How Biblical is our Preaching Today ?

Some people use their sermons to preach the Bible, while others use Bible to preach their sermons!

Philipose Vaidyar

“We have more preachers today than practitioners” and “preachers should walk the talk and talk the walk” are not the points for this discussion; nor is this an academic exercise on good Biblical preaching.  Textual, Topical and Expository sermons have its own importance and place in Biblical preaching according to the relevance of the situations but we should be aware of the danger sides of textual and topical messages with too many references.  More often we wonder why the preacher turns to different books and verses, without completing exposition on the scripture portion already selected and read out. I would like to bring into our attention on the subject from my observations on sermons over several these past years and what preachers do with their sermon time. (We would mean here ‘preaching’, ‘sermon’, and ‘message’ for Biblical Preaching and would use these three words interchangeably in this discussion). 

1.      Study before preaching: Any sermon should be the byproduct of a serious Bible study or exposition. There is a great difference between Bible study and a sermon. Books are available on ‘How to Study Bible’, ‘Inductive Bible Study’,‘Biblical Interpretation’, ‘Hermeneutics’ etc. There are also books available on Biblical preaching. Buy such a handbook and learn to do it yourself instead of buying sermon outlines and ready-made messages of preachers or teachers.

2.      Express, not impress: Biblical preaching is not to impress but to express. It is not to show off ones’ knowledge on Bible verses or skills in quoting, rather to express the message of God from the Word of God, which should have relevance to the hearers.

3.      Do not just inform, help people change: Biblical Sermons should not serve just knowledge and information, but lead into Application by the listeners.  A message with information, observations and interpretations does not do any good to the listeners if it fails to lead people to applying it to their personal lives. It should not be like fireworks but like firing. Fire-works brings joy to the one who light it and others who watch would appreciate for that moment but has no lasting result on anyone. Firing should hit the target and bring the desired result. Even if you miss a firing, don’t shoot without a bullet even for practice. It should not just produce light, sound and smoke. Let the message be packed with applications, drawn from the contemporary meaning of the Biblical text. If you the preacher could not apply it for yourself and did not know its implications and applications, your hearers don’t either. We often hear a lot of messages without knowing for sure what the preacher suggests us to do. Biblical preaching should lead to transformation, change in attitudes, character and conduct.  

    

4.      Rule of a book, a news paper and a letter! Bible is unique and is different from other literature; but one should not take it as if it is not a literature at all. Bible’s content has historical accounts, narratives, correspondence/letters, poems, prophesies so and so forth. Do not take any verse from anywhere and use it to serve our purpose.  In most of the sermons we hear, preachers use scores of Bible references, more often each one bringing a new point even though it is taken from the cross reference aid.

None of us read a book taking different sentences from different pages. When we read a daily newspaper, we don’t pull out sentences from different articles or news items. When I read mails or letters, I do not try to make sense out of different mails from different senders or of different dates. A mail should be studied fully to understand the message and we may refer other relevant mails if needed. Similar sentences (verses) used by different authors should not be put together without knowing the context just to make a sermon on a theme. I am surprised often, why a preacher start with a verse and go around several books of the Bible for the second, third and fourth points. At times, a passage is read, started off with a verse and soon left for other portions of the Bible. Here the preacher uses Bible verses to preach his message rather than expounding on the portion selected.  

Is it necessary that every message should have eighteen cross-references? A small unit of text/ a paragraph to a chapter of the Bible (depending on the literary form) is more than enough to preach a great sermon with many points and applications.

5.      Too many verses often spoil the sermon

Cross-references and comparisons are good and can enhance the message, provided it is suitable and you have already expounded enough of the text  you had already selected. If you have selected a narrative or a parable, stay there and complete the observation, interpretations/ implications and applications. I have heard many preachers taking off their sermon- whichever portion is it from to several Characters and heroes like Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and so forth, making all those massages similar. Hearers who often appreciate nice sermon of a preacher fail to recollect the message of the sermon.

6.      The Purpose and Message of the Sermon

Many a time, several preachers seemed to be unclear on what they want to achieve, or what they want people to do in response to their message. The intent of the message should be clear first to the preacher. If the preacher cannot phrase the message in a sentence or two precisely (the proposition) and the desired response, he would leave the hearers only in a mental satisfaction of listening to a sermon if not leaving them in a full confusion. They may not complain as a Sunday sermon has a ritual role at least.

7.      Quality matters more than the Quantity:

Some of them can preach only if they have 45 minutes or an hour depending on the tradition or culture of their denomination. If the preacher has done his homework and is thorough with his sermon and its message, he can preach it for 45 minutes or even in 10 minutes. If All India Radio can air national news in 10 minutes, a preacher can do more without complaints of time if he is clear about the message he wants to deliver.  

8.      Too many illustrations and stories: Some preachers share more stories and illustrations often irrelevantly and dilute the message. Stories stay better in the mind of people and if they do not know why the illustration/ story were used, you have not achieved the purpose. Stories or illustrations are said to be windows to the Word, like windows to a room. Too many widows and too many light will divert the purpose of the room.  

9.      Personal family Stories. Personal stories are good but better for personal sharing times. Some have the habit of taking illustrations always from their life where their family members are the characters. “When our daughter was very small she used to …” “When we were newly married we were living in a small apartment where we used to have a vegetable seller…” all these are good for personal testimony time not always for a sermon. And if you have the habit of taking your family story every time you preach, remember they are hearing you more than listening to. Use your learning or experience wisely to tell the concept if your goal is to help the audience understand your point better.

10.  Forgetting the Context. Many preachers often forget the context. ‘Who said/wrote to whom in what circumstance with what effect’, is more important to understand the original meaning of the verse or portion before one can understand the contemporary meaning of the text to apply to our context. Every Biblical passage/ writing has an original speaker/writer and original recipient(s). Bible is God’s Word for us and the Spirit of God will speak to us through it today. But we should not forget that it has a historical context and historical readers from where we move on to the contemporary meaning and message for us so that we can take the message for our situation or apply it to our context today.  Moreover, every verse has its own context. Meaning of a word can be understood from the context of the other words of the same verse (sentence) and the meaning of a verse should be understood in the context of the paragraph, chapter, and the book and in the wider context of the whole Bible.

Conclusion

Read the Word, meditate and study it to apply it relevantly and personally so that it will transform us and can transform others.  Inductive or Expository preaching needs homework but is powerful and can impact us and our hearers. As a humble learner, invest your time, be creative, and not just imitate. Avoid shortcuts and don't just borrow sermons !