more, read the Bible more, go to church more. But when messages are designed to apply biblical truth to the struggles of life, then applications will be as varied and as relevant as the situations God’s people face every day.

Be very specific when giving examples of the ways the text may inform how we deal with various struggles: instead of the rote “become a better husband like Christ,” rather “when your wife doesn’t show you any gratitude or appreciation for feeding the kids before church, do you respond with the same love Christ responds to you when you fail to appreciate the ways he blesses you? You feel me? Been there?”

Make sure that you motivate believers primarily by grace, not by guilt or greed. If God has freed his people from the guilt and power of sin, then preachers have no right to put believers back under the weight Jesus bore.

In fact, they fear that without the burden of guilt (“God will get you if you don’t”) or the leverage of greed (“God will give you more if you do”), they will have no means to motivate obedience. The alternative to motivating by guilt is its antidote: grace. The alternative to motivating by greed is its antithesis: grace. Believers need to serve God preeminently out of loving thankfulness for the redemption he freely and fully provides.

If we serve God primarily because we believe he will love us less if we do not, punish us more if we do less, or withhold blessing until we are sufficiently holy, then we are not obeying God for his glory but are pursuing our own self-interests. In such cases, the chief goal of our obedience is personal promotion or personal protection rather than the glory of God.33

Simply a massive point for preaching...

Why must a sermon include information on how to obey as well as what to do, where, and why? An obvious but frequent example of failing to provide listeners with the instruction necessary for action occurs when preachers conclude a sermon with a call to salvation, although the sermon did not indicate what an unbeliever must do to repent of sin and commit to the Savior. Such preaching assumes that listeners will know what to do despite the fact that those most needing to respond are the ones least likely to understand what God requires. If we tell God’s people what, where, and why to do something, they still will struggle to obey if they do not know how.

Responsible preaching does not tell people their responsibilities without also informing them of how to plug into this power. Jay Kesler, former president of Taylor University, says that a sermon without enabling instruction is like shouting to a drowning person, “Swim! Swim!” The advice is correct but not helpful. It simply tells someone to do what in their situation they have no means to accomplish.37

The need to answer what, where, why, and how explains why preachers should dedicate a significant portion of expository messages to application.39 A sentence at the end of twenty minutes of survey will not do. Application that ignores any one of these four critical questions is not merely incomplete; it is unbiblical because it fails to equip God’s people for their service to him.

The illustration’s summary statement acts as the introduction to the application and serves as or sets up a general statement of principle that begins the application.41 Almost all preachers use these overarching statements of biblical principle to begin their application. They conclude their explanations with a generic statement such as, “You, too, should examine your heart to see if you love your neighbor as you ought” or “Pray with the fervor that indicates you are serious about the salvation of the lost.” Far too many preachers also conclude their applications at this point. Having proven a biblical principle, these preachers believe that they have fulfilled their expository obligations and that people will automatically translate the principles into their lives. For reasons already mentioned, this is too often a false hope.

Typically, the description of this concrete (that is, real-life) situation involves detailing circumstances and a specific explanation of how the instructions would function (or what they would require) in such a situation. In essence, a preacher makes the biblical instruction live the realities of the listeners. No single example, however, is likely to identify a situation that all listeners confront (one of the prime reasons why preachers in another generation were advised to let the Holy Spirit do all the application of a message). If a preacher simply stops here, the sermon may have arrived at a destination many find irrelevant. As a result, a preacher needs to unroll the initial concrete example into further situational possibilities by briefly mentioning other situations or struggles common in the congregation to which the biblical truth of the text applies. Rarely will a preacher have the time to discuss these additional possibilities in the same detail as the initial concrete situation. The goal of the initial example is to expose listeners to a situation in which a biblical principle applies (i.e., becomes meaningful) and to stop them from thinking that the principle applies only to that situation. The initial situation makes the principle real; the unrolled specifics make it relevant to all. The identification of the additional situations breaks down the fence of any impression that the biblical truth could be confined to the first situation mentioned. The unroll...

Revisit this. So helpful it hurts!

Norman Neaves writes of the embracing power of the specific: I’m tired of sermons that do not live where people live, that don’t connect with the real stories and struggles by which their lives are shaped, that never touch the earth or breathe the air that the congregation breathes. Maybe there are those who enjoy developing the universal sermon, the one that can be preached everywhere and anywhere, that has a quality of being timeless. But as far as I am concerned, everywhere and anywhere really means nowhere; and those who strive to be timeless, are usually, simply not very timely. . . . The particular is higher than the universal.42

Sound explanation requires good scholarship. Solid application requires deep spirituality. A pastor who is keenly aware of the soul’s struggles and who is intimately acquainted with scriptural remedies has what it takes to produce sound applications. Such a pastor knows not to harangue over obvious misbehaviors, not to remind others tritely to employ “the means of grace” (i.e., pray more, read the Bible more, go to church more), and not to rely on a habit-hewn appeal to come to Christ.

specific. J. Daniel Baumann writes: What is it that causes some sermons to be ineffective? One of the results of Ziegler’s studies was that the sermons which contained applications to the daily lives of the congregation were the sermons that were unanimously rejected by the congregation. The frequency of rejection and the intensity of the rejection exactly paralleled the amount of daily application contained in the sermon. I would suggest that individuals are becoming more and more reluctant to accept that kind of application, religious or otherwise, to their daily lives. That kind of prescription implies that one person is in a position to tell others just what they should do with their daily lives.44 When listeners conclude that a pastor has

Disarming illustrations. Deane Kemper writes, “One of the most important uses of stories and quotations is to short-circuit emotional reaction. When you are advancing ideas that may receive a less-than-receptive hearing or even be met with resistance, an illustration can provide an indirect lead-in that is more likely to gain a fair hearing than a more frontal, didactic approach.”45 The nature of the narrative can demonstrate the goodwill of the preacher. A story also has the ability to guide hearers along a narrative trail that leads to scriptural conclusions, which is better than immediately confronting listeners with arguments that raise their defenses.46 Kemper also indicates that select quotations from respected experts may open listeners’ minds to ideas they might not consider on a preacher’s authority alone.

We need both “direct and indirect application”47 in sermons. Prudence and discretion may indicate that it is better to help listeners build up their own faith resources by giving them the information needed to make correct decisions than by confronting them with the decisions they must make.

Respect for complexity. One of my favorite radio commentators says, “For every complex problem there is a simple answer ‘that is wrong!’” A preacher’s willingness to admit that a sermon deals only with a narrow aspect of a large concern or that more extensive answers must await later occasions may do far more to bolster application than flip responses, quick solutions, and cliché condemnations.

If a particular sermon does not adequately support an application, think twice before offering it. Preachers should not raise more snakes of controversy in a sermon than the exposition provides biblical sticks to kill.

The spiritual welfare of others requires that you not obscure your meaning in abstract idealism that disturbs no one and has no potential to get you in trouble. If the young people need to stop seeing violent or pornographic movies, tell them so. If the church will not heal until gossip stops, say so. If political differences are dividing believers, address the problem. Speak with tact. Speak with love. But do not fail to say what the situation requires and what the Bible demands.