Biblical Preaching

Below are some excerpts from Haddon W. Robinson’s book, Biblical Preaching (The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages)

 

Ask the man in the pew to describe a minister, and the description may not be flattering.  According to Kyle Haselden, the pastor comes across as a “bland composite” of the congregation’s “congenial, ever helpful, ever ready to help boy scout; as the darling of the old ladies and as sufficiently reserved with the young ones; as the father image for the young people and a companion to lonely men; as the affable glad-hander at teas and civic club luncheons.”  If that pictures reality at all, while the preacher may be liked, he will certainly not be respected. (p. 16)

Biblical preaching, therefore, must not be equated with ‘the old, old story of Jesus and His love” as though it were retelling history about better times when God was alive and well.  Nor is preaching merely a rehash of ideas about God—orthodox, but removed from life. (p. 18)

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. 21)

The preaching of the gospel is ideas, flaming ideas brought to men, as God has revealed them to us in Scripture.  It is not a contentless experience internally received, but it is contentful ideas internally acted upon that make the difference.  So when we state our doctrines, they must be ideas, not just phrases.  We cannot use doctrines as though they were mechanical pieces to a puzzle.  True doctrine is an idea revealed by God in the Bible and an idea that fits properly into the external world as it is, and as God made it, and to man as he is, as God made him, and can be fed back though man’s body into his thought-world and there acted upon.  The battle for man is centrally in the world of thought.   (p. 22)

“Preaching is the art of making a sermon and delivering it?” he asked.  “Why no, that is not preaching.  Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering that!”  (p. 24)

A congregation convenes as a jury not to convict Judas, Peter, or Solomon, but to judge themselves.  (p. 27)

Inappropriate application can be as destructive as inept exegesis.  When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he tried to achieve victory through misapplication of Scripture. (p. 28)

When people attend church, they may respond to the preacher like a novice at the opera.  They have never been told what a sermon is supposed to do. (p. 32)

Reuel L. Howe listened to hundreds of taped sermons, held discussions with laymen, and concluded that the people in the pew “complain almost unanimously that sermons often contain too many ideas.”  That may not be an accurate observation.  Sermons seldom fail because they have too many ideas; more often they fail because they deal with unrelated ideas. (pp. 32-33)

If we preach effectively, we must know what we are about.  Effective sermons major in biblical ideas brought together into an overarching unity.  Having thought God’s thoughts after Him, the expositor communicates and applies those thoughts to his hearers.  In dependence upon the Holy Spirit, he aims to confront, convict, convert, and comfort men and women through the preaching of biblical concepts.  He knows people shape their lives and settle their destinies in response to ideas.  (p. 37)