The Big Idea Companion for Preaching and Teaching

A Guide from Genesis to Revelation

Kim, Matthew D., Gibson, Scott M., Matthew D. Kim, Scott M. Gibson

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781540961792
• eBook ISBN:
  9781493429226
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Preaching 2022 Book of the Year

Haddon Robinson's widely used and influential text, Biblical Preaching, has influenced generations of students and preachers. In The Big Idea Companion for Preaching and Teaching, trusted leading evangelical homileticians, teachers of preaching, and experienced pastors demonstrate that Robinson's "big idea" approach to expository preaching still works in today's diverse cultures and fast-paced world.

This accessible resource offers an insider's view on figuring out the big idea of each book of the Bible, helping preachers and teachers check their interpretation of particular biblical books and passages. The contributors offer tips on how to divide each book of the Bible into preaching and teaching passages, guidance on difficult passages and verses, cultural perspectives for faithful application, and suggested resources for interpreting, preaching, and teaching. Pastors, teachers, Bible study leaders, small groups, and college and seminary students and professors will find a wealth of valuable information in this resource.

Part 1: The Old Testament

Genesis

CASEY C. BARTON

The Big Idea of Genesis

Genesis narrates our origins as God’s people. The book traces humanity’s story with God from its origin in God’s spoken word that initiates and completes creation. The story moves through our first ancestors’ disobedience to God and their consequent exile from God’s presence. Once outside God’s garden, humanity immediately finds itself mired in sin. Murder, shame, and immorality begin to abound in the story of God’s once perfect world. From the first moments after Adam and Eve’s entanglement with the serpent who led them astray, however, Genesis records God’s work to bring about a reconciliation with his creation and to give his blessing to the world. The story follows the flow of God’s covenant promise and blessing through his chosen servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob’s family is preserved through God’s gracious salvation of Jacob’s son Joseph, and they will become the people of God’s promise, Israel. Genesis is a book of beginnings, tracing the origin of God’s people back to God’s word.1

SUBJECT: What story does the book of Genesis tell God’s people about their origins?

COMPLEMENT: That from the beginning, with creation broken by sin, they are a people created by God’s word of promise and blessing to bring God’s word of promise and blessing to all people, which will heal and reconcile creation with God in the end.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: The book of Genesis tells God’s people the story of their origins, that from the beginning, with creation broken by sin, they are a people created by God’s word of promise and blessing to bring God’s word of promise and blessing to all people, which will heal and reconcile creation with God in the end.

HOMILETICAL IDEA: God’s story begins with promises of his presence with his people for the world.

Selecting Preaching and Teaching Passages in Genesis

Genesis is the first portion of the larger literary unit that includes Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—the Pentateuch. The book is composed of four broad narrative arcs that focus on God’s presence and promise with the central characters of the story. The narratives that make up these larger sections detail God’s particular history with his people as he forms them through covenant, promise, and blessing, and as he judges sin and wickedness both in his own people and in the world. Selection of preaching passages should take into account the pericope’s place in these larger narratives.

The first of these arcs is the prehistory of God’s people, from creation through the flood and on to the introduction of Abram (chaps. 1–11). Here the story is told of God’s good creation spoiled by the sin of the first people that he made to steward it. From the fall, God’s gracious presence travels alongside the spread of sin in the world. Even with God’s cleansing of the earth with a flood, sin remains in the generation of Noah’s sons (9:18–28). Sin stubbornly will not go away. Two paths begin to emerge—the path overgrown with sin and choking most of creation, and a path of promise graciously given to Abram and his descendants (though even this path has its fair share of sin along the way).

God’s promises are formalized as we are introduced to Abram (soon to be Abraham) and the all-important covenant that God makes with him (chaps. 12–25). The arc of Abraham is a story of God making promises to one man for the blessing of all people, and that one man struggling in faith and obedience to believe and live the promises of God when they are nearly impossible for him to believe. The son born out of God’s covenant promise, Isaac, inherits that promise from Abraham and in turn passes it to his son.

The next generation of God’s covenant promises working their way into the world comes through the narrative arc of Jacob (chaps. 25–36), the deceptive younger brother who both steals the blessing and is given it by God. Jacob’s story, like Abraham’s (Jacob will also get a new name), is one of emerging faith in the fulfillment of promises that Jacob may not be able to fully see or understand but that he will grab and hold on to for dear life (32:22–32).

A final set of stories focus on Jacob’s son, Joseph, and are told for the sake of Jacob’s entire family (chaps. 37–50). Joseph’s story recalls how God preserved the people that he had created and blessed to be the bearers of his covenant blessing to the world. It is given to show God’s providential work in bringing the people of Israel to Egypt, saving them from famine and building them into a nation. This sets the stage for the central redemptive act of God in the Old Testament when he brings his people out of Egypt in Exodus, keeping yet another promise (46:2–5).

Selecting specific texts for preaching within these larger sections will be a matter of tracing narrative beginnings and endings, seeking the central idea in each as it functions within the whole.2

Getting the Subject, Complement, Exegetical Idea, and Homiletical Idea

Genesis 1:1–2:3

SUBJECT: What does the author of Genesis say is the origin of the cosmos and everything in it?

COMPLEMENT: God speaking all things into existence, forming and filling it all out of nothing.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: The author of Genesis says that the origin of the cosmos and everything in it was God speaking all things into existence, forming and filling it all out of nothing.

HOMILETICAL IDEA: God spoke, forming and filling all of creation out of nothing.

Genesis 2:4–25

SUBJECT: What does the author say is the origin and original state of humanity?

COMPLEMENT: God created man and woman as innocent and perfect complements, stewards of his good creation.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: The author says that the origin and original state of humanity is that God created man and woman as innocent and perfect complements, stewards of his good creation.

HOMILETICAL IDEA: God created us to be the perfect caretakers of his creation.

Genesis 3

SUBJECT: How does the author say humanity lost the innocence with which it was created?

COMPLEMENT: Through disobedience to God, which brought a curse on creation and separation from God.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: The author says that humanity lost the innocence with which it was created through disobedience to God, bringing about a curse on creation and separation from God.

HOMILETICAL IDEA: Sin leaves its scars when we allow it into God’s world.

Genesis 4:1–16

SUBJECT: What does the author say happened in the generation after the fall?

COMPLEMENT: Sin began to dominate as Cain murdered his brother Abel.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: The author says that, in the first generation after the fall, sin began to dominate as Cain murdered his brother Abel.

HO...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Old Testament
• Part 2: The New Testament
• Conclusion
• Contributors
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Back Cover