# Biblical Preaching

## Metadata
- Author: [[Haddon W. Robinson]]
- Full Title: Biblical Preaching
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence, to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through to a form of words which defines the theme with scrupulous exactness—this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written, until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon.15 ([Location 475](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=475))
- Whom should homileticians study? Certainly not every preacher. There are duffers in the pulpit as well as on the golf course. ([Location 677](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=677))
- Clear, relevant biblical exposition does not take place Sunday after Sunday by either intuition or accident. Good expositors have methods for their study. ([Location 689](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=689))
- When a discussion on how to prepare an expository sermon resembles instructions on how to build a doghouse, something has gone wrong. ([Location 696](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=696))
- In their ministry, expositors serve as builders of bridges as they endeavor to span the gulf between the Word of God and the concerns of men and women. To do this they must be as familiar with the needs of their churches as they are with the content of their Bibles. ([Location 716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=716))
- Of course, no divine hand fashioned those paragraph divisions. The indentations in our translations reflect the decisions of editors who have attempted to mark out shifts of thought in the original. ([Location 727](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=727))
- As a general rule, older translations tend toward longer, heavier paragraphs than do our more modern translations, which emphasize readability and eye appeal. ([Location 729](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=729))
- If we are working within narrative sections, however, we will more likely deal with a literary ([Location 733](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=733))
- unit larger than a paragraph or two. ([Location 733](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=733))
- In selecting passages for the expository sermon, therefore, a general principle to follow is this: Base the sermon on a literary unit of biblical thought. ([Location 738](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=738))
- In topical exposition, therefore, we begin with a subject or a problem and then look for a passage or passages that relate to it. ([Location 758](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=758))
- Topical exposition faces two problems. First, the topic we are considering may be dealt with in several passages of the Scripture. ([Location 760](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=760))
- An additional problem in topical exposition is that we may read something into the scriptural account in order to read something significant out of it. ([Location 763](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=763))
- In our eagerness to say something helpful to hurting people, we may end up saying what the Bible is not saying at all. ([Location 766](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=766))
- Those who want to address the felt needs of their people are to be commended for their desire to be relevant. At the same time, there is no greater betrayal of our calling than putting words in God’s mouth. ([Location 767](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=767))
- We must tailor our sermons to our time, and the cutting should be done in the study rather than in the pulpit. ([Location 776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=776))
- For this reason, we begin our study of a biblical passage by relating it to the broader literary unit of which it is a part. ([Location 794](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=794))
- dynamic equivalent ([Location 802](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=802))
- As you read the passage in different translations, do so with a pen in hand. Write out as precisely as possible the problems you have in understanding the passage. Write them all down—make yourself state them. If different translations disagree significantly, note that. ([Location 816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=816))
- Having placed the passage within its context, you must now examine its details. In the Epistles and in parts of the Gospels, this means examining the vocabulary and the grammatical structure of the passage. In narrative passages you will look for statements by the author that explain what is taking place. ([Location 829](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=829))
- Reading a passage in Hebrew or Greek resembles watching a film on DVD compared to ordinary television. Both give you the same picture, but DVD adds vividness and precision. ([Location 837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=837))
- The process resembles an hourglass that moves from synthesis to analysis and back to synthesis. ([Location 902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=902))
- Having isolated the subject, you must now determine the complement, or complements, that complete the subject and make it into an idea. ([Location 927](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=927))
- The complete statement of the idea, then, merely joins the subject with the complement: “Wisdom in trials is obtained by asking God for it in faith.” Everything else in the paragraph supports or elaborates that idea. ([Location 931](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=931))
- One device you may find helpful is to paraphrase the passage in your own words. Be exact in thought, and carefully state the relationships you see within the text whether the biblical writer explicitly states them or not. As you write, you may have to alter the statement of your exegetical idea to fit the parts of the passage. Don’t bend the passage to fit your statement of the idea. ([Location 972](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=972))
- “So what? What difference does it make?” How ([Location 1452](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=1452))
- should this concept be applied? ([Location 1452](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=1452))
- Men and women in our culture value relationships, and they will make a judgment about you and your attitudes before they will give their attention to what you have to say. ([Location 2340](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2340))
- When you step behind the pulpit, you dare not assume that your congregation sits expectantly on the edge of the pews waiting for your sermon. In reality they are probably a bit bored and harbor a suspicion that you will make matters worse. ([Location 2347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2347))
- You may start with a paradox: ([Location 2364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2364))
- You may use a familiar thought in an unfamiliar setting: ([Location 2365](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2365))
- Rhetorical questions reach for attention: ([Location 2367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2367))
- A startling fact or statistic may charm your audience into listening: ([Location 2369](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2369))
- Having read your text, you can make a provocative comment about it: ([Location 2370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2370))
- At times a touch of humor can win attention: ([Location 2372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2372))
- Your passage itself can be the basis of attention: ([Location 2374](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2374))
- All of us sit up and listen at the prospect of a story: ([Location 2377](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2377))
- At other times you will drive directly to your subject with a confrontive statement: ([Location 2380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2380))
- An effective introduction should also uncover needs. ([Location 2384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2384))
- Social scientist Arthur R. Cohen concluded that when audiences receive information that meets felt needs, two things happen: (1) more learning takes place; and (2) opinions change faster and more permanently than when information is given and then applied to life.61 ([Location 2388](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2388))
- Sermons catch fire when flint strikes steel. When the flint of a person’s problem strikes the steel of the Word of God, a spark ignites that burns in the mind. ([Location 2406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2406))
- One basic set of needs, he argues, springs from our bodies. These physiological needs are met by food, drink, recreation, sexual expression, and elimination, and if they are not met, they dominate thought and life. ([Location 2412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2412))
- Men and women also have needs that result from living with other people. ([Location 2414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2414))
- On another level, people also need to have their curiosity satisfied. ([Location 2417](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2417))
- Early in the sermon, therefore, your listeners should realize that you are talking to them about themselves. ([Location 2420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2420))
- To put it another way, an introduction should introduce. At the very least it should introduce the sermon’s subject so that no one needs to guess what the preacher plans to talk about. ([Location 2428](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2428))
- Effective sermons maintain a sense of tension—the feeling that something more must be said if the message is to be complete. ([Location 2436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2436))
- most introductions are contemporary. They start in the twenty-first century A.D. and not in the twenty-first century B.C. ([Location 2446](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2446))
- The strongest introductions will usually be personal. ([Location 2451](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2451))
- Men and women will listen if they feel you are talking about the strains and temptations they feel as they try to keep their marriage vows. At times, however, you will back off from being personal because it is so forceful. If in the introduction people feel afraid or upset or angry with what you’re saying, they may close their ears to anything else in the sermon. So as a general rule that has exceptions, the strongest introductions are personal. ([Location 2454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2454))
- Keep the introduction short. After you get water, stop pumping. ([Location 2460](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2460))
- Unfortunately, unless the text is read skillfully, congregations may regard it as a necessary exercise that comes before they settle down to hear what is said about the Bible. ([Location 2468](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2468))
- As a general rule, if your text is short, read it following your introduction. ([Location 2469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2469))
- What about humor? The simple answer is “handle it with care.” If it directs the listener’s attention to the idea, then laughter serves as a useful tool. If it merely entertains, humor can make the sermon feel like a letdown. ([Location 2476](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2476))
- When humor is used, therefore, it should be used deliberately. It should relate the audience to you or to your message. ([Location 2479](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2479))
- Before you speak, there are things you can do to relax your throat. For example, while you’re in your study, move your head slowly to touch your left shoulder, then move it slowly in the other direction to touch your right shoulder. Do that four or five times. Then slowly turn your head as far as you can to the left, then turn your head as far as you can to the right. Repeat that several times. Finally, let your head fall on your chest and then slowly roll it to the back and then to your chest again. Repeat that exercise five times. While you’re waiting to get into the pulpit, run your tongue to the back of your mouth. Try to lick your tonsils. Or yawn with your mouth shut. All of these exercises will help you to relax your throat. ([Location 2488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2488))
- An experienced pilot knows that landing an airplane demands special concentration, so an able preacher understands that conclusions require thoughtful preparation. Like a skilled pilot, you should know where your sermon will land. ([Location 2496](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2496))
- Directly or indirectly, the conclusion answers the question, “So what? ([Location 2504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2504))
- And your people face another question as a result of an effective conclusion: “Am I willing to allow God to make that difference in my experience?” ([Location 2505](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2505))
- In many conclusions preachers look back over the terrain and restate the major points covered along the way. When you do this, however, review the important assertions so that you can bind them into the major idea of the sermon. ([Location 2510](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2510))
- Do not tell your congregation that you intend to conclude and then fail to do so. ([Location 2581](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001N1FZIC&location=2581))