Unashamed Workmen

How Expositors Prepare and Preach

Rhett Dodson

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781781915165

1

What is God’s Word
for these people?

Peter Adam

I work on my sermons by asking questions, because they get my mind working. What does God say in this text to these people? What does He want them to learn, to remember, to know? How does He want them to change, and what does He want them to do? What impact does God intend today for this congregation from these words?

As we begin, there are two things you should know. First, as will become evident throughout this chapter, the part of the Bible that has influenced me most in thinking about preaching is 2 Timothy 3:15–4:2. ¹ Second, I think of sermon preparation in three stages:

• Preparation for preaching,
• Working on the sermon, and
• Reviewing the sermon

Preparation for Preaching

The first set of questions has to do with the preliminary work to prepare to preach. Answering these questions calls for personal discipline and pastoral wisdom.

1. How is God currently changing me to make me into a preacher?

Being a preacher requires ever-increasing Biblical intelligence, emotional intelligence, theological intelligence, and pastoral intelligence. Of course, by intelligence I mean alert and perceptive wisdom. I don’t mean cleverness but depth of understanding and wisdom.

I need to be growing all the time in knowing and understanding the Bible. I need to know my Bible more and more, and not think to myself, “Well, I know it all now.” And I need to be continually reformed and changed by the Bible.

I need to be growing all the time in emotional intelligence. God wants to transform people, and I want my sermons to aid that process. God understands our emotional complexities, and I need to do the same. Most people are governed by their emotions. Just as emotions can be barriers to transforming grace, so also emotions can fuel our transformation. To be an effective preacher, I need a pastor’s heart. I need to love the people I am preaching to and to understand them and the things that shape them: personality, experience, family, work, and social and political context. I must serve people, love them, rejoice with them and weep with them. Preaching is ministry, not performance.

I need to be growing all the time in theological intelligence. I need to understand the deep structures of Christianity, and the deep intellectual structures of society. I need to be alert to the theological meaning of Scripture, and the theological significance of society’s current ideas, assumptions, practices, strengths, sins, and trends. I need to be able to do theological analysis, not just sociological analysis, psychological analysis, or political analysis.

I need to be growing all the time in pastoral intelligence. Pastoral intelligence is a combination of Biblical, emotional, and theological intelligence. All Christians need pastoral intelligence to care for each other and love their neighbors. Preachers need pastoral intelligence, not just about individuals, but also about groups. Preachers need wisdom to understand how people function as members of churches, the dynamics of their relationships and relational structures. Our aim is not just to transform individuals, but to transform churches.

We need to be Biblically, emotionally, theologically, and pastorally wise to understand the Bible, to understand people, and to serve people in our sermons. ²

2. How will I set time and energy aside to focus on sermon preparation?

I need to set aside time and energy for the creative act of preparing and preaching a sermon. Routine tasks take less energy. Creative tasks like preparation and preaching take lots of energy.

People may want us to preach great sermons, but may underestimate the time needed to prepare great sermons! Or they may want us to spend all our time doing administration, being constantly available, and constantly visiting! If we want to preach, we need to find time to prepare.

I need uninterrupted time, so I clear the diary, turn off the phones and email, and clear the desk of all other material. Of course the moment I start preparing, I think of many other things I should be doing, so I keep a list on the desk, and as soon as one of these comes into my mind I put it on the list, and get back to work!

And I need to be self-disciplined so that I don’t waste time in preparation, by following up interesting by-ways that will not help the sermon, or by sitting there achieving nothing!

I find that if I spend ten hours in sermon preparation, it is best to do that in three or four blocks on successive days, rather than spending a whole day at a time on this task. This keeps me fresher, and helps me make good use of my subconscious, which keeps on working on the problems and challenges of the sermon when I am doing other things. I have my best ideas when I am not at my desk! And if I meet a particular problem, I leave my desk and go for a walk, and the solution will often come to me as I do so.

For each sermon, I allocate half of the preparation time to the Scripture passage, and half of the time to the people. My natural tendency is to spend all the time studying the Scripture, and no time on the people. Those sermons always end with the words, “And may God show us how to put this into practice in our own lives,” which is code for, “I have no idea.”

And I pray. I pray that God will help me understand this Bible passage, and I pray for the people who will hear it. I pray that God will help me to shape the sermon so that the people I am preaching to will be able to receive it, understand it, and make good use of it. I pray that God will increase my love for the Bible passage, and my love for the people to whom I will preach. For I know that it is not enough to love preaching: I must love God’s words and love God’s people. And I ask God to help me to preach for His glory, not to meet my own needs, or to win approval from the people. ³

By the way, if some preachers do not do enough preparation, others do too much! This may happen because they are perfectionists, because they don’t use their time efficiently, or because they have absorbed the idea that ministers should spend all their time in the study, after the example of the great Jonathan Edwards. ⁴

3. Am I preaching the full range of Scripture?

When we plan our preaching program, it is important that we preach the Old Testament as well as the New. In His wisdom, God has kindly provided twice as much Old Testament as New Testament, because He knows we need it. People can’t understand the New Testament without the Old Testament, and they can’t fully understand Christ without the Old Testament. The basic buildings blocks of Christianity are taught in the Old Testament. There we learn that there is one God, the creator, who rules the world; that everyone is made in God’s image; that everyone is under God’s judgment. We learn that God is a God of promise, that God pours out His electing and covenant love, and provides us with instruction, law, and wisdom. We learn that we should not worship other gods, nor should we worship the creation. We hear God’s call to honor Him in every part of our lives. We see that God rules the nations, and plans to bring the nations to know and serve Him. These things are clearly taught in the Old Testament, and assumed in the New. Believers today need to know the Old Testament.

We should also choose to preach unfamiliar and difficult books of the Bible. If we don’t preach these books, our people will be nervous about reading them. We should be stretching our congregations, as well as showing them how to tackle new or difficult parts of the Bible. One advantage of preaching unfamiliar books is that people say, “I never heard that before”, rather than, “I know all that already”!

4. What book of the Bible does this congregation need?

We choose which books of the Bible to preach in the light of educational strategy and pastoral need. Our educational strategy is to teach the congregation the breadth and depth of the Bible, God’s syllabus for the human race. We need to ask ourselves such things as: What parts of the Bible do they need to know? What balance of Old and New Testaments? How can I show them the inner connections of the Bible and its developing themes (for example linking Leviticus and Hebrews, or Ezekiel and John, or Exodus with Isaiah and with Mark, or Exodus with Revelation)? We need an overall educational strategy for our church, remembering that our church will include enquirers and unbelievers.

We should also keep in mind pastoral needs. If our people need a good dose of creation theology and teaching on the providence and promises of God, then preach Genesis. If they need encouragement under pressure, preach Job. If they need wisdom for daily life, preach Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or James. If they are facing heresy, then preach Jeremiah, Galatians, or Jude. If they need to know the person and work of Christ, then preach a Gospel or Colossians.

Our preaching should be intentional, not just in individual sermons, but in our overall plan. My plan for the year would often include one Old Testament book, one gospel, and one other New Testament book, including one difficult book. I also include a topical series. This could be theological topics, to give a theological overview of Biblical teaching, or topics from daily life. I do the latter, because I want to train people to be useful in daily conversation, and to be able to answer questions like, “What do Christians think about divorce?” “What do you think about social inequality?” “What do you believe about the new Atheism?” “Do dogs go to heaven?” We need to model how to answer these questions if we want our people to be well equipped to talk with their neighbors and friends. ⁵

5. What is the message of the whole book of the Bible in which this passage occurs?

I try to do this as I prepare for my next year’s ministry. My usual practice is to spend a year with a book of the Bible, to soak myself in it, prepare it, and then preach it. If not, I will need to spend a whole week immersed in a book. Finding the central ministry purpose of a book of the Bible is essential preparation for all the sermons.

The central ministry purpose of the book is its ministry aim, its pastoral intention. It is the answer to the question that we could ask of the author of the book: “In one sentence, why did you write this book?” Or the answer to the question we could ask of God: “Why did you cause this book to be written?” A statement of the central ministry purpose should include not only the central theme, but also how and why readers should act in response. It uses the language of action, not analysis.

The text is the book. It is odd to refer to isolated verses of Scripture as texts. The real texts of Scripture are of course the complete books that make up the Scriptures. Preaching books of the Bible takes the God-given book and the God-chosen method of revelation seriously. It respects the human author of the book and is culturally appropriate, because most people naturally read books from beginning to end. It also models a good way to read the Bible.

A big investment of time in working on the message and content of a whole book of the Bible is really worth it, not least because when I have done this work, each individual sermon is much easier and quicker to prepare.

Some Bible books make it easy for us, because they tell us clearly and succinctly why they were written, for example in John 20:30-31; Colossians 2:6-7; 1 Timothy 3:14-15, and Jude 4. In other books we have to look for common themes, common words, common ideas. We expect to find the main ministry purpose of a book of the Bible in each of the main sections of the book, and at the natural climaxes of the book. ⁶ It is often hard work, but it is always well worth it. ⁷

You can begin an expository sermon series by preaching on the main purpose of the book, basing the sermon on the key passage which expresses that purpose. This helps people know what to expect, and gives them an overview of the book. Over the following weeks you can then go to the beginning of the book, and begin the consecutive exposition.

6. How will I divide this book into preachable units?

We need literary, educational, and pastoral wisdom to make this decision. It is possible to preach a whole book in one sermon. I have done so with Jude; I have even done it with Job! As I divide up the book into the passages to preach, I keep the following issues in mind:

• I don’t want to go so slowly through the text that I lose momentum and meaning, and lose the impact of the whole book, or end up giving a Biblical theology of every word in the text.
• I don’t want to use a style of exegesis and preaching that suits a densely-argued epistle when the literary style of the book demands larger units such as chapters.
• I don’t want to provoke the congregation by demanding from them more than they can manage. I once preached for nine months on Hebrews, but did it in three three-month segments with a break between the segments. Parents should not provoke their children, and preachers should not provoke their people! We should challenge our people to grow but not discourage them by setting unbearable standards!
• I do want to vary my expository speed so that each year I will include one slow and detailed exposition (of a dense passage), one medium speed exposition, and one overview exposition, such as the book of Revelation in six sermons.
• I don’t want passages that are too short to make full sense or too long to be manageable.
• If the book is so long that it is not easily preached, then either I take it in two or three segments, and do one segment each year. Or else I preach some chapters, and provide studies on the other chapters for home groups and individuals.

Working on the Sermon

After asking and answering these initial, preparatory questions, it is time to begin work on the actual sermon. This work involves a number of additional questions.

1. Am I making my two journeys, the first to the text, and the second to the people who will be present?

During my preparation I need to take two journeys. I have to travel back to the passage in its original context. Commentaries are helpful in this process. Studying the passages in the original languages emphasizes that these are not contemporary documents. What did this passage mean originally? I have to set aside what I want to find and set aside contemporary issues. I must enter the world of the writer and those who received the writing to find the message.

Then I have to travel to the world of the congregation, remembering that this could include enquirers and unbelievers. What should I do with the message of this text for this people? How can I help them to travel back with me to the world of the text, and then return to their own lives and their life as a congregation, with the message of this text?

Sometimes I find these journeys difficult, but both journeys are necessary. Without the first, my preaching will be superficial, because it will not be based on the Bible. Without the second, my preaching will be superficial, because it will be information, not transformation.

2. What insights can I get from the three contexts of the passage?

The three contexts of the passage are the following:

First, the immediate context of the passage. I need to keep in mind the flow and progression of the book, and especially the immediate context of the passage. I will have a clearer idea about the message of the passage if I know its context. Why does it begin where it does? What happens next?

Second, the context of the book of the Bible. I have already covered this exercise above, but I need to keep referring back to the pastoral purpose of the whole book to understand this part of it. A book of the Bible is like a sentence, and each part of the sentence has its meaning in the context of the whole sentence. This is often a neglected context, so you must keep it in mind.

Third, the context of the whole Bible. This context shows us how the passage relates to Biblical Theology, the unfolding verbal revelation of God. By employing Biblical Theology, we can see how each part fits into the larger picture of the whole Bible and how God’s self-revelation moves from promise to fulfillment. I make good use of cross-references, and I read one new book on Biblical Theology a year, to keep this perspective fresh in my mind.

If I am getting stuck on a passage, I often find that looking at these three contexts sparks my imagination!

3. What did this passage mean for the people to whom it was written?

Some books of the Bible were written as letters, and the question is simply what did the writer of the letter intend for the people to whom it was written. Other books of the Bible are different, in that they contain words for people other than those for whom the book was written, such as the disciples and the crowds to whom Jesus spoke His words, or the people of God on the plains of Moab who heard Moses’s sermons in Deuteronomy. I find it very useful to ask, “What did this mean for the people for whom it was written?” “What did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John intend when they recounted Jesus’s words?” “What was the purpose of Deuteronomy, or Judges, or Ruth for the people for whom they were written?” If I am struggling with application, then the “Why was it written?” question is very productive.

4. How does this passage apply to this congregation?

All of Scripture is relevant and important for God’s people. I need, however, to think clearly about how this passage applies to these people today. It may be immediately relevant or generally relevant.

Consider, for example, Malachi 3:8: “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me.” That may be immediately relevant, because the congregation is casual and negligent in their giving to God. If so, I preach it directly to them. But if the congregation is actually generous and self-sacrificial (like the church at Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:1-7), then it would be wrong to say that they were robbing God when they were not. So why is it worth preaching Malachi 3 to this godly congregation? To warn them of the danger of drifting into this pattern of behavior; to challenge any individuals who are not generous to God; to train people to know how to help stingy Christians they meet; and train them to know what to pray for churches which are stingy.

This is why preaching takes pastoral intelligence, because we have to know how immediately the passage applies to my congregation. So, from another perspective, if there is conflict in the church, which passage of Scripture applies most immediately? Is it Galatians 1? This passage tackles the life and death issue of gospel clarity. Is it Romans 14 and 15? This deals with issues about which Christians may differ, reminding them that they must welcome each other and not judge each other. Is it Philippians 4:2? This is about getting along with others. It would be wrong to apply Romans 14 in a Galatians 1 situation, as it would be wrong to apply Galatians 1 in a Philippians 4 situation.

We need the same pastoral intelligence in one-to-one ministry. Imagine you are taking a new Christian through John’s Gospel, and the person is ill. You ...

Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Dedication
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1. What is God’s word for these people?
• 2. If I perish, I perish
• 3. Mind the Details and Mine the Details
• 4. Gain + Loss = Gain: The Mathematics of the Gospel
• 5. Tell Me the Old, Old Story: Preparing to Preach Old Testament Narratives
• 6. Like Father, Like Sons
• 7. Sermon Preparation On The Run
• 8. Moving From Judgment to Blessing
• 9. Seems Odd To Me
• 10. Don’t Give Up On Believing Prayer
• 11. The Treasures Are In The Text
• 12. The (Real) Lord’s Prayer
• 13. The Jeweler’s Window
• 14. Three Men at a Funeral
• 15. Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat
• 16. What Jesus Thinks About Religion
• 17. Spirit-filled Sitzfleisch: The Prayerful Art of Sermonizing
• 18. A Sovereign, Scriptural Plan
• 19. How I Prepare
• 20. The Man of God and the Word of God
• Christian Focus