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Second, the statements seem to hav...
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This is the second reason a set of clear, true, and biblical statements may not form a sermon.
Without a clear purpose in view, listeners have no compelling reason to listen to a sermon.
Finally, the statements beacon no application.
This is the third reason a set of clear, true, and biblical statements may not form a sermon.
Without application, a sermon offers people no cause ...
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Statements of truth, even biblical truth, do not automatically make a message for the pulpit. Well-constructed sermons require unity, purpose, and application.
Key concept: How many things is a sermon about? One!
Each feature of a well-wrought message reflects, refines, or develops one major idea.
Speakers Need Focus
This is the first of two reasons for the necessity of unity.
The priorities of unity allow preachers to consider prayerfully and in good conscience what not to say as well as what to say.
Listeners Need Focus
This is the second of two reasons for the necessity of unity.
Sermons are for listeners, not readers.
All good communication requires a theme. If a preacher does not provide a unifying concept for a message, listeners will.
It is easier to catch a baseball than a handful of sand even if the two weigh about the same amount.
As we have already discovered, in expository preaching the meaning of a passage provides the message of a sermon.
Haddon Robinson suggests that preachers determine the “big idea” of a message by first asking, “What is the author [of the passage] talking about?” and then “What is he saying about what he is talking about?”
In expository preaching, unity occurs when a preacher demonstrates that the elements of a passage support a single major idea, which serves as the theme of the sermon.
This does not mean that only the major theme of a passage can serve as the theme of an expository sermon. A sermon on a minor theme of a passage may also be expository as long as there is sufficient exegetical material in the passage to support that selected theme in its context.
We must capture the theme, purpose, or focus of a biblical writer and organize the sermon’s features to develop or support that central idea in order for God’s truth to rule our efforts.
The 3:00 a.m. test requires you to imagine a spouse, a roommate, or a parishioner waking you from a deep slumber with this simple question: “What’s the sermon about today, Preacher?” If you cannot give a crisp answer, the sermon is probably half-baked. Thoughts you cannot gather at 3:00 a.m. are not likely to be caught by others at 11:00 a.m.
When we can crystallize the thought of a passage, then the focus, organization, and application of the message become clear for preacher and listener.
In Western preaching cultures, this theme is traditionally stated as a disconnected proposition near the beginning of a sermon and developed with supportive material as the message progresses.
This movement from the propositional statement of a general principle to particular proofs or implications follows a deductive path of logic (i.e., deducing particulars from an overarching principle). Other traditions (and some newer homiletic approaches) guide listeners inductively to the sermon’s theme by using particulars to lead to it, or even circling the theme with wrong alternatives before spiraling into the crux of the message with ideas and stories that progressively near the mark.
Key concept: The Fallen Condition Focus reveals a text’s and a sermon’s purpose.
Determining a sermon’s subject is only half done when a preacher has discerned what a biblical writer was saying. We do not fully understand a biblical passage until we have also determined why the Holy Spirit included it in Scripture.
Knowing a text’s purpose is essential to really understanding it. We kid ourselves if we say we understand what a text means without being able to identify or communicate its significance.
The greater intellectual and spiritual task is to discern the human concern that caused the Holy Spirit to inspire this aspect of Scripture so that God would be properly glorified by his people.
Consideration of a passage’s purpose ultimately forces us to ask, What caused this account, these facts, or the recording of these ideas? Why were these concerns addressed? What was the intent of the author? For what purpose did the Holy Spirit include these words in Scripture? Such questions force us to exegete the cause of a passage as well as its contents and to connect both to the lives of the people God calls us to shepherd with his truth.
Until we have determined a passage’s purpose, we are not ready to preach its truths, even if we know m...
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What were the struggles, concerns, or frailties of the persons to whom the text was originally addressed?
God intends for his Word to “complete” us so that we are equipped for his work in and through us.
Since God designed all Scripture to complete us, the necessary implication is that in some sense we are incomplete. Our lack of wholeness is a consequence of the fallen condition in which we live. Aspects of this fallenness that are reflected in our sinfulness and in our world’s brokenness prompt Scripture’s instruction.
The corrupted state of our world and our being cries for God’s aid. He responds with the truths of Scripture that give us hope through facets of his grace that bear on aspects of our fallen condition revealed in every portion of his Word.
The Fallen Condition Focus (FCF) is the mutual human condition that contemporary persons share with those to or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God’s people to glorify and enjoy him.
Sermons focused on human fix-its or merely demanding behavior change actually make the work of God superfluous, implying our spiritual rescue rests on our performance.
We preach in harmony with this purpose by saying how the text indicates people are to respond biblically to the FCF as it is experienced in our lives—identifying the gracious means that God provides for us to deal with the brokenness in or about us that deprives us of the full experience and expression of his glory.
The FCF sets the tone, determines the approach, and organizes the information in a sermon to reveal this divine provision and direct our response to it.
Thus the FCF is usually directly stated or strongly implied in the introductory portion of a sermon.
An FCF reveals the Spirit’s own purpose for the passage, and we should not presume to preach unless we have identified his will for his Word. We
The more specific the statement of the FCF early in the sermon, the more powerful and poignant the message will be.
The old preaching adage rings true: if you try to speak to everyone, you really speak to no one. In preaching, the particular is the universal; the more we focus our messages on real concerns of specific people, the more everyone is compelled to listen.
Specific sins such as unforgiveness, lying, stealing, gossip, materialism, racism, and pride are frequently the FCF of a passage, but a sin does not always have to be the FCF of a sermon. Grief, illness, longing for the Lord’s return, the need to know how to share the gospel, and the desire to be a better parent are not sins for which we are guilty, but they are the consequences of being fallen creatures in a fallen world.
An FCF need not be something for which we are guilty or culpable. It simply needs to be an aspect or problem of the human condition that requires the instruction, admonition, or comfort of Scripture.
Whether the FCF is a sin or a consequence of living in a fallen world, it is always presented in negative terms or light—as a “burden” the text is addressing.
First, there is simply the communication advantage of giving people a reason to invest time and interest in the message.
Public-address instructors in bygone eras advised speakers to “put a person in a hole” whenever you begin a speech. Then people want to listen to know how the person gets out.
Second, by identifying the “burden” of the sermon early in the message, the thrust of the message is relieving that burden.
There is more than one proper way of wording a passage’s FCF for statement in a sermon.
An FCF will remain faithful to a text and identify powerful purposes in a sermon if a preacher uses these three successive questions to develop the FCF: What does the text say? What spiritual concern(s) did the text address (in its context)? What spiritual concerns do listeners share in common with those to (or about) whom the text was written?
Key concept: Without the “So what?” we preach to a “Who cares?”
God expects scriptural truths to transform his people. Faithful preaching does the same.
