With the thoughts I'd be thinkin' I could be another Lincoln If I only had a brain.
I just heard a sermon where the guy used just one verse and then spoke for the rest of the time. How much should a pastor use? Is there any guidance for this in the Bible? To boil it down: what constitutes a good sermon vs a bad sermon from a church’s pastor? (For Video Sermon)
What constitutes a good sermon? What a question! There are so many styles of preaching and so many styles of preachers. But if there is one thing that must be consistent is the use of the Word of God. Frankly, I do not know what I would say if I didn’t have the Bible to draw my preaching from. I’m not very good at coming up with things on my own. That’s one reason among many why I love having the Bible to preach from. I took a look at all the different ways that the word “preach” was used in the Bible and what exactly was being preached. Except for a handful of generic references where the subject of the preaching was not mentioned, I found the following:
But the question was not, “what to preach” but “How much Bible should be in the message?” I once heard someone say that Spurgeon and Wesley often used only one verse in their messages. But actually, that’s far from the truth. They quotes verses and portions of verses in the course of their messages as they exegete the verse they began with. I don’t personally like to hear a man speak for an hour when he hasn’t given me much from the Bible. The power is in the Word of God and not in the illustrations, funny stories, or memorable anecdotes. Some preachers say that a message should be expository. In other words, the preacher takes a passage of scripture - maybe a few verses, maybe a paragraph, maybe a whole chapter, and expounds upon what the passage says, how it relates to the topic of that particular book or chapter, and how we should apply it. Others like to preach topics where they skip around the Bible hitting major verses or passages on the topic. As they read each verse or passage, they expound upon how the passage relates to the topic and how we should apply it. In either case, whether expository or topical, both styles have elements of the other style. But most importantly, both are grounded upon: 10 the reading of the Scriptures, 2) explaining what the Bible means, and 3) how it should be applied. We see the same thing happening in the book of Nehemiah: Nehemiah 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. So, the foundation of everything in a sermon must be the Bible. And I cannot personally see how it can be called good preaching if only one verse is used. The typical sermon has anywhere from 3 to 7 major points with a couple of important sub-points under each. Given that each main point may have one sub point of application and two points of theological support, a 7-point outline should have a main text, at least 1 supporting verse for each main point (usually taken from the main text in expository preaching) and a verse or part of a verse for each supporting sub-point. Now, I am well aware that many preachers don’t feel the same way about preaching as I do. But I am also well aware that those who come to the Haven leave with a deep knowledge of the Bible and typically are unsatisfied until they find another church that uses the Bible in the preaching too. If you examine the sermons of everyone in the New Testament, you will find that they use the Old Testament to prove their message. Even Jesus often used the Old Testament, even though everything He said was literally the Word of God. Back to the verse in Nehemiah, we see three distinct things happening - they read the word, they gave the sense, they cause them to understand. The read the Word in Hebrew. But since the majority of the Jews had been scattered throughout the Gentile world for the last 70 years or so, most of them didn’t understand Hebrew so they had to “give the sense”. In other words, translate it into their spoken language which would most likely had been Aramaic. In fact, a little known bit of trivia for you, did you know that Ezra 4:8-6:18, Ezra 7:12-10:6, Daniel 2:4-7:28, and Jeremiah 10:11 were all written in Aramaic and not Hebrew? That’s about 268 verses of the Old Testament. You might also remember from the book of Daniel that when the Jews were taken into captivity, the Babylonians made them learn their language and culture (Dan 1:4). So many of them would not have understood the reading of Hebrew without an interpreter. Then, according to Nehemiah 8:8, they caused them to understand the reading. And this is what good preaching is. It is based upon the Word of God where the preacher helps the people understand what was read. Having said all that, if I were looking for a good church, and I were taking a look at the kind of preaching that is done in a church, I would probably also take a look at whatever sermons I could get my hands on and try to discern if the preaching covered a multitude of subjects and not just the same messages from a different text. Something should be said about preaching the whole couple of God.
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Meet The Pastor!Pastor Jim Taylor was saved while serving in the US Air Force in February of 1984. Since that time, he has traveled from the coasts of Virginia to the mountains of Korea preaching the Word of God. Archives
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