homiletics

Help for New Expositors – Don’t Photobomb Jesus

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

photobombIsn’t it interesting that there are no physical descriptions in the Bible of what the Apostles or Jesus looked like. This is hard to believe in our self-driven culture where the Instagram selfie perfectly captures the ethos of our day.

There is one extra-biblical description of Apostle Paul found in The Acts of Thecla, where it says that Onesiphorus described Paul as “a man short in stature, with a bald head, bowed legs, in good condition, eyebrows that met, a fairly large nose, and full of grace. At times he seemed human, at other times he looked like an angel.”[1] It appears that Paul had a face for radio!

In our world, “image is everything” and yet, for those who stand before the world to proclaim the Word of God, we are simply called to be a faithful, unwavering voice of truth in a dry, wilderness of error and darkness (Mark 1:3; Amos 8:11).

When this is the case, we shouldn’t worry about being impressive or even whether anybody notices us. We shouldn’t be jockeying for prominence among the evangelical superstars or trying to be seen so we can move up the ladder of fame. This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus expects of his servants. Mark 10:42-45 shines brightly against the growing evil of popular Christianity and its longing for attention. It hurts to read Jesus’ words and think about how much modern evangelical Christianity ignores these words:

“And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:42–44, ESV, emphasis mine)

It is when we open our mouths, when we speak the Word of God that people should be amazed–not at us, but at our great and awesome God. If we draw attention, let it be to our Lord and Savior. If we thunder and rail, let it be against sin as we call men to holiness. If we speak with great authority and power, let it be from the Scriptures alone and not ourselves. And when we leave a room where we have preached the mighty deeds of our God, and people stand back and say, “What a mighty God! O, how I want to know Him more!” may we be content to slide out of the room and rejoice that our God chose to use us, sinners saved by grace, to bring more people into His presence. SDG

[1] The Acts of Thecla 3. Translation by Bart D. Ehrman in Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 114.


Help for New Expositors – Develop Patience in Your Hearers

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

Lord willing I will step into the pulpit of my church this Sunday and I will continue my journey through the book of Acts. I will be in Acts 26 and as of last night, I’m not sure how far I will get into Paul’s defense before Agrippa. I have been saturating myself with the text, doing word studies, background, translation and all the good stuff that comes with Bible exposition done well.

As a part of my study, a small phrase in Acts 26:3 stuck out to me that is helpful to think about more, not only as we prepare to preach, but as we think about the overall ministry of preaching to our congregations. The phrase that Paul says is this, “Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently” (ESV). There are a lot of reasons that Paul says this, and I can’t go into them here, but I do want to say this–expositors need to learn to develop patience in their listeners and we need to be such skillful expositors that people are willing to be patient when we preach.

You see, Paul was well aware how critical sound doctrine is, particularly in preaching the gospel. He is about to expound on the differences between traditional Judaism as practiced in his time and how they differed from the gospel message of Jesus Christ. To the Jews, Paul had committed sins worthy of death while Festus couldn’t figure out why everyone was so upset. It all sounded the same to him!

Agrippa was a Jew and he knew Judaism well (Acts 26:3), and yet Paul still begged for patience from him as he laid out this complicated doctrine of the gospel. Paul didn’t abandon sound doctrine, but he also didn’t abandon his listeners either!

Brother preachers, let me be candid for a minute. Sometimes people don’t reject sound expositional preaching because it is not informative, but because we have not done all our work to be clear and concise. The church is not a seminary and your pulpit is not a seminary lectern. We cannot dump raw meat on our congregations and expect them to digest our poorly assembled sermons. We can ask and expect patience, but we must deliver on feeding the sheep! They cannot digest raw exegetical data. Reject the false dichotomy that our preaching must be raw meat (unrefined doctrine) or baby food (little or no doctrine). We have been called by our Lord to dig deep, understand the text better than anyone else in our church, and then to assemble a sermon that imparts much of what we have learned in a way that does not choke them because it is too far over their heads or factual but unhelpful.

As you prepare, go deep but go patiently, walking with the weak and the babes. Recommend further reading and study for those that are more mature. Add in scholarly insights at appropriate places to entice deeper thinking, but return to the average maturity level of your congregation for most of your exposition. Let them up for air after a long explanation of a particular concept by showing them why this doctrine is so important to their lives and how it can be put into practice to the glory of God.

That is how you develop patience in your listeners. You are a shepherd. Lead them, don’t drag them or abandon them. Ask for their patience, but deliver the goods every time you make them work to understand. Reward thinking by showing the soaring heights of spiritual truth. Then the next time you open your Bibles, they will have grown a little more and able to keep a little faster pace with you.

Preachers Who Don’t Love People

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lloydjones“The trouble with some of us is that we love preaching, but we are not always careful to make sure that we love the people to whom we are actually preaching. If you lack this element of compassion for the people you will also lack the pathos which is a very vital element in all true preaching. Our Lord looked out upon the multitude and ‘saw them as sheep without a shepherd’, and was ‘filled with compassion’. And if you know nothing of this you should not be in a pulpit, for this is certain to come out in your preaching.”

-Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Help for New Expositors: 16 Sources for Introductions

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Where can you go to find an appropriate introduction? There are plenty of places if you know where to look. Below are 16 sources for material to use in introducing your sermon.

  1. Biblical context– Give the background of what the situation is. For instance, in Second Timothy, Paul is in prison and he is writing his final letter to his dear child in the faith Timothy,
  2. Overview of the text (i.e., narrative retelling)-If you are preaching a section of a larger narrative, then it is often helpful to retell the story, highlighting the flow of the story to bring your hearers quickly up to speed to prepare them for the more detailed exposition of the text.
  3. Occasion (holidays, world event, etc)-Although you might wish to preach through whole books of the Bible, you may need to acknowledge a tragedy, celebration or other major occasion in your introduction. For instance, in America, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks could not be ignored on the Sunday that followed after that national tragedy. Trying to avoid this reality comes across as insensitive and foolish.
  4. Personal experience– Maybe you have a personal story that relates well with your sermon topic. People like to learn more about their pastor and to see that he is, after all, a real man like they are.
  5. Historical setting– Don’t go crazy here and let this dominate, but enough historical background to help fill in the blanks in order to understand the setting of the text can be helpful to the listeners.
  6. Biography– People love hearing about the lives of other people. Use the stories of others you have read to illustrate the main idea of your sermon.
  7. Geography, culture, customs, background material of the text-Close to historical setting, this may also include details that are also of great interest to the audience. The Bible is, of course, foreign to most people and insights into culture and customs can be very interesting.
  8. Striking statement-These are shocking statements, such as, “Guilty!…That was what I expected to hear from the judge when I stood before him.” You will have their attention! But be careful that the shock from such a statement doesn’t overwhelm your hearers so they can’t get past the statement and follow you to the text.
  9. Problem-What problem is the text addressing? Do most people see it as a problem? How can you highlight it? How does this problem directly affect them personally? If you can answers these questions then you can give your listener a strong reason to be interested in what you have to say.
  10. Purpose of the sermon-Why should they listen to you? Have you shared with them the main point and why it is important for them to know these truths you are about to expound?
  11. News item-Current events are always important, but sometimes the news lends itself to human interest stories, as well as local, national and controversial stories of wide interest. Your congregation is talking about it, let them know that you are thinking about it to and then show them how it relates to your sermon.
  12. Quotation-A good, pithy quote can grab interest and attention. A long, involved quote is usually unhelpful and boring. Choose carefully! If you’re unsure, ask your spouse or kids if you can read it to them!
  13. Reference from literature-It might be a poem, a quote from a famous bit of literature, or even from a magazine. Like the comments on quotes above, make sure it is interesting and not too long.
  14. Position/opinion of doctrine currently held-You can bring up what may be a growing challenge to long-held doctrines, or those which might be popular but opposed to the text you are about to explain. Be charitable and gracious toward those who hold to a differing view if it is orthodox. Remember win them over from the Scripture!
  15. Imagination-Take them on a quick journey of the mind. Say something like, “Imagine with me…” and give them a hypothetical situation or story that fits what you are trying to introduce.
  16. Humorous incident-Don’t use the story of another person, unless they have given you permission first. Stories about funny things you have done are safest and are most relatable.

Help for New Expositors: Know Where Your Authority Lies

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UnknownWithout God’s Word, a church has no hope as it prepares to meet this God who is to judge the living and the dead. It has no way to know the gospel in a saving way (Rom. 10:14–17; 1 Cor. 1:21). It has no way to grow in Christ. Without the Word of God, a preacher, especially a young preacher with little history, has no true authority. He might be able to woo them with the devices of the flesh just like any comedian or rock star. But without the Word he will have no true spiritual trust from his people. Why would a church entrust its spiritual good to a know-nothing twenty-nine-year-old? Why would an older man who has been a Christian for twenty years, raised a family, and had a career care what this twenty-nine-year-old says about marriage or children or money or taking up your cross and following Jesus? But if that twenty-nine-year-old can simply open the pages of the Bible and explain what God himself says, then the church has something with which to work. Then the authority rests not in the preacher or his personal wisdom and experience but in the authority of God himself who has breathed his Word. –McKinley, Mike. Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things (9Marks) (Kindle Locations 604-613). Crossway.