Steps to the Sermon

An Eight-Step Plan For Preaching With Confidence

H. C. Brown, Jesse J. Northcutt, H. Gordon Clinard

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 1996
• ISBN:
  9781433674839
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

In the years since the original publication of Steps to the Sermon in 1963, audiences have become more sophisticated, preachers have learned to adjust their styles to reach today's media saturated mindset, and sermon style have shifted from deductive to inductive.

CHAPTER 1—OUTLINE
UNDERSTANDING THE TASK

The Nature of Preaching and Communication

The Objectives of Preaching

The Total Objective

The Major Objective of the Text

The evangelistic objective

The devotional objective

The doctrinal objective

The ethical objective

The consecrative objective

The supportive objective

The Major Objective of the Sermon

The History of Preaching

Origins of Christian Preaching

Ancient oratory

Hebrew prophecy

The Christian gospel

The Development of Christian Preaching

The ancient period

The Early Middle Ages

The scholastic age

The Reformation age

The seventeenth century

The eighteenth century

The nineteenth century

The twentieth century

UNDERSTANDING THE TASK

God calls people to special service in his kingdom as he wills. In the beginning of the Hebrew nation the Lord said to Moses: “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10). During the development of the kingdom, God chose Samuel. “The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’”(1 Sam. 3:10).

In the eighth century B.C. God spoke of Amos: “The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken—who can but prophesy? … Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (Amos 3:8; 7:14–15).

Later the Lord called Isaiah, the prince of prophets: “Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” (Isa. 6:8). Jesus, in his earthly ministry, also called out persons for special service.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:18–19).

Jesus said,

“Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her (John 20:17–18).

Was it not also true when “Bible days” had passed and post-New Testament times had begun that God continued to call people? God called Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Ambrose in the early centuries. He called Bernard, Francis, Dominic, Wycliffe, Huss, and Savonarola after the Dark Ages and before the Reformation. He called Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Latimer, and Knox during the Reformation. There were Wesley, Whitefield, Bunyan, Baxter, Spurgeon, Maclaren, Edwards, Brooks, Beecher, Broadus, and Moody in more recent centuries. And in the twentieth century God called Billy Sunday, George W. Truett, Arthur Gossip, James S. Stewart, Clovis Chappell, Billy Graham, W. A. Criswell, Herschel Hobbs, G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., D. T. Niles, Karl Barth, Samuel Shoemaker, Fulton Sheen, and Walter Maier.

As surely as God called the prophets, apostles, and great preachers of history, he calls preachers today. As always, the basis of God's call is still dependent upon the will, the good pleasure, of the Lord. In Mark 3:13–14 the sovereignty of Jesus is depicted as he called out and sent forth the apostles: “Jesus went up into the hills and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.”

An era of decadent Christianity will be upon us if the belief in a divine call is lost. The Dark Ages will again envelop the church if we cease to believe in and respond to the call of God. There can be no powerful or effective preaching apart from a God-called ministry.

The person God uses to preach the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ is a regenerate person. Spurgeon was horrified by the idea that an unconverted person should attempt to preach the gospel to people who are lost.

How horrible to be a preacher of the gospel and yet to be unconverted! Let each man here whisper to his own inmost soul, “What a dreadful thing it will be for me if I should be ignorant of the power of the truth which I am preparing to proclaim!” Unconverted ministry involves the most unnatural relationships. A graceless pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of optics, philosophizing upon light and vision, discoursing upon and distinguishing to others the nice shades and delicate blendings of the prismatic colours, while he himself is absolutely in the dark! He is a dumb man elevated to the chair of music; a deaf man fluent upon symphonies and harmonies! He is a mole professing to educate eagles; a limpet elected to preside over angels.¹

The person God uses to preach the gospel is a committed person. Whether it be in public or private life, whether it be personal resources of moral and ethical concepts, or mental powers, or emotional resources, or physical capabilities—everything must be committed to the Lord's unrestricted use. Moreover, in all relationships—with parents, spouse, children, friends, church members, associates, and strangers—a preacher must live as a consecrated person. No personality trait, resource, relationship, or obligation can be placed beyond the control and care of the Lord.

The person God calls to preach is someone who constantly communes with the Lord. Preachers can preach only as well as they can pray. Preachers cannot rise higher in the preaching of the gospel than they can rise in their private and family spiritual lives.

Every possible evidence bears testimony that a minister must sustain a close fellowship with God in order to thrive spiritually. The dramatically beautiful fellowship of Christ with the Father bears witness to the necessity of a consistent devotional life. Later, in the midst of mounting responsibility and multiplying tasks, the apostles cried for relief that they might give themselves more thoroughly to preaching and to spiritual affairs. The writings of Paul abound in references to “praying without ceasing,” “giving thanks without ceasing,” and “remembering without ceasing.” Paul lived his life in the white heat of an intense fellowship with God. Through the ages the most effective servants of the Lord have been those who have nourished their souls in close fellowship with him. Without exception every preacher of great power has had intimate communion with the Lord.

It is imperative that a preacher be a truly regenerated Christian, be called of God to a preaching ministry, and grow continually in fellowship with God. To be an effective messenger of God, a preacher must also diligently prepare for this task. Before one can prepare and preach effective sermons in particular and communicate in general, an understanding of the nature of preaching and communication, the objectives of preaching, and the history of preaching must be developed.

The Nature of Preaching and Communication

Although the New Testament offers no formal definition of preaching, a study of the primary terms reveals much about the nature of preaching. The most frequently used word in the New Testament for preaching, keryssein, is translated “to proclaim” or “to herald” and occurs more than fifty times in its various inflections. In the Gospels and in Acts it is usually translated “preach” or “preaching” or “preached.” It denotes that the messenger has a message of authority from another. Of course, in the New Testament sense, the messenger has a message from God about Christ, and since the messenger is divinely appointed, the hearers are obligated to hear and to obey.

Another important New Testament term for preaching, euangelizesthai, is translated “to preach good tidings or good news.” This word indicates the nature of the message as good news—good news of something to come or of something that has come and is available.

Throughout the New Testament many other words are used to indicate the act of “preaching” even though the specific word preaching is not always used. Four such words are didaskein, “to impart divine truth through teaching;” dialegesthai, “to discourse or reason with others with a view to persuasion”; lalein, “to talk or to discourse”; and parakalein, “to call to one's side or to admonish.” As Thomas Long observed, “There is the congregation, who will, of course, be the hearers of the preaching. There is the preacher, who arises from the congregation but now stands to preach in front of the community. There is the sermon, which we must be careful to say is not what the preacher has written down beforehand but rather what the preacher says.”²

Through the years many have attempted to define the nature of preaching in precise terms. Perhaps the best known definition was set out by Phillips Brooks in 1877: “What, then, is preaching of which we are to speak? It is not hard to find a definition. Preaching is the communication of truth. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching.”³

Charles Bugg adds a new dimension to the definition of preaching—that of relationship.

Preaching is more than a craft or an art or a profession. It is more than the shaping of some words designed to dazzle the ears of hearers. Preaching grows out of the minister's own experience with the living God. As preachers, we stand inside faith. We are not objective. We bear witness to what has changed our lives.

A key word is relationship. Preaching cannot be separated from all that a minister is. The concept that we just “get up” a sermon fails to take seriously all of the factors that converge in the person who is preaching. Preaching cannot be separated from the person of the preacher.⁴

Andrew W. Blackwood, once the dean of American teachers of preaching, drew his definition of preaching from a study of outstanding preaching of the past.

He noted, “What do we understand by preaching? It means divine truth through personality or the truth of God voiced by a chosen personality to meet human needs. From another point of view ...

Table of contents

• Front cover
• Great preaching leads the way
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Epilogue
• Bibliography