Preaching Conference Part 1 By David Cook

Press record. 
Okay, so the things you need, the thing I'm going to do, I see a long time ago that the best way for me to teach preaching is to teach you the way I do it. Now that may be relevant for you, it may not be so relevant for you and therefore you need to know a couple of things about me.
This sort of thing to me is totally foreign. I am completely computer illiterate, I hate the things, I have nothing to do with them except now I sound like a hypocrite because when I came back from holidays in May there's a computer sitting on my desk and I think David sent me some emails. I know how to get an email now and you'll notice that when I send one back to you it's very short because it takes you about 10 minutes to get one sentence into it. So in terms of sermon preparation I do not use internet, I do not use computers, I have nothing to do with them.

In fact when I prepare my sermons as you can see I write everything out by hand like that, it's fully written out and at Christmas time I gave each of my sons-in-law who are preachers the indispensable tool they need in preparing a sermon, that is I gave them a pen, so that they could write their material out I think with a pen and as you'll see when we come to the pyramid I'll show you how I just use that and I use pencils and pens and that's how I express my thoughts. 

Well the first page then, what is preaching? Let me read to you from what I think is a magnificent book, it came out in the early 1980s, I don't know if you've seen it, it's called The Philippian Fragment by Calvin Miller. It is the story of a pastor of the Philippian congregation in the first century whose name was Eusebius and he's writing to a friend of his, Clement, and he's writing about the sort of difficulties he's having in his congregation. In his congregation there happen to be certain wealthy people and they believe that it's time that Eusebius moved on. He's starting to preach the government gospel very definitely, they're being challenged and they've got this idea that he should go and join the monks of Saint Thaddeus who are monks who have taken a silent vow and they've had their tongues cut out of their heads in order to make sure that they don't say anything. Well he goes to the monks of Saint Thaddeus just to see whether or not this might be God's leading for him to leave the pastoral ministry and go and join the monks. He sits down with one of the monks by the name of Cicero Chrysostom. Cicero Chrysostom and I became as good friends as we might with my talking and his writing monosyllable phrases on the scratch parchment. Cicero had once preached in the suburbs of Philadelphia. By his own immodest testimony he was a popular preacher and large crowds attended whenever and wherever he spoke the gospel. Do you like the silent life? I asked him.
He dipped his quill in the berry juice and scratched on the parchment, I like preach, he wrote, living up to his monkish vows to write no more words than absolutely necessary to communicate what he had to say. How are the accommodations here? I asked. Bed hard, he wrote. And the food, is it well prepared? I asked. Bad cook, food awful, he complained with his quill and parchment.
Do you miss preaching? I asked. Tears came to his eyes and he dipped his quill and wrote for fully five minutes, I love preach, I love feel God power, I love see people's faces when they hear sermon, I love power of spoken gospel. He stopped writing, he buried his head in the sleeve of his robe and convulsed. When he stopped convulsing I spoke softly. I'm a preacher in Philippi but I've been having second thoughts. I may come here and become your silent brother. You see things aren't going well for me in the congregation and I feel it might be God trying to tell me to. Cicero cross ostum jumped up and shoved me onto the rough carved bench. He dipped his quill into the ink and scrawled in large angry letters across the parchment. No, no, no, keep tongue. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How shall they hear without a preacher? He stopped writing the giant letters and opened his mouth and faced me. There was nothing there, just an odd powerless cavity. Nothing was behind his teeth clement. For the first time in my life I realised that silence cannot truly serve our dear Lord best. Only sound may serve and the sound must be trumpeted in faith.
It must not quail before those who would seek to put to silence that speech of integrity that has something to say and has to say something. Clement, remember the monks of Saint Thaddeus.
22 of them would give their lives if they could just stand one more time in the marketplace
and cry out above the hostile unbelievers Jesus saves. So God has called us to a teaching preaching
ministry and it's just a wonderful privilege that God has given us tongues whereby we can bless his
people and lead his people. I listened to a couple of emails I've received lately from graduates
overseas. One in Mongolia, Mojik Baldin Dorsh. He took a preaching workshop over three afternoons.
It was exciting to see how God is raising up leaders in rural areas in Mongolia as well as to
see what challenges they face in their ministries. Over 20 leaders were present during this time and
most of them were new leaders in ministry. I shared with them how it is important to preach
exegetically and systematically. I discovered that all of them preached topically and had never even
heard of expository preaching. It was a very fruitful time with them to share the principles
of expository preaching and this one from a fellow one of our graduates who's working in Hong Kong
and he's talking about surviving in Hong Kong.
We have not had much sound preaching at all here. Often leaders feel embarrassed to preach a sermon
preferring to give a little talk so as not to bore you with a sermon. A true quote, I was screaming
inside please bore me with a sermon just for one week and I am in tears describing this true thing
to you. It is true that Os Guinness at the first congress on biblical exposition in the United
States said this, America is utterly exceptional in the community of nations because of its deep
religious roots and opportunity for public expression of faith but in all my studies I have
yet to see a western society where the church pews are so full and yet the sermons are so empty.
Now what is preaching? I put down there in your notes J.I. Packer's sermon. A sermon is an applied
declaration of some part of God's word and I think that Packer in his definition therefore puts his
finger on a distinctive difference between a sermon and a lecture and that is the distinctive
difference is application. It is an applied declaration. Now I think this is something we need
to hear particularly in Sydney and I guess we're not far from you whether or not in I think the
great criticism that can be made of Sydney preaching generally is that it is much more a
lecture than it is a sermon. It is much more teaching than it is preaching and I put it to you
that a lecture and a sermon are quite different in their aim. The aim for example of a lecture is to
impart knowledge. The aim of a sermon however is to impart knowledge as a means to an end
so that the will of the hearer is moved. The lecturer can presuppose interest. If you don't listen
you don't get the knowledge, you don't pass the exam but a preacher must never presuppose interest.
The preacher must always work hard to win and earn attention. Now Stop says there, I'll put as
a second quote, a sermon is different from a lecture in that it conveys one main thought
so that the sermon has one big idea which is the one big idea of the passage. Now because the
preacher must not presuppose interest I put it to you that the theological lecturer will always
begin with the bible but the sermon never will. I don't think the preacher ought to ever begin
with the bible. Oh that's where he's going to come but if you stand up on Sunday and say last
week we looked at 1 Peter 1, this week we're looking at 1 Peter 2, I think you've shown great
disrespect for me. You've not grappled with my interest, you've not got me going, you've not
given me a good reason to listen. Therefore from the very beginning it seems to me you must
begin with life and lead me to the scriptures which have the answer to the question that you
have raised. Now I'll stop in a moment, we'll talk about more about this but notice Packer
says an applied declaration of God's word, some part of God's word. Now Phillips Brooks
who was an episcopalian bishop in Boston in the latter part of the 19th century said that preaching
is truth through personality and that probably is an inadequate definition of preaching as such
but it brings out the fact that none of us preach in exactly the same way because none of us have
the same personality and the way you preach and the way I preach well may well be slightly
different from one another. Now the view of preaching that we have and I've just quoted
Lloyd-Jones there that preaching really is logic on fire. The view of preaching which we have will
be formed by our view of scripture. Now let's look at our view of scripture and let's look at
what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 which one commentator says you can't read 2
Timothy without something like a veil of tears over the eyes when you realise that this is Paul's
last letter and he's writing to the young pastor Timothy and notice what he tells Timothy to do.
He urges him to do chapter 4 verse 2. Timothy is to preach the word, be prepared in season and out
of season, correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. Now notice
why is Timothy to do this? It is based on the Apostle's conviction as to what scripture is.
What is scripture? Look at chapter 3 verse 16. All scripture is God-breathed, that is it is expired,
it's breathed out and therefore it is good for certain things. It is good for teaching the truth,
it is good for rebuking, it is good for correcting and restoring us to the path of truth and it is
good for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every
good work. Now notice that is what God has breathed the scriptures out to do, to teach, rebuke, correct,
to train. Now notice therefore what Paul says to Timothy in verse 2 of chapter 4 is that he is to
do those things, he is to correct, he is to rebuke, he is to encourage. That is that Timothy is to do
in his pastoral ministry what Paul says the bible has been breathed out by God to do, therefore what
you believe about scripture you will see that that carries through and determines the way you preach.
If the bible is God's unique revelation, breathed out from him, therefore it is the bible which must
dominate our preaching. Therefore some people when they prepare a sermon just divide the page into
four columns, that is on one what the passage teaches, what the passage rebukes, what the passage
corrects and how the passage restores me and equips me for godliness and that may well be
a good approach to this preparation of a sermon. Now let me offer the following definition of what
preaching is. Biblical preaching exposes the text of the bible so that it speaks plainly to the
listener and calls for a response of repentance and faith. Such preaching is the product of the
hard work of preparation by a spirit empowered preacher. I think that's a fairly comprehensive
definition of what preaching is. Let's look at each of those elements. Biblical preaching exposes.
Have a look if you would at John chapter 1 18 where you've got the Greek word from which we get
our word exegesis. And John 1 18 really probably is the summary verse of the whole of
John's gospel. If you take that verses 1 to 17 is the introduction to John, verse 18
is the summary of the introduction and therefore it sums up all of the great things that are to come.
No one has ever seen God but God the one and only who is at the Father's side has literally
exegeted the Father except get or my. So he has exegeted the Father. He has brought the
Father from the realm of the invisible to the realm of the visible. Now flip back one page
to Luke 24 where Jesus comes on the Emmaus road to these two men who are walking along
and look at verse 27 of Luke 24. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them
he exposed to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. See how they
describe what Jesus did. Look at verse 32, weren't our hearts burning within us while he talked with
us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. So they describe what Jesus is doing as an opening
up of the scriptures. The effect of this verse 32 our hearts were burning within us. Compare that
back to verse 17 where they're walking along and their faces are downcast. So there is a change in
their emotions because of this explanation of the scriptures to them. And then verse 33 they
got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. So their will was moved to action. Just as Jesus
is the exposition of the Father, just as the Lord Jesus on the Emmaus road opens up the scriptures
that exposition, that opening up is to be the basis of what our preaching ministry, our
teaching ministry is to be about. Now next the text. What is the text of the bible that is to be
opened up? It is any portion of scripture. A text can be a verse, a text can be a paragraph,
a text can be a chapter, a text can be a whole book. So for example if you don't want to get
bogged down in Job, do one sermon on Job, 42 chapters. Just do one. Now I'll put it to you,
the rule I take for the size of the text is this, the smaller the text the more attention I've got
to give to context. So if I just take one verse then it's terribly important that I give a lot
of attention to context. The larger the section that I preach from the more attention I've got
to give to summarising, to the movements which we'll look a bit later, have a look at later.
But if I'm doing one whole book say of Job I should be able to define the main movements in
the book, the big sweeping movements, point one, point two, point three. I've got to be able to
summarise otherwise the congregation isn't going to cope with looking at that amount of material.
So the smaller the text more attention to context, the larger the text more attention to summary.
Thirdly, so that the text speaks plainly to the listener. So that is the text is to be the
highlight and not my intellect or the beauty of my language. Andrew Blackwood said these three abide
faith, hope and clarity but the greatest of these is clarity and so clarity is
terribly important that we set the text plainly before our listeners so that everybody should
be able to understand what we're saying and we'll have a special lecture tomorrow on clarity.
And this calls for the response of repentance and faith. Have a look at Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20 is just a fascinating chapter
because it's here that the Apostle Paul in the whole book of Acts is the only talk that the
Apostle Paul really gives to a specifically Christian audience that is the elders from
Ephesus and what he's doing here in Acts chapter 20 is telling them what he had done when he was
ministering to them for 240 years in Acts chapter 19. But notice what he emphasises,
now you remember Acts chapter 19 he preached and taught in the hall of Tyrannus, extraordinary
miracles were done through him but notice that when he rehearses his ministry when he gets to
Acts chapter 20 he doesn't even mention the extraordinary miracles, he mentions the things
that he wants them to duplicate. Now what are those things? Well look at verse 20, you know that
I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you
publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to
God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. Now notice there are three English words there,
preach, taught, declared. Look at verse 24, the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying
to the gospel of God's grace. Verse 25, now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about
preaching the kingdom. Verse 27, for I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of
God. Now see how Paul summarises his ministry, preach, teach, declare, testify, preach, proclaim
and he does it publicly and he does it also from house to house. I think
that if there is one neglected verse in all of Acts, it is Acts chapter 20 verse 20
because I don't know about you but the last word I gave to our students as they graduated last year
is if God calls you to pastoral ministry please visit because pastoral visitation, certainly in
Sydney, is becoming old-fashioned, it's out of style, there's too many dangers involved with it
but here Paul is showing us the model preaching publicly, teaching house to house and just taking
up the Richard Baxter model in the reformed pastor and sitting down with people one-on-one
and going through the whole congregation. I've been doing that just this year with my fellowship
group at college just spending three quarters to an hour with each student in the group,
going through the Richard Baxter questions and just talking about their own spiritual growth
and it's been really helpful to us both and so doing that, eyeballing your people, going having
lunch with them or whatever, taking your wife or husband along with you and visiting with them
and going through the Baxter model is terribly important. They have taught you publicly and from
house to house. So it would seem to me that in the mind of the Apostle Paul, certainly he talks about
this when he gets to verse 28, keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers and how important this is to him. Verse 26 he takes his responsibility
seriously but he says having declared this to you I'm innocent of the blood of all men. It seemed to
me that Paul had the goal that he had a body of truth that he believed that every Christian should
understand and believe and I put it to you, do you have that goal for your congregation?
That every member of your congregation who professes the name of Christ should know certain
great truths and do you tatechise them publicly and from house to house to make sure that every
person in your congregation, yes they know and understand this doctrine, this doctrine, this
doctrine, this doctrine. There is a package of material that they know and understand and Paul
is saying at the heart of his Ephesian ministry and remember he probably had access to the hall
of Tyrannus in siesta time 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock so when everybody else was asleep that's when he
was tatechising people publicly and then visiting house to house. This is at the heart of his
ministry and notice what he says that he's calling on them, verse 21, both Jews and Greeks
that the appropriate response to the preaching and declaration of doctrine is repentance
and faith in the Lord Jesus. So he's always calling upon people to repent and he is always
calling upon people to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus. Repentance and faith, repentance and faith,
that is how we live, that is the heart of Christian living. God speaks to Abram, Abram believes
God. There's a model relationship, God speaks, Abram believes. So at every point in my Christian
walk I am to hear God speak, I am to repent and I am to believe. That is what it is about,
repentance and faith and of course that's what Paul said if you look earlier at chapter 17 of Acts
when he is at Athens. He says in Acts 17 at the Areopagus, verse 31, God has set the day when he
will judge the world. He's given proof of this by raising the judge from the dead and therefore he
commands all people everywhere to repent. So at every point in my sermon I'm moving towards how
can I, what can I encourage these people to repent of and how should they respond in faith to the
Lord Jesus. So that is the response and finally, fifthly, this is the product of hard work by the
Spirit-empowered preacher. That is the combination, that illumination for the preacher does not appear
in a vacuum, it occurs with hard work, with pencil in hand, with computer before you, you're working
away, you're working on words, you're working in lexicons, you're working in concordances,
you're working and as you work God himself in the person of his Spirit will help you
have insight into the text. Now this sort of preaching is under attack, it's under attack
from people who say well it's too hard for the congregation, drama is easier, dance is more
appealing to watch. It's under attack from sociologists who say we don't need these monologues
anymore, people have discovered that they have a mouth as well as ears, we want to enter into dialogue
with the preacher and communication experts say yes a monologue is a very inefficient way
of communicating truth, a monstrous monologue by a moron to mute, that's what preaching is
according to the communication experts but Klaus Runia in his book on preaching says
the most crushing criticism of all is that preaching is boring. Now what are the trends,
how do we respond to that crushing criticism? Well I notice a number of trends around to help us
alleviate the problem of boredom, this is not over the page yet, I'll get to that soon but one of the
trends I've noticed just sitting for example at Katoombra and listening to preachers there
is we've now got the powerpoint explosion and I find that terribly frustrating. Last night we
had open evening at college and there was a powerpoint presentation on while I'm speaking
and while I'm speaking introducing the faculty people are laughing and I think what if I said
that's wrong what they've done is they've flashed up photo baby photos of the faculty there that's
what they're laughing I find it quite off-putting and so at Katoombra the first powerpoint presentation
we had went something like this the bloke was preaching and he said oh is it up there and he
went on preaching is that up there now and I thought come on just preach will you just preach
because that's taking away attention from the bible so if you can get powerpoint to work well
that's okay but be very careful it doesn't take attention away from the bible. The other thing
I think we work hard at is we get into the internet and you've got all these sites where
you can go and pick up illustrations and make them your own but I just think you can pick an
internet illustration so clearly and it's so dry and it's not you and you start talking about the
LA Lakers to a Newcastle congregation fair dinkum come on so you've got to be careful on that and
the other thing that I think that we work that we respond to this criticism of boredom we go light
on doctrine we think people can't take doctrine anymore but I think what people need is doctrine
presented them in clear faithful ways and that's what our preaching ought to be doing and the other
thing of course that we're facing in Sydney and probably up here as well is the ongoing problem
of handling worship songs and worship leaders who tend to take over and we move away in these
worship songs from the great objective realities of the faith into soapy romanticism. Now I know
when I say that my kids say dad you're getting old and I know that I'm getting old but I put
it to you I have not heard a modern song that puts forward the great truths of the faith like the old
hymns do and I know nothing about music but I can guarantee you this when I get to men's convention
you play any modern song you like and the blokes go to sleep but you put on and can it be guide me
as our great Jehovah the dam busters tune to the Psalms and the men will lift the roof off
now there's something about the old songs and their truths and the way they're said that
encourage singing and it just doesn't happen with a lot of the new songs okay so I've got that off
my chest we'll move on shall we I know it makes me sound old there are nice new songs but I think
that often the new songs when I go to church and we sing the new songs they're all about me
they're all about how I love him and what I've done for him and I think hey the Gospel's all
about him it's all about what he's done for me it's about the great objectives the truths of the faith
all right now over the page and I'll stop at the end of these two points such preaching
expository preaching is central to the purpose of God and I think we need to rediscover that
remember when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he said we commend you we thank God for you
because when you receive the word from us you receive that not as the word of men but as it
actually is the word of God and that is the great truth that when we preach we are preaching the
word of God and the preacher as Luther said is the mouthpiece of God the second Helvetic confession
put it best when it said the preaching of the word of God is the word of God and that's the great
truth isn't it the preaching of the word of God is the word of God so when I go to church on Sunday
morning and the preacher stands up and he preaches faithfully from the text I'm being addressed by
God himself the preaching of the word of God is the word of God and such preaching is central
to the purpose of God look at Luke 24 here Luke provides the bridge over to his second volume
when he says in verse 24 chapter 24 verse 46 Jesus told them this is what is written
the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning
at Jerusalem do you see it verse 46 is a good summary of the Gospel volume 1
verse 47 is an excellent summary of the book of Acts volume 2 and it is as much the purpose of
God that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead as it is the purpose of God that
repentance and forgiveness of sin should be preached in his name to all nations I think we
say verse 46 is absolutely central the purpose of God verse 47 is not so important notice that the
Lord Jesus puts them on a par it is as much the purpose of God that the Gospel should reach the
ends of the earth as that the Christ should suffer and die and rise on the third day and of course
verse 47 is linked up with Acts chapter 1 verse 8 you'll receive power and you'll be my witnesses
in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth and that is what the book of Acts is all
about how God is fulfilling his purpose in seeing the Gospel go out to the ends of the earth God's
great purpose for today having established the Gospel is that the Gospel of repentance and
forgiveness should be preached from the centre Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and therefore
such preaching is central to the purpose of God well I'll stop there for just a couple of minutes
any comments or questions you want to make as a response to any of that that's been said
anything sorry I'm listening to just all the sort of stuff I guess that that's around
no I'm listening to I guess in our church it's mostly hillsong stuff
yeah yeah yeah yeah okay this is the EU music stuff is that right yeah yeah yeah yeah good
I don't think it's readily singable all the time no but I mean certainly it's focused on the truth
but I don't think it's readily singable it just doesn't go sometimes I think it's much more much
better to be sung by individuals or in groups rather than congregational singing yes so the
statement of the Word of God is the Word yes I think that
because the danger is they're not of the descent of the demagoguery on the part of preachers
you start to imagine that whatever they say is finally you know authoritative yeah kind
of an appropriate thing and then I tend to say to people look you know don't believe it because
I say test what I believe test what I say by the scriptures I feel sometimes I'm comfortable
with that because it seems to be kind of qualifying yeah and detracting from the authority you know
distracting from the authority I mean how do we maintain a proper balance between the kind of
demagoguery and the one yeah yeah it's a good point Peter because I think the Bereans were
more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the scriptures to see if these things
are so and I think what the Helvitic confession says there is true and yet I agree with it but I
don't agree with it I agree with it in the sense that I'm sure that they wrote it that as the
preacher speaks faithfully and consistently the bible it is the word of God and I find that that's
a really healthy corrective because it reminds me that when I'm being addressed by the preacher
faithfully according to word even though I might not like it it makes me feel uncomfortable
God is addressing me at the same time it doesn't mean that the preacher can say anything and be
saying addressing me with the word of God if it is not faithful to God's word so I think it's a
corrective and you've got to you've got to hold it in balance the Helvitic confession therefore
had in mind it is the faithful preaching of the word of God which is the word of God and so it's
not a license for the preacher just to be ill-disciplined in his preparation yeah but I think
it is a healthy thing that when I go along to church on Sunday morning I'm going to be addressed
by God provided the pastor has done his work of preparation well and the people turn up with that
sense of expectation I think it's a healthy thing if they do like anything else yes David
I understand and if you perhaps object to any of the response, pressure and then
you start doing the strength of something else if it is the presence of us preaching these days
you've come and got a care for ourselves then therefore we're not even pleased with these things
I want to go to the next stage yeah that may be and that that may be a reflection of our training
and it may be a reflection of our discipline now are you reading a substantial text on
systematic theology yourself right now I always like to have a substantial text on
systematics next to me that I'm reading and so I think you've got to be constantly pushing yourself
theologically because I think Calvin studied theology in order to be a better pastor
he didn't study theology just to be a theologian he studied theology in order to be a better pastor
and so the way I pastor my people well is by being theologically astute I think the
the Puritans defined theology as the art of living blessedly forever now that's great isn't it because
theology is living it's blessed living and therefore as pastor I am here to encourage
people to show them how in the circumstances they are in they might live in a way which honours God
that's pastoral ministry so therefore I need to be pushing myself theologically all the time
so you've got to decide well you've got to get a substantial text and by substantial text I mean
a substantial text of 1200 words 1200 pages or so well indexed because I think that's vitally
important but constantly drives me back to the bible the one I'm reading in a moment is Robert
L Raymond's a new systematic theology of the Christian faith and I think that's just a
wonderful text on systematic theology r-e-y-m-o-n-d I think it's about 70 dollars but it's just a
wonderful text and it's been by my side now for 12 months that's the one I'm just reading through
constantly one of the things I fear in the almanac is that there's so many good comments
we go there that you know the psp is not the thing that gives you helpful things to get
us through together yeah but you don't actually you don't have to give you back that no no that's
right yeah and that's why I think that's right so you've got to be careful about that I think you've
got to be careful about being enslaved to the commentary I think commentaries are poison
now I'll I think they're poison I'll qualify that later on but I think commentaries generally
are poison you know I'll qualify that later on because poison is if you go to the commentary
too early in the process of preparation I think you ought to be working with the bible hard with
the text yourself before you go to the commentator and get the commentator to answer all your
questions for you you do your own thinking first it would be foolish to disregard the commentary
but it is foolish I think to go to the commentary too early because you just stop thinking
okay anything yes
so you are answering quite a few about the text
especially with young guys that you're working with
a pistol yeah the narrative is always the difficulty because as I'll say later the great
problem it seems with narrative is in application and Haddon Robinson says more heresy is preached
in application than anywhere else so and the problem therefore if we start on a pistol
the easiest way to preach on the epistle is a paragraph that's a unit of thought
and therefore my difficulty then in working with a class over three years is to get them to do a
text because I don't think I'm I think that's where I'm not used to doing text myself I'm used
to doing paragraphs or chunks and so it's good to force yourself to do a text occasionally
now some preachers I know only ever do texts but I'm I generally hardly ever do texts that's why
I think it's good varieties the spice of life to force yourself to do text occasionally but
narrative is difficult yeah okay will we press on because time goes on the why of expository
preaching there are seven reasons I put there I think I've ended up with eight
reasons eight great benefits of expository preaching first of all the most obvious one
that it recognizes the bible for what it is and of course the bible is god's unique revelation
so as the prophet says thus say the lord and as the apostles you come to the apostles and they
tell us what they've seen and heard the prophet says this is what the lord has said the apostles
say this is what we've seen this is what we've heard we speak with the same authority but we say
of course this is what the lord has written so we're not going from what we see we've personally
seen and heard but we're going from a text that has been committed to writing thus the lord has
written and so we have this ministry of telling people what god has said in his word and therefore
it's recognizing the bible for what it is and as packer says the bible is god preaching it's god's
sermon to us secondly it recognizes christian ministry for what it is and that is as paul has
said in acts chapter 20 it's all about shepherding god's people watching yourself and then having
oversight of god's people and therefore feeding god's people the flock the word of god that's what
ministry is all about it recognizes church for what it is the gathering of the people of god to
hear god speak in a recent banner of truth magazine john r de witt put it this way the
preacher must come from god bearing god's message speaking god's word standing in a sense in god's
place addressing us with that which in no way rests on his own authority so that's how we come
we come from god to speak god's word to address us with what god has said not resting on my own
authority and therefore the gathering of god's people to hear that is a vital time in my week
and that is what church is all about and my response is to help one another help my brothers
and sisters to work that out in practice that's why morning tea is such an important time to do
that and i think therefore just on that i just this is this is a side issue i i think that's
where our services should end they end with a sermon don't have anything after the sermon
don't have the closing hymn just get straight to morning tea you preach the word you've encouraged
people to repent and believe now get to morning tea because whatever you do after the sermon
will just put that distance between the word of god and our fellowshipping together and so i think
now in principles hour at college we finish on the sermon and we go straight to morning tea
because you i think we interrupt too much of what god is saying by having closing benedictions
closing hymns and all this sort of thing and the other thing too i think we are too reluctant to
make appeals for people to respond and come down the front and speak to us about our sermons
and about our word at that moment at which it is preached but you might like to take that up later
as well so it recognizes the church for what it is it recognizes people for what they are and
lloyd james says you only need to know as much about people as the bible tells you and i guess
well that's all right for a doctor who's got a good nose for people but i think we at least need
to know this that people are like sheep we are rebels and if i am to change i need more than a
little philosophical chat i need to have an authoritative word from god because people
are spiritually dead and it is only god's word through the mouth of ezekiel the prophet which
brings the dry bones to life so it recognizes people for what they are there's one radio
commentator said recently it's a mongrel world who has got any answers well it's god's diagnosis
that's important and god's solution is the only one that works so this recognizes people for what
they are it gives the congregation and this is the extra one i think this is the extra point it gives
the congregation a working hermeneutic that is how should i interpret the bible as i read it myself
in my own quiet time during the week where you the preacher by the way you interpret
the bible are giving people a working model of interpretation
so the sorts of things that you need to be asking yourself is what does the passage say
why does it say it here why does the author say it like this what does it teach me about god what
does it teach me about me they're the basic questions of reading and understanding the
passage and you are giving therefore putting the text into its context etc you're giving the
congregation a good model of how to interpret the bible for themselves expository preaching
is beneficial then next fifthly on your page because it's systematic and that's good for you
the preacher because you don't have to be worrying about what you're going to do next week you just
do the next passage next week and so i find a lot of preachers who are involved in one-off sermons
they spend a lot of their time concerned about what they're going to preach on well if you're
preaching expository through say one corinthians or something like that you just do the next
passage so you don't have to worry so it's good for you it's good for you as well because it
forces you to preach on the bits that are comfortable and the bits that you're uncomfortable
with so if you do romans one to eight sometime you're going to have to get the courage to go
into nine ten and eleven you're going to have to do it i did romans one to eight and the guy
consumer came out and said when are you going to when are you going to drop your cowders and get
into chapter nine and i think yeah thanks for the encouragement so it does that you do revelation
one to three and you're going to have to swim into four and following and so it's good for you
because it pushes you to the uncomfortable parts the parts that are not so clear it's good for you
the preacher because it stops you having soapbox dominating issues it pushes you around the bible
and so we when i went out to my first parish there was a bloke in the presbytery of mooree who no
matter where he started his sermon he always ended up attacking the education system in new south
wales no matter where he started he'd always get back to what a dreadful system education is in new
south wales so you'll be careful about that like the baptist preacher who was preaching on genesis
three he said i have three points i want to say something about adam i want to say something about
eve and then i want to say a few things about adult believers baptism by immersion
so the way he went so you've got to be careful of that and that's good thing about expository
preaching because it swings you around the bible it's good for your listeners expository preaching
because they won't think you're having a go at them now they may think you're having a go at them
but if you just stand up for example and preach a sermon out of the blue on divorce there'll be
people in your congregation who've been divorced and they'll think you're having a go at them
but if you put it in the context of a series through matthew and it just happens to be the
next passage they are less likely to think that you're specifically having a go at them though
they might do so anyway but it's good for the listeners and it's good for the listeners too
because you're showing that you're enthusiastic about your pulpit ministry i think that's a great
thing if you're not enthusiastic about your pulpit ministry why should your listeners be so our
pastor for example will print off the next three months his preaching program for the next three
months so we can stick it on our fridge i think that's terrific he's serving us really well
he's thinking about this he's thinking about producing studies for us in our home group so
that we can be studying as he's preaching we're greatly served by such service and i think that's
a great idea to keep the he's he's thinking about it we're praying for him that's a great thing
stick it on the fridge and keep it before us so it's beneficial because it's systematic and that's
good for the preacher and the listener. Sixthly it's Christ eccentric wherever you're preaching
from the bible you're preaching about Jesus so wherever you are you're in Jesus now the one
issue i have with that the problem i have i don't know how to preach Jesus from the song of Solomon
yet that amazes me but anyway perhaps i'll get that insight when i'm a bit older but anyway
it's Christo centric wherever you're going from in the bible and the last thing and the important
thing is that Christ rules by his spirit through his word Jesus is Lord and the instrument that
the Holy Spirit uses to exercise the rule of Christ in our lives is the word of God
and i think that's terribly important Steve Warr goes out to out to score runs what does he use
he uses a bat Jesus exercises lordship in my life how does he do it the spirit uses the word the
bible the instrument for Steve Warr is a cricket bat the instrument for Jesus as lordship in my
life is that he rules me through his word the scriptures. Okay now that's why it's beneficial
now we're going to come to actually doing it for how doing it and as i said before this is how i
do it and you've got to work out the equivalent for yourself so we're going to look now at the
pyramids now i'll just put it up there too you've got it on your page now this is this is the model
we're going to use because this is how i do it so this is how we're going to be preparing our
sermons now let me just address you to this section the way i start is i generally look at
context first up here so i start here and as i say if it's a small passage i give much more emphasis
to the context now i want to look at the the passages context within the bible within the flow
of biblical theology am i in job am i in a narrative section am i in prophetic section
am i in gospel am i an epistle where am i where am i in the whole flow of god's revelation of the
way in which he is going to save people so i want to put it into its biblical theological context
that is how it fits in the canon of scripture and then secondly i look at the book where does this
fit in the book itself what has happened before this in the book what has happened after it what
has happened immediately around it so the context in both bible big picture and small picture the
book is important then i start here and i move up now this really is the engine room of the sermon
my own training was at fmbc in 1969 1970 and then i went to moor college 73 to 75
at that time the presbyterian church was voting whether it would go into the uniting church
and as theological students who were presbyterians at moor college we were asked whether or not we
wanted to be uniting or whether we wanted to be continuing presbyterian and there were three
of us at moor college at that stage and we all said we wanted to be continuing presbyterian
now therefore the continuing presbyterian church knew that anglicans like at moor college can't
really prepare people well for presbyterian ministry so they appointed a senior minister
to come to moor college every fortnight just to personally tutor three of us who were continuing
presbyterians in presbyterian polity and practice the code book and all that sort of thing which
is so unique about the presbyterians and they appointed a man by the name of j.g miller graham
miller and he was the minister of st jiles presbyterian church herstville and it was just
wonderful it was like barnabas being appointed to the church at antioch graham miller told us
nothing about the code he told us nothing about presbyterian polity and practice what he taught
us to do was to study the bible according to this method this is how you prepare sermons he called
it the inductive bible study method now and what we do if you just turn up every fortnight and you
say right here show me a passage you've been studying your quiet time with inductive bible
study method and it was the most wonderful thing that we had every fortnight with him we'd sit in
the chapel at st andrew's college at sydney university and we just go through our inductive
bible studies and he was training us up i think in the way that augustine did the young men who
lived with him for christian ministry now therefore what you're after is this you look at the passage
you read your passage and you start with the movements what are the main movements in the
passage how are you going to break this passage up for example um i don't know jack and jill went up
the hill to fetch a pail of water jack fell down and broke his crown and jill came tumbling after
and what you've got is a movement up and a movement down there so you've basically got two
movements uh god so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have everlasting life well how would you divide that up into its main
movements you could say well it's just one verse it's about what god has done and how we respond
there might be two movements there if you want to be more specific you'd take it build it around
the verbs god loved gave we are to believe that sort of thing but in the movements it's not so
critical when you're dealing with a text but when you're dealing with a larger section the main
summary movements are very important then you come here and you're looking here at the summarizing
the passage in your own words with point reference now we'll do all this after morning
tea but basically you've got your point point one and you put in your verse reference so it's
very important to add your verse reference because you want to make sure that what you have said in
your summary is actually there in the text and not your imagination of what the text might say
so you're actually therefore putting in here the main point
verse reference point two verse reference point three verse reference then you're moving up and
you come to dominant picture now having done this sort of research in the text you now come to
dominant picture McNeil Dixon is quoted by both John Stott and Warren Wisby in their book on
preaching and saying that philosophers have got it wrong that the truth is that the human brain
is much more a picture gallery than a debating hall the human brain is much more a picture
gallery than a debating hall and so in dominant picture I want to be saying what is the picture
here that stands out clearly to me and C.S. Lewis you remember said that all our truths
are all but a few fragments of it is one by metaphor so that when Nathan came to David
he told him a story he put a picture in his mind he worked in the area of the picture gallery
you know where the family with the little lamb the man who's got so much comes and takes that
little lamb away what do you think of that and David immediately has in his imagination what
is happening and so you find that God's revelation is full of metaphor he is like a tree that is
planted by the streams that yields its fruit in its season so whatever passage I'm working and
I'm asking myself what is the dominant picture the kingdom of God is like salt the kingdom of
heaven is like light the kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed now just just listen to some
of the things the pictures you've been working on the apostle Paul says that godliness is a matter
of taking off the old clothes putting on the new standing in the warfare with the devil is a matter
of putting on armour spiritual armour prayer is it like sending the guest away or going and waking
up the neighbour next door and getting them all out of bed be shrewd like the crooked manager
the lord is my rock and my refuge the bible is strong meat milk sweeter than honey jesus is the
lamb of god death is like bee without its stinger the church is a building bride a branch the holy
spirit is the toe witness he is the parallel helper the preacher is the ambassador the
watchman the herald the steward the gospel is momentous announcement the death of jesus is
redemptive business it's propitiatory sacrifice you see in all those concepts the biblical writer
is giving us a picture a dominant picture and is working much more in the picture gallery than the
debating hall so i want therefore to think what is the dominant picture of the passage
and last year when our parish was vacant we had no pastor i did a lot of the preaching sunday by
sunday and what i wanted to do because we had the overhead there i put up a picture when people came
into the church building and they had no idea what the picture was what's the relevance of that
they have no idea and then i'd ask the lady who ran the overhead projector at during the
offertory song the time when we're sitting around if she could just throw the picture up again
and then after the sermon when we're finished if she could throw the picture up and leave it up
there and by the time that the sermon was over i tried to get a photo or a picture which represented
the dominant picture of the passage they say what's that doing there oh during offertory time
we don't know what that's about but after the sermon ah yes we know what that's about so it's
left something in my picture gallery when i leave and the other thing it's telling the congregation
is hey this bloke's thinking how to be interesting this bloke's actually trying to interact with me
and that's a great encouragement to me as part of the congregation so dominant picture is terribly
important and we'll look at this when we get into the text after morning tea now moving up the
passage i then come to the subject so we're moving to what Haddon Robinson calls the big idea and you
remember that Haddon Robinson quotes from Jowett where he he says that the big idea you need to
express its theme in a clear in a short pregnant sentence as clear as crystal so that's what you're
working towards here the big idea a short pregnant sentence as clear as crystal now how do you get to
the big idea of the passage i go through these stages one i ask what is the subject what is the
writer talking about in one two or three words so i don't want any more than that and then in
the compliment i say what is he saying about what he is talking about so subject what is he talking
about compliment what is he saying about what he is talking about john 3 16 what is he talking
about he's talking about god saving plan god saving activity three words what is he saying
about god saving activity compliment well he's saying god saving activity springs from his love
shown in the gift of his son calling upon people to believe in him now i put the subject and the
compliment together and that should give me my short pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal
but if i go and i say what is the big idea of the passage i find it's much harder to get the big
idea unless i ask what is this verse about what is this passage about what's he talking about
and then what's he saying about what he's talking about so that's that gives me the big idea and
then when it comes to the top of the triangle i come to the big question Rudyard Kipling's
poem six faithful men taught me everything i knew what when where why how who so what when where why
how who so that's how i start the question and i'll often just write down as i've got them there
what when where why how who right here give me some options on the big question give me a what
question give me a when question give me a where question why how who question and then you've got
to filter all those down and say now what is the question which this passage is answering so if you
get up for example on sunday to preach on how to have a really good sleep at night and you take
your passage and the passage has got nothing to do with how to have a good sleep at night people are
really interested in the question but will go away confused because you haven't shown them how this
passage answers the question i don't know how you could answer a question like that from biblical
passage but anyway the important thing is that you set the correct question which the passage is
answering what did old joe bilke peterson i think he used to say never ask a question to you know
what the answer is going to be and that's good political sense and so the same for the preacher
never raise the question unless you know exactly how the passage answers the question otherwise
people will go away confused and they'll feel shortchanged if you've raised a terrific question
but haven't answered it from the passage so that brings that's the big question now down at the
bottom here we're going to have this afternoon we're going to look specifically at illustration
and application but what i find helpful basically is to say the two parts of the the two truths that
do not change is what the passage teaches me about god and what it teaches me about me
people do not change god doesn't change and so i write out here everything that the passage
teaches me about god everything that the passage teaches me about people and then i work at three
levels necessary possible and impossible and i think they're really helpful ways of getting
application but we'll look at those more this afternoon that is necessary application how it
must apply to everybody possible how it applies to me and impossible how it can never apply to anyone
and i encourage students and i'd encourage you to work at this impossible application
because i think most of the times when i work at impossible application the majority of the people
who are listening to me preaching are living consistently with the impossible application
of the passage now that might sound fairly negative but i think it's true that the majority
of people listening to you on sunday morning are probably living consistently with an impossible
application of the passage and that's why it's helpful to say this passage cannot be understood
like this and tell us how it can't be understood and you think yeah that's exactly the way i think
jesus said you can't serve god and money oh but i can it's impossible to think that i can serve
on the base of the words of jesus both god and money you can't but i live as though i can
and so it's good to work at the impossible level and so most sermons that i hear at college that
i've got a critique i think very often it's in this area that they need more work and i think
most sermons that i preach it's in this area that i need to give more work don carston said recently
the problem with sydney preaching is that we put all our effort here and we put very little effort
here and here that is that we're very careful about our exegesis the there and then aspects
but we're not so determined to apply the truth and so i want to put more time here
okay so that's basically the model we're going to be looking at when we come back after morning
so you have any questions about that or any comments sorry yes sorry yeah
yeah it's a bit of a problem saturday night yeah
it's okay monday morning if you've got a few big ideas but saturday night it's a problem
yeah well most texts are quite complex and you could say so it just seems to me that
it's like those satellite photos you know where you look at the world and then you come down and
look at australia then you come down to the east coast and you come down to newcastle then you
come down to your street now somehow if you find yourself with a few big ideas you've just got to
take a bigger view again and say no no no but what is the big one now at that point we may argue
but it could well be therefore that you've got to adjust the text that you're preaching so for
example at our church recently we did the book of judaonomy in five weeks and i just think that's
ridiculous you know one one one week i'm to do chapter six through to 15 i mean how many big
ideas are in chapter six to 15 of judaonomy it's just too big and so if you find yourself with a
lot of big ideas perhaps you should just filter down to a smaller text yeah okay but you have to
keep working at it and someone said i don't know who that preaching really is the art of summary
and that's what this does i mean you're actually summarizing the passage aren't
you you're putting it into a structured form to deliver to people yeah now
oh yeah right okay okay thank you for that
yes yeah yeah yeah yeah well i think that's sort of like the big idea isn't it so i think
adam's preaching with purpose and had robinson's biblical preaching is the same in that way
uh adams claims that his text is unique he's you know it's a very big uh introduction to that book
isn't it where he says there's never been a preaching book written like this and then he
tells us that the the big idea is purpose or telos of the text and i think that's just the
big idea um now the other way of thinking about is well in which of the four categories does it
fall teaching correcting rebuking training where does it fall that's looking at purpose as well
yes so you in your preparation you start at the bottom of the
here anyway well sort of don't i i start at the top left hand and then i sweep down here
and work up and then i come back to the bottom that's just the way i do it
yeah that's what i do sorry i that's that's how i get so i go left hand corner movement summary
dominant picture subject complement big idea big question so i'm going up and down okay
yeah you can you can that's probably a better way of doing it isn't it if you want to be systematic
and move up that way yeah that's right um the now the thing here that i think that's good about this
and and you've got to work out the way that suits you uh but i found having done this overseas that
this is readily adapted across a culture as well so i found in doing it both in southeast asia
africa and in new guinea that pastors can latch on to this that's one good thing the other thing
is that at this point where we're working apart from the commentary now i don't know how it is
with you but it's like the script union method if you remember the script union method it was
you pray read the bible pray sorry pray read the bible think read the notes and then pray
and what i would do is pray read the bible read the notes and pray i i would skip the think because
i'd let the commentator tell me about the passage now with don parson's book for the love of god
the great temptation is just to read his commentary for the day not even read the bible and he says
that's the great danger in the beginning read the bible now i think with the commentary i go to the
commentary and i read what the commentator has to say and i haven't actually done any fresh thinking
about the text myself it would be foolish to disregard what the commentator says to disregard
the the history of interpretation of the church but to look at it too early i think people have
not come to hear don carthon they've come to hear us truth through personality and if i'm just
regurgitating ff bruce it's not me and therefore i need to be working in this area and then to go to
bruce and don carthon with my questions after i've thought about but i try and discipline myself
i start preparation monday morning and i try not to look at a commentary till thursday afternoon
so i'm in this area with all the other things i've got to do in the week but i'm always in this era
i'm thinking about this area i'm talking to people about it but i'm not going to look at the
definitive answers to the questions until i've thought a lot about it myself
yes again perhaps my comment is another one but would you comment on
how long after many years ministry you still get to preparing a term
um in that some questions in your pyramid here what sort of time allocations do you think that
there's still a lot of work that you don't watch out for the fact that you're trying to get
the sermon presentation can you give a little comment on how you allocate your time
yes well i'll go well okay so basically if i'm going i like i'm because i i just preach
i just lecture in preaching now pretty well in order to do that with integrity i need to be
preparing a new sermon every week because unless i'm doing that that's what you guys are doing
and as an itinerant i guess you could prepare a sermon and just preach it for six weeks in
a row but i so i preach pretty well most wednesdays of principles hour a new sermon at the moment i'm
moving through one thessalonians so in order to do that i i think i would take about a full day
to prepare a sermon on thessalonians um look i don't know if i've got them here but what we
did on thessalonians i divided the the one thessalonians up into 10 sections and then
i outlined 10 sermons
and produced a book i don't think yes i have here so this is the book i prepared for principles hour
it's talks and studies on one thessalonians so what we did is
um my son-in-law steven young co-wrote the book with me now in his church they were working
through what they call big wednesday night they bring all their bible study groups together once
a year to do a series on on a book and they were doing one thessalonians so what steve did is he
prepared all the bible studies and i prepared the 10 sermons so the first sermon here is apostolic
church planting act 17 the planting of the church at ephesus so i outline the sermon
on the basis of the study that i've done in the pyramid so for each of these sermons i've done
a pyramid then you say there's the sermon outline and then there's the bible study right and uh so
next week i preach uh on the sermon and there's the bible study outline now you've got to realize
that our what we do at our college is we we are determined to not adopt the university model of
equipping people for ministry by that i mean the secular university where the lecturer comes in
gives his lecture and you never see him again until next week so we we stress access of faculty
to students and we also stress that being equipped for ministry is not just about head but heart as
well and so this goes out to all the students and this is the basis they hear the sermon and then
for their quiet times during the week and then you've got 10 studies and at the back of this
you've also got leaders notes for each of the studies just exegetical notes so in order to do
that see i've got to be prepared once there's learning this semester i've really got to prepare
that over the christmas vacation period get all my outlines using my pyramid but i would think
that once i've got that i then sit down and i've got the basis of next week's sermon already
outlined and i've got all my pyramid work done so that i can then go to the commentary because
i've got all the questions in my mind so i think about a day a day of work about 12 13 14 hours
that'd be a total i think but i was in paris i had a morning sermon and an evening sermon
and i started preparing monday morning and i'd get the morning sermon done by wednesday afternoon
and that only gave me thursday and friday morning to prepare the evening sermon
but you can do it if you're working you know you get into the habit of doing your pyramid
and it just falling out and i think it's the habit of coming
to the summary and getting the big idea that's the important thing okay someone else
yes
yeah
First of all, you're thinking about ministry. Everything you're doing is designed to feed
the Word to them. So you set up your Bible study groups, you get your preaching program
ready, you see that at the heart of pastoral ministry is Bible and therefore that soon
communicates itself to the congregation. You set up your own Bible college or whatever
you want to do, at the heart of everything you're doing is Bible. You scratch me and
I believe Bible. Now that's what our pastors like and so I figure well I soon cotton on
to that and I think well this is a new way of thinking for Presbyterians, this is a new
way of thinking, but I like it and I think you just keep at that all the time. Okay,
someone else? Okay, I've got five minutes, let's just look at a pyramid. Let's look at
a fairly straightforward pyramid just to get an example of one. Now here we're looking
at Psalm 1. Now in Psalm 1, if you'd like to open your Bibles to Psalm 1 we'll just
have a look at it for five minutes. Now, what I've put under Bible notice in the context
I notice that the book of Psalms I'm just noting in the canon is the prayer book of
the Old Testament. In the book itself it is a wisdom Psalm and it's the opening of the
Psalter, so it's the first Psalm, it's not the third, the second Psalm, it's the third
Psalm, it's the first Psalm and therefore it's introducing the themes of the Psalter
itself and the sorts of themes that it's introducing are righteousness, wickedness, judgment, the
way of blessing. So that's my context work on Psalm 1. Now I come down and I now move
from the foot of the triangle here. He seems to be describing in three movements the blessed
man in verses 1 to 3, the wicked man in 4 and 5 and then he gives us a summary in verse
6. So like a typical wisdom Psalm which is quite black and white, quite contrasting,
he says blessed is the man who does not, this is what he does and the wicked are not
so, there is the clearest contrast and then he sums up in verse 6. Now I then summarise
in my own words, blessed is the man who does not walk, stand or sit with the wicked, the
sinner and the mocker, verse 1, that's what he does not do, I just note that for myself.
2, he delights in and meditates on God's law, verse 2, that's what he does do, that's
his positive equivalent. 3, he is like a fruitful, prosperous tree, verse 3. 4, the wicked are
like chaff, so you've got tree, chaff and will not stand in the judgment, verses 4 and
5. 5, the Lord approves of the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked will perish,
verse 6. When I move up to the dominant picture therefore it's fairly clear in Psalm 1, the
contrast of the healthy productive tree and the rootless chaff. So it's a fairly clear
contrast, he just doesn't say here is the righteous man, here is the wicked man, he
says here is the fruitful tree, here is the chaff, that's the contrast. Now subject, now
this is where, just in answer to your question, you think what is this Psalm about? You could
answer it in lots of ways but I thought well it's really probably about blessedness and
the way of blessedness but I want to actually get myself to do one, two or three words in
that summary, blessedness. What does it say about blessedness? It says the blessed are
those who have no solidarity with the wicked and who delight in God's law, who will stand
in judgment and who are watched over by Yahweh. Now then that brings me to the big idea and
I put those, the subject and the complement together, the blessed person lives in solidarity
with Yahweh and not in solidarity with wickedness and has nothing to be ashamed of in the presence
of others and is watched over by the Lord. So that is my big idea. Then I move to the
questions and I try and give myself as many options as possible. What is blessedness? How
to be blessed? Why seek God's blessing? What is the difference between righteousness and wickedness?
And I try and put as many options in as possible and then I just put a border around what I think
is the question that the Psalm answers. What is blessedness? This is what it is not, this is the
blessed person, this is what he does not do, this is what he does do. The wicked are not like that
and this is God's summation of the situation. And then that brings me down to what does this teach
me about God? Well it teaches me that he has a law to be meditated on, he will judge, that he watches
over the way of the righteous and that he judges wickedness. What does it teach me about us? Be
careful of what we delight in, who we show solidarity with. God has made us to be fruitful
and productive, not ruthless and directionless. What is the necessary application to everybody?
Be the truly blessed person by delighting in God and showing no solidarity with the wicked.
Possible? Be careful of the progressive immorality of verse 1, that is of walking, standing, sitting.
So it's progressive isn't it? Immobile. So I walk, I stand, I sit, I become progressively immobile
with the wicked. So be careful of that in a moral sense. Make sure I give time to that in which I delight,
namely God's law. Impossible. The truly blessed man is the one who does his own thing, he is a
law unto himself. We are not blessed when we are in control of our own destiny. You see I think I'm
blessed when I'm in control of my own destiny. Freedom therefore is ignoring mocking of God and
his legalistic constraints, that is what freedom is. It is impossible to understand the Psalm to be
saying that and yet many of our people may well believe that. Many of our people may well believe
that to be truly free and to be truly blessed is to have the freedom to do my own thing, but that
is an impossible understanding of the Psalm. The Psalmist is a man under the direction of that
on which he meditates, namely God's law. So that just gives you a basis. Now I haven't looked at the
I haven't looked at the commentaries yet but I now have an idea of where this sermon's going
because this area here will give me the structure of what I'm going to say.
Here is my big question, here is my structured exposition and here is the application and so I
want to put a lot of time into this area and to this area. How do I show you that this is a
question that is relevant for you at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning? Why should you know what it means
to be blessed? And so I've got to work hard at reaching you at this point and then of applying
appropriately to you as well. In my congregation there was a bloke who said to me on one occasion
he said you preach in the black and white, I live in the world of the grey. You preach in black and
white, I live in the world of the grey. He was a tax accountant. Now he is constantly facing ethical
dilemmas which I have no idea about and I need to understand them if my application of the
word of God is to be appropriate for him. I need to know the sorts of pressures that he's under.
Okay well what we're going to do after morning tea is we're going to look at one more pyramid,
the one that I've outlined there in your sheets and then we're going to prepare a pyramid
together in pairs on Matthew chapter 5 and then I'll preach the sermon on Matthew 5.
Okay so we have morning tea.