We have thought about two moments before the sermon starts, two in the introduction and two in the body of the sermon.
What about the conclusion? Let’s go there for the final defining moment:
7. The landing – We know the end of the message is important. During preparation, we might have prayed and dreamed of a huge revival breaking out. During delivery, we might just be desperate to be finished and away from the microphone. But between those two extremes we can see that the conclusion does matter. There is both the quality of the landing and the fact of the landing. The quality is determined by both tone and content. It is a chance to review the main points of the message, to restate the main idea again, and to bring a sense of conclusion to the whole. The tone can be encouraging, upbeat, hopeful, and faith-stirring rather than critical, harsh and guilt-trippy. As well as the quality, there is also the fact of landing. Arrive. Get there. Stop talking. Don’t elongate the message in the hope that your fourth attempted landing will prove to be better than the first three. Robinson used to say that it is best to end a sentence or two before people expect you to end. Review, encourage, finish.
So there we go, seven defining moments of the sermon. But I need to add one more:
Bonus – Clearly stating the main idea. Of course, no matter how hard I try to point away from the obvious moments to some that people may not be aware of, I still feel the need to underline the importance of a well-defined main idea in the message. Too many preachers preach without it. The main idea needs to be clarified by the preacher, otherwise it will be hastily cobbled together in the minds of your confused listeners. It is your job to make sure the message is coherent. Nothing holds a message together so well as an accurately defined main idea.
What would you add to this list? What are the defining moments in a sermon?
We have thought about the pre-sermon moments that impact the preaching event and considered a couple of aspects of the introduction. Now, let’s consider a couple of moments that can define the impact of the message from within the body of the sermon. Obviously, the points are important, the text’s explanation is critical, and so on, but that is what we tend to focus on. Here are two surprisingly significant moments to consider:
5. Every transition – It could be argued that transitions separate good communicators from average ones. It is natural to focus on the content of the points, but it is a step up to be aware of how you move from one to the next. It is like having a passenger riding behind you on a motorcycle. They will tend to stay with you in a straight line, unless you accelerate too fast. But you really need to slow down through the turns. The same is true when you preach. A good transition can achieve so many good things: a review of what’s been said, an encouraging conclusion to a point, a reminder of progress in the message, a preview of what is to come, a chance to re-engage for the distracted listener, an opportunity to reinforce the main idea, a moment of pause for an overwhelmed listener, and so on. Or you can clumsily jump into your next point and leave people confused as to what happened to the other point, why you are talking about this, how it relates, and so on. Pay attention to every transition; your message will be more helpful for more people.
6. The Interruption or Surprise – We do not preach in a vacuum-sealed box that can be completely controlled. It is an environment with many variables. Let’s categorise them as either public or private. The public ones interrupt everyone’s experience. The phone ringing, the child crying, the jackhammer starting, the gunshot (hopefully not). Some are minor, some are more significant. You have to decide at the moment how to handle it. Be careful not to draw attention to someone feeling awkward about their phone or baby or to press on through something worthy of a pause. I’ve seen a preacher totally undermine his credibility and sermon by a harsh and unkind response to an accidental interruption. I’ve also seen a preacher try to press on, oblivious to the passed-out person being carried out of the congregation. The first should have been more gentle, the second would have done well to notice, pause and pray for the person. I don’t remember either of the sermons, but years later, I remember the interruptions and the response from the preacher.
Then there are the private interruptions. That is the thought that suddenly presents as you are preaching. Maybe a new illustration. Maybe a warning flag about using a planned illustration. Perhaps an extra thought that could be added, or a new direction for the application. A beginning preacher may not be able to imagine any internal dialogue while preaching because the whole experience is so consuming and overwhelming. But actually, there can be quite a wrestle going on inside a preacher while the sermon continues to be preached. Don’t automatically discount every thought and press on through the notes. Neither should you take every thought as a Spirit-led and anointed change of direction. You have to prayerfully and humbly process as you go. You won’t always get it right, but you will do well to lean towards the love of God and others in every decision you make (and keep an eye on the clock, too, as an act of love for the children’s workers and people who brought a first-time guest!)
As we work through this list of seven defining moments in the sermon, we have so far thought only about the unseen preparation of all involved and the first impressions before the sermon really starts. Now let’s consider two that are part of the introduction to the message:
3. The motivation to listen – Most sermons will have the same elements: a beginning, a middle, an end, a Bible passage explained and applied, and some illustrative material to help communicate. Now, all of these standard elements can be better or worse. But they tend to be present. However, the motivation to listen is by no means guaranteed. It is not guaranteed from the listener’s side, and it is not guaranteed in the details of the sermon. How could it be missed? Easily. Too many preachers assume that their listeners are interested in Elijah’s encounter with a widow or Paul’s answer to the church’s question. And too many introductions offer something less than motivation.
We can easily settle for familiarity or interest. Familiarity introductions are the ones that refer to something we all experience – you know, going upstairs and forgetting what you went up to get. Everyone smiles and relaxes a bit. Then, the message continues as if that connection is enough. Or interest introductions are the ones that raise eyebrows with an interesting tidbit – you know, that it is impossible to lick your own elbow. Some knew that, some didn’t, some try it, etc. And the message moves on. Familiarity introductions and interesting introductions are probably better than just launching into 1 Kings 19 and its background, but better by far would be an introduction that makes listeners want to hear what is coming.
Inasmuch as you are able, motivate listeners to listen. Robinson used to talk about surfacing a need in your listeners that the passage would then be able to address. Use your introduction to grab their attention, convince them that they need what this passage is going to show them, and win their hearts to be open to you as you lead them into the passage.
4. The overview – At the end of the introduction, it is easy to skip the overview. Generally, you should not skip it. Give people a sense of the shape of the message. We are going to see the problem described, and then the solution. Or Paul gives three truths that we will look at together. Or the passage comes to us in two chunks, verses 1-5 and verses 6-9. Or we will see the transformation we need is coming, the triumph over death is certain, and the therefore that changes how we live – the transformation, the triumph, and the therefore. The overview can be detailed or a very high-level glimpse, but if it is missing, the listeners are slightly in the dark as to where the message is headed. If your message is an inductive shape, then make sure the question that is going to be answered is clear: what is the critical ingredient that we need if we are to have a ministry like the master?
Feel free to comment about introductions – what works well? What do you hear that doesn’t connect or help the listener? Introductions are critical to the effectiveness of a sermon. Next time, we will look at two more defining moments in the sermon.
As you preach, there are numerous defining moments. That is, pivotal decisions or moments that will multiply the impact of the sermon. The whole sermon matters, of course. You can’t expect one great line to do great work when it is packaged in fluff. But while you work on the whole sermon, remember that there are some defining moments that could make or break it.
1. The unseen preparation (yours and theirs!) – Whatever happens during the sermon itself is really just the final part of a process. There has been a whole lot of unseen preparation before the moment of delivery. Of course, there have been the ups and downs of sermon preparation for you, the preacher. The prayer, the study, the wrestling with word choices, the hunting for illustrative material, the interruptions, the storm, and the calm inside you and in your study. The journey to the pulpit may have been arduous, or somehow serene, but hopefully God has been at work in you before he will work through you. And I am only describing the last few days, but God has been at work for years. However, the sermon is not just about the preacher. How has God been stirring the listeners? Providential circumstances, carefully timed conversations, quiet questions inside, or overwhelming challenges without. It is not unusual for a sermon to touch a nerve that was only sensitized in the preceding days. “How did the preacher know that about me?” Often, the preacher didn’t. But someone did. It is helpful to remember that a lifetime of preparation is brought into the sermon from all sides, and only God can be aware of that, let alone influential in it!
2. The first moments of the introduction – It is hard to overstate the importance of the first moments. I don’t mean the introduction. I mean the first impressions. Do you seem comfortable, or nervous, or indifferent, or agitated? Will listeners get the sense that you have something to say that is worth their focus and time to listen? Will people who have never heard you before feel welcomed and engaged? Will regular listeners sense that you are well prepared, or will they get the sense that you are somehow “off” this week? Remember, humans are wired relationally. When you sit at a table in a restaurant, you know whether you like the server before you have a chance to evaluate your first interaction. Sometime, watch a video of yourself. Watch up until your first word. Prayerfully and conversationally evaluate (that is, ask God what he thinks, and ask someone else what they notice – don’t just trust your own perspective). Then watch the first couple of sentences, and evaluate again.
We will continue this list of defining moments in your sermon next time, but feel warmly invited to comment with any that are on your mind!
There are multiple defining moments in the sermon preparation process. We have thought about starting the process, shifting from passage study to message formation, becoming conscious of who will be listening, and the unplanned interruptions that seem to prevent a smooth preparation. There is one more defining moment left. It is one to add if it doesn’t happen naturally:
7. The realization of insufficiency. You want to be a good steward of your opportunity to preach. You desire to give your best, both in terms of exegetical rigour, and pastoral sensitivity in sermon crafting. And perhaps the process has allowed better than normal focus, with more clear hours for preparation than you expected. Maybe nothing broke at home, no hospital visits were necessary, and everything was unusually peaceful and supportive along the way. Will you go into preaching feeling confident in your preparation, your skill, and your work of sermonic art? I hope not. When we feel we have “the best of sermons” then we tend to discover the false promise of self-sufficiency. If God has not brought you to humble dependency through a log jam, or through an interruption, or through years of preaching experience, then it is totally acceptable to bring yourself to the place of total dependency. Some combination of “apart from you, I can do nothing” prayer content along with a flat-on-your-face prayer posture is highly appropriate. One of my teachers always prayed that he had a stick but needed God to come through as he threw it on the ground. You want to be the most prepared preacher possible, but you must preach with a profound sense of your dependence on God.
What other defining moments do you recognize in your sermon preparation process?
Okay, here is a bonus one as I reflect on the list:
Bonus: The recognition of the coherence of the passage. Thinking back to the study of the passage, it is critical to arrive at the recognition that the passage holds together. It is easy to skip past this once you start to see some points that will preach. But actually, for your message to feel coherent, you need to recognise that the passage is also coherent. What unifies it? How does it hold together? How do the points and details relate to each other? Assume the Bible writer was not jumbled or scattered in his thinking, and keep thinking until you can see how it is a single unit of thought.
While the whole preparation process will shape your message, some defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of the process. We started with two related to starting preparation. Now let’s think about two that tie into the transition between passage study and message formation:
3. The decision to transition from passage study to message formation. The first half of the preparation process focuses on understanding the passage. The second half involves formulating and writing a message. The shift between these two phases is critically important. If you shift too early, then you will be working on the message without really grasping the meaning of the passage. If you shift too late, then you will have plenty of exegetical insight to share, but little time to craft a message that lands in real life. Do you tend to fall in one direction or the other? It is hard to see a lack of understanding in the mirror – we all tend to think we have a good grip on a passage when it may only be a superficial sense of the meaning. Or you may be in a rut of sharing exegetical nuggets without crafting a message that is shaped to speak into real life. And some, sad to say, neither know the joy of being gripped by a passage, nor the pleasure of crafting a sermon that hits home – they just use a passage as a launch point for some standard favourite content. If that could be you, then it may be time for some candid conversations with some listeners, and for radical surgery on your ministry. It will be worth it.
4. The realization of who will be listening. At one level, this moment is fairly straightforward, as long as it happens. That is to say, after studying the passage to understand the author’s meaning as accurately as possible, then you consciously introduce your listeners into your thinking as you move to crafting the sermon for their benefit. You don’t want to be thinking too much about your listeners when you are studying the passage, because your concern is the original audience of the text. Neither do you want to not be thinking about your listeners when shaping the message, because your concern has to be for them as the audience of the sermon. That moment of introducing conscious consideration of your listeners should be a standard point in the process every time (and essentially the same moment as number 3 above). But then there will be some sermon-specific moments in this category too. You might realise how the message could hit very close to home for someone in your congregation. You might be told that a certain person is going to be present. You might be at church when someone walks in that you were not expecting (and you realise your message requires some tweaking for their sake – either to be more accessible, less provocative, or whatever.)
As this list continues to build, what defining moments do you recognize in your sermon preparation?
As you prepare your sermon, there are numerous defining moments. That is to say, pivotal decisions that will impact the essential nature of the sermon. The whole process is important, and every little detail of your preparation will build the character of the message. But the defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of your process. Therefore, it is helpful to be especially aware of these key points in the process.
Here are seven defining moments in your sermon preparation:
1. The choosing of the passage. If we genuinely believe in expository preaching, then the choice of passage will always be a key moment in our preparation. Why? Because that passage will be the boss of the message. We cannot say whatever we want using any passage. Some preachers do. We must not. If it is a series from a book, then the moment will primarily be the selection of the series, although the length of the next section to be covered will also matter. If it is a one-off message, then the choice of the passage matters for the content of the sermon. And also the timing of that choice will matter for how much time we can give to the preparation. Some preachers make a good choice, but they make it so late that the preparation is adversely impacted by lack of time.
2. The decision to start preparing. If you have a tendency to procrastinate, and many of us do, then deciding to start preparing is important. If your routine is established and it works well, then this may not be a key point for you. However, if you find that life often presses in and the week is often eaten up before you even start the process, then this point is for you. Decide to start early. Just the first step. For me, that means pasting the passage into a document and starting to recognize the shape of the passage. Once you have started, even if only just, then the brain starts to collect and sort exegetical information, and the heart starts to bow to the truth of the text. Some helpfully choose to get started, even if only just, more than a week before preaching. Some even take some time to get started on every series, and even every passage, months before the time comes to preach.
In the next post we will continue the list of seven defining moments in the preparation of a sermon.
The most famous literary description of love is surely 1 Corinthians 13. It has been read aloud at countless weddings, and yet, it was not written for a wedding. It was written for a church. Actually, it was written for a struggling and divided church in Corinth. This was a church that was splintered by factions, by immature Christians flaunting their supposed superiority, and by a whole host of interpersonal tensions and issues. This was the church into which Paul unleashed “the love chapter!”
The chapter sits at the heart of a section addressing the right use of spiritual gifts in the church. It begins by underlining the necessity of love (v 1-3) and ends with the never-ending reality of love (v 8-13). And at the heart of the chapter, in verses 4-7, we find a familiar and poetic depiction of the nature of love. In just four verses, Paul offers fifteen descriptions of love.
Their world, like ours, was a confusing melee of ideas when it came to love. There was romance, passion (appropriately marital and many harmful alternatives), family, and friendship. I don’t know whether they used “love” to speak of food and sport, quite like we do in English, but let’s not imagine their culture was any less confused than ours. In the face of that confusion, Paul offered a confrontation with God’s kind of love.
What do we do with a list like this? Our tendency is to see it as a behavioural checklist and to consider it as a suggestion for greater effort on our part. The problem is, not only do we all fall short of God’s perfect love, but we are unable to self-generate genuine godly love. We can only love, John tells us, because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). So, while it may look like a list of descriptions, actually, Paul wrote it as a list of verbs. This is love dressed up and going to work!
So, as we consider this love in action, we should let it confront our own areas of lack, but also point us to the only one who perfectly lived out God’s love in this world. Let this list point you to Jesus, and then let his love flow more freely in your local church setting. As we look to Christ’s love, it will stir Christlike love in us. And when the body of Christ starts to look like Christ, we can pray for the church to have an impact like Christ!
1. Paul begins with a basic foundation:Love gives. He begins his list with two positive statements: love is patient and love is kind (v 4a). Patience here speaks of having a long-fuse with other people, giving them space and time, instead of flaring up at the first opportunity. Patience is partnered with kindness, which gives of our own usefulness for the higher good of the other. A loving church is a place where grace infiltrates every relationship. Grace for the weaknesses of others, and grace that gives of ourselves to build them up. Love gives.
2. Paul zeroes in on the Corinthian core issue:Love is not selfish. His list shifts into a sequence of nine points, most of which are negative. The central thought in this list of nine points is like a summary of the whole section: love is not self-seeking (v 5b). Ever since the Garden of Eden, we humans have been largely unaware of how self-oriented our hearts now are, by nature. Our selfishness is built-in from birth, but it is only because our nature is fallen. It seems so normal to seek our own good, but God’s design is love that is not self-seeking. (Look at the Trinity for the greatest example of this: how consistently does the Father lovingly honour the Son, and vice versa? Our God is a God who lovingly and selflessly lifts up the other, and the good news is that can even include us!)
Before and after that central thought, Paul offers two sets of four descriptions of love. When there are differences between us, love does not self-elevate (v 4b-5a). It does not envy what others have, longing for self to be satisfied by that salary, that house, that spouse, etc. Neither does love boast, trying to make the other person long for my ability, possessions, or strengths. Love is not arrogant, puffing up self to push others down. And love does not disregard accepted standards of behaviour to elevate self and so disregard and dishonour others. Some versions have “love is not rude” at this point. That might bring to mind inappropriate vocabulary or noises at the dining table. But Paul’s word goes beyond the odd little social faux pas. It is the same word used for unnatural sexual relations in Romans 1. It is that casting off of restraint and acceptable norms, because, well, because I want to . . . so I should. Actually, love wouldn’t.
And when there are problems between us, love does not self-protect (v 5c-6). Love is not easily angered, that is, it is not irritable and touchy. If we take any of Paul’s negatives and pursue the opposite, we will discover a painful loneliness. Now, there is a place in the Bible for legitimate provocation. Jesus was provoked by death at Lazarus’ tomb, and Paul was provoked in spirit by the idols of Athens. Luther was provoked by a false view of God and so launched the Reformation, and Wilberforce was so provoked he sought to end the slave trade. Maybe today many of us have grown too nice before the provocations of society, but perhaps still too easily angered at little personal slights in church life. Love is not easily angered in church fellowship. When people say and do wrong things, love lets the grievances go instead of inscribing them in our internal memory ledger of grudges against others. And when those people that grate on us turn out to be sinners in some way or other, love does not rejoice in their sin. Rather, it rejoices in what is true – God’s love for them, their position in God’s family, their gifting, and their key role in our lives.
3. Paul points them beyond any notion of personal ability becausetrue love relies on God (v 7). Undoubtedly, Paul is offering a literary flourish to complete the list. The last four descriptions add the word “always” or “all things.” It feels good to the ear, but if you consider it carefully, it feels impossible to the heart. How can I always protect? The idea is to cover, like the seal on a ship that keeps all water out. One commentator describes the idea of “throwing a blanket of silence over the failings of others.” Obviously, there are legal and moral exceptions to this. But as a general rule, when I am annoyed, provoked, antagonized, and bothered, love will keep that sin hidden from others who do not need to know about it. Paul points upwards to God – love always trusts and always hopes. That is not easy. And back to the struggles here below again, it always perseveres. That kind of persistent endurance of inter-church tensions can easily take us beyond ourselves.
Paul’s great list is a bit like the Law of Sinai. A wonderful revelation of what is right and good, but beyond our ability to keep. And so, let 1 Corinthians 13 not only confront your struggle to love like Jesus. Let it also point you to Jesus. We can only love at all because God has first loved us. May our hearts be so captivated by his love that our churches increasingly look like the body of Christ! We can only live this life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.
4 Love is patient, love is kind.
~
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
~
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
In our church, we have just completed an eight-week series in 1 Peter. Here are some brief reflections that may be helpful:
1. This epistle is relevant. I know that is not breaking news to you, but it bears underlining. 1 Peter speaks to people that felt like oppressed outsiders in the society in which they lived. It did then, and it does now.
2. Suffering may be necessary. We have lived through decades of relatively little suffering, but times seem to be changing. Suffering is not permanent, “now for a little while.” And suffering may be part of the plan, “if necessary.” In 1 Peter 1:6 we are introduced to the possibility that suffering is not the result of bad luck, but divine providence. As we come towards Easter we have the ultimate example of deliberate and planned suffering.
3. Biblical background helps. There is the situational background of the readers, forcibly moved from Rome and repatriated to these five regions of modern Turkey. There is the historical background of Peter’s life and experience. Keeping that in mind, as he would have done, is helpful to shine a light on his call to be prepared (3:15), to stay humble and to resist the devil (5:6-9), etc. Then there is the textual background of Peter’s biblical awareness as he wrote. For instance, the situation behind Psalm 34 seems to be shining a light on much of Peter’s writing in this epistle.
4. Difficult texts still have simple points. Preaching the end of 1 Peter 3 and the start of 1 Peter 4 is not easy territory to navigate. There is the timing, location and content of Jesus’ preaching in 3:19; then the reference to Noah in 3:20; followed by the awkward reference to baptism in 3:21. It is exegetical difficulty piled on exegetical difficulty. I chose to give some minutes to explain that complexity, but not before I emphasised the simple point of this section: Jesus suffered and Jesus was victorious. It helps to keep a clear picture in mind when trying to make sense of the complex.
5. The letter has a strong DNA. God’s pattern is for suffering now to be followed by glory later. It was true for Jesus, it was true for Peter’s readers then, and it is true for Peter’s readers now. Suffering and then glory: this idea works its way through the entire letter.
6. Variation can help a series work well. We had a team of preachers on this series. One of the messages was preached in first-person. It came in the middle of the series and really helped the series to not feel monotonous in style. Different preachers helped the series, although it was important to make sure we were preaching a coherent series.
7. Non-Suffering forms of Christianity lead to harm. We seem to live between two extremes. One is the fatalistic idea that disaster is coming no matter what. The other is the idealistic idea that we should always be healthy, and wealthy and travel in a private jet. What is the healthy middle ground? It is not a gentle form of health and wealth – that is, things should generally go well for us if we simply trust, pray and obey. Many Christians seem to want to live with their basic orientation towards good circumstances. No, the reality is that we live in a fallen world filled with suffering. So let’s turn from gentle forms of health and wealth, and let’s engage a fallen and sin-marred world with our hope reaching out beyond this suffering to the glory to come. Our hope is not in our experience but in the character of our good God and his plan.
8. 1 Peter should prepare us for difficulty, but stir us to trust! Every problem we face in this world is a problem that exists within creation. 1 Peter urges us to look beyond this realm to the eternal realities. We look outside of this realm to the God who is so much bigger, the God who cares for us. “The dog bit me,” ~ yes, but God is bigger. “But it was a big dog,” ~ so what, God is bigger. “But it was a lion,” ~ it doesn’t matter, God is bigger. “Actually it was a killer whale.” ~ Ok, but God is still bigger than any problem we can face in this realm. What’s more, he already came and suffered, and is now sitting in victory. So we can be humble, be watchful, and be hopeful. We get to stand in the true grace of God whatever may come our way.
There are plenty more thoughts generated by two months in 1 Peter. But hopefully this list is a motivational starter for now…
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I have a series of videos on 1 Peter 2:1-10 that focus on the interpretation phase of Bible study. You can find them in this playlist:
Biblical Preaching 