THS-02-2. First Steps in Sermon Construction

2. First Steps in Sermon Construction The preparation of a sermon is partly conditioned by the demands for our services. Our names are on a circuit plan, or we have a regular appointment, or we are ministers in charge of churches, and we must preach according to arrangement. We cannot wait until we are given a definite message, or until we are moved by the Spirit of God. The prophets presumably did that--they spoke only when they heard the voice of God, and their messages live until this day. But we must speak whenever necessity or convention demand it. Even so, it should always be true that we have a message. By virtue of our ability to preach at all, we are in a sense shepherds of the flock. We ought therefore to have their needs on our hearts. There are subjects on which they need instruction. Let us remember that we are not asked to preach for our own sakes, but for the sake of others. We select our sermon topics in view of these facts.

Sometimes the nature of our message is determined by special seasons, as Christmas and Easter, or recognized festivals, like anniversaries or harvest festivals. Churches which observe the Church Year are accustomed to hear sermons on the appropriate lessons from the Gospels or the Epistles suitable to, the various seasons of the year. Whatever the day or the occasion, let us realize that we stand as the messengers of God, commissioned by Him to speak His Word.

Value of Outline

You have chosen your subject--what then? How may you best present it to the congregation? It is well to have an outline, to keep your thoughts in order. It is a pity when a sermon lacks coherence or plan. Good ideas may be lost by the hearer, interesting illustrations may fail to admit the light, and choice language may seem pointless, all because the sermon followed no principle of construction. A good outline gives order and sequence to the thoughts presented. The outline of the sermon is what the bony framework is to the body. A skeleton is not of much value by itself, but when it is covered by living tissue it is of tremendous importance. A sermon outline does two things at least:

I recently heard a doctor addressing a Christian assembly. He said he had never preached a sermon in his life, and did not go much on first secondly and thirdly. But before he was through his address he said. "There was a third thing I wanted to say," and he betrayed the fact that he was following good homiletical procedure after all, and we remembered what he said all the better because he was using a mental outline and had three lessons he was emphasizing. You may find that good ideas are hazy in your own mind until you sort them out in some outline form. It is very important in preaching that the preacher be clear in his own grasp of ideas, and in the expression of them. You will never make them clear to other people if they are not clear to you. The arrangement of our thoughts in an outline is one of the best means of accomplishing that end. An outline not only helps the preacher to clarify his thought; it helps him to develop thinking. It is a creative process. Dr. Johnson, according to Boswell, said: "The divisions not only help the memory of the hearer, but direct the judgment of the writer; they supply sources of invention, and keep every part in its proper place." Note that statement: They supply sources of invention. Many preachers without a large background of material are often puzzled about how to go to work to find it. Anything that will supply sources of invention is important, and that is one of the functions of the outline.

Question the Text

You have been attracted by a text. You sense its value and truth. But how can you amplify its statement, illustrate its truth, and discover enough material to occupy the time for an address? One of the first lessons I ever learned was to question the text. Ask: "Who? What? Why? Where? When? How?" Take, for instance, a text like Romans 4:3 b: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." To answer those questions about this text you will be obliged to go both to the context in Romans 4, and to the story of Abraham in Genesis. When you have read those passages carefully and thoughtfully, and have answered the questions, you will have quite a lot of information concerning a man’s history, and an important doctrine. You will have quite enough material for a sermon as long as you ought to try to preach at this stage. You will also have the basis of an outline. You could take three or four of the most suggestive of these questions, and make them your main headings. You might even leave them in question form, and make your answer to each the material for the sermon, thus:

Later we shall talk about introductions and conclusions and subdivisions, but at present we are concerned in getting at the chief ideas which provide the main headings of the sermon.

Dr. James Black, in "The Mystery of Preaching," emphasizes the same idea. "When I have my text or subject, I put a series of questions to it, and try to answer them. I box its ears something like this: What do you mean? What did you mean for that man in his own day? Why was he led to say this? ... And are you true always? Do you mean the same for me today? What would it mean for me if I accepted what you teach? What principles or duties do you involve for me? ... What must I do to make your message real and true in my own life? How can I illustrate modernly what you teach for myself and others?" You will notice that Dr. Black’s questions ask for the meaning of the words when they were written, and the truth of them, but particularly concerning their meaning and truth for us, today. That is how a great preacher applies Scripture teaching to life. We must all learn to do that, more or less. It would repay you richly as a preacher if you memorized those questions from Dr. Black, as you would learn a poem. If you can ask questions of a text in that way, and can answer them at all intelligently, you could hardly fail to be an interesting preacher. It means work, of course--hard work. To be a worth-while preacher you must be prepared to work.

Plan No. 1 Let us call this questioning idea Plan No. 1.

It has been my experience that students require time to appreciate the value of this question method, and to use it to advantage. Sometimes there is a lack of imagination, but there is often a suspicion that there has been a lack of sufficiently hard work. Cultivate the habit of asking many questions, so that when you have answered them you have sufficient material for a sermon.

Let us take another example. Hebrews 11:24-26 : "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward." Now for your questions. It would pay you to pause here and ask your own questions and compare them with what follows.

What are the historical facts behind this text? (You must read Exodus to get them.) What were the circumstances when Moses became of age that made a choice necessary? What choices did he make? What afflictions did he suffer because of his choice? What does the reproach of Christ mean? What did he renounce? What was involved in being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter? What pleasures of sin were meant in Moses’ case? Is sin pleasurable? What treasures of Egypt would have been his had he done the other thing? What enabled him to make such a great renunciation and such a choice? What is faith? How does it act to make such choices possible? Is my faith strong enough to make me do something worthwhile? Will my faith stand in a crisis? Is there any great renunciation I should make? Are there any great choices, fraught with big consequences, that I should make?

You see there are many questions you may ask a text. Some of them, and the answers, may be useless for your purpose. But out of them all, when by diligence and hard work, you have answered them, you will have abundance of material for a sermon. We have not studied introductions and conclusions yet, but you would not find it difficult to provide them here. Your answers may suggest an outline like this:

Introduction.--Briefly tell the story of Moses, leading up to this crisis in his life.

For a conclusion, apply the lesson to our own lives, testing our faith, our choices, the renunciation we must make.

If you did not attempt what was earlier suggested, and do your own reading in Exodus And study the text for yourself, and ask your own questions, and answer them, the above outline will be just an outline. But if you really worked at it, you have a stock of interesting material good enough for any congregation, which if presented in this form with earnestness and power, would bring a living message to human hearts. For Review:

1. Discuss the values of an outline in

2. What is the essential value of the question method outlined in this chapter?

3. Prepare outlines of sermons on Hebrews 11:4 and James 5:16 b-17, using Plan No. 1.