1.1 Introduction

1. We are living in a different environment from that of our grandparents or perhaps even that of our parents. In the past 25 years there has been a steady erosion of confidence in leadership and organizations.
There is not only a skepticism regarding authority. There is an anti-authority mood.

2. And the preacher has been affected by this changing attitude toward authority. He used to be looked upon as a man of standing in the community. He was respected and sought out for counsel.

3. Today all that is in transition. The media presents the preacher as someone who is at best slightly out of touch with reality, at worst an object of ridicule and derision.

4. In a feeble attempt to step back into the limelight, some preachers have taken to acting themselves! They slide down water slides fully dressed, warn that they will “be taken home” is money is not raised,
and look like another huckster, playing “stage tricks with the doctrines of life and death.”

1. The preacher’s problem is compounded by the fact that much of the Christian church is no longer certain that it has anything to say.

2. Stott observes that “the pulpit of the present day has no clear, ringing and definite message.” (p. 83) Little wonder that a child, bored by the preacher’s lifeless discourse, turned to his mother and
said, “Mommy, pay the man and let’s go home.”¹

1. We live in the cyberspace generation. A century ago, many would come to listen to a preacher because there was little else to do except perhaps to read a good book.

2. But this is the age of Internet browsing and channel surfing. In 1980, Haddon Robinson suggested that a preacher has about 30 seconds to capture the attention of the hearers. But much has changed in
the past fifteen years. The hand-held remote control can dispatch the preacher off into cyberspace oblivion in a matter of seconds. And if they are a captive audience in a church service, they may not walk out, but they will check out
mentally.

3. Ten years ago, when Fred Craddock, published his highly acclaimed text Preaching, he gave two basic assumptions about learning to preach. Fortunately, one of the them was that learning to preach is
possible. But the other basic assumption is more true than ever: “learning to preach is difficult…preaching itself if a very complex activity.”²

4. So should be just give up? With such fierce competition for attention,

1. As Stott asserts, “Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken
the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity; or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us, namely by word and words.” He spoke through the Prophets. He spoke
supremely through His Son, the Word made flesh, and He continues to speak through His Spirit.

2. “It is God’s speech which makes our speech necessary. We must speak what he has spoken.” (Stott, p. 15)

3. We preach because we are commanded to preach. Matt 28:18-20. Preaching is an act of obedience. Albert Mohler, in the opening chapter of A Handbook of Contemporary Preaching reminds us that “preaching
is not a human invention but a gracious creation of God and a central part of His revealed will for the church.” p. 13

1. Of course, other religions have their accredited teachers, but the rabbis, gurus and mullahs only interpret the ancient tradition.

2. Only Christian preachers claim that they are under a divine commission to preach and that by the work of the Holy Spirit, they actually proclaim the oracles of God (1Pet 4:11)

3. When Paul interfaced with a secular hedonistic society in Corinth, he gave this inspired testimony:

4. And so, as Robinson points out, in the NT record, preaching stands as the event through which God works, even in a secular society. “Something awesome happens when God confronts an individual through
preaching and seizes him by the soul.” p. 19

1. Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit
first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through him to his hearers. p. 20

1. The thought of the biblical writer should determine the substance of an expository sermon. The biblical text is not an inconsequential spring board from which the preacher leaps, never again to return!
Rather it is the gold mine from which he draws priceless treasures.

2. A biblical preacher does not search for a text to support his ideas. Rather, he forms his ideas from the text.

1 While words are important, they are only truly useful as the communicate a concept. As Robinson puts it, What the big idea?

2. An analysis of words, phrases and grammar will help to discover the concept that the biblical writer intends to share.

1. The preacher cannot be a disinterested bystander in the process of preaching. In fact, Robinson makes the bold assertion that ” God’s dealing with the preacher is at the center of the process.” p. 24

2. When a preacher prepares a biblical sermon, God prepares the preacher. As he studies the Bible, the Holy Spirit studies him.

3. Until a preacher has allowed the message of the text to touch his own life, he has no right to preach it to others. He will be exposed as a fraud. He must speak with first-hand language, both verbally
and non-verbally.

4. The following statement by Robinson is right on target:

            a. “Ultimately God is more interested in developing messengers than messages, and since the Holy Spirit confronts men primarily through the Bible, a preacher must
learn to listen to God before he speaks for Him.” p. 26

5. Craddock is right when he observes that “all preaching is to some extent self-disclosure by the preacher.” (Craddock, p. 23) So the question is this: What will you disclose about yourself when you preach?

1. Robinson suggests that a biblical preacher approaches the text in three ways:

2. Dull biblical preaching usually lacks creative applications. The question is asked, What difference does it make?”

3. Scripture testifies that it is relevant to contemporary needs. Can you think of a text? 2 Tim 3: 16-17.

4.         So ask the question, “What real need does this text address?” How can I challenge my congregation to live this sermon in the days ahead?