What is a “text-driven” sermon, and why does “text-driven” preaching matter? In this episode of the Southwesterners’ Forum, Dr. Matthew McKellar discusses why text-driven preaching is expository preaching at its best, as well as share practical insights for preparing and delivering text-driven sermons.
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Matthew McKellar 0:00
Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this time. Always a pleasure to see some former students and some folks I know. So we’re glad you’re here to share this time. My name is Matthew McKellar, and I’m professor of preaching in the School of Theology, and have taught at Southwestern since 2009 and before that, I spent about 30 years of ministry in the state of Texas. Pastored two churches during that time. And so I like to tell my guys in class, I may not be able to tell you what to do, but in most cases, I can, for sure, tell you what not to do. So we want this to be a very practical and a helpful time, and I’m delighted to be with you today. I want to introduce you my partner in crime, Aaron Potts. Aaron will tell you a little bit about himself in a moment, but Aaron serves as our editorial assistant for our preachingsource.com website. This gives me the opportunity to give a plug for preaching source. If you haven’t checked out our seminaries. Preaching website. It’s preachingsource.com we have a constant series of blog articles going on there, as well as a number of other resources, including sermon structures, if you’re preaching through a particular book of the Bible, like Jonah or Galatians, structures on those books, as well as books like First Peter are already there. So if you haven’t checked it out, be sure and check that out as well. We’ll also talk about this more at the end of our time. I want to encourage you, if you’re able to join us here on campus on September the 30th for our our effective preaching workshop this year, we cover the book of Second Corinthians, and we’re going to have a great time. A one day workshop starts there in the Riley Center at 830 on Monday, September the 30th, and we’ll talk more about that at the close of our time. But I’m delighted to be with you today. And like I said, Aaron serves as an editorial assistant for a preaching source, a great student of preaching. Aaron, tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Aaron Potts 2:01
Thank you, Dr Keller, I’m a student at the college here Texas Baptist College. I’m also a pastoral apprentice at Grace Church southwest over in the bembrook area. It’s my joy to help provide good resources for pastors and preachers alike. And I’m married. I have a six month old daughter, so that’s a little bit about me. Thank you for introducing me. Dr McKellar, I’m going to transition to some questions.
Aaron Potts 2:29
Dr McKellar, can you tell us what is text driven preaching and why? Why would you promote text driven preaching over other types of preaching? Absolutely, that’s a great question. And we talk about the term expository preaching, you probably hear that term a great deal. And Expository Preaching is simply the type of preaching that takes a text of Scripture, explains it, illustrates it, and applies it with the text being opened up. Now one might say, Well, alright, if that’s expository preaching, why this big deal about text driven preaching? And the answer is, there was a time when the term expository meant, okay, a guy’s going to take a text, he’s going to open it up, the content of the sermon is primarily going to be the content of the text. But in more recent years, what has happened is any any sermon that remotely mentions a biblical text is deemed to be expository. Or here’s a sermon where a guy starts out he reads the text, he talks about the text for four or five minutes, and then for the rest of his message, he hardly ever refers to the text that is not expository preaching. So at Southwestern what we’ve tried to do is to say, look, we want to introduce you to a philosophy of expository preaching. We believe it’s the best philosophy. It’s the text driven philosophy. And in this text driven philosophy, it is defined by what we call the three S’s, first of all, the substance of the text in a text driven sermon, the substance of the sermon is the substance of the text. The second S is structure in a text driven sermon, the structure of the text shapes the structure of the sermon. And then finally, spirit, the spirit of the text. Well, what’s the spirit of the text? Well, part of it has to do Aaron with the idea of genre. What type of literature are we dealing with here? Are we dealing with like an Old Testament narrative, David and Goliath? First Samuel 17, or are we looking at something like Second Samuel, nine, one through 13, David and Mephibosheth. Those are very much narratives. Those are stories. And so you have to be sensitive to the genre. On the other hand, if you go to the New Testament and Paul’s letters, think about Romans, 12, one and two. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. And then in verse.
Matthew McKellar 5:00
Two you have those key imperatives. Do not be conformed any longer, but continue being transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s very deductive and very propositional, propositional. So we want to be sensitive to the spirit of the text, even so far as the emotions of the text. For instance, if one were to preach David’s Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathsheba. You don’t want to start the preaching of that text in a joking, hey, it’s a good day. Let’s have a big time. You’re dealing with the man after God’s own heart who has fallen deeply into sin, and now, having been confronted by the prophet Nathan, he comes back to make this confession, and so in the preaching of that message, we need to express the emotion of that text, so substance, structure and spirit. Now let me also add, Aaron, this is important. Someone might say, Well, is this really such a big deal? And why is text driven preaching so important? I would go back and visit with you a little bit about what we call a theology of preaching. You know, God is the center of all this. And let me give you two words. Text driven preaching is significant on the first on the first hand, I might say, because of the doctrine of Revelation, that is, God is a revealing God. Were he not a revealing God, we wouldn’t be sitting here today. But you go back to the book of Genesis, and what do you have there? God is revealing himself. He speaks, and he calls into existence that which previously did not exist. And then he speaks to Abram. He calls Abram from Ur of the Chaldees. And then he deals with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and you see him communicating. Then we move into the time of the prophets. You have the prophet Samuel, and then you have the prophets of the Old Testament, guys like Isaiah and Jeremiah. And then you have the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and His public ministry and the ministry of the apostles, and finally, following the resurrection of Jesus, what do you have? You have the explosion of the early church in Acts and the oral apostolic tradition. Well, that is God revealing himself. That is the doctrine of Revelation. And so we preach, because God has spoken, God has revealed himself right the second element, theologically, behind texture and preaching would be the doctrine of inspiration. The Bible says all scripture is breathed out by God. Second Timothy, 316, and you go on to verse 17. It’s proper for doctrine, reproof, instruction and training in righteousness That the man of God might be thoroughly equipped or fully equipped. So we have the doctrine of revelation and the doctrine of inspiration. The Holy Spirit has borne men along, and these words have been preserved in Holy Scripture. Why is that important? How does it connect the text driven preaching? And the answer is, if God, by spirit, has inspired this word, then in my preaching, I want to say what the text says. I want to let the text talk. And so it’s not my right. I don’t have the right to read into the text. That would be impositional preaching. We want to do expositional preaching. We want to focus on what is in the text. I tell my students in class, listen, if you want to have a Holy Spirit anointed sermon, then you need to carve as close to the text that the Holy Spirit inspired. And we talk about verbal plenary inspiration, not just the ideas, but every word. Now, if that is true, then I don’t have the right to impose my thoughts on a text. I need let the text say what it says and related texture and preaching, I do not have the right to impose my structure on the text. I have to look at the structure of that text and how it presents itself, and then preach the text with an awareness of the spirit, the literary type and the emotion of the message itself. So a theology of preaching is very important. God has spoken, it is written, it’s been preserved. Therefore we preach. And so that’s why I think whether you’re a lay person teaching a Sunday school class or a men or a women’s Bible study, or you’re standing behind a pulpit, the text driven approach is the approach that’s going to keep you closest, I think, to the text itself.
Aaron Potts 9:35
Thank you, Dr McKellar, for explaining text driven preaching. Can you also explain what are kind of bare bones the outline of preparing and text driven sermon. How do you prepare a text driven sermon?
Matthew McKellar 9:47
Yes, well, the preparation of a text driven sermon begins with dealing with your text. Let’s say that. Let’s say that I’m going to preach that day. Of it in Mephibosheth text, Second Samuel, 13 verses, one through nine. What I would do in the process of preparation, you read, you read the text over and over in in the English, I use the English Standard Version. You may use another translation, just make sure it’s a translation. Understand the distinction between a translation and a paraphrase. I read that text and just marinate in it. Read it over and over and over again, and then the next thing I’ll do is is use my language helps. Now, sometimes people say, Well, I don’t know Greek and Hebrew, and that’s going to that’s going to slow me down, or I can’t do texture and preaching. Look, today there are so many electronic and computer sources. There’s really no excuse for someone to say, Well, I would have studied what the Greek text says here, but I don’t know Greek. There are so many great resources out there that you can use. I’ll just mention, you know, Bible gateway.com, biblehub.com, biblehub.com, there are a number of other good sources, but after that, I’ll look at the Linguistics of the text itself. Now, if I’m dealing with the Old Testament narrative, I want to look out for repetition, right? I want to see what the biblical author is doing in the text, are there certain phrases or ideas that are repeated? You might say, why would you do that? Well, the reason I do that is because when you find an author repeating something, then it lets you know, hey, this author is stressing this idea. I don’t need to be hesitant at all about pounding on that because the author repeats it a couple of times. Okay? And so as I’m looking at that text, I’m looking at what’s going on grammatically. Now with a New Testament text, let’s say Paul’s. Paul’s New Testament letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, letters like those, then I want to do a careful study of what’s going on. And it’s been said often that verbs are the load bearing walls of meaning. So in those texts, you want to look for the verbs. You want to distinguish regular verbs from imperative verbs, because structurally, if there’s a biblical command, then you need to jump on that, because the text is issuing some type of command, right then. Additionally, you want to notice the distinction between a verb and a participle. A participle is usually a modifier, and so you will make those distinctions as you look at the grammar. Now, in addition to that, I tell my students you’ve got the G and the H and the C. The G is the grammar, the H is the history, and the C is the context. What’s going on in this text, what’s the original historical setting, but then what is happening before my selected passage, what’s happening after it? How does this fit into the whole picture? So history, grammar and context. Now notice, I haven’t looked at a commentary one yet, and that’s very important. While I value the commentaries, you don’t want to short circuit the preparation process, because ideally you ought to be praying. I ought to be praying as we’re reading that text in English, as we’re looking at the original languages. Lord, by your Spirit, help me to understand and process this text. And before I ever go to a commentary, what I try to do is fashion a preliminary summary. Some call it the main idea, the thesis, the proposition, whatever term you use, I try to summarize what’s going on in this text in a single sentence, and then develop at that point some semblance of structure. Only then do I go to the commentaries. And when I go to the commentaries, usually I want to, I want to deal with at least a couple of levels of commentaries. I want those commentaries Aaron, that are in depth exegetical. They take these verses apart and put them back together again. Loads of information, more than I can process in a single sermon. But it’s important to get at those things. Then at the second level, or what I would call the mid range commentaries, I think about the preaching of the word series that Kent Hughes edited. I think for crossway, you’ve got some good exegesis there, but there’s also illustration and application, kind of a pastoral touch, right? Then I might even read in the devotional realm that would include, you know, sermons by those who’ve gone before us, whether it’s McLaren or Spurgeon. Okay, so I’m preaching Psalm three. Uh, let’s see what McLaren preached on that. How did he handle that text? But at those three levels there, then I come back, and then I make adjustments and fashion my my final main idea and structure, and then I encourage I still try to do this myself, writing out what you’re going to say, not for the purpose of taking it with you when you stand up to preach or teach, but for the purpose of making you sharp. And it’s wonderful how writing makes for exactness and allows you to remove those common pet phrases that you don’t even realize you were using. And then the idea of is to process what you’ve written, not memorize it word for word, but to be so familiar with it that basically you can walk into the pulpit or step up to teach or preach, and you use few or no notes. And here’s the beauty of text driven preaching, if your text, if your sermon, is based on the biblical text, if it’s text driven in terms of substance, structure and spirit, guess what? If you hit a blank space in the course of delivering your sermon, you can just look down at the text, because you can familiarize yourself with that structure to such that that that if you have a blank, if you go blank in the middle of the message, you look at the text and you can get, you can get right back on on track. So that would be the the basic process. There are so many other other details related to it. But essentially, the goal is, I want to let this text talk. I don’t want to read into the text what is not there in terms of content or structure. That’s critically important. I want to let the text talk.
Aaron Potts 16:13
I think this raises a helpful question. You talked about one mistake is going to the commentaries too quickly. What are some other common pitfalls that you’ve seen in our day, in preaching preparation, even those who use a text driven preparation, what are some pitfalls that you see?
Matthew McKellar 16:33
That’s a great question. I think, I think we have to be careful to remember that in in one message, in one sermon, in one lesson. The temptation is, you do all this study and you think, I’ve gotta just, I’ve gotta, I gotta flood out on my people. I’ve gotta pour out all this new knowledge I’ve gained. To me, the beauty of the main idea is, if you can identify that main idea and you can develop a structure, then that’s going to help you focus things such that you don’t end up with a 45 or 50 minute message. Now, I’ve heard some great 40 plus minute sermons in my lifetime, but I’ve never heard a great 40 minute sermon that I didn’t believe would have been an even better sermon, Aaron, if it had been about 10 minutes shorter. There’s something to be said for verbal precision and an economy of words. One of my professors that I have Southwestern used to say to us in class, gentlemen, remember that the art of exposition is the art of elimination. And you know, some things have to remain on the production cutting room floor, so to speak. And so one of the common errors I see, you know, guys do a good job of studying and preparing, but their structure is is too complex. And then the duration of the sermon is such that it goes on and on and on, I would say, aim for a simplicity and structure and also aim to deliver your message in about 28 to 30 minutes. I’m pretty convinced that any text of Scripture a narrative, whatever the genre, if you study it rightly and if you package it rightly, and if you let the text talk, you can preach that text in 28 to 30 minutes. So that would be, that would be one of the things I see as a common pitfall.
Aaron Potts 18:33
As you know, topical preaching is one of the most prominent models in our day. I know my wife, her parents, grew up with topical preaching. I think that can be said about a lot of people’s parents, and it’s still very prominent. Can you kind of explain, how would you introduce a congregation that is used solely to topical preaching, and that affects a preacher’s preparation too, if it’s topical, how would you introduce a church to text driven preaching, and then also, what are some of the positive spiritual effects you have seen on congregations that are exposed to good text driven preaching?
Matthew McKellar 19:09
Yes, first of all, let me say I am not against topical preaching. There is a place for a topical sermon. However, I would argue that it should never be the bread and butter. If you’re the local pastor, you’re the primary preacher in a congregation. Ideally you want to be doing what I call consecutive expositions. That is, you are preaching in series through books of the Bible. You know you might do 12 or 13 weeks in one section of Genesis, say, in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, then you might shift, and in eight or 10 weeks, you could preach through the book of Colossians or Philippians. The whole goal is to provide your people with a steady diet of biblical truth, to expose them to the whole council of God, a topical. Sermon, essentially is a sermon in which the preacher or teacher identifies a topic, marriage, relationships, finances, forgiveness, any number of topics, and then takes the topic to a text. The problem with topical preaching is, if one is not careful, Scripture is neglected because context is never treated. Okay. For instance, someone says, Well, I’m going to preach a I’m going to preach a message on the topic of marriage. And that individual might go through the New Testament or the Old Testament as well and find a number of passages that relate to marriage, but the preacher in that situation doesn’t have the time, nor does he take the opportunity to show in a systematic way how the subject of marriage is treated in Scripture. So context is often neglected. And I would argue that if you have only a topical diet, you will not effectively expose your people to all the great sections of Scripture and the doctrines of Scripture, because you’re picking and choosing at random. So I think it’s important, if you’re the primary preacher at your church, that you have a systematic plan program of preaching. Now, I think there are those occasions when it is appropriate to preach what I would call a topical, textual sermon. And these can be very helpful. My example of that would be when we had 911 I remember I was pastoring when that happened, that Tuesday in September. I remember at that time I was preaching a series in either first or second Thessalonians, Erin, I can’t remember, but that happened on a Tuesday, and I had to pray and think about calling an audible, because those of you that were living then, you know, it was a catastrophic event. I mean, it just kind of stopped. It affected everybody. I determined, after praying, that I needed to shift gears and for that next Sunday, do something different. And so I chose to address the crisis, the problem itself. And I selected Psalm 46 God is our strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Though the mountains fall in the heart of the sea, the God of Jacob is our refuge. That text. And so basically, I wanted a text that dealt with what was going on. In that sense, is a topical text. But what I avoided doing was jumping all through Scripture. I did an exposition, I stayed in my lane, and I preached through Psalm 46 that day. That’s the kind of topical preaching if you’re going to do it that I would urge you to do. You if you do take a topic and you think, well, in the life of our church right now, we need to address X, name the topic. I’m going to find a biblical text, and I’m going to take it apart, put it back together again, deal with the history of the grammar, the context, and let the text talk. That’s going to do your people the greatest amount of good. I tell my students in class. This is a scary thing. If you’re the primary preacher in your church, you got to understand that you are setting the thermostat. People are going to learn to prepare their own spiritual meals for watching how you handle a text, if you handle it carelessly, if you impose things on the text, if you just jump around here and there to different topics, then that’s going to become standard for them. So in answer to your questions, how can texture and preaching benefit a local church? I’ve seen it firsthand as you preach through a book of the Bible, how the light comes on for people, because it finally dawns on them. Hey, my preacher up here, he’s just not up here telling stories or talking about his favorite subjects. He’s working me through a text of Scripture. He’s teaching me to love the text. John Piper, in his book the supremacy of God in preaching, talks about how ideally our preaching should be expository exaltation, that is, we gather with God’s people, and we gather around the word, and we worship the Lord of the word, who has revealed himself in the word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I think the results of that can be absolutely dramatic in terms of the spiritual growth and the hunger for God’s word, that that kind of preaching will engender because people will see, hey, he’s showing me things in the text. And I would say that’s one of the geniuses of text driven preaching. You’re not just spouting off your ideas. You have the opportunity to show your people where you got their stuff, so that they understand the locus of authority is not in the preacher, it’s in the text which the Holy Spirit inspired. And by the way, that’s what’s going to encourage your people when they go through a job change, when they’re standing at the fresh grave of a loved one, guess what? They don’t give a flip about your cool stories and funny introductions. They need a. Heard from God, they need a psalm. Three, you know, Lord, you You are my shield and my glory and the lifter of my head. And I have cried out to you. That’s what your people need, and that’s the difference text driven preaching makes.
Aaron Potts 25:13
Thank you. Dr McKellar, I think now would be a good time to transition to questions.
Matthew McKellar 25:21
Well, I would say my quick answer would be, hopefully the same way I approach the passages that are what we might call easy passages, or the not so hard passages. But I would say, in answer to your question, with the with the difficult passages, and I’m trying to think of one. Oh, how about in first Peter? When? When? When Peter writes about the spirits in prison? And we got a lot of different things going on there. I would say to me, one of the geniuses of preaching consecutively, doing consecutive expositions is that you address these units of thoughts, these passages of Scripture as you come to them. I think the danger sometimes is guys deal with difficult texts and they they, they neglect what’s going on in the text. They neglect the context. And you just zero in and say, All right, let’s talk about these spirits in prison, we’re going to spend the whole sermon talking about what that means. Well, that might be appropriate for a Bible study or a doctrinal study, but if you’re preaching a sermon, ideally you’re doing a text driven exposition of a unit of thought. We preach and teach paragraphs complete units of thought. It might be more than a paragraph if it’s a an Old Testament narrative. So I guess my recommendation would be, don’t shy away from the difficult text, but be sure as you preach those difficult texts that you do them in context. Okay, we’ve got some difficult issues. Here’s this passage, chapter two, verses, 14 through 18. We’re going to look at this text as a whole, and we’re also going to address the difficulty here. Because I think, I think in many cases, the difficulties get even more difficult when we don’t consider the context and the original setting. I’ve heard it said, you’ve heard me say many times a text cannot mean now what it didn’t mean to its original hearers. Now, the applications may change, but as far as its meaning, that doesn’t change. And so the last thing I’ll say about that there are sometimes some difficult texts when I will say to the people to whom I’m preaching, look this particular aspect, this particular verse is very difficult. People that love the Lord and have a high view of Scripture struggle with their understanding of what this means. And here are two or three ideas. And then I might say I would go with this option, because it seems to me make the best sense, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but I don’t spend a lot of time on that because, because I think again, in texture and preaching, what we’re trying to do is to expound on a passage on a unit of thought. So, so I hope that helps.
Aaron Potts 28:13
Yeah, we have a question from Ryan what is the average amount of time you typically spend in research, writing and refining?
Matthew McKellar 28:19
Yeah? Uh, wow, that’s a great question. I would say, over the years, I’ve asked that question, and always wanted Aaron someone to say, Okay, you need to spend eight hours. You know, that way, in my, in my legalistic mind, I’d say, Well, if I get to eight hours, I’ve done what I’ve should, should in preparation. But what I’ve discovered over the years, folks, is that the more you do this, ideally you want to work hard, but the more you do this week by week, you also want to work smarter. So I’ve been preaching and teaching every week, basically now for 43 years, I would hope that I’ve gotten smarter and more efficient at doing this. And so I think probably I am more efficient. I can probably do, you know, in six or eight hours, what previously It may have taken me eight to 10 hours to do. But I would generally say this, if you get if you’re preaching this Sunday, and you get to Saturday and you haven’t even thought about what text you’re going to preach, you’ve got a problem in preparation, I would encourage you. And here’s the beauty of preaching through books of the Bible, having a planned program preaching, you can get your resources together ahead of time. You can know, okay, I’m preaching through Ephesians. This week. I’m doing Ephesians, one, one through 14, that that opening doxology. Well, I know next week after that, I’m doing 115, through 23 so if I know where I’m going, I saved myself some time, and I’ve had preaching in a series those things help. I would say even this day. I get ready to preach, I’m spending, I’m spending anywhere from from seven to eight hours of preparation before I step up to preach or I’m ready to preach. Some weeks it’s more than that. Some weeks it’s less than that. But I would say generally in that that six to eight hour period.
Aaron Potts 30:22
All right, a question from Dan, do you recommend a certain length of text?
Matthew McKellar 30:27
Well, I would say your text needs to be long, as long as the text of scripture would itself indicate. And this is why you have to be familiar with the language of the text. For instance, in Paul’s writing, sometimes you’ll see him use therefore, it’s a transition. All of us have heard the old trite statement, if you see a therefore in Scripture, ask what it’s there for. Well, there’s some truth to that. I would say. In text driven preaching, you want to preach the shortest unit of complete thought. Well, Dr McKellar, how do I know what is a complete unit of thought? Well, that’s when you look back at your grammar. Okay, we’ve got, we may have a main clause supported by a subordinate clause, and then there might be a couple of other sentence that sentences that Modify and Expand that but you have to note the natural transit transitions that you see in Scripture. So for that reason, if I’m preaching David and Goliath in First Samuel 17, that thing covers like 5354 verses. Well, I think you can preach the story of David and Goliath in one sermon. So in that sense, I got a 54 verse text. On the other hand, Romans 12, one and two is clearly a distinct unit of thought in the Greek New Testament. So you might have a text where you’re you know where you’re dealing with two verses. Hebrews 12, one and two. For instance, Hebrews 12, one and two has only one imperative that is supported by three by three adjectives, run the race. Okay, how do I do that? Aware of those who’ve gone before me, right, laying aside the weight and sin which so easily entangles, and looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Well, that’s a complete unit of thought, so I think you have to to look at that. Well then Noah sitham says, if you’re familiar with communicating for change by Andy Stanley and I am, he advocates that we should eliminate multi point sermons, that all sermons should have a single point. This is the main idea of the text, but does not have, has not other points as they become too much for people to actually remember. How do you think that connects to text room preaching? Well, that is a great question. Noah, I would say, in one sense, kudos, congratulations for realizing the importance of having a main idea. Okay, having a clear thesis and a proposition. But as far as having only a single point, that becomes problematic, because in the in the basic breakdown of a text, if you identify here’s the single point this text is making, then there’s got to be some level of subordination. I think probably Andy is reacting against the tendency to have these extremely long, detailed, laborious outlines with sub point A, sub point B. And I get that, but I don’t think the answer is to throw structure out altogether. Again, I would go back to the structure of the text. For instance, the text I just mentioned Romans, Hebrews, 12, one and two. When I preach that, I preach a one point sermon with basically three little sub points. Run the race with endurance, being aware of those who’ve gone before you. That’s the first sub point, laying aside the weight that so easily entangles us, and looking to Jesus. And so I think it really gets back to Noah, letting the text and the shape and the structure of the text drive things. And I think it’s incomplete just to say, well, I’m going to have one point. I’m not going to have any other structure.
Aaron Potts 34:16
We’ll do one more question, and then we’ll bounce it back to Beka, using the interlinear I find several meanings to the word. How do you choose the most appropriate meaning of the word?
Matthew McKellar 34:25
Wow, yeah, that. That’s a great question. And in one sense this, this does get back to the fact if the benefit of having studied the biblical languages in college or seminary is that you learn the language for yourself, so to speak, which means now I can go to a commentary. And so if I look in this commentary and this guy says, well, that’s a that’s an aorist participle, and it should be translated like that, then I can look at the word myself, and based on my training, say, Wait a minute. I don’t think that’s an error. I think he’s got. That wrong. And believe me, these brilliant scholars that write these commentaries, they are capable of error. They are and so but for those, if you don’t have the benefit of having done study, I would encourage you to look at a number of different sources and then to make sure you’re using sources, consider the source that is, is this guy writing? What do you know of him? Is he committed to biblical authority? Doesn’t have to agree with me on every detail of interpretation, but is he committed to the authority and the inerrancy of Holy Scripture? And then, does he have a background in the biblical languages that I do think it can be helpful to look at the interlinear and to look at those different meanings, there are nuances. You know, a word can can have a number of meanings. What you have to decide is based on the context, what particular nuance best fits here and again, that’s the value of being aware of your context. You you in a deductive propositional sermon like Romans, 12, one and two within the sermon. In each major point, you guys that have had preaching classes, you remember the functional elements, explanation, illustration and application. So with each major point you want to stop and do application, and you’re right, David, that is where you can address the principle in the text to the daily lives of hearers. You can anchor it in their daily lives. You can say, Okay, here’s this text. How do you plug that in your in your marriage, in your parenting, in your handling of finances? And so in that sense, I agree with you, that’s a place that’s a place to address those topics that may particularly relate to your congregation. I think that’s a good observation. Let me also say, when you’re preaching an Old Testament text, I always encourage my students save the bulk, if not all, of your application for after you have worked through the story itself, let the story be the sermon. Talk about David and Goliath, but work through the story. And then after you’ve done that, deliver the big idea, the main idea, and then proceed to do what I call end loaded application that makes it stick out even more. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Dr Thomas, yes, I write a full manuscript. I never take it into the pulpit. I know there are a number of great preachers historically who have done that, but I’m not one of them. I’m just not gifted to do that. I think eye contact is incredibly important. You don’t want, or at least I don’t want, to sit and listen to even the most brilliant of preachers preach and look at the top of his head for 25 to 30 minutes. Eye contact, engagement with your audience is important. By writing the manuscript that helps me with exactness. I don’t try to memorize it word for word. But how that helps me, Trey, is that when I go in the pulpit, I take few or no notes. Okay, at most I may have jotted in my Bible or in a single note card. My main idea, if I’m doing some direct quotes, I want to be sure I have those accurate I might jot those down, but that that’s really the that’s really all I do. My thoughts on manuscript preaching. I have some colleagues, I have some friends that preach from a manuscript, and they do it so well, I hardly notice it, you know. And so I think that’s a rare gift. I would say for most of us, preaching from a manuscript is going to limit your delivery. It’s going to to limit the the, what I might call the spontaneous, extemporaneous nature of your delivery. It’s going to, it’s going to inhibit that, that conversation and that, that monolog slash dialog you’re having with the people. So I would encourage you, yes, write the manuscript. Don’t take it into the pulpit. Preach with fewer, no notes,
Aaron Potts 39:02
if I can add a question to that. Dr McKellar, just to can you explain, like, the impact of actually looking someone in the eyes, someone you know, they’re in your congregation, when you deliver an important point from the text, the impact that can have on them?
Matthew McKellar 39:16
Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know. I think, I think, you know, we’re not thespians. We’re not actors on a stage, but, but I think if we are captured, if we have been captured by the text itself. You know, the Puritans used to say, you want to dwell with the text till the text dwells with you. John Owen said he preaches that sermon best. Who first preaches it to himself, right? And so if I’m if I’m preaching in the power of the Spirit, I prepared with the Lord’s help, I want to stand up and look people in the eyes and say, Thus saith the Lord. And I think it has a dramatic impact, because at that point, the people say, Wait a minute. This guy’s talking to me. He’s got his, so to speak, he’s got his homiletical gun loaded. For Bear. He’s got a word from God today, and I think the immediacy and the impact of that is, is is amazing. What else you got? Becca,
Matthew McKellar 40:15
yeah, that that’s a that’s a great question. I would say, first of all, there’s a great little book by Stephen rummage called planning your preaching. If you don’t own it, it’d probably be worth picking one up. You can probably find a used copy somewhere. But I encourage guys to plan out their preaching. And here’s the beauty of it. Let’s say I referred to it earlier. If I’m preaching through the book of Ephesians, and I know that three months from now, I’m going to be starting Ephesians, then I can go and gather all my resources. I can find, okay, I’m gonna go find three commentaries that would fit in that really exegetical level of commentaries, new American commentary series, others like that. Then I’m going to, I’m going to pick up something that’s mid range, like the preaching the word series, I can gather my materials beforehand. Then what I do, as far as preaching through the book of the Bible, I try to keep things within about a 10 to 12 week window, not because I don’t have confidence in Scripture, but because I don’t have confidence in me, and I don’t have confidence in the people that after more than eight to 10 or 12 weeks, they’re kind of going to run out of gas and go and grow stale. So I tried to keep to this day my series anywhere from eight to 12 weeks, and then do something else after that, so as to stay fresh. Then what you want to do is is, is take your Bible, take some time off and work through that tech, work through the whole text, say of Ephesians, and identify the preaching units you’re going to use. For instance, you might do, you might do an opening sermon, which is a survey of the whole book. You know, you might cover just and then you might come back the next week and do that first passage in in Ephesians, chapter one, but map out a plan for preaching and then stick to it. Becca, yeah, I would say, I would say, there’s a, there’s an old Greek word for that. It’s Baloney, okay, a biblical text is always going to have application, because you’ve got the timeless, inerrant Word of God. Now, yes, culture is different, but your job, and my job as a preacher, is to look at that text and to think about the original audience, think about the authorial intent under the Holy Spirit. Why was this guy writing this text? Why did he write these words? And it might be an issue that’s foreign to us, like First Corinthians 11, you know, hats and hairstyles and all those things, or or the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, or various and sundry laws in the Book of Leviticus. But it’s hard for me to say to anybody, oh, that doesn’t apply for today. Because if scripture reaches its zenith, if it has its fulfillment in Jesus, everything is pointing to Jesus, and Jesus is always going to be relevant to our culture. And so I would say the text always is going to have application for where we’re living. Now, it might look different from previous cultures, but it’s always going to have application. Yes, Dr, dr Lee, I would say, in trying to identify the main idea of the text, that’s why you read the text over and over and over again. That’s why, if it’s a if it’s epistolary, if it’s a letter, you want to look at the verbs. The distinguish, again, the main verbs from are they imperative? Then the participles. Look at levels of subordination. Don’t take something that is minor in a text dramatically and elevate it to major status. That’s going to help you with the establishment of your main idea, then with the expression of the main idea, it’s helpful to me. I still try to do this. I tell my guys in class, think of your main idea as a 15 to 20 word sentence in which you’re going to address subject, what is true plus compliment. Not I’m paying you a compliment, but compliment C, O, M, P, L, E, M, E N T. What to do. What is true plus what to do. For instance, second, Corinthians, 12, seven through 10. Paul storing the flesh right, because God specializes in displaying his strength against the backdrop of your weakness, rejoice in the mixed MIDST OF YOUR unplugged Thorn. You hear that because this is true. Here’s what you do, because God shows His strength in the midst of our weakness. I can rejoice when my thorn isn’t removed. That’s what Paul said, or that’s what he wrote in in chapter 12. So. Think those kind of things, aiming for exactness and being sure that your thesis, your main idea, doesn’t just sound good, but it actually reflects the text. And again, how you get at that is simply looking at those levels of subordination. I’m sorry, it’s like you have to go back to your your high school grammar class with English and plod through the text and and identify and make sure that what you’re saying is what the text is saying. Well, that is a great question. Let’s just use for example. Let’s say there’s an individual, and in terms of eschatology, that person is committed to a pre tribulation, Rapture. That is, that person would preach first, Thessalonians, 413, through 18, and he would make a distinction between the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ. And there are a number of folks that is their perspective. On the other hand, the historical pre millennial perspective would not make a distinction between that rapture and that second coming. It’s viewed altogether. I think the key there is when we deal with with difficult texts, and you mentioned eschatology, we have to acknowledge as preachers, there are people who are committed to biblical authority to the same degree as we are, but their perspective is a little bit different. I think it’s important, if you’re the primary preaching guy each week, you want to be honest, and I think the people deserve to know where you come down and why, but at the same time, I don’t think that means you spend 10 minutes on your particular perspective in a sermon. Once again, what is the goal of preaching, to let the text talk? And so this is a great question, because you don’t want to just gloss over and skip them all together. But I think, for instance, the First Thessalonians, four text, whatever one’s view there. The point is that Jesus is coming again, and he is going to rule and to reign, and everyone’s going to be accountable to him, and everyone’s going to answer to him. And this was a great comfort to the church at Thessalonica. They were being told that Jesus had already come. So I think you would address that, that con, that context, and I think you need to aim for a balance here. I don’t, I don’t want to be overly dogmatic, but I don’t want to just breeze through a text and and fail to acknowledge what’s going on there. Great question. Remember, preaching through the book of wanting to preach through the book of Genesis. And as I mapped it out, I realized, wow, I’m going to be in I’m going to be in Genesis for the next five years. I’ve known guys that have preached four or five years in one book Mark’s asking about the book of Romans. Here’s what I did with Genesis. I realized, you know, what, the best thing I could do is preach this in sections. I realized Genesis one through 11 is a distinct unit in Genesis. And so I thought, you know, I’m going to preach 10 or 12 sermons from Genesis one through 11. Call it foundations, because every major doctrine in Scripture is found in those first 11 chapters. Then I preach through that, and then I’d move on and preach through something else. And later on I could come back as I did. I preached 12 sermons in Genesis, 37 through 50, the life and times of Joseph. I think Chuck Swindoll says, From the pit to the palace the life of Joseph. And so I would do the same thing with the book of Romans. For instance, you know, you’ve got several key distinctions, divisions, I think, I think you have Romans one through four, then you have Romans. You have Romans basically, five through 11, then you have Romans 12 through 16, and so you could break it down and preach it in sections. That’s what I would encourage you.
