I am afraid that many of the people in the pew do not want to know what biblical preaching is. They really don’t want to hear “doctrinal teaching.” They want “preaching” rather than the teaching of the Word of God. They want a quick fifteen minute lesson that is going to make them feel good about their un holy and sinful living.
What Biblical Preaching is and isn’t? What makes preaching “biblical?
Isn’t all preaching “biblical” preaching?
What does a “non-biblical” sermon sound like and should it really matter? What is at stake when we claim the need for biblical preaching? What difference does biblical preaching make for our congregations, our communities and for the church in the world?
On this subject of preaching, one of the elemental question is”What is biblical preaching?” Everyone who takes Scripture seriously says we need to preach the Bible, but what is it
Are you handling the Old Testament faithfully, as well as the New Testament?
How do you know that you have heard a biblical sermon?
WHAT IS NOT A BIBLICAL SERMON?
Was there a “text” in the sermon? Is there a willingness, even a perceivable contentment, to move quickly away from the text, never to return. As a result, the biblical text no longer provides the content of the sermon, no longer guides the sermon and there is little interest in having the sermon do what the text is doing.
If the sermon content is derived elsewhere and frequently could have been suggested just as well by a fortune cookie is not biblical preaching.
If the text that is been read becomes irrelevant, and unable to speak itself into the lives of the congregations then it is not biblical preaching.
If sermon burns the bridge between the text and the sermon than you do not have a biblical sermon.
If the preacher is telling the congregations how to live and the text is not in agreement then its not a biblical sermon.
If the text or passages of scriptures does not speak to the congregations then it is not biblical preaching.
A biblical sermons is not motivational speaking. We know those who speak to “encourage” people in their living the Christian life. They tell a lot of stories, and seek to sway through emotion and pop psychology. They might sprinkle in a few scripture.
A biblical sermon is not known by the tone of the sermon, how loud the preacher preachers
WHAT DOES A BIBICAL SERMON SOUND LIKE?
A biblical sermon is one that is “incarnational” i.e. the Word of God becomes flesh and needs to be make flesh as it were over and over again. The content of the sermon is never just words on a page – it is the very presence of the risen Christ who makes God known (John 1:18).
A biblical sermon or preaching is textual . I have said this so many times. Read the text, explain the text, give understanding of the text, and apply the text. Let the text or verses speak for itself. When the sermon is over, the people will say “Well that is what the text says.”
A biblical sermon is contextual. If you are preaching Luke, make sure that the sermon is in harmony with the other gospels. But if you preach Luke, preach Luke, and not John or Matthew. As I am learning how Luke wrote his gospel is for a reason. So preach what Luke says in his book. Too the preaching of the sermon will take on the tone of the text and the author. When David prays we should reflect that tone in the preaching. Paul was upset in Galatians about the false teachers, his tone was not in favor of their listening to them teach false doctrine. Paul make some strong remarks about the false teachers.
A biblical sermon is theological. What is the text saying that God is saying. The text itself is to be privileged; the text (with its theology) is to be preached. What is the author doing with what he is saying is stated clearly. The sermon will also give generalization application where the text is not specific. Whatever the theology from whatever the portions the sermon is taken from, the biblical form of the text is best way to express that truth the preacher is trying to explain. Preaching is not only telling a story but what the story, or event is telling about God’s principles in living life.
A biblical sermon is spiritual. The preacher seeks above all to have people influenced by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, not stories. Biblical preachers rely totally upon the Scripture, the text to drive the content and to feed God’s sheep.
There can be sermons that are homiletically brilliant, verbally fluent, theologically profound, biblically accurate and orthodox, and spiritually useless. I Corinthians 3:6-7. It is who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (I Cor. 3:6-7).
It is very possible for us to be deeply concerned about homiletically ability and fluency and theological profundity and biblical orthodoxy, but to know nothing of the life – giving power of God with the burning anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our ministry.
Campbell Morgan (Lloyd-Jones’s predecessor at the Westminster Chapel) divulged that at one crucial stage in his ministry he was in precisely this position, and sensed that God was saying to him, “Preach on, great preacher, without me.”
Alan Redpath used to say that the most penetrating question you could ask about any church situation was, “What is happening in this place that cannot be explained in merely human terms?”
A Biblical sermon is Expository preaching. Biblical Preacher in my opinion which I learned from Steven Lawson, and John MacArthur and Al Molder and a number of others. Simply put: read the text, give an understanding of the text, make application of the text. and all the other elements that I have said thus far.
http://biblicalpreaching.net/
