Preaching - Lesson 9

Dr. Bryan Chapell
Preaching
pr600-09
Exposition
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] This recording is provided courtesy of Covenant Theological Seminary. This is of introductions, and I gave you a four. So asking for two, there could be a variety, two major purposes of introductions. What a purpose. What are introductions? Trying to accomplish ideas here. Arouse attention. Certainly the historic one and the one most set of Soviet introductions are to arouse attention. What else? Introduce the subject. Arouse attention. Introduce the subject of the historic to another couple to add in here. Make the following condition. Focus, personnel. That's right. Make the FCF personal. Prepare for the proposition. What? Two ways. Concept and terminology. That's right. So arouse attention. Introduce the subject. Make personal the FCF and then prepare for the proposition in concept and terminology. What are some major types of introductions? We listed several, so there are lots of answers that could operate here. What are some different types of introductions? Human interest account, we'd say in the most important and most frequent. What are the types of introductions? Cattle. Cattle catalog. Right. Provocative question, simple assertion, startling statement, all those kind of related things. Anyway, they're listed for you. The key one is human interest account. What are too commonly does your say? How are two commonly used? It should say what are strike the hell? What are two commonly used but ineffective types of introductions? What are two common but ineffective? Historical recap and. Literary literary camp. Exactly right. So or sometimes a logical literary recap. So those are two common, but fairly ineffective. We will talk about how those sometimes work their way into a scripture introduction, which is different from the sermon introduction. So we'll talk about those in a little bit, but not for the sermon. How should the introduction prepare for the proposition? We already got it, didn't we? Concept and terminology.

[00:02:22] Concept and terminology. Let's pray and we'll begin. Heavenly Father, we praise you for your word. Not only the truth of it, but the sufficiency of it. All that we need for life and godliness. You have given to us in the word that is completing us. We asked Father, recognizing that we come to you in different stages of life with different. Weaknesses and temptations. Different centers of being empty or insufficient. And therefore, we thank you that you give us the word that because it speaks of you, is making you our portion. We would pray again this day for that knowledge of you. That gives us strength and joy. That is strength. Because we have learned more of our savior from what we say. And your word says teach us to be we pray these vessels of your goodness that poured out from us would be the words of life for others that are their portion, whatever state of life they are in. Francis. We pray even the ability this day and what we are doing to be prepared for your work. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. If we think of our goals for today, it's to understand the basic nature and characteristics of sound biblical exposition. So today talk a lot more about just what exposition is. Your instincts already tell you? Lots. But I want to talk about why it's important to think of the specifics of what are involved in exposition. I think you're recognized for a vast amount of our culture and we'll look at some of the statistics in a little bit. The Bible, while the Good Book is nonetheless this impenetrable maze of unfamiliar names, difficult concepts, and ancient codes that you have to have the right. Knowledge to delve into its mysteries.

[00:04:39] And because of that, people just kind of stand away. I can't deal with that. I can't get into that. It is too difficult. And the goal of good preaching, in my mind what exposition is about is convincing people that the mystery of the word is a myth. That the way in which you find the meaning of the word is simply along a very well-worn path that anyone can follow, as long as they understand how to interpret with some very basic rules. And the goal of the best preaching, the very best preaching is to convince people they can do it. Rather than you're the only one who can do it. It's in a sense, giving away the mystique of the preacher. I'm going to let you see you can do this. And the very best preaching says the mystery that you think about this book is a myth. You can understand it to. Now, how do we go about doing that in the big picture? Where are we then in the course thus far, where somewhat in this category recognizes what we've done? We started out talking about the context of the sermon and we talked about what the word itself is, its inherent power. We talked somewhat about the nature of not just the message, but the messenger, the importance of our ethos, our character, our own communion with God in terms of being able to express the truth of God's word. Then we said, if we're going to preach from God's Word, we have to select the text. And we talked about some basic principles for selecting a text and some basic principles for interpreting the text, even some tools for interpreting the text. Right. So all of it's getting ready for the sermon itself.

[00:06:30] But now we've begun to get a little bit more intense into the message itself. And we've talked about the introduction that leads to a proposition. We put ahead, as it were, on the sermon, and we know it's got a throat. That's the proposition. We, through your assignment, previously began to develop main points. These are, as it were, the the bones, the skeleton of the message. So it's got a head and a throat and a skeleton. What are we going to be doing? We're going to begin putting flesh on these bones and talking about what exposition is. We're going to start talking about the nature of exposition, and then the next weeks will begin to go into the specifics, like, what are these sub points like? What are illustrations like, What are applications like? And we'll even talk about the nature of explanation and its various features and components. So big picture. We've got a skeleton. Now we need to start putting flesh on the bones and thinking what it means for this sermon to take physical form in front of us. To go to your notes. You see what exposition is. It's shedding some ordinary light on the path that leads to the truth of God's Word. For some technical definitions of exposition, we'll start here. Formal definition. Exposition equals presenting, presenting the meaning of a scriptural text. So that it may be understood. And you know, the key here is the conjunction and acted upon. So that may be understood and acted upon. One of the contributions of the last decade study of even the Greek meaning of the word doctrine is more and more the understanding that for the Greeks it did not just mean abstract thought. It meant thought that could be lived.

[00:08:27] It is the practice of the principles. And exposition is more than just saying, Here's what this passage means abstractly. It is understanding it so that it can be acted upon. Exposition is all of those things. Just because I'm a Hamlet's professor, I'll do the standard thing that Hamlet Titian's do, and it's just reminding you that the noun is exposition. The adjective is expository and the verb is expound. We do not expositor texts. We expound them. All right. I did my humble duty. Now you can say expositor. But Homologs teachers historically recognized no verb expositor. It's expound. We expound the text. Now, what does that mean? Well, first, some biblical foundations of what exposition involves. There are key texts that we turn to like. Luke 2427. Here. It's describing Jesus after the resurrection, walking on the road to a mass with the two disciples. Remember the Bible says, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded. Now the Greek word there is dear manual. Dear manual means to unfold the meaning of what I just like the image to unfold the meaning of what is said that is to interpret. So Jesus unfolded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Now you must know that all the Scriptures do not mention Jesus by name. But he is unfolding the meaning of the scriptures. He is saying, here's where it stands in relation to me. Here are all the scriptures are culminating in me. Here's how they all tell you what I am and what I do. He's explaining the meaning of the Scriptures beyond what might seem first obvious. Here's what it means. And of course, what it means is him. It is his story again. Now, in that same passage.

[00:10:36] After Jesus has left, they ask each other. Were not our hearts burning within us. While he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. Now that's another interesting term. Here's the annoyed go. He opened the scriptures to us. The meaning is to to open all the way as to open a door wide open so that someone can go into it. Now, again, I just like the richness of the language, don't you? It's not only unfolding when you can see a scroll unfolding, can't you? But it's also the notion of I open the door all the way so that you can go in there and see what is involved in that text and its meaning. And these become two very key terms for us and understanding exposition to unfold the meaning and to open up the text so that people can go in and see what's there. There are key examples of biblical expositions. We think through the pattern of the scriptures. How are they teaching us? What preaching is this unfolding and opening up of the Word of God? The key Old Testament example is from Nehemiah. Now, just remember, the children of Israel have been in exile for 70 years. They do not remember the law of God. They don't even remember the language of the law of God. So to make known to them what must happen, there are certain steps that are taken, and Nehemiah explains them in Nehemiah eight. Ezra's actions are being described. Ezra opened the book. Now the opening language again. Ezra opened the book, all the people could see him because he was standing above them. And as he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra Praise the Lord, the great God. And all the people lifted their hands and responded.

[00:12:28] Amen. Amen. Then they bowed down and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground. The Levites. And then they are named. Instructed the people in the law while the people were standing there now. Now the key term coming instruction. What does that instruction involve? We're told. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that people could understand what was being read. Now, do you see those components beginning to unfold? They read the book. Then they made clear what it said. They began to give the meaning so that people could understand. Now, on the next page, we begin by looking even at the Hebrew to understand more specifically how that instruction from the word is broken down, what its pieces are. What it says is the presentation of the word. That's the first component. What's it say? We present the word to God's people reading it and making it clear the Hebrew there is harush, which means to distinguish or to specify clearly, probably in this context, meaning to translate. Now, that's interesting. And it they didn't just read the word. They said, You have to understand what these words mean. So at a bare level, it was giving definition of the words. You have to know what these words means. There's translation occurring, but it's more than that. Not only did they present what the words said, they said what it means. There's an explanation component as well as a presentation component. They gave the meaning. The Hebrew there is SECO, which means to give the sense of meaning, requiring perception or insights, not not mere definition, but you have to know implications of this word. You have to have insight into what its implications may be.

[00:14:29] And that becomes most clear in the final component, as they said, as they cause the people to understand that is they gave exhortation as well. Now, some of you are in Hebrew right now. How did you memorize the word then? The way I did it is just, you know, for my visual background needs is I just thought in my father's shop there are various bins for screws and nails and brackets. You know, he puts different things in different bins so that he can use them, so that he can grab them when he needs them. He has them categorized according to use. That's actually what the Hebrew word then to understand means. It means to categorize for use, to understand it so that I can use it. Now think of where all that comes together. We see from this earliest description of a preaching moment. That explanation is involving presentation of the word and explanation of the word and exhortation from the word. Show you what it says. I explain what it says and then I exhort you to act upon that, to put it to use. Those three components of Old Testament practice work their way into what the theologians will call synagogue worship. These things continue to occur, and we even see them in New Testament practice unfolding as well. Jesus, remember when he went to the synagogue and read from the Scripture? He gave the import and then applied it? Now listen to this from Luke for Jesus. Read the Scripture. By the way, when he read from the Scripture, what was his body posture? He stood when he explained it, what did he do? He sat down. Well, that might be interesting normativity for today if every time you preached, you sat down.

[00:16:27] But there was certainly some respect for the word being given. Isn't that interesting? He stood to read the word and then the practice was. But in my explanation, I'll sit down. There was a some expression of authority, at least for the scribes, but Jesus was following that in the synagogue practice. So Jesus stood to read the Scripture. What's happening there? He's again presenting the word first step. Here's simply what the word says. Then he gave the import of the Scripture. He explained it as well. What's it mean now? You know what it says. What does it mean? And then Jesus applied the Scriptures. Now we know He applied it because they were ready to stone him afterwards, because he said the scriptures that you have read, they apply to me, which means you should honor. Me. They knew exactly the exhortation meant by his words. So there was exhortation as well. Now this begins to follow in. Paul In practice, when Paul begins to describe what preaching means, I'm not going to read through all of these examples, but just for the moment, consider the second Timothy one, second Timothy four two, where preaching here it's the Caruso language, the proclamation, the singing out of the Word of God. We have to preach the word in season and out now. Just preach the word. So far, that notion of presenting what the word says. But then he also says correct, rebuke and encourage. Hear the applications correct people from the word rebuking from the word. By the way, also encourage them from the word and then with great patience and careful instruction. Note the order changed here, but not the elements, right? You still have presentation, exhortation and explanation. What you do have in addition is a meshing of authority as well as encouragement.

[00:18:30] You remember early on in in the semester, I kind of ask you, when you think of preaching, what voice do you hear in your head? It's interesting that when we see Paul describing preaching, he has many voices contributing. You're to correct people. That's that's one kind of voice. You are to rebuke people. On the authority of the word. That's another kind of voice. But what's the last one? To encourage. If we hear only one voice, we probably will get stuck in one gear that will not serve all the purposes that we need. I must tell you as very. Hard to know what voice for me to speak in. Yesterday, some of you know, I went and spoke to her at a funeral. Where a pastor had taken his own life. And I will tell you there was a need to do each one of those things in my mind, some to correct. Here's some way that people are handling this. That is probably wrong and we need to correct it. It's very hard to talk about a voice of rebuke at such a funeral. But to say what this man, my very good friend, did was wrong. And there are terrible consequences not only for his family, but for his church. This was wrong. And at the same time to say. But as evil as it was, God, is that good? And more so. And they recognize there is, with the message, an appropriate voice. As we explain the word, we want to make sure it's not our person that is controlling the word, but the word that is controlling our person. And that's part of the explanation, isn't it, that what we are saying is matched to how we are saying it. We are explaining in all of these ways that God is requiring so that we are faithful to this exposition, this unfolding of God's Word.

[00:20:36] Even the Great Commission just used the last example on your sheets contains this pattern. Once you see it, you'll see it over and over again in the Scriptures. Go there for and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you and Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Is there a teaching component? Well, you surely see that there is this explanation. You are to teach others to observe. What are they to observe? When I commanded. So the word that I have given is what you are to be teaching. There's again, presentation of the word, and then there is explanation of the word. And then is there ever exhortation or application of it? Yes, they are to observe. They're to do what I have commanded. So even though we recognize these components can kind of flip in their order, they all keep appearing. And so we have our basic definition of exposition here at the fill in the blank portion of your notes. Exposition therefore unites the presentation of the word. It unites the presentation of the word with explanation. That is information about the word. And exhortation. Application of the word. I think when we approach preaching early on, we think what exposition is We located all in explanation. But exposition is more than that. It's the presentation of the word, the explanation of it, and exhortation based upon that explanation. Now, how do we make sure that we accomplish all of these things in a sermon? Some of that, I think, was probably commonsensical to you. But you have to say, well, how do these things actually begin to take shape in the sermon that we're putting together? So now what we're going to do is we're going to talk about three components that historically in formal classical messages go in every main point.

[00:22:52] In every main point. This meat between is composed of three components which are explanation, illustration and application. So in every one of these major categories between the main points, we'll find three components explanation, the illustration and application. As you think of these three essential components, obvious, what is explanation? It is kind of answering the question, What does this text mean? Explanations, answering the question, What does this text me? Now you know that we're going to cover this a whole lot more in the semester, right? How we do explanation. But let's talk about the standard tools. The standard tools. There are four of them. When you say what is explanation, Well, there are four standard tools. The first is repetition. How do we explain what a text means? First tool is repetition. Jesus said We should always pray and not faint. What does that mean? It means. You should always pray and not fight. Repetition of the first two. Very similar to it. The second simple, though, is restatement. Restatement. It's the concept again, but different words. Jesus said we should pray and not faint. Now what that means is we should pray and not give up. Here the restatement. The third is definition and or description. Definition. End or description. Now. Typically in didactic passages like epistles, it's definition that's much more important to us. What does the word perpetuation mean? What does it differ from in expiation? And we might recognize that substitute for wrath versus the turning away of wrath. Those basic concepts. But I may have to explain to many people what do those words mean? Didactic passages will surface words that we have to explain. Narrative passages the stories in, but I don't mean the fictional, something fictional, but the historical accounts of Scripture or the biographies often involve description.

[00:25:16] I have to say, what happened here? Why did it happen? Why is it important to know in this explanation of Jesus Lord's Supper, that this is the third cup of the Passover that He is dispensing? And to describe what that means. So didactic passages were often doing definition narrative. Passages were often doing description. In both cases, what we're doing just basically is this We are making the unknown known. We're making the unknown known. That's what definition or description is trying to do make the unknown known. Now, the big missing piece I think you recognize is argument. Argument after repetition, restatement, definition, argument. It doesn't mean that we are sounding like arguers, but we are presenting the supporting proofs for the truth. We have stated we're presenting the supporting proofs for the truth that we are saying. So we're bringing to bear what logic? Exegesis context. We're bringing the supporting proofs for the truth we have stated. In essence, we're establishing the point logically. Now, these four things in the history of preaching are known as the general processes. So they're very standard. If you just kind of said to people in many schools, what are the general processes? They would recognize these four aspects of explanation. There is repetition, restatement, definition or description. And in argument, they are the general ways that we explain what a text means. Which are the most frequently used. The first two. Why did you go to seminary? The last two. Now, it's important that we say that to one another, honestly, because our tendency is to say to load up a sermon with definition, description and argument when repetition or restatement would have done. Because I went to seminary. I got all that information. Remember the John Stark statement? The great torture of every preacher is putting away 90% of what you know about a passage in order to explain it in a sermon.

[00:27:49] There's so much more you could say. But if I were to say to you, Jesus says, here, you should pray and not faint. And what he means is that you should pray and not give up. Now, I've probably said all that I need to do now. I can keep talking and I can say, Now what we recognize here is this is the iterative use of the Greek present tense. People go, Huh? Now there are times where I will need to explain the iterative nature of the Greek present tense that it's something goes on again and again and again without stop. But it probably is sufficient in this particular case to say what this means is you should you shouldn't give up what you're praying about just because there has not been an immediate answer here. All the good English words just, you know, don't give up. This is a little frustrating to us, but I sometimes just ask you to go listen to the sermons that you hear, and what will kind of stick in your academic brain is the one or two places in the sermon where the pastor is doing argument. And he is logically building a case and it does require some Greek or some doctrinal context or some historical background. And that kind of sticks out in our brain. But if you listen to the rest of the sermon, you'll find that most often what happens is he will say something like this. He will say, what we understand here is prayer is not something that we should give up on. Look at verse one. Jesus says, Pray and don't give up. And that was kind of the end of the explanation. Repetition and restatement are the 85 to 90% tools we use the most of the time.

[00:29:32] Now, why am I taking care of that? Remember way early, I was saying. What is the goal of the best exposition? It's to convince people Of what? They can do it. They can read the text. So I say, Here's the principle. Look at your text. What does it say? And when I simply by locating in the text, that key phrase, that key sentence, those those words that exactly deal with what I'm saying, they say, Oh, that is what it means. I can read that. I can understand that. And so the preacher who is helping people just find their way through the text occasionally has to explain the road signs, occasionally has to translate. That's a different language. But most of the time you have to look at the sign. That will get you through. So repetition and restatement are what we most often use. So to erect a sentence that we did somewhat earlier, but we'll hear other times it's this You owe nothing more to explanation than what is necessary to make the point clear. You owe nothing more than what is necessary to make the point clear. But also nothing less than what is necessary to prove the point. So you take the shortest course that you can as a good expositor, right? What's the best way, the simplest way, the plainest way that I can make it clear you own nothing more than what's necessary to make the point clear. Nothing more than what's necessary to make the point clear. Nothing less than what's necessary to prove the point. So granted, if repetitions not enough to prove the point, what have you got to move on to? Definition or argument. If it's not enough, keep going. But if it is enough, you can stop there and move on to the more difficult things or what's later in the passage as well.

[00:31:28] I'm not trying to diminish in any way. I hope you hear me saying the wonder and the goodness of the tools that you're getting in seminary. I mean, to be able to execute a text in its original language is not a wonderful thing. I mean, that is I mean, you just kind of go, Wow, I can do this in this great. But the great goal of preaching is not to show people the sweat of your labor. It's to show them the fruits of your labor. So the Expositor are saying you can understand. Let me show you. You can do this. And occasionally only giving the heavyweight tools when it's needed. The standard questions of explanation that kind of help us think through the process. If I were listening to you preach and I had questions, what would they be about? A text? Well, just the five W's in an H. What are they? Who? What, when, where, why, how? So we're looking at a text and we're just for people asking these basic questions. The biblical pattern that we begin to see happens over and over again dealing with these aspects. Jesus. Luke 24. We've already looked at Jesus. Explain what all the Scriptures said about himself. Jesus sat down Luke four and explained the Scriptures, even Paul reasoning in the synagogue. Look at these passages and you'll see the general processes are just standard things that occur in terms of how passages are explained. But now we see this important note. What we are now calling explanation. Is what traditionally is considered to be. All that exposition includes just kind of people's instincts. Right. Oh. Exposition is explaining the text, giving those definitions, descriptions and arguments. Exposition is often considered to be concluded when the explanation is done.

[00:33:23] But why isn't explanation? Let me tell you what this text means. Why isn't explanation done when all I have said to you is this is the definition of the words? This is what this text means. Why isn't explanation done? If I give you all the Greek words for prayer and I give you all the Hebrew words for prayer, and I tell you the places in Scripture where prayers occurs and I tell you, the disciples pray, Do you now know what prayer is? What's lacking for you to know the meaning of prayer. Doing it. Application if you can get the information. But until you are able to apply it to your life as a believer, as a disciple, you really don't know what prayer is. I can talk to you till I'm blue in the face. And until you and I get on our knees, you will not know what prayer is. Preaching is moving people to that action basis for understanding the word. It's the difference between abstraction and praxis. Praxis is that doing what the doctrine says, which is what we're equipping people to do in preaching, not just give them information about the text. Occasionally have heard preachers say, Now there's really no application of this text. I just need you to know this. And I kind of went, Wait, that's not why the Holy Spirit put it here. He said he had purpose for it. So until we have moved into what is the purpose, we haven't really explained the text. I do not know what it means to me. So we need to keep moving and think about the other elements of app of exposition. It must include three elements and you see that at the bottom of the page. What are the essential elements of, we might say, full exposition? You know, the first explanation? Explanation establishes the truth.

[00:35:24] But what's illustration doing? It's demonstrating the truth. Let me show you in real life where this makes a difference. Let me demonstrate this truth as well. And of course, what is application doing? It's applying the truth. Now, just to be real kind of straightforward with you, you must know in the history of preaching, each one of these elements has historically been questioned as necessary for preaching. Each one of them. The Soli Verde folk. The word alone have questioned the use of explanation. This is just on your notes there, attaching to these three elements. Explanation. Illustration. Application. Silly verb people. The word alone. Where are the Huguenots? Anybody recognize the name Huguenots? The French reformers. They felt that it was not the role of preachers to explain the word, because that was presuming that the preacher could do more than the Spirit himself had done. That the goal was simply to read the word to God, God's people and the Huguenot service. Services were often just readings now where people saved and converted and wonderfully helped by those sermons. Surely there were great movements. But I'm. I'm guessing that you think that we need more than to read the text to people that there is benefit in this day and age where people need to know what those words mean, even if they're in English. That used to there being some reason for explanation. But it's important that, you know, in the history of preaching, some have questioned whether there should be any explanation at all. Have there been times that people have questioned illustration? Surely there have. And we are, in many of us reformed circles where people just don't like the idea of introducing illustrations into a sermon because it is perceived to be kowtowing to an entertainment culture.

[00:37:23] So we've capitulated. Little tails for little minds. All those TV addicted people. It's a visual age. Yes, but now, here we go. Just. Surrendering to the age. Anybody in the Bible, you know, used illustrations when they preached. But there was one guy I think I can think of that was the scriptures say without a parable, he did not say anything to them. That's an interesting statement. Without a parable, he did not say anything to them. So it was certainly intriguing to the scriptures to have the illustration. Any period in history in which people have questioned the necessity of application in preaching. Yes, it has a name. Solus Spiritus. The spirits alone. It's not the job of the preacher to apply the word. It's the job of the Holy Spirit. And the preacher tries. He's going to get in the way. And you would say here, the historic Dutch Reformed Church had great concerns about application of the word. But what I need you to hear, in addition to these specific periods in which there were questions about these elements, is if you look across all periods of preaching, there has never been any great preaching that has not involved all three elements. Any period. You go back to the earliest times that we have history of preaching sermons as we know them, and you come right into the present and you would say Great preaching has always included all three elements. Now it has included different proportions of those elements. Granted. But all elements have been included. And here's what we're going to do in prep. And we've said it's a classical model. We're going to learn to use all three elements and we're going to recognize down the road you will make choices, given the nature of your people, the nature of your context, even the nature of your subject, the proportion of the elements that you will use in different sermons.

[00:39:21] But what we're going not to do is to say, you know what, I just don't like using illustrations, so I'm not going to do that. Well, even if you don't like it, there are people in your. Congregation that needed to have. So we're going to learn to serve our people by making sure we learn all three elements and they will make prudential choices down the road about proportions. So here's the idea. All three will be included. We're not going to be concerned about the order. So much explanation, illustration, application. That's the standard order. But we recognize the idea is for all three dominoes to fall. Okay. Not necessarily that they're in a particular order. We'll know over time they can switch order. But we need all three to fall for the exposition to be complete as we think about what application should be. What illustration involves illustrative material? There are types of illustrative material, again, that we will develop later. But just to get them in front of you, there are four of these. What are different types of illustrative material? First, factual information outside the text. Factual information outside the text. Statistics. Right. I may be preaching on a passage that deals with sexual unfaithfulness, and I may simply quote, statistics of either sexually transmitted disease or the incidence of abortion or the incidence of illegitimate birth. I may just use statistics, though not out of the text, but they are illustrative of what the text is talking about as the consequences of sin. So it could be statistics, expert analysis, could be citations of events or examples from other sources. Factual information outside the text. Another standard form of illustration is quotations quotations from outside the text. These could be poems, hymns. Striking statements from others.

[00:41:24] Other preachers. Commentators, perhaps. Now, even though you write it down and you really like going to other people, what do we have to be very aware of in this age? How how much and how long can you use poetry in a text today? Not much. Yeah. If people are give about that much, you know, it's not a whole lot. No, I think you have to recognize you look at a lot of great sermons in the past and different ages where people were much more accustomed to listening to literary material. You'll find lengthy quotations from poems or other authors. It's very difficult to do, even to read from a commentator beyond the sentence or to people just kind of I mean, just tune out. Two things are happening. One, you are using words other than your own. So the cadence sounds unfamiliar. It sounds often academic or literary in ways that I can't understand that, you know, you're not talking normal anymore. The other thing that happens when you start reading, you start doing this. You break eye contact and you immediately turn people away. Say, Oh, this is something not as important as when you're looking at me. Now, you don't mean that usually you're citing that quotation because you think it's more important because you think, I've got somebody who says this better than I can say it in a particularly moving or credible way. I want that source. Now, that's very important to do. But because we recognize all the difficulties of people holding on to quotations when we use them, they're just some standard things that we do when we use quotations. First, we are very brief, as brief as possible. When we use quotations, we are as brief as possible. Second.

[00:43:07] Before we read the quotation, we say why we're using it. We say why we are using the quotation. Here's what I want you to listen for. Then we read it. Listen to how so-and-so says this so beautifully. Define what this is so you can say, This is what I want you to listen to in this quotation. Third, we cite essential sources only. We cite essential sources. Only A sermon is not an essay. It is not a research paper, so we do not say Charles Swindell in his book Improving Yourself. Multnomah Press, 1989. Page 43. We don't do that. What do we do? She also now says, okay, maybe I need to say improving your service. You know, I don't know. But somehow I will I will take the the briefest I can to make it clear. Elizabeth Barrett Browning says this in beautiful terms. You know, I don't say the poem. And when it was written and the location of her house and her address, you know, what's the quick? It's it's not a research paper. It's a sermon. So I'm getting what I can in front of people as quickly as possible. And the final rule is I look at people and read as little as possible. I look at people and read as little as possible to the process that preachers called ladling. Remember what that ladle was when your mom ladle soup out of a big pan? She reached down and deep down and poured it out into the bowl. And what we are doing when we are reading quotations is we read down, capture the words, and then we look up at people. I keep ladling with my eyes. I keep trying to pull you in rather than create the shell.

[00:44:53] My head goes down, my eyes go down and I cut you out. Okay. So I'm ladling out to you as a means of keeping people with quotations. Another form of illustration. Imagistic language. Imagistic language. Metaphors. Similes. Word. Pictures. Man is this necessary In our culture? They write preaching with lots of word pictures. We have to understand that the Internet is really that it is a net for many people. It captures them, it holds them, and they drown in that net. Keep using the net language. Right. So imagistic language, very important to today's culture. But obviously, the big thing that I've missed in this list of illustrative material is through illustrations. Through illustrations, through illustrations for preachers is not just illustrative material, but your instincts already tell you what it is. It is a small story. It is a small story, usually a paragraph or two long. If you go to the library and you begin to look up those books that have illustrations for preachers today, wives, 10,000 illustrations for preaching all those things. Now, some of those are really terrible, you know, but some of them are good. And you'll need at times, you know, things to kind of be catalyst for your own thought in those kinds of illustrations. But they will kind of tell you what the standard Lincoln what what are the ears of Western people in Western culture accustomed to hearing in terms of type and length of illustration. So it is a small story. It is what you are doing in your introductions for next time, right? You are not just citing a statistic if you are trash, it is not what we need this time. We are doing human interest accounts, people in interaction with people, an event of some sort that is described, people in a conversation, people an interaction, a human interest account.

[00:46:58] So it is it is not just a. A statistics cited an allusion to something that happened in the Bible. It is the retelling of a small story, usually a paragraph to two paragraphs long. Two paragraphs, by the way, is very long. So again, if you have questions, look at one of the sources, look what's in your readings, kind of see how long the story component of those illustrations and introductions go. So a true illustration is a short narrative. Where do we get illustrations? What are our sources? Three of these contemporary accounts. Contemporary accounts. Gleaned from others or personally experienced gleaned from others. You read something. Here's something. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking stories from other preachers. So long as what? You give them credit and we'll learn ways of doing this, by the way. Do I have to say, I heard Tim Keller preach this in New York City. I have to say that I have said that my credibility, my integrity is intact as long as I've heard, as long as I say, you know, I've heard someone say. Preachers talk about. I once heard. I read that as long as you give the credit away, you can use it. Where people get in trouble is they don't use those words and therefore they're saying implicitly, I came up with this. And that's where preachers lose their jobs. They do. And it right now is epidemic in this culture. It's the it's two things. It's the availability of sermon tapes and illustrations and sermons on the web. It's just we have so much availability to well known preachers or obscure preachers that it's so easy to pick things up and think no one will ever know. I got this from someone else. The trouble is, everyone else is out there looking for those sermons, saying those things.

[00:49:02] And some of the pastors of the largest churches in the country right now are out of jobs because they simply use sermons and illustrations and did not give the credit. And it would've been so easy to just say, I've read that. I heard that someone says that, so I should give the credit away. You're fine. Now, sometimes you want more source information, right? You actually want to say Sinclair Ferguson in his book on the Holy Spirit. And the reason you want Sinclair Ferguson is, you know, you're about to say something controversial and you want his credentials, right? Sometimes you want to do it that way. But if it's just something that, you know, will grip people, not because you need the credentials to say. You know, preachers tell the account that and then go right ahead and you can use it. Contemporary accounts as one source of illustrations. Second, historical accounts. Historical accounts, something that you have read or known about from history. Of course, we use these over and over again. We will talk about how to contemporaries them, though. To tell an historical account in archaic language is very difficult for people today. So we'll learn how to contemporary historical accounts and make them livable again. What am I missing? Contemporary accounts. Historical accounts. And. Biblical accounts. The Bible has many places you can go to say, Here is an example. Here's where we see somebody trusting in God or failing God. And the Bible itself has the great wisdom of not only giving propositional truth, but linking it to historical narratives and parables. Because the Bible knows that when people not only can hear doctrinal truth, but see it lived out in people's lives, it has great power. In fact, if the Bible were only propositions stated in Hebrew terms long ago, without the narratives of people living it out, we would not know what the Bible means anymore.

[00:51:03] The way in which we locked down, meaning scripturally is we have the Ten Commandments and then we see Israel living them out both positively and negatively. That's how we know what those if they just mean the commandment by itself, we would not have the full meaning that we do have the historical narratives going along with it. So illustrations are doing all of these things and we function very well. We say, you know what, The Bible is explaining what that means a lot strictly. Maybe that's the best illustration in this particular account. I did not plan that. Who's getting the dangers of illustration? These are simple. Why are illustrations sometimes dangerous to us? They can be, what, overused or. Underused. Was the two main dangers of illustration that can be overused or underused If they are overused, illustrations preaching deteriorates into mere entertainment. When illustrations are overused, preaching deteriorates into mere entertainment. When illustrations are under used, preaching arrogance into mere abstraction. When illustrations are underused, preaching arrogance into abstraction. An important paragraph coming up in your notes. The traditional that is the primary purpose traditionally of illustrations. Is to make the abstract familiar. And the principal particular. Now that's historically everybody would say that. Why am I using illustrations to make the abstract familiar and to make the principle particular? And the reason is we know this real meaning is not known if truth is not related to concrete life. Real meaning is not known. If. Truth is not related to concrete life so that it can be applied. Now, Steve Brown, who's a good friend of mine but likes to say things very baldly. You know, you kind of get shattered. Some like, no, Stevie can't say it that way, you know, But but he says it this way.

[00:53:22] He says, if you can't illustrate it, it's not true. Oh, don't say that. That's too strong, you know? But what's he trying to say? He's saying if even you can't figure out where this has meaning in real life, how are the people going to figure it out if even the preacher can't figure out how this would have some concrete lived out example in life? But how in the world do you expect people to whom you're preaching to be able to put it together? So he's saying if you can't illustrated it's not true. By that he means it doesn't have meaning to people. But that begins to say something else. It is this for this reason that we want to concretize truth in such a way that it can be lived out. The supreme purpose. The Supreme Court, not in your notes is why I need to write it down. The supreme purpose of illustration. He is not to clarify. But to motivate. The supreme purpose of illustration is not to clarify. But to motivate. And we're what we're trying to do. You now know the abstract truth. I want you to live it out. Now, what we will typically do in an academic environment is I will say to myself, you know what illustration is about making the abstract familiar. So if it's very clear what I've said, I don't need an illustration. Exactly the opposite is true. We are not primarily using illustrations to make a point clear. In fact, if it's not clear before you illustrate the illustration, probably isn't going to help it. What we are doing with illustrations. I'm trying to make you feel and live out the truth that you now clearly know. The primary purpose of illustration is not to clarify.

[00:55:25] It does have that purpose. It can help in many ways. But the primary reason for illustration is to motivate people to do what they now know to do. If you don't realize that, what you will say is, I made this very clear, so I don't need to illustrate. And despite your best intent, what you just did was you created abstraction. This does not connect to the real world. It may be clear, but it does not connect. So the reason that we illustrate is to make the connection to the real world so that people can live out. And I'm often in illustrations, right? Reaching for the heart. The explanation was often reaching for the mind so they would understand. An illustration of often trying to involve people's sense of wonder or grief. Or mercy. To make it touch them. As well as have them understand it. So illustrations are part of the explanation excuse me, part of the exposition, and that they are moving beyond the beer mental understanding and trying to make people apply as well through concretized scriptures, confirmation of the importance of these concrete particulars. You know some of these. Mark 434 Without a parable, he did not say anything that the Apostle Paul, who could be very abstract, ever use illustrations. But of course, he did it over and over and over again. He would use them. Prophets use illustrations. Yeah. You know, lie on this side for six months, then lie on the side for six months. Talk about Right. Fruit basket. What were they doing? They were saying, here is the truth in a way that you could understand it. And of course, the great user of illustrations is whom? Jesus. Okay. Yes. What's an example that an illustration is not merely clarifying, but is seeking to motivate people with the truth that they now know.

[00:57:26] Now you must know because just the present ness of my own life, what's most in my brain is the sermon that I preached yesterday. So what what I talked about at some point was my my text was simply blessed to the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. So I was saying being poor in spirit does not disqualify from the kingdom of God. And the fact that my friend rejected the hand of God does not mean that God's hand rejected Him. Now, that's a very simple truth. But the account I told was an account of my son at a time that he was being treated for a disease and the drugs powerfully affected his emotions. And I just remembered a time in which I reached out to my son and my son in a very unlike himself way struck my hands away. Didn't want me to do that. And I said, you know, it didn't just startle me. It sent him deeper into depression because he never knew he could do such a thing. And what I needed him to know so that he would keep taking the medicine is even though he had struck my hands away, my hands would never stop reaching for him. Now. I knew something of what had gone on in that church, and I knew that the pastor in that church, many people had reached out to him. But he had struck away their hands. And so I wanted not just to say, I want you to know this abstract truth. God continues to care for those who reject him. I want you to feel deeply in your heart this profound truth. That even when you brush the way the hands of God and others, God's hands do not stop reaching out for you.

[00:59:09] Now, I will grant you what I think they well understand that the abstract truth. The first time I said it, I'm not after just their heads now, I'm after their hearts. I want you to feel deeply what I am saying. Beyond the level of mere cognition, I want you to feel the emotional, spiritual. Wait of this notion of a father not ever willing to take his hands away from a son he loves. And I one of them to feel that in that moment for this pastor that they weren't just sad about. Let me tell you, they were mad at this man who took his own life. They were angry with him. And I wanted them to feel the weight of all those aspects of. I know you reached out to him and I know he brushed your hands away. But what's God's attitude toward him? That has to be our attitude toward him even now. So it's just, you know, I think what we are saying is I'm. I'm in illustrations not only trying to teach you, I'm trying to pastor you. And make you feel the weight of this as well in your experience as well as in your cognitions? Question. Well. There are two standard ways of using illustrations relative to truth. One is deductive in which we state the truth and then we move to the particular. That's that's a deductive method. But of course, that's only one of the two major forms of cognition. The other is inductive in which we give the particular the illustration, and then we indicate what truth comes out of it. So in very formal terms, an introduction is typically inductive. We give the illustration and we move to the principle, which is the proposition, whereas main points are typically deductive.

[01:01:04] We give the truth and move to the particulars. Now we recognize that those, as I said before, these pieces can be flipped. There's no standard order because things are legitimately inductive or deductive. We can turn the pyramid either way, but the point is they're connected. Okay, One leads to the other before the exposition is complete. To to kind of dispense with one is what makes it incomplete. Questions to. Get away from them. They call. Yeah. Personal accounts fall under number one. When you say contemporary accounts gleaned from others or personally experienced. So personal accounts fall in that category of contemporary accounts. Last major category. We know it's going to be application, right. Explanation. Illustration. Application is the final major report. Part of exposition application is answering the question What does this text mean to me? What does this text mean to me? You all are flipping pages and I'm wondering, is there something missing in your notes? Yeah. You. Tell me. Show me where you are. Oh, that's very interesting. Well, just before that number one on that page, you can put an item C. And she says application. An application is What does this text mean to me? Answering the question, What does this text mean to me? I remember Dr. RAEBURN sitting at the back of the sanctuary. What's his basic question? So what? So what? So application is answering that. So what question? Now, the importance of application. I've already said to you in history, preaching sometimes gets debated. But the father of expository preaching, John Broaddus, you've heard me say this before. What did he say was the main thing to be done application? And by that, he's pointing at this. He is saying we are not ministers of information, we are ministers of transformation.

[01:03:14] So my goal, even in making a truth known, giving information about it, is to bring transforming truth into people's lives. It is the truth that transforms. If we don't remember the end goal, the purpose, we may begin to preach so that people will pass the information test. But the goal of preaching is to have a change of the will. To bring not only behavior change, but change of mind and heart as well. So application is part of that. Now, the components of application are for the first we call instructional specificity. Application involves instructional specificity. It's answering the question, What should I do? Now for many people. Well, that's what all applications. But it's not. It's just the first component instruction. What should I do? What does this text require me to do? Or believe or accept or change? But a second component is situational specificity. Situational specificity. That is not only what should I do, but where should I do this? Where in life should I do this? Now we teased about a little bit before, but remember how you find situational specificity. You go in through the Hu door. You ask the question What? Who? In my congregation. I just said, God knows tomorrow. Who in my congregation needs to hear this. Now, in the sermon, do I now name them? No, but what do I describe? I describe their situations. I don't identify their person. I identify their situation. There are people here today who are struggling with fill in the blank. There are people who are wondering about fill in the blank. I simply asked the question yesterday this term, are there anyone? Is there anyone here who's poor in spirit? This text is talking about you. So I'm trying to bring say, this this applies to your life.

[01:05:21] And the way we do that is we make sure not only that a truth is saying, here's the behavioral implication. I say here in your life is where it applies. Now, here's where the solar sphere does. People get quite concerned because I said, Now you see, that was just the problem I was concerned about. When you start talking about individual situation, you have now limited the work of the Holy Spirit. You've said this great biblical truth only applies to this situation. And there are people in lots of different situations. Now we have to say there is a lot of good sound logic and theology in that objection. So we meet it in two ways. The first is just by understanding this in preaching, the particular is the universal, just the principle, the particular is the universal. You know, this old maxim of preaching, if you try to speak to everyone, to whom do you speak? No. One. If you try to speak to everyone, you simply speak to no one. But if you speak to someone who listens. Everyone. So will will say just by being particular said, you know what? This abstraction has some meaning in real life for someone. And you identify the situation. But then we will do one more step. We'll talk a lot about we get the application will say, by the way, I'm not going to limit it to this one situation. I will develop the light of God's word in this situation. So you see, it has real life significance. And then having developed that light, I will say, but you know, someone in this situation and this situation, this truth applies to as well. Now I will not discover those other situations with as great an intensity or as much discussion.

[01:07:05] But I will develop the light in one context and then I'll say Now that you know how that light is developed, you need to consider in this context and this context, where do I get those contexts? I'm not just executing the text. I am executing the people. I'm a pastor. I know them. I love them. I live in their lives. I know what they must hear. Sometimes the issues are too sensitive. So the situation that I will describe in detail, I can't talk about what I know to be the most sensitive situation. I have to develop the principles in a less sensitive situation. But then I say, But now that you know the principles, what about the situation? And what about this situation that is more sensitive? So we're using our tools provincially and pastorally, but we're still saying, I've got to show you this has meaning in real life by knowing the situations that you face and saying not only what to do, but where to do it. So more questions need to be answered for application enablement. Number three, enablement means not only what to do and where to do it, but how do I do it? Enablement. And for proper motivation. Why should I do it? You know, you can give all kinds of wonderful, good instruction on why you should have a devotional life and why you should read and then end up by saying it. Because, you know, if you don't, God will get you. Now, everything that I may have just said may be proper and good about how you can do devotions and good ways to do it and situations like Odell. But if I end with that motivation. You should do it, because if you don't, God will get you.

[01:08:47] Then even though everything I said was right, the motivation makes it wrong. Correct. Right. Things for the wrong reasons are still wrong. So I have to make sure the motivation is also in place. The first two questions what to do and where to do it. We will include in every main point. The second two questions why and how we will say have to be included somewhere in the sermon, because sometimes the whole sermon is developing those questions, right? Why to do it and how to do it. So we'll say what and where in every main point. But why and how? Somewhere in the sermon must be addressed to properly drive those applications. You have to recognize as the chief constraint of the preacher is faithfulness to the word of God. The chief constraint of the preacher is faithfulness to the Word of God. The chief duty of the preacher is application of the Word of God. Hear the difference? The chief constraint is faithfulness to the word. The chief duty is application of the word. If we think of all these things, how they come together, there's a kind of a standard way that we think of giving life to these bonds, of preaching, and we think of what goes into this explanation component. And it can be described in this kind of standard double helix, which hopefully reminds you of a DNA chain of some sort. When you think of the life of a sermon, the standard order is going to be what Again, we're talking about what goes right in these points here, what this component is made up. There is going to be typically explanation. What does the word mean? Illustration. Show me what it means, demonstrate that truth. And then what's the last one going to be? Application.

[01:10:47] Apply. The meaning of the word to my life. So the generic shape, if you were kind of saying just make all of these equal a third, a third, a third would be explanation, illustration, application in standard proportions. But we recognize there can be kind of a standard academic seminarian error. And it's not to have equal proportions, it's to do this three fourths explanation, one fourth illustration, and one sentence of application. Therefore go down and do likewise. That's my application. If you are answering the four questions of application, you cannot do it in one sentence. What to do? Where did it, Why do it and how to do it? It's got to come out of the even the way you're forming explanation. And that means you begin to recognize. I hope that though we separate this taxonomy out into three major components explanation, illustration, application, the more you approach, the more you recognize these categories implode. They roll in on one another. Did Jesus explain as He gave a parable? Of course he did. So while we have kind of a a way of thinking about the messages components, we recognize they interact and interrelate. So this is kind of the standard seminary error. We would recognize as well there's another error and it can be the popular error, which would be, what, one fourth? Three fourths. Big on the illustration. Right. And again, one sentence down here of application. So it's very much pushing on the illustration component. What I hope you recognize is not none of these is right, you know, in and of itself. Not necessarily even wrong in and of itself. Where we were going to ultimately determine these proportions is not only by the nature of the text, but by the nature of those to whom we are preaching.

[01:12:48] If you are preaching to a high school group, which many of you, even while you're in seminary, are doing, which of these bubbles typically gets larger in proportion in the message if you're speaking to high schoolers? Which bubble gets larger. You know, illustration is probably going to grow because you weren't just executing the text, you were executing your listeners. Westminster Confession says speaking to the necessities and the capacities of the hearers. Are you just thinking about what your capacities are or are you thinking about what your hearers capacities are? Now, if you are speaking to a professional group and there are churches hold churches like this, I can think one of the Augusta, Georgia, that is basically made up of young professionals, people who are in legal and medical training. Which bubble's probably going to grow the largest when you're speaking to young professionals. Explanation is probably going to grow larger. Which group will you feel most comfortable with? Most of you here. You're really going to like this. These are people that you'll strongly identify with an academic training. By the way, if you're dealing with, let's say, a blue collar crowd. People who churches I ministered to were primarily manufacturers and farmers. Which bubble is going to increase the most? Application, that bubble, you know. Tell me what I should do in life. So people who are in positions of supervision, management and professional, they're kind of saying, hey, give me the explanation. You let me figure this out. But people who are very much in a different place of life, they are saying, you know what? I need the instructions so I know what to be doing in life. Then you want to swell the application component. My main concern in showing you this is recognized.

[01:14:36] The evangelical instinct is for a kind of balance, right? All of us tire of sermons that are mere abstraction. And all of us get angry at sermons that are only illustration. We have this instinct of of wanting you to say. Tell me what that means. Show me what it means. Now apply it. Help me to apply it. And when those instincts are being met, we very much feel I have been pastored as well as preached to. And that's the goal of our sermons, to make sure that we are executing the text and the congregation so that those things are coming together. The place where we go wrong is thinking everyone we're speaking to is like us. You know, one of the great, I think gifts of your generation is so much more than when I was in school. You have been taught that there are different kinds of learners as well as different kinds of people. So that you recognize, though, there are those who are very strongly visually oriented. There are those who are very linear, logically oriented, and you have learned to value them all. And what preaching when it recognizes each of these components and the value of each. What it's doing is it's saying, I am going to pastor all these different kinds of people by not just because of my preference throwing away any of the components. I'm going to minister to all. That's what I'm called to do here. So each of these components gives me the ability to do that the way Dr. Rayburn used to do it when he went through this lecture is he would he would say this. So here's what I want you to recognize. I don't want you to picture yourself in a church.

[01:16:18] I want you to picture yourself 20 years from now. In a dark alley. It has no opening beyond the one you must come back out through. And I'm standing there. I have a frown on my face and I have a question for you. What are the three components of every main point in an expository sermon? What are they? EX That's great. I like the music that goes with it. What are the three components of every of every main point? AR Explanation, Illustration, Application. And so upon some midnight dreary. When you're writing Tired and weary, remember this word of exhortation, the rule of all homily creation for every single main points exposition include. Explanation, illustration, application. That's what we'll be doing. What will we do next time? You will be prepared to present your introductions. And to hand them in. Okay. We will, by the way, also move backward briefly into lecture seven and finish off scripture introductions. So we'll be working on introductions, but also we'll move briefly back into lecture seven. Okay. See you next time.