homiletics

Help for New Expositors: Using Biblical Illustrations vs. Using Cross References. What’s the Difference?

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

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In my personal library I have over a dozen books whose sole purpose is to provide me with sermon illustrations. In my Logos library I have several more. But honestly, most of them sit on the shelf collecting dust. It’s not that I’m against using sermon illustrations, or that I don’t use them myself. I use them and I think that they are an important component of preaching. The problem is that sermon illustration books are often old, overworked books that lack originality and are often outdated. That means that I am always on the hunt for good illustrations. One source for illustrations is the Bible itself.

Using the Bible for illustrations has great benefits. Using one part of the Bible to illustrate another allows us to help our congregation to see parts of the Bible that we might not be preaching in for a while. This “cross-pollination” is particularly helpful for newer believers who have little or no knowledge of the Bible.

Another benefit is that using the Bible for illustration keeps the hearers in mind in the biblical world. Sometimes a contemporary illustration can help the hearer “see” the biblical truth in modern terms, but it also has the danger of distracting the listener with thoughts we had not considered. For instance, an illustration drawn from a contemporary movie might cause a listener to begin thinking about other scenes in the movie we have not reference, or even that we have given a blanket endorsement of a movie when we only intended to refer to a small part.

One last benefit of using the Bible for illustration is that the Scriptures contain a massive amount of material for illustration. Not only do we have the illustrations used by prophets, Apostles and the Lord Jesus himself, but we have the lives of biblical characters from which we can draw more illustrations. There is no need to buy that cheesy outdated sermon illustration book when you have the only Spirit inspired illustration book in the Bible itself!

But sometimes new expositors get confused about the difference between a biblical illustration and a cross-reference. The confusion is understandable because they seem to be the same thing on the surface. The big difference between the two can be summed up in the purpose for each.

Cross-References

A cross-reference is normally used when we are seeking to strengthen a sermon point or sub-point in our sermon. There are times when we have made a point that is present in the main text we are expositing, but it may be that the English text does not clearly show the stress we need it to make. We might choose to bring in linguistic insights and grammar, but we might introduce more confusion if we do that. Instead, a good couple of cross-references will help to undergird and strengthen the idea from other places in the Bible to show that this theological idea is found elsewhere in Scripture.

We need to be careful that when we use cross-references that they are what Dr. Montoya at The Master’s Seminary calls “the jugular texts.” These are Scripture references that are clear and powerful in stating what we are trying to prove. If we want to prove that God loves the world, we would go to John 3:16, if we want to prove that Jesus is the only way to heaven, we might go to John 14:6. If we wanted to state that tongues is speaking in a known human language, we would go to Acts 2:5-11. The point is that we go to the strongest and clearest texts to prove our point and we read the section that makes the point. We must not abuse the authorial intent of these cross-reference passages, but we do not need to go into the background or other information in detail in order to quote them. The purpose is to undergird and strengthen a theological idea or sermon point.

An excellent place to find cross-references other than those in the margins of most Bibles is The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

Biblical Illustrations

The purpose of biblical illustrations is to illustrate. That may seem obvious, but it needs to be said. That means that we are predominantly looking for examples of the concept we are trying to illustrate in the narrative and some didactic sections of the Bible. The lives of Bible characters serve well as examples both negatively and positively. Another place to find illustrations is from the teaching illustrations given by Jesus, the Apostles and the prophets. Jesus was a master illustrator, and he used both the Old Testament as well as nature to paint pictures of deep spiritual truths. Study these so you can see how they did it, and use their illustrations for the same things they did. Think about the parables, the agricultural illustrations, and the nature illustrations used by all the great biblical teachers. God has given all of these for our benefit as teachers.

Because biblical illustrations can be lengthy (particularly narrative sections), many times it will be necessary to summarize a story’s details in order to bring out the main idea you are illustrating. For example, if you wanted to use the Joseph story in Genesis to illustrate the sovereignty of God over all things including his use of evil for good, you wouldn’t want to read the multiple chapters that it takes to cover that narrative. Instead you would summarize the highlights of Joseph’s life and then read the “jugular text” of Gen 50:20 to summarize the main idea. This is a biblical illustration.

Although biblical illustrations and cross-references have many overlapping qualities, the two serve difference purposes. Both have their place in a biblical exposition, but for the sake of clarity we need to know the difference.

How Spirit-dependent is your preaching?

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“How utterly dependent we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching! All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other. You go to your study and look down at your pitiful manuscript, and you kneel down and cry, “O God, this is so weak! Who do I think I am? What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life (2 Cor. 2:16). My God, who is sufficient for these things?”—John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, Kindle loc. 400.

How important are original languages for preaching? Martin Luther’s answer.

/ Richard Bargas / 1 Comment

“We will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit [Eph. 6: 17] is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined; they are the vessel in which this wine is held; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and . . . they are the baskets in which are kept these loaves and fishes and fragments. If through our neglect we let the languages go (which God forbid!), we shall . . . lose the gospel.” —Quoted in Greek for Life: Strategies for Learning, Maintaining and Reviving New Testament Greek, Kindle loc. 243.

Help for New Expositors: 8 Reasons You Need to Introduce Your Sermon Well

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Although it is not the most important part of a sermon, the introduction is still important.   The introduction moves your hearer from a cold start to the body of the message and the exposition of the text. If your introduction is not done well, it can produce all sorts of problems that will hinder your hearers from getting the most from all the hard work you have done in studying the Scriptures.

Why does every sermon or address need an introduction?

  1. The congregation needs to be prepared to hear the message profitably.
    • Coming off of a hard week, dropping a crying baby at the nursery, having an argument on the way to church, distractions from the woes of this world, and many more things are hindrances to hearing the Word preached. The introduction helps get everyone ready.
  2. People have an aversion to abruptness. An introduction provides the gradual approach to the message.
    • People need a gradual change in subject matter that allows their minds to follow along. Moving from the introduction to the text allows the hearer to prepare for a change from a subject they know to one which they are less familiar with.
  3. The needs of the hearers must be addressed during the introduction.
    • Developing need is critical for a good introduction. Why should your hearers continue listening to you? What is it about the main theme that is important for their life and faith that they need to continue on the “Bible bus” with you? Think about the practicalities of the sermon and how it impacts the different people you will be addressing.
  4. Gets attention and secures interest. 
    • Sometimes we think about the interest of the most mature Christians when we prepare our sermons. But in any healthy church, there will be both immature and mature Christians along with visitors and unbelievers. These immature Christians, unbelievers and visitors will need more help than the mature when it comes to getting into the sermon. A good attention grabber helps gain their interest.
  5. Dismisses prejudice, creates favorable regard for the preacher.
    • If you are a guest preacher, then the introduction helps to allow the congregation to get to know you a little better and to see that you are trustworthy and someone they want to listen to for the next 45 minutes. Greek oration valued ethos and pathos along with logos. The introduction helps to establish your ethos and pathos before you can get very far into the Word.
  6. Indicates the purpose of the sermon.
    • What is this sermon about? Similar to developing need, the purpose of the sermon is classically attached to the proposition statement as a “so that” clause. The purpose answers the question “So what?” to your sermon idea. What do you want your hearer to do, feel, believe or change?
  7. Connects the sermon to the last.
    • In lectio continua or preaching through a book, there is a need to explain the flow of the argument of the text and weave that into the current preaching portion. This allows the argument of the biblical author and book to be made clear while also connecting what has come before. All sermons should stand alone, but should be connected at the same time.
  8. Introduces the subject/text of the sermon.
    • This often comes in the form of biblical background and context. This is an area where too much information can easily be given. The purpose of this in the introduction is to give enough information to place the text and the subject in its setting for the listener to understand the main idea of the sermon. Too much background information can muddy the introduction and weigh it down as well as taking away time from the exposition of the text.

     

Every sermon needs a good introduction, and these eight reasons show why one is not only necessary, but also why it is helpful. In an upcoming post I will share with you some sources where you can find good material for using in your introductions. What are some other good ideas you have for sermon introductions? Share your ideas in the comments.

Preaching Christ from All of Scripture? TMS Lecture Series #1- Richard Mayhue

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One of the more difficult issues that often comes up in preaching is how to properly preach the gospel in any given sermon. Obviously, there are texts which easily lend themselves to preaching the gospel, but how can we be faithful to stress the authorial intent of the Bible and still be faithful to preach Christ?

Thankfully, back in 2016 The Master’s Seminary held its annual Faculty Lecture Series on Christ-Centered Preaching. I would commend the whole series to you if you struggle with this issue, which many men do, but I want to take some time here to highlight each message and then when I have finished the sermon series I’d like to make some practical applicational comments for how we can preach Christ in our sermons in a way that is biblically faithful to the text.

The first message is from Dr. Richard L. Mayhue, the former dean of The Master’s Seminary from 1990 to 2014.

His message can be be heard here as audio or video.

In this message, Dr. Mayhue covers:

  • An Overview of the Christ-Centered Preaching Movement
  • An Overview of the Improper Practices of the Movement
  • And Overview of Legitimate Christ-Centered Preaching

“It is exegetically fraudulent to try to extract from every biblical text some truth about Christ.”–Daniel Block

Dr. Mayhue briefly addresses the argument used to defend this preaching from texts such which seem at first glance to say that Christ can be found in the totality of the Old Testament, such as Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1Cor 1:22-23; 1Cor 2:2; 2Cor 4:5. He also deals with the issue of hermeneutics and how coming to the text with a theological bias may allow for preaching Christ in every text, but it also abuses the authorial intent of the text. Likewise, Mayhue argues that a Christo-centric hermeneutic falls short of a full theocentric emphasis in Scripture and points to John Calvin himself as a good model of faithful, biblical exposition which does not fall into the same pitfalls as modern Christo-centric preachers.

Although this message clocks in at 52:31, it only begins to scratch the surface of the issues at hand and does not deal with a lot of the issues, nor does it help much in showing a young expositor how Christ can be preached in many texts other than those which are explicitly Messianic. That task is left for those that will follow.