See theme

This is part two in a two-part series. To read part one, click here.

The value of textual preaching today
What is the use to biblical preachers of textual sermons in the 21st century? While people need expository preaching to help them think through and track the arguments developed in Scripture, textual preaching can supplement exposition to meet two specific needs.

First, textual preaching provides an effective vehicle for preaching on some of the Bible's grand statements
Even in a course of expository sermons on a particular book, these grand statements are worth examining under a microscope. They may be "mountaintop" texts like Jeremiah 33:3, Romans 8:28, or 1 John 1:9, which believers memorize and turn to in times of need. Or they may be texts that summarize some of the Bible's grand themes. Some texts that fall into this category include individual proverbs (such as Proverbs 15:1), Ezra 7:10, Mark 12:30, Romans 12:1–2, and Hebrews 12:1–2. For example, the three infinitives in Ezra 7:10 (to study … to practice … and to teach) can form the heart of a sermon on the task of a Bible teacher or preacher. The idea of the sermon will be that effective teachers of Scripture will commit themselves to (I) studying the Bible, (II) obeying the Bible, and then (III) teaching the Bible to others. The preacher will develop these points theologically by appealing to other Scripture and will describe what this process looks like for Christians living in 21st century America. For another example, an adaptation of a Rick Warren sermon on Mark 12:30 takes the first half of the "Great Commandment" and explains how God wants his people to love him. The sermon outline would look like this:

I. God wants you to love him thoughtfully (with your mind)
II. God wants you to love him passionately (with your heart and soul)
III. God wants you to love him practically (with your strength)

One reason the textual form is well suited for the Bible's grand statements is that it lends itself to more dramatic, rhetorical, and artistic development. Since preachers can turn elsewhere in Scripture for the subpoints of the sermon, they can arrange these subpoints in ways that deliberately employ artistic features like contrast, climax, storytelling, parallelism, refrain, and metaphor.

Second, textual preaching provides an effective vehicle for evangelistic preaching—that is, preaching to non-believers
It allows a preacher to combine the benefits of exposition and topical preaching. As in an expository sermon, it leaves the listeners with a passage that will serve as a reference point. Because the passage in a textual sermon is usually one or two verses long, this reference point is something that listeners can grasp and remember. At the same time, as in a topical sermon, the preacher is free to cover key ideas that reside in different passages and genres of Scripture.

Passages that lend themselves to textual sermons for non-believers include John 3:16, John 14:6, Romans 4:5, Galatians 4:4–5, and Ephesians 2:8–9. For example, Larry Moyer preaches an evangelistic sermon on Romans 4:5 in which the main idea is: "You will stand perfect before God if you trust Jesus Christ and not your works." The sermon could proceed either as an expository sermon or a textual sermon, depending on whether the details emerge from the immediate text or from the whole sweep of Scripture. Here is a possible outline adapted from Moyer's sermon:

I. God is not asking how many good works you have done ("to the man who does not work")
II. God is not asking how well you have behaved ("but trusts God who justifies the wicked")
III. God is asking whom you are going to trust ("his faith is credited as righteousness")

The following guidelines will help preachers prepare and preach textual sermons effectively.

1. Pay attention to the context
Context determines meaning. Preachers who select a small preaching unit like a verse or two run the risk of isolating a statement from its context and thus missing the author's intent. For example, Revelation 3:20 has been a favorite text for evangelistic sermons. But when viewed in its context, the statement is made to Christians about restoring their relationship with Christ—not to non-believers about entering a new relationship with Christ. Legitimate textual preaching makes the effort to locate the selected verse(s) in the larger flow of material.

2. Use the textual sermon form strategically and sparingly
People pick up a methodology for studying the Bible from the sermons they hear. A steady diet of textual sermons will teach people to look for "hot" statements instead of tracing the flow of thought through a paragraph, a chapter, and an entire book. Furthermore, listeners will never get the opportunity to work through major blocks and books of Scripture. In general, reserve textual sermons for the defining statements of Scripture or for times when you need to address a huge issue and a single verse or two captures the heart of what you need to communicate.

3. Include synthesis as well as analysis
Some homileticians complain that textual sermons take things apart but never put them back together again. Like any other type of sermon, a good textual sermon must have unity. A preacher must show how the pieces relate to the whole. For this reason, writing outline points in complete sentences is a helpful discipline. This practice will help preachers think through their ideas clearly as they attempt to synthesize them.

4. Avoid trite, cleverly packaged outlines
Recent homiletical thought suggests that outlines resemble skeletons. They are vital for providing structure, but they do not need to be seen. Textual preaching in the past—like expository preaching in the past—sometimes focused too much on cleverly worded outlines, especially ones developed with alliteration. But in the 21st century, verbal communication shies away from this approach.

An example from Hebrews 12:1–2

Here is a more detailed example of a textual sermon outline that derives its main ideas from the text but takes its subpoints from other Scripture. The text is Hebrews 12:1–2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I. God calls us to run the race in which he has entered us with endurance (1)
     A. The race in which God has entered us is the Christian life here on earth
          1. One church leader, Paul, likened his own Christian life and service to a race
               (Acts 20:24; Galatians 2:2; 2 Timothy 4:7)
     2. Paul also likened the lives of other Christians to a race
               (Galatians 5:7)

     B. The race metaphor helps us understand why Christians need endurance
          1. Like a race, the Christian life requires stamina over a long period of time
          2. Like a race, the Christian life contains difficult challenges
          3. Like a race, the Christian life has a prize at stake
               (1 Corinthians 9:24)

II. We can run with endurance when we adopt Jesus' strategy of focusing on future joy! (2)
     A. Jesus serves as our model for how to run the race and win
          1. Qualification #1—He is the pioneer who finished the course
          2. Qualification #2—He finished the course as a winner

     B. What we learn from Jesus is to endure misery by focusing on future joy!
          1. Future joy includes a life of beauty
               (Revelation 21:2, 4, 18; 22:1)
          2. Future joy includes a life of intimacy
               (Revelation 21:3, 7, 16)
          3. Future joy includes a life of adventure
               (Revelation 22:3, 5)

Notice how this sermon unfolds. First, the second main point is the main idea of the sermon. Of course, a skilled preacher will want to work on another way or two of restating this. A catchy way of restating it would be: Like Jesus, you can endure your present misery when you focus on future joy!

Notice that the sermon follows the text in first explaining what God is asking you to do (verse 1) and then explaining how God says you can do it (verse 2). Yet the subpoints come either from other Scripture or, in the case of subpoint I. B., from the race metaphor. Here, preachers can use their imaginations—as controlled by Scripture!—to probe the metaphor as a means of understanding the text. Notice that subpoint II. B. is derived entirely from the description of heaven in Revelation 21–22.

When employed thoughtfully and strategically, textual sermons can take listeners through specific texts of Scripture and still cover the grand sweep of biblical theology.

Steve Mathewson is senior pastor of CrossLife Evangelical Free Church in Libertyville, lllinois. He is also director of the doctor of ministry program at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.