lecture one “the case for preaching” what makes for good preaching how do we know when it is...

Lecture One“The case for preaching”

What makes for good preachingHow do we know when it is done well?

Simon Vibert

January 2012

(© Simon Vibert)

Definition of a sermon?

Preaching under Threat?

Preaching: Definitions

Haddon Robinson

Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept derived from and

transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of the

passage in its context which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and

experience of the preacher, and then through his to his hearers.

Preaching: Definitions

• Expository preaching is the contemporization of the central proposition of a biblical text that is derived from proper methods of interpretation and declared through effective means of communication to inform minds, instruct hearts and influence behaviour toward godliness.(Ramesh Richard)

• Ethiopian evangelical preaching is a rhetorical-educational, oral communication event wherein a Spirit-filled man of God passionately delivers a biblically-based message to an audience, with the intention of stimulating listener participation, so that the audience directly encounters God’s presence and responds in the directions advocated in the message. (Victor Anderson)

“12 Things Good Preachers do Well”

• Preaching should be pervasively biblical Acts 20:20, 27

Vaughan Roberts SermonIntroduction

Announce the text (Romans 11:36)Tell the joke and link into the theme of the sermon

First point The Conclusion of God’s plan: That all Israel will be saved

(11:25-27)Second point

The Goal of God’s plan: That all people may receive mercy (11:28-32)

Third point The response to God’s plan: That all glory goes to God

(11:33-36)Conclusion

The goal of God’s plan: that all people should receive mercyOur response to God’s plan: that all glory will go to God.

“12 Things Good Preachers do Well”

• Preaching should be pervasively biblical

(Acts 20:20, 27)• Preaching should be both Christ and

Gospel focussed

(1 Corinthians 2:2-5)• Preaching should be urgent and applied

(2 Timothy 4:1-3b)

Preaching: SV Definition

• Preaching is a powerful, relationally based summons, by God, through his true and living word.

3 key convictions

• About the Bible (2 Tim 3:16f.)• About the Spirit (1 Thess 1:5)• About the Call to Preach (2 Tim 4:1f.)

Work on biblical texts

• Psalm 1• Mark 1:1-15• John 21:15-25• 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5• 1 Thessalonians 1

Lecture Two – communicating in a post modern age

Simon Vibert

January 2012

An Apology for Preaching

• Learning aims• To explore the validity of objections to preaching;

• To define terms;• To give a defence for biblical preaching;

An Apology for Preaching

• … some sermons are!• 1 Peter 3:15• Greek apologia “defence,reason”

Objections to preaching

• John Stott “I believe in Preaching”–Anti-authority mood;–Cybernetics revolution;–Loss of confidence in the Gospel;

An apology for teaching preaching

• Taught or caught?• Purpose and limitations of

these lectures• Place of homiletics in the

curriculum• Preaching classes

Definition of terms

• Homiletics• Hermeneutics• Exegesis• Apologetics

The means of Divine Encounter

• Genesis 28:16f• 1 Samuel 3:1-21• Mark 1• 2 Corinthians 4:7• Acts 17-20• 2 Timothy 4:1-5

What does it then mean to preach?

“Preaching is a powerful, relationally based, summons by God, through his true and

living Word”

Lecture Three – introduction the exegetical task

Simon Vibert

January 2012

Lecture 4Introduction to the homiletical

taskSimon Vibert

January 2012

Why Expository Preaching?

“To expound a Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view

… the opposite of exposition is “imposition”, which is to impose on the text

what is not there” (JRWS I believe in preaching p.125f.)


“When we say what God says we have his authority” (Chappell, Christ Centred

Preaching p88)


“I have not corrupted one single passage of Scripture, nor twisted it as far as I know, and

when I might well have brought in subtle meanings, if I had studied subtlety, I have

trampled the whole lot underfoot, and I have always studied to be simple…” (Calvin a month before his death to pastors in Geneva in 1564)


“My endeavour is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to thrust in what I think might be

there, I have a great jealousy on this head: never to speak more or less than I believe to be

the mind of the Spirit in the passage I am expounding” (Charles Simeon)


Faithful to the text

Obvious from the text

Related to the Fallen Condition Focus

Moving towards a climax


We will die without God’s word. Expositional preaching makes the point of the passage the

point of the sermon, it is exposing God’s word to God’s people. An expositional sermon takes the

main point of a passage of Scripture, makes it the main point of the sermon, and applies it to

life today.

Mark Dever


SV

Pedagogically wise

Theologically humble


1. Understanding the task 2. Discovering the idea of the sermon3. Interpreting the text4. Organising the material5. Maturing the idea6. Formulating the structure 7. Finishing the sermon8. Delivering the sermon

– Steps to the Sermon, Brown, Clinard, Nothcurt and Raol (Broadman & Holman: 1996)

The Task

Exegetical theme–Intensification–Interrogation–Integration

The Task

Homiletical theme– I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not

ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence, to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through to a form of words which define the theme with scrupulous exactness – this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written, until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon (quoted in Haddon Robinson Biblical Preaching)

Assumptions about a speaking God

Words and preaching • God speaks and the words he uses are not part

of some alien celestial language, but words that operate normally within our very human linguistic structures, structures that are themselves the gift of God to us (Thompson, p.70)

The Priority of word ministry

Practicalities of how God’s word is heard

Teaching WordsExhortatory WordsHerald WordsInformation WordsConversational WordsPersuasion Words– See Peter Adam “Hearing God’s Word”

A working example

Matthew 18:16-20

Lecture 5“From Text to Sermon”

Simon VibertJanuary 2012

• Exegetical theme

• Homiletical theme

The heart beat of the sermon

Skeletal structure for the sermon –

The bare bones

Tightening the flow ….

Putting flesh on the structure

Covering it up!

Lecture 6“Beginnings, endings,

illustration, application”

Simon VibertJanuary 2012

Take off and landing

See yourself in the picture

W. Sangster - The Craft of Sermon Construction (pp191-203)

• Mistakes commonly made:• Don’t apologise for the sermon as you begin• Don’t be inaudible• Don’t preach at or under or over the people, but

to them and for them• Don’t steal other people’s sermons• Don’t repeat your own sermons unless you can

glow over them• Don’t imitate other preachers or envy their gifts• Don’t preach without preparing your own heart

Practicalities re Illustrations

• Greidanus• To put the issue succinctly: since the message

was first addressed to the ancient church, it requires explication since that message now needs to be addressed to a contemporary church, it requires application (Modern Preacher, p.183)

• Chappell • I discovered while pastoring that the mind

yearns for, and needs, the concrete in order to anchor the abstract (p.166)

“The Preacher as bridge-builder” (John Stott)

World of the ancient text World of the modern hearer

Beginnings and endings

• Make your homiletical theme:• Involve listeners in your talk• Don’t make new points in the conclusion

but drive the point home• Apply the sermon all the way along • Be specific and practical where

appropriate

Lecture 6 - The Preacher’s life and integrity

Simon Vibert

January 2012

Preaching for a lifetime

• Don’t get shipwrecked– Watch your life and doctrine closely because

both “preach”– 1 Tim 4:14-16– 1 Tim 1:18-20


• Stay in it for a lifetime– Build the saints and challenge the unbeliever

by preaching “repentance and faith every Sunday”

– Remember the range of “preaching, speaking, conversation” words and build up the flock with the word of God

– Acts 20:28


• Don’t be a second-hander– “lifelong learning”– You can’t encourage the congregation to be

godly if you are not yourself


• Preach from a warm heart A ministry may be a very thoughtful ministry

without prayer; the preacher may secure fame and popularity without prayer; the whole machinery of the preacher's life and work may be run without the oil of prayer or with scarcely enough to grease one cog; but no ministry can be a spiritual one, securing holiness in the preacher and in his people, without prayer being made an evident and controlling force. (EM Bounds)


• Preach from a warm heart Therefore, putting aside the foolish confidence as

though we had some ability to help the Word along in the hearer, let us rather engage in the prayer that without us He alone may perfect in the hearer what He speaks in the teacher. For it is He who speaks, and it is he who hears and works all in all people. We are his vessels and instruments, powerless either to receive or to give unless He himself gives and receives (Martin Luther)


• “heat” and “light” A truly practical or saving faith, is light and heat

together, or rather light and love, while that which is only a speculative faith, is only light without heat; and, in that it wants spiritual heat or divine love, is in vain, and good for nothing. A speculative faith consists only in the assent of the understanding; but in a saving faith which is only of the former kind, is no better than the faith of devils for they have faith so far as it can exist without love, believing while they tremble (Jonathan Edwards).


• “What do I do if my heart feels cold?” [Do not simply] get on with your duty

because feelings are irrelevant! My answer has three steps. First, confess the sin of joylessness. Acknowledge the culpable coldness of your heart.... Second, pray earnestly that God would restore the joy of obedience. Third, go ahead and do the outward dimension of your duty in the hope that the doing will rekindle the delight (John Piper).

Learn from Jesus’ warning to church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7)

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do [revive] the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

The assessment for this class is made up of one paper divided into two parts:-

a) Using the core bibliography and the lectures for help write out the full text of an expository sermon on a passage of your choosing

(You may use the passage which you worked on during the week of classes). Your sermon should include: an introduction, main points,

and a conclusion (with illustration and application). You should write in prose (not bullet points) and this should be (1500 words?) in

length.

b) The second half of the paper (no more than 1,000 words) should be your own summary of how the classes and readings helped you arrive at the exegetical and homiletical theme for the sermon and show how you have made good use of the resources to put your sermon together. “Tell the story” of what you did to arrive at the

sermon.

Additional Resources

• www.simonvibert.com• http://metamorphe.wordpress.com/ • http://www.langhampartnership.org/preaching/• Chapell, Bryan Christ Centred Preaching (Baker

1994) • Jensen, P. & Grimmond, P. The Archer and the

Arrow (Matthias Media 2010)• Robinson, Haddon Expository Preaching:

Principles and Practice (IVP 1986)• Vibert, Simon Excellence in Preaching.

Learning from the Best (IVP 2011)

http://www.simonvibert.com/

http://metamorphe.wordpress.com/

http://www.langhampartnership.org/preaching/

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