Sermn Preparatin Tlkit There are 2 parts t preaching that are bth very imprtant: Getting it right: Listening very carefully, sitting under the Bible, sitting at the feet f Jesus, listening s that I knw what it says. If I dn t d this well then I will have nthing t say. T preach the Wrd I have t listen carefully t the Wrd. Getting it acrss: I need t think hw t cmmunicate the Wrd that I have heard s that peple really hear the message. This is very imprtant t. I culd understand the passage well but if I dn t preach it in a language peple understand then I m wasting my breath. Getting it Right: Tls fr listening well 1. Knees n the flr, nse in the text (2 Timthy 2:7) It s nt really a tl but it s the mst imprtant thing abut getting it right. Reflecting/thinking ver nse in the text the Lrd is nt ging t pp the message int my head as I lk int space. It is as we study that He will reveal it. the Lrd will give yu it is the Lrd wh reveals himself, he hides himself frm the wise and prud and reveals himself t little children. We mustn t turn this int a technical thing that I d my applying varius tls t a text and ut pps a sermn. N, we are t have ur knees n the flr, in desperate prayer that Gd wuld pen ur eyes and minds and hearts as we study his Wrd. 2. The Read-Read-Read Tl S bvius that it s easy t miss. T knw what the Bible says we need t read it. Easy t see a passage like Luke 15 and think, I knw that ne. I ve gt sme great illustratins fr that ne. But d we really knw Luke 15? The yunger sn is squanders his mney with prstitutes. Did he really? Or is that just what the lder brther says? He finds himself in the pigsty and he repents and turns back t the Father. Des he really repent and change r des he just make a financial decisin? Des the father in the parable represent Gd the Father r Jesus?
Perhaps we need t read the stry again. Whle bk we need t find ut where we are in the cnversatin, in the stry. If we gt a letter we wuldn t just read ne paragraph we d read it frm the beginning. if we re preaching frm a passage frm Ephesians r Philippians r 1 Peter, surely we can spare 15 min t just read the whle letter? Even Mark s Gspel = 1 hur. The Prclaim Africa (Uganda) ministry encurages peple t read Rmans 10 times in ne sitting each time, and Clssians 30 times. Passage many times ur brther reads a passage 30 times befre he preaches frm it. As we re reading we re finding ut: What srt f text? What des it actually say? What des the authr want t get acrss? Hw des it flw? 3. The Questin Tl Ask as many questins as yu pssibly can f the passage: What? Wh? Why? When? Hw? Where? What d I nt understand? Write dwn all the questins yu have answered and unanswered. Read the passage with ther peple especially children and see what questins they ask. 4. The Surprise Tl Hpefully yu are surprised when yu read yur Bible. We shuld be. But we can get int a sleepiness and dullness where we just shrug and say, Yes, that what I was expecting. When Jesus was walking arund he cnstantly shcked and surprised peple. He did things which made peple say, Wh is this man?! He spke and peple had never heard anything like it. Luke 14:26 unless yu hate yur father, mther, wife, children, brthers and sisters, and yur wn life, yu cannt be my disciple. We must cultivate a surprise at the Bible where we say, I wuld never have written it like that. That is crazy! That is cmpletely upside dwn! If we find the surprise then ften we will be clse t the main pint f the passage. 5. The Bible Stryline Tl Luke 24:44-47 OT = prmise f Christ suffering, rising, preached; NT = fulfilment, actually happens, Christ suffers, rises and is preached t the natins
S if we re reading the OT we need t remember the end f the stry and where it is all ging. Need t remember that is PROMISE. E.g. Psalm 16 is a lvely Psalm fr us t enjy but remember that the NT says that is it fulfilled by Jesus wh did nt see crruptin. The whle Psalm is first and fremst abut Him. And if we re reading the NT we need t remember that it is FULFILMENT. Eg. Luke s Gspel all abut Jesus cming as the answer t all the hpes and prmises f the OT. It is a very Jewish stry. We must see that everything ges thrugh the Crss f Christ: E.g. we mustn t lk at priesthd in the OT and think that is like ur pastrs in the church s they need t have the same kind f clthing and status. That wuld be t ignre Christ and jump ver the Crss. If we take priesthd thrugh the Crss we find that there Jesus was the great High Priest, ffering himself as the perfect nce fr all sacrifice. He was the fulfilment f all the OT says abut priesthd. But the line des cntinue ut the ther side int the NT era in the sense that we are all priests a priesthd f all believers. E.g. blessings and curses we mustn t jump the Crss and start threatening peple frm Malachi 3. The OT blessings and curses find their fulfilment in Christ as he is ur curse and ur blessing n the Crss (Galatians 3). There are blessings and curses ut the ther side in the NT but they are nw the blessing f eternal life with Christ in the New Creatin versus the curse f the lake f fire. A very simple way t draw the Bible timeline is like this: Creatin, garden f Eden, perfect. Fall int an age f death and decay and sin.
Jesus rises t be the first fruit f the New Creatin. S the New Age starts at his resurrectin. But the ld fallen age cntinues. Still death, sin, decay, illness, accidents. In this NT age we are in a tensin, graning (Rmans 8). In ne sense we are in the New Age, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm, we are seated with Christ, we are new creatins in him. But we d nt yet have ur resurrectin bdies. We still sin, we still get ill. The NT is written t help us live in this age f tensin and graning. Finally Christ will return, the fallen age will end cmpletely and there will be nly the new age. 6. The Sectin Tl Hw d yu eat an elephant? In pieces. Break the passage int chunks. E.g. Luke 15 1 parable, 3 stries, split the last stry int scenes at hme, in the far cuntry, cming hme etc. 7. The Cnnectins Tl The fire is in the lgic. Fr, s that, therefre, because, but, if E.g. Heb. 7:23-25 the reasn we can have assurance f ur salvatin is Jesus has risen and lives frever. Yur salvatin is as secure as Jesus indestructible life. If he culd die then maybe yu culd lse yur salvatin but he lives frever, he is in the mst hly place shwing the Father his hands and feet and saying, I died fr him, I died fr her and he will never ever stp ding that. 8. The Repetitin Tl The Bible came ut f an ral culture. Way yu highlight things in ral culture is by repetitin. Wrds and ideas Read Mark 10:46-52 What are the repeated wrds r phrases r ideas yu see there? 9. The Key Verse Tl Nt yur favurite verse but the Key verse the ne that unlcks the passage r which everything else in the passage hangs frm. Smetimes it will be bvius because the narratr tells yu, The pint f what I am saying is In stries it may be in the middle. The turning pint is the teaching pint. 10. The Big Pint Tl The big thing that the passage is saying that the Hly Spirit is saying, that Gd is saying. With a frest we can lk at the leaves and twigs but we can als stand back and see the shape f the whle frest. That s what we re ding here. It ll cme ut f lking carefully at the leaves, reading and reading and reading, lking fr repetitins, lking fr surprises, lking fr a key verse. And gradually getting a sense f what the whle thing is abut. Yu culd say this is the Tpic f the passage. S in that sense tpical preaching is nt wrng. It is gd t have a big pint / big idea / tpic fr the sermn. The questin is whether we chse the tpic first and then use the Bible t supprt it r whether the tpic arises naturally ut f the Bible.
The punch f the passage we want t get a sense f what this passage is driving at, what its impact is suppsed t be It will be smething abut Jesus that s wh the whle Bible is abut 10 t 15 wrds very hard t d but very helpful t write dwn the Big Idea as a shrt sentence, rughly 10 t 15 wrds. If it is t shrt (e.g. Have faith ) it culd cme frm anywhere in the Bible and we want it t capture what this specific passage says. E.g. fr Mark 10:46-52 it might be smething like, Faith is seeing Jesus as the Servant King and thrwing urselves n his mercy Getting it Acrss: Tls fr cmmunicating well 1. Please Gd and Lve the Flck (1 Thessalnians 2:2-8) Nt a tl but the mst imprtant thing abut getting it acrss. v4.. Our great temptatin will be t please men, t flatter, t entertain, t pump egs. Either because we want t be praised ( Pwerful sermn pastr! ) r because we are cncerned abut the sadaka and we dn t want t ffend the gd givers. v5 v4 We have been entrusted with the gspel by Gd, we are accuntable t Him, we seek t please him [Vertical] and we lve the flck v7b-8.. [Hrizntal] Lve will mean we will: - say the hard things, in lve - pray (the hidden wrk) - prepare hard - particularly wrk hard at hw t get the message acrss as clearly and helpfully as pssible 2. The One Thing Tl Best way t cmmunicate say ne thing. (Nt what I m ding right nw!) This One Thing = the Big Pint f the text T get the whle message saying this One Thing clearly I m ging t have t sharpen it: 3. The Sharpening Tl Brm stick blunt end - can t stick in grund. Sharpen it sticks int the grund. Need t cut away everything that is nt necessary t get the ne thing acrss. "the sermn is nt a cntainer t cntain everything yu have discvered abut the text" (Mike Bullmre) S will need t leave a lt f interesting things in the study. Ruthlessly sharpen s that everything is serving the One Thing. 4. The Glued-t-the-Passage Tl Scriptures in hand (Acts 17:2-3) Paul reasned frm the Scriptures. Saying, D yu see? D yu see what it says here? That meant the Bereans culd check it. Preach Wrd nt urselves May be k t have an ccasinal persnal testimny (particularly ne shwing ur weakness) but we really want peple t g away with the Wrd f Gd ringing in their ears nt ur stry.
Stay in passage and crss reference nly where necessary there s plenty there in the passage. May need t crss reference frm OT t NT r vice versa t shw prmise/fulfilment but make it rare. Much harder t fllw a preacher wh is getting yu t jump frm ne passage t anther t anther. 5. The Simple Language Tl Aim fr the 12 year ld If prfessinals and graduates in the cngregatin are nt impressed and dn t think I knw any lng wrds I dn t care just s lng as the 12 year ld is understanding. Style, Language, Wrds Simple, blunt style. Strng wrds but nt lng wrds. N cmplicated illustratins r qutatins especially dn t qute frm cmmentaries N Greek r Hebrew if yu can use it in yur study - great but dn t bring it int the pulpit (unless preaching in Greece r Israel!) 6. The I-Dn t-mean Tl Avid misunderstanding. Whenever we preach we can guarantee peple will think the passage means the ppsite f what it means r that we are saying the ppsite f what we are trying t cmmunicate. Often sbering when yu ask peple after yu preached what they heard! The gspel heard is different frm the Gspel preached, said Freytag. Hw d ur listeners understand key terms such as Gd, Spirit, Sin, Grace, Redemptin etc. E.g. The bld f Jesus Christ (Have yu stpped t cnsider the ppular prayer f cvering fd, persns and prperty with the bld f Christ?) As we preach and teach, we must keep asking urselves hw the Christian key wrds and phrases are understd by ur African listeners. We shuld bring int cnfrntatin the authentic Biblical meaning and the pssible lcal re-interpretatin. This will help ur listeners filter ut pagan and animistic cncepts which many Africans sitting in ur pews still hld very firmly. (Steven Musa-Krmayea, Servants f the Wrd, The Gambia) S we may need t say, When I say X, I dn t mean A, I dn t mean B, I mean 7. The Structure Tl Ramble = an aimless walk r an aimless talk We dn t want t ramble! We want t get (and t take peple with us) n a jurney frm here t there. 8. The SPEG Tl Stages n a jurney like n a matatu/taxi/daladala yu get n Rute 46 because yu knw it is ging frm here t twn and yu knw it will prbably stp at this stage and then that stage and then that stage. In the same way it is gd fr ur passengers (hearers) t knw at the beginning, we are ding t this place and we will be stpping here, here and here. SAY what yu want t say in a nutshell e.g. Faith is taking Gd at his wrd POINT t the Scriptures like Paul (Acts 17) This is where I am getting this pint frm. Lk at verse 4. Let s read it again
EXPLAIN as necessary as necessary! this might mean yu have t use the I-dn tmean tl; it might mean yu illustrate use simple everyday things e.g. faith is like sitting n a chair GROUND in practical life What s next? S what? - nt vague e.g. Have mre faith what des that mean?? - wrk hard and prayerfully and with thers t think what this passage is saying t ut church, different grups f peple, us as individuals - hw shuld this passage change ur thinking, feeling, behaviur? - dn t avid the difficult issues e.g. hw shuld this text change the way we view ethnicity, death, what we mst want fr ur children? - mst f all we want t give peple Jesus whether they are saved r unsaved we want ur preaching t be hlding ut Jesus t peple as their Lrd, their cmfrt, their strength, their jy, their life 9. The Intrductin Tl Often neglected. Serves a scial and cultural functin intrducing urselves, greeting peple, establishing a cnnectin between us and ur hearers Persuading peple nt t g t sleep! Persuading hearers that this is ging t be relevant, ging t be wrth their time and energy t listen t. Can raise a questin which the passage will answer. E.g. What is Gd des nt answer yur prayer? r What d yu d when yur life falls apart? r Hw d we deal with suffering? Get quickly t the Bible. 10. The Cnclusin Tl Als needs thught s that it desn t ramble n endlessly r stp with an abrupt bang. Answer the questin raised at the beginning. Make sure we are all really clear n the One Thing (abut Jesus) we need t g away with.