New Testament

Getting to Grips with a Genealogy

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

What do you do when you are preaching through a book and there is a genealogy? I have faced this a few times, although I don’t claim to have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to the challenge. Here are a few tips:

1. Study the function of the genealogy. The author included it for a reason. How does it fit with the flow of thought in the book? It is easy to get caught up in the details of the list, but miss the function of it.

2. Select the preaching passage carefully. If you are able to divide the preaching passages, do not assume lots of verses in a genealogy mean lots of preaching material. It may be that the genealogy can be summarized briefly, leaving plenty of time for an adjoining text.

3. Survey the framing of the genealogy. What does the author write as a lead in, and what are the first comments leading out of the genealogy? Consider, for example, Luke 3:21-23 and 4:1-3.

4. See if any pattern is broken. Sometimes there is a pattern in the way the text is written, which can become quite rhythmic to the ear. Be sure to check for any breaks in that pattern that might suggest a place of emphasis. For example, consider the change in pattern for Enoch in Genesis 5:24.

5. Scrutinize the places of emphasis. Be sure to consider carefully the first and last names in the list. Often a genealogy is a bridge through time linking one place in history with another. For example, see Ruth 4:18-22.

6. Scan for misfits. In light of the apparent function of the genealogy, are there individuals whose inclusion might be considered surprising? For example, the presence of, and similarities between the women, in Matthew 1:1-17. Be careful not to allow an interesting observation to overwhelm the rest of the genealogy. This example in Matthew has more than one interesting feature!

7. Search for every clue to the author’s intent. Your goal is not to preach random details from a list, nor to exhaust listeners with exhaustive historical details, but to search diligently for the author’s intent when he wrote and/or included the genealogy. This is a repeat of the first point, but this is worthy of restatement in this final position of emphasis!

Tell the Story, but Preach the Text

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

I believe in vivid description during preaching. It takes time for an idea to form in the minds and hearts of listeners. It takes specific detail for listeners to “see” a Biblical story and to feel its tension. But the solution is not simply to add and embellish freely.

1. Preach the text, not the event. The writer made choices. He chose to selectively include limited detail and was inspired in the choice of each word. So while it is tempting to fill out the details, be careful not to lose the point the writer is making. For example, in the gospels, each writer is writing historically accurate accounts, but is doing so theologically. A writer may include or omit specific details in order to make his point. If we simply harmonize all four gospels and preach the resulting composite story, we will be preaching the event rather than the text. It is a good idea to consult a harmony of the gospels to make sure your description is historically accurate, but preach your specific text. The event is historically true, but the text is inspired.

2. Preach the text, not added detail. There is a constant danger that in telling a story well, we might preach an idea born out of the added (uninspired) detail. Therefore, it is critical to do solid exegetical work in the text before working on how to tell the story. Work on the passage must come before work on the message. Then if you decide to add some detail, you can do so carefully, seeking to honor the emphasis and detail of the text.

Preaching Familiar Texts

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

What should we do with stories that are very familiar to our listeners?  For example, a friend of mine recently preached the crucifixion account in Matthew 27.  How should he approach a passage that is so familiar and is a subject addressed every week in his church in one way or another?

1 – Know your audience.  For some groups, more emphasis on explanation or proof of the passage would be necessary.  In this particular case the people would generally understand the passage (apart from the miraculous events as Jesus died).  They also have little need of proof.  This leaves the majority of the focus on application.

2 – Retell familiar stories, but help people feel them.  It is easy for people to hear something often and be familiar with it.  This does not mean the passage should not be preached.  People often know Biblical stories, but rarely feel them.  Take the opportunity to tell the story in a gripping way, helping people to feel as if they were there.  You cannot force this to happen.  It doesn’t help to keep haranguing people with phrases like, “Imagine you were there, come on!”  It takes the skill of vivid description and effective story telling to achieve this.  Perhaps a slightly unusual angle could help.  Since the text eventually brings in the centurion’s perspective, why not tell the whole story from where he is standing, still keeping to the details in the text?

3 – Apply, apply, apply.  Don Sunukjian teaches preachers to give only as much explanation and proof as necessary, then apply, apply, apply.  This is good advice.  It is easy to give redundant explanations and exegetical details.  As preachers we are prone to do information dumps on our people (after all, we worked hard on this message!)  But people can always benefit from more application.

4 – Apply specifically.  What does the crucifixion story mean to a Christian working in a factory this week?  What does the familiar story mean to a mother of small children and sleepless nights?  What difference could this make tomorrow morning at 10am?  It is easy to preach a “church” sermon, and easy to listen to one, but get the Word into real life by being as specific as possible.

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

/ Mike Roth / Leave a comment

Have you ever found in the middle of writing a sermon that you have ten minutes of preaching material that has nothing to do with your main idea? This is easy to do. Some possible factors…an unclear main idea, too much time on one point, an illustration that is over the top in length and detail or too much time explaining what the text is not saying. These are just a few reasons that the main thing ceases to be the main thing in our sermons.

Lately, our church has been working its way through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. A recent sermon covered Matthew 6:1-21. In this section, Jesus makes the point that our piety is to be sheltered from the sight of others. The world is to notice our gentle words (5:21-22); that we pursue reconciliation (5:23-26); that our relationships and vows are marked by fidelity (5:27-37); that we are charitable – even toward our enemies (5:38-48). According to Jesus, this is the kind of salt and light the world should taste and see (5:13-16). However, God alone is to taste and see our piety (6:1-21).

To preach this sermon, it could be very easy to slip into preaching what this passage isn’t saying instead of what it is saying. For example, it is not saying don’t pray corporately. It is not saying don’t tithe at church. It is not saying don’t pray with others. The list of what this passage is not saying could go on and on!

While it is important to address questions our congregations are asking when we preach, we must be careful not to lose sight of the main thing. So what do we do? I suggest speaking to the questions we know our listeners are asking. Otherwise, we will lose them as we continue forward while they sit in their questions. However, in our preparation, we must carefully monitor the time we allot to such caveats in our sermons. Otherwise, by the time and emphasis we give, we communicate a thing we do not intend to communicate. In this case, multiple points about what Jesus is not saying. This would be a tragedy.

Jesus is saying so much in this passage (6:1-21)! How are we known by the world? Are we known to go to church, pray at meal-time and tithe but unknown as kind speaking, reconciling acting, fidelity keeping kingdom participants? It is easier to do piety publicly than it is to live out chapter 5. Why… What motivates our hearts to piety? Is it the applause of others? Is it a spiritual checklist? Is it to worship and love our Lord? All of this and more (related to the main idea) is missed when we lose sight of communicating the main thing.

Preaching Parables – Two Thoughts

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Last Sunday I preached from Luke 18, where there are two parables at the start of the chapter. A couple of thoughts about preaching parables:

Jesus told stories that packed a punch, don’t deaden the force – Of course the preacher’s role includes the need to explain the story, but we also need to preach the story in such a way as to achieve a similar effect as Jesus intended. For example, as I preached on the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, how could I help the listeners today to feel the force of that story in the way that Jesus’ listeners felt it? Well, I couldn’t just read the text. Nor could I just tell the story as it stands. As Jesus set the scene in verse 10, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector,” his listeners would immediately have significant emotional reaction. One was a good guy, the other a very bad guy. But for my churched listeners, their emotional reaction would be muted at best, the exact opposite at worse. For churched folk listening today, one is a bad guy (the one who typically opposed Jesus and ultimately got Him crucified) and the other is probably ok (the one who Jesus would hang out with, the one who might be like the other former tax collector that gave us our favorite Christmas readings in a Gospel). This is the opposite emotional reaction than Jesus intended. So, I chose to tell a contemporary story, in some ways equivalent to the parable, but not a forced equivalency. Having felt the force, we were ready to go back, read the text and have it explained. When it comes to preaching stories it is easy to kill the specimen by dissecting it. Stories are best observed alive, rather than cut up.

Incidentally, I could have chosen to do the same thing with Luke 18:1-8, but chose not to. I felt that story would work with a more straightforward “read a bit and then explain” approach, while maintaining the flow of the story. On another occasion I might use a contemporary version first.

The Gospel writers recorded stories in carefully packaged contexts, don’t rip them out – Whenever I preach from a Gospel passage, I am very aware of the double context. There’s the original historical context when Jesus spoke the words to the people around him. Then there’s the written context when Luke arranged, edited, commented on and put together the Gospel (different audience, different point in time, sometimes with different purpose). So when preaching a parable of Jesus, I am not dealing simply with a story Jesus told, but with a story Jesus told in a context Luke put together. So it is important to recognize the blending of both contexts. In the case of Luke 18, I focused primarily on the stories as Jesus told them (as presented by Luke), but was careful to notice the written contexts stretching back into chapter 17 for 18:1-8, and then on through the next two stories for 18:9-14.

Question: First person preaching from an epistle?

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Tim wrote the following:

Preaching in the first person – do you think this could ever be used for epistolary texts? I realise people use it to good effect on narrative texts. But what about a section of epistle?

What I’m thinking is, say, first part of Galatians 5. If you were first-person Paul then it might:
a) add variety (if you’ve been working through the book)
b) enable you to communicate the historical setting well
c) perhaps enable you to strongly communicate the passion Paul had for the Galatians and the sense of exasperation he felt.

What do you reckon?

Peter responds – Absolutely! First-person preaching is usually thought of as being ideal for narrative texts, but epistles are set up for this approach as well. Although epistles are didactic in form, they are also “story” or at least part of a story. You have characters (Paul and recipients, plus false teachers and other influences), in a specific setting, there is a “plot” (Paul preached, others came in, the locals shifted, now Paul is addressing the problem), which has its own tension (unresolved – we don’t know what happened in response to the letter). Paul wrote the letter, every letter, in response to specific circumstances. So I feel it is set up for a first-person sermon. This would definitely add variety to a series. It is often seen as a good option for overviewing a whole epistle either as an introduction or conclusion to a series (I know Mike has used first-person very effectively to conclude a series in James). But there is no reason why it cannot be used for a shorter section within an epistle. Jeffrey Arthurs, in Preaching with Variety, suggests the approach of dictating to a secretary, which allows for elaboration in a verse-by-verse manner.

First-person sermons allow you to, and often require you to include more background and historical information. And as you wrote, Tim, they allow you to communicate the passion of Paul in a section like this in a less threatening manner to your listeners. They will tolerate more passion and strong wording since “it isn’t really you” and the delivery is more intriguing than threatening. This approach will not be a short-cut though. You have to do all the normal exegetical work in studying the passage, then probably extra on culture and historical context, then think through various aspects of first-person presentation as well. You will need to practice, even if you don’t normally “practice” a sermon.

You will need to decide on preaching situation and viewpoint. Are you letting the audience secretly view Paul as he writes, or does he invite the group in as he is working on it and explain what he’s doing, or has Paul been transported through time to explain the passage to the congregation today. Or, perhaps, are they sitting in a Galatian church, with Paul giving them his perspective on the text as it is read, as he would if he had been there (this would be tricky, but possible) – perhaps using someone else to read the text out a verse at a time and Paul urging the listeners to get it and respond. You can be creative! Another option is to preach part of the message in first-person. You could set it up, then go back to Paul as he dictates and thinks out loud, then return to Tim for an explanation of how that text should influence us in our context.

You will need to decide on costumes and props (subtle is usually plenty!) You will need to think through the area you are to preach from and possible use of the space as an actor would a stage. Unless you transport Paul to today, you will need to think through how to make sure your congregation gets the point for their lives. Your ultimate goal is not just for them to understand the author’s idea in his historical context, you also still need applicational purpose for the present day. But you can’t put in direct references that are inconsistent with the historical situation of the “speaker.” So unless you revert to being Tim for some element of conclusion with contemporary application, you need to carefully plan subtle but effective points of contact between his intention for the Galatians and your intention for your congregation. I have found in bringing a Bible character through time to address my congregation that “clear but subtle” is usually effective. Somehow it strains the consistency of the presentation if an Old Testament prophet (or an NT apostle) has travelled through time and suddenly has full knowledge of contemporary life, culture, current affairs, recent history, etc.

So there is a lot to think about, but I think preaching first person on the first section of Galatians 5 could work very effectively! There are a couple of books available on the subject if you have time to read them before you have to preach this sermon – Haddon Robinson and his son Torrey have written It’s All in How You Tell It: Preaching First Person Expository Messages, and J.Kent Edwards wrote Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching. Tim, if you do this, please come back and comment on this post with your experiences, evaluation, lessons learned, etc.

Preaching a Text with a List

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

What should you do when your passage includes a long list? For example, I recently preached 2nd Timothy 3:1-9, which includes a list of almost twenty elements in verses 2-4. With a list this length, to preach through it one element at a time would probably border on torture for the listener; “And my sixteenth sub-point is that people will be…treacherous.” Somehow the list needs to summarized effectively:

Firstly, it is important to keep a clear view of the purpose of the list. Don’t get so stuck into the exegesis of the terms that you lose sight of why the author put them there. The purpose will be determined by context. The context of the section, as well as the context of the whole book. A list is not typically dropped into a text without some form of introduction, but notice also what follows its conclusion. What was the author’s purpose? Discern the purpose and keep it clearly in view.

Secondly, within the list, notice the places of emphasis. These are almost always the start and end, as well as the middle on some occasions (especially if the structure is clearly chiastic). Notice any repetition of terms, or clustering of concepts.

Thirdly, seek to summarize the content of the list in a way that is accurate to the content and fitting with the author’s purpose. Using some form of summary or selective emphasis is important because you do not want the sheer volume of content in the list to overwhelm the main idea of the whole passage.

Finally, make sure that your summary and teaching based on that list demonstrates clear connection to the text. It would be both wasteful and dangerous to present summary and teaching on a list that bears no resemblance to the text the listeners are looking at!

So in reference to 2Tim.3:2-4? I decided to preach the list by highlighting the first two and last two elements. In this case they form an inclusio (bookends) that gives shape and meaning to the other elements: “lovers of self, lovers of money . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” So the spiritually dangerous characters to avoid are discerned by their character in these first five verses; they are motivated by misdirected affections (vv2-4) and marked by missing authenticity (v5).