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How did Jesus secure attention?

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How did Jesus secure the attention of his hearers?

  • By asking for it.  “Hear…”; “Look…”
  • By announcing his coming by sending messengers in advance.
  • By utilising posture.  Adopting the posture of a Rabbi, he would sit to teach.
  • By using concrete, pictorial, imaginative language.
  • By using the familiar to explain the unfamiliar.
  • By making one point in several different ways: The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son.
  • By giving teaching which was different from what his hearers were used to (from the scribes).
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1 Timothy 2:4 – ‘God wants all people to be saved’

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2:3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 2:4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Various interpretations have been offered:

1. ‘God wants all people to be saved.  Since his will cannot be thwarted, all therefore will be saved.’

This is the view of Hanson.  But, as Moo states, the problem with a universalistic interpretation

‘is that Paul teaches quite explicitly in this very letter—indeed, in the next verse—that faith, which Paul confines to this life and limits only to some people, is necessary for salvation (see also 1 Tim 1:16; 3:16; 4:10).’

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7 qualities of expository preaching

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  1. In expository preaching the preacher’s first aim is to discover the text writer’s intended theological meaning in the selected text. We preachers tend to search the Bible for a sermon. We hope for something to leap out at us that will preach. But a program of expository preaching calls for the preacher to aim for a clear understanding of the text writer’s meaning. Only out of that theological message can he properly preach an expository sermon.
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Textual preaching

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At first glance, it might seem that textual preaching ought to be the same as expository preaching.  Both involve the faithful opening up and application of the biblical text.

So, when Clarence S. Roddy writes that…

‘a textual sermon is one in which both the topic and divisions of development are derived from and follow the order of the text … the text controls and dominates both topic and development in this type.’

…his definition would apply equally well to the expository sermon.…

Painting with words

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How can preachers use words more effectively?

Kate Bruce offers some ‘top tips’:

1. Use language with multi- sensory appeal.
2. Use verbs to paint vivid pictures (not adjectives).
3. Use imagery – employing metaphor and simile.
4. Weave imagery into the flow of familiar conversational language.
5. Be alert to the power of hyperbole and bathos.
6. Earth abstract ideas in the soil of the everyday – use familiar instances.
7. Understand the musicality of language – rhythm, repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia.…

Troeger: the use of imagination in preaching

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Some notes from this interview with Thomas Troeger:

The imaginative process can be likened to the art of sailing a boat.  Two realities are at work: the wind (over which you don’t have any control), and your own senses, with which you can survey the situation and set your sails accordingly.

Three kinds of imagination: conventional, empathetic, and visionary.

Conventional imagination is that which is inherited and shared.  Hymns such as ‘Silent Night’ at Christmas and ‘Christ the Lord is Risen Today’ at Easter form part of the way we imagine the faith.…

Mark 12:41-44/Luke 21:1-4 – ‘The widow’s mite’

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Mk 12:41 Then he sat down opposite the offering box, and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts. 12:42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, worth less than a penny. 12:43 He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. 12:44 For they all gave out of their wealth.…

What, then, is expository preaching?

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Erik Raymond has helpfully collected a range of contemporary definitions:

John MacArthur: ‘The message finds its sole source in Scripture. The message is extracted from Scripture through careful exegesis. The message preparation correctly interprets Scripture in its normal sense and its context. The message clearly explains the original God-intended meaning of Scripture. The message applies the Scriptural meaning for today.’ (Preaching)

Bryan Chappell: ‘The main idea of an expository sermon the topic, the divisions of that idea, main points, and the development of those divisions, all come from truths the text itself contains.…

A biblical case for expository preaching

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Expository preaching may be defined as that which seeks to explain and apply a unit of Scripture, such that the main point of that unit of Scripture becomes the main point of the sermon.

Can a case for expository preaching be made from the Bible itself?

James F. Stitzinger thinks so.  He reasons as follows.

Preaching in the Bible is both revelatory (declaring new truths) and explanatory (explaining and applying known truths).

Old Testament

Old Testament examples include

  • Moses (Deut 31-33)
  • Joshua (Josh 23:2-16; 24:2-27)
  • David (Psalms 8, 9, 16, 22, 24, 34, 68, 75, 89, 93, 105, 110, 119, 136, 145 reveal the nature and character of God, whereas Psalms 1, 23, 32, 37, 40, 46, 50, 66, 78, 92, 100, 104, 106, 118, 128, 150 – see esp.
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Revelation 14:11 – ‘No rest day or night’

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Rev 14:9 “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand, 14:10 that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. 14:11 And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.”…