Which Comes First — The Need or the Text?
Where do you begin your sermon preparation – with a contemporary need, or with a biblical text? This is a trick question, and you should not fall for it. Be careful neither to emphasize human need to the neglect of the text, nor to emphasize the text to the neglect of human need. To do the former is to wallow in a quagmire of questions with no real answers. To do the latter is to try to preach the Bible while missing the point of the Bible.
All human need is rooted in the brokenness of creation brought on by sin. The purpose of the Scriptures is to point to God’s mission of redemption and restoration – the only real answer to our need.
You can’t truly address human need without pointing to God’s solution in the Scriptures. You can’t truly preach the Scriptures without applying them to the brokenness that is at the root of all human need.
Where do you begin? You can begin at either end – with a text or with a need. But if you begin with the text, be sure to move quickly in the direction of need. And if you begin with need, be sure to move quickly towards the text.
The real question for preachers, then, is this: “What is the best path from need to text, and from text to need?” Here are some pointers for traveling in either direction on this all-important homiletical highway.
Moving from Text to Need
Let’s say you are preaching verse-by-verse through books of the Bible. You begin always with a text. In this case, there are two temptations to resist. The first is merely to treat the text in its historical, cultural, and literary context without ever making the journey to contemporary need. You might think you have preached the Bible, but in actuality you have neglected its redemptive purpose and ignored its transforming power.
The other temptation is simply to read your contemporary situation into the text. In this case, you have violated the historical nature of the Scriptures and made need master over the text rather than allowing the text to speak authoritatively to the need.
Here are some questions to guide your thought processes as you study the text to lead to a sermon that connects human need with the biblical message:
What aspect of human brokenness does this text address, and how does it point to the gospel as the solution? This is the overarching question for all gospel-driven preaching. In some texts, the answer may be obvious. In others, you may need to ask more questions before finding the answer ….
What is the story within the text and/or behind the text? The first connection between the ancient text and the contemporary need is that every text is born within the context of the human story of which we are all a part. Don’t rush to abstract principles drawn from the text. Begin with the story within the text, or the story behind the text.
Who are the main human characters in this story, and in what way are their questions, challenges, and struggles common to all of humanity? We may be separated from the Bible writers by time, geography, language, and culture, but the basic nature and symptoms of our brokenness are the same. While taking into account how the biblical characters are different from us, look also for the ways they are like us.
What solution does the text suggest for the problem? Is there a truth to believe? Power to claim? A path to walk? A shift in perspective created by the cross and resurrection of Jesus? If the text does not provide a solution directly, zoom out to see it in the broader scope of the gospel story.
What does this solution look like for your hearers? Learning to answer this question well is the key to mastering the art of biblical application. You should neither leave the application in the ancient past nor leap too quickly to the present. Rather, process the truth of the text through the gospel. In light of the insight you have gained about God and his will through the study of the text, how should we live in our particular moment in the gospel story?
Moving from Need to Text
Sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to address a particular need in a timely manner. Or maybe you are simply wired towards starting on the “need” end of the spectrum in your preaching. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be biblical, or even expository as you preach. But you do need to find a deliberate path from need back to the text.
The temptation to resist in this case is to decide what you want to say about a particular need, or the solution you want to offer, and then look for a proof text to support your pre-determined message. This is “using” the Bible for your purposes, and will almost always lead you to abuse the text and offer up pop psychology, self-help mantras, or your own opinions, instead of a truly authoritative word from God.
You can, however, carefully search the Scriptures for the gospel answer to whatever question or need you want to address. Here is a thought process to help you do this:
How is this need or question an expression of our brokenness because of sin? Remember, sin is the root of all of our need. When you understand the problem’s source, you are ready to search for its solution in a biblical text.
How does the overall arc of the Gospel address this need? Starting with the big picture provides the backdrop for your study. Get an idea of the broad lay of the land before you zoom in on a potential text for the sermon.
What specific passage within the story of the Bible will best address the need as your hearers are experiencing it? To answer this question, survey the Scriptures with an eye for where this particular expression of human brokenness shows up in each genre.
Do we find it in a fundamental way in the primal stories of Genesis, the lives of the patriarchs, or the exodus and conquest of the promised land?
Did the Judges, Kings, or other characters in the historical OT books deal with it?
Did the sages of the Wisdom literature address it?
Did the psalmists struggle with it? Did their worship acknowledge it?
Did the visions or oracles of the prophets confront, challenge, or reassure God’s people in relation to it?
Did Jesus’ encounters with people, his miracle, his teachings and parables speak to it – does his passion and resurrection somehow resolve it in a specific way?
Did the early church encounter it in the book of Acts?
Did the epistles offer principles or answers?
Did the apocalypse, in its vision of our future, offer some resolution?
With the entire range of possibilities before you, choose the text that you feel best fits your situation, then go back and follow the steps on the path “from text to need” above. Study the passage carefully and allow it to speak to the need in whatever way it most clearly speaks. Even if it leads you in directions that you did not expect, let the solution flow from the text, rather than imposing a pre-determined solution upon it. You will often find that the text will surprise you with answers that speak to the need with greater relevance and truth than you had ever imagined.
