Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 7 - Message Outline, tagged Expository Preaching, Preaching narrative on July 7, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Most people have. Let me share the three reasons people gave at the seminar last weekend for having done this, then I’ll make my point clear:
1. It’s like children wanting the same story told over and over – it gives a sense of security.
2. You catch details you didn’t see first time through.
3. You still [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching, Textual Outline on May 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Observation does not work in haste. It takes time to keep looking at something and really see it. I’m told that you cannot get the best out of an art gallery by rushing around and taking mental snapshots (my default approach). I know that neither can you get the best out of a Bible passage [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged David Wenham, Forsyth, Homilies, Liturgical Church, Liturgical Preaching, Liturgy, Mainstream Churches, P.T.Forsyth on March 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a quote worth pondering, wherever you sit theologically. It is quoted in a book that is more mainstream and liturgical in orientation than the more evangelical books I tend to quote from. It is a quote by P.T.Forsyth in reference to the Roman Catholic church. I’m sure this post could stir response on numerous [...]
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Posted in Homiletics, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, tagged Expository Preaching, Martin Luther, Michael Pasquarello III, Pasquarello, Preaching Easter on March 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What is your aim as you preach this Easter? In his book, Sacred Rhetoric (p119-120), Michael Pasquarello makes the following comment about Martin Luther:
Luther’s homiletic aim was to demonstrate, by means of the Gospel, that the resurrection is more than an idle tale or a painted picture that evokes admiration and religious sentiment. . . [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Greg Haslam, Preach the Word, Westminster Chapel on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Continuing the list of ten characteristics of Jesus’ preaching, as observed by a chapter in Preach the Word:
(6) Visual in its Appeal – Jesus painted word pictures. He didn’t speak in abstractions, but he helped his teaching to form in the minds of the listeners (whether they were intended to really understand that picture is [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching, Greg Haslam, Preach the Word, Westminster Chapel on February 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Haslam’s book, Preach the Word, has a chapter entitled “Learning from Jesus.” To some it is obvious that we should look to Jesus, who was, after all, the finest of preachers. But I suppose some would overlook Jesus as a model of preaching since, well, we’re not Jesus. In this chapter, the writer points out [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, tagged Calvary, Easter, Evangelical Theology, Expository Preaching, Genre, Martin Luther, Passion Narratives on January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I know Easter is still a couple of months away, but as a preacher it is never too early to think about Easter. In fact, there is a sense in which commemoration of Easter is never more than six days away – the Lord’s Day is a weekly gathering because of His resurrection. So here’s [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Acts, Acts of the Apostles, Luke-Acts, Normative on January 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Unlike the Old Testament narratives, and in some senses, even unlike the gospel narratives, the Acts narratives should be easier to interpret and preach. After all, this is now church history, not ancient Israel history. But there is a challenge:
The challenge of “normativeness” – how are we to understand and apply descriptions of a unique [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Expository Preaching, Harmonization, Harmony of the gospels, John's Gospel, Mark's Gospel, Preaching Gospels, Synoptic Gospels on January 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Note – Peter has extended comments related to this post, see previous in the series here
Last time we looked at the interpretational challenge of more than one “author.” Now, let’s see another challenge:
2. More than one “account” of the event. What are we to do when we find the same story told in two, three, [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Authorial intent, Expository Preaching, Luke, Parable on January 17, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Peter has extended comments on this post.
When we come to interpreting the narratives in the Gospels, we are faced with a couple of potential difficulties. I’ll call it the double challenge of more than one:
1. More than one “author” of the parables. Our goal in interpretation is to grasp the author’s intended meaning. But which [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged bible stories, Biblical Narrative, Biblical Narratives, Michael Rydelnik, Moralistic, Moralizing, Ray Lubeck on January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Biblical narratives spark differing reactions. I just had a conversation with someone who preaches periodically. I mentioned the subject of my seminar this weekend and he responded that he loves preaching on that kind of passage. Yet others seem to avoid narratives, especially Old Testament narratives, at all costs. The difficulty for the avoiders is [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Historical Accuracy, Historicity, Jeffrey Arthurs, Leland Ryken, Literary, Literary Types, Narrative, Preach the Word, Preaching with Variety on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m giving a lot of thought to the preaching of biblical narrative at the moment. I have a seminar on the subject coming up this weekend and I am thoroughly enjoying preparation for that event. Somehow, when it comes to narrative passages, there are two truths that don’t seem to sit easily together in peoples’ [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, New Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, tagged Acts of the Apostles, Ben Witherington, Ben Witherington III, Church History, Pentecost, Speeches in Acts, Stephen's Speech, Walter Liefeld on January 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The book of Acts is a fascinating study. It is the only inspired account of the birth of the church and early church history. Yet like all of inspired Scripture, it goes beyond mere history. While some are quick to oversimplify their categorization of New Testament genre into stories of Jesus (gospels), instructions for the [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Expository Preaching, Ezra, Nehemiah, Prophets, Torah, Walter Kaiser on December 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I addressed why it is generally best to preach on a single text. Today I’d like to address a possible misunderstanding that might result from this suggestion:
This emphasis on preaching a single text does not mean that I advocate preaching biblically naive or theologically unaware messages. To really understand a particular passage usually requires [...]
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Some of the Christmas carols contain phenomenal truths. Yet they can easily be sung mindlessly – familiar tunes, familiar lyrics and some unfamiliar words mixed in. As we preach or lead services in this Christmas season, let’s not miss the opportunity to highlight the glorious truths contained in the songs we sing. Perhaps a passing [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Hebrews on November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t mean preaching your sermon based on another contemporary preacher’s sermon. I mean preaching a sermon based on a Scriptural sermon. There’s lots of them. It can be fascinating to wrestle with a sermon in its context since you would expect to find a sense of context, purpose, application, explanation, etc. If you haven’t [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Clausal Layout, Diagramming, Exegetical Outline, Syntactical Analysis on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here in London you can visit the British Library and look at such priceless items as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus. While it is a privilege to see them, they are not the easiest things to read and understand. Written in uncials, ITISNOTEASYTOREADTEXTWITHOUTGAPSORPUNCTUATION. Never mind the fact that it is in Greek, just the running [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Greek, Hebrew, literally means, Original Language on September 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
A very significant proportion of preachers around the world have had no training in the original languages. After hearing yet another example in the last weeks, I’d like to give a tip regarding “this word literally means…” Generally speaking, unless you have thoroughly researched it. Don’t use it.
The latest example I heard from the leader [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged 2nd John, Ecclesiastes, Joel, Jude, Nahum, Obadiah, Song of Solomon on August 29, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Most preachers do what most Christians do. They tend to stay in the familiar books of the Bible. The gospels, the epistles, and maybe some Psalms or well-known Old Testament narratives. But what about Nahum, Obadiah or Joel? What about Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, or even 2nd John or Jude? Here are 7 reasons to [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Gospels on August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here are four more suggestions for planning a gospel series:
Decide how many messages the series will last, then select accordingly. You might only deal with a part of the gospel (such as the Upper Room Discourse). You might select exemplary units that point to the flow in which they sit (such as Luke 19:1-10 with [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Gospels on August 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It is a good idea to preach a series from one of the gospels, but it is not easy to plan. There are so many events, parables and teaching sections that a series which simply goes from one NIV heading to the next would last for years. Here are some suggestions:
Get to grips with the [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Luke 18, Luke 19, Luke's Gospel, Pharisee, Tax Collector, Zaccheus on August 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When preaching a narrative it is important to preach a whole story, but don’t wear blinkers. I am referring to the beginning and end of the specific narrative in question. We easily fall into the trap of believing that section breaks added in a contemporary version are actually inspired dividers that should separate two distinct [...]
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When you are preaching a narrative, I think it is healthy to begin with a default approach of tell the story, highlight the main point and then apply that main point. With many narratives, this approach works perfectly well. Last week I preached Luke 19:1-10 and found that telling the story of Zaccheus with explanation [...]
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Coming to faith is a process. I’ve been studying the early chapters of Daniel and the early chapters of John. It’s not uncommon to find, in the Bible, that there is a process involved in understanding God for who He is and accepting His role and self-presentation. Whether or not Nebuchadnezzar is truly “converted” in [...]
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Posted in Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Application on March 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve noted that there are discourse passages in almost every section of Scripture – history, wisdom, prophet, gospel, etc. Awareness of the broader plot within which discourse is placed is helpful both in understanding the passage meaning and purpose, and also for preaching the passage with contextual understanding and tension.
So if we decide to preach [...]
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Posted in Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail on March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Discourse text often sits within a narrative. Consider the teaching sections of the Gospels, how a Jesus sermon is set in the context of the story of His ministry or passion. Consider the speeches in Acts as they move the story forward time and again. Consider the direct communication of God to Joshua at the [...]
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When I teach preaching courses, I tend to refer to the three types of Scripture: discourse, narrative and poetry. The various genre fit within these categories and so they give a good overview of different Biblical text types. So the principles of narrative interpretation would apply in the Gospels, Acts, historical books and [...]
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Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged 1Cor 15, 1Cor15, Corinthians, Easter, NT Wright, Raised, Resurrection, Tom Wright on March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
NT Wright made an interesting comment this week. He suggested that the New Testament presents many implications that come from the resurrection. However, the one that most preachers tend to emphasize is not really presented in the New Testament. Namely, “Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can go to heaven when [...]
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Posted in Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Easter, Gospels, Harmonization, Harmony, Passion on March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Whenever we preach from the gospels we need to be aware that there may be up to four accounts of the story before us. In the past a great deal of emphasis was placed on harmonizing the gospel accounts. That is to say, placing all four side by side and seeking to combine [...]
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Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Calvary, Cross, Crucifixion, Good Friday on March 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I expect we would agree that the typical crucifixion image that comes to mind is probably a little too “hygienic.” The traditional pictures seen in old churches with the Lord serene and clean, hanging on the cross with a minimal element of humiliation are so far from the brutal reality of the event. [...]
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