Gospel-Driven Theological Reflection
Moving from Text to Sermon
One of the greatest challenges of biblical preaching is blazing the trail from the ancient text to the contemporary world. Once you have diligently studied the historical and literary context, examined and analyzed the text itself, verified and amplified your thinking through some good research and come to some solid exegetical conclusions about what the text meant, how do you take the next step to determine what the text means for your particular group of hearers?
Some preachers opt not to make the journey at all. Their comfort zone is simply to apply the process of biblical interpretation that they have received and leave it at that. Explaining the past is objective, clear-cut and comfortable. Bringing meaning from the past into the present seems subjective, ambiguous and perhaps a bit scary. So, they deliver outstanding lectures on the Bible, with no real application to contemporary life.
This is not an option for preachers who would fulfill our calling to exhort, encourage, comfort and challenge God’s people from God’s word. Our task is not done until we “bring the message home” to where our people live. To do this faithfully, we need a process for the path from text to sermon. I’ll mention three common approaches to this challenge, and then propose one I have found most helpful:
The “Preacher-as-Bridge” Method
Perhaps most common path from text to sermon relies almost completely on the preacher’s intuition. As we do our study of the text, we begin to get impressions, make connections, have flashes of creative insight about how this text’s truth might apply to our hearers. We learn to capture these thoughts and perhaps write them down so that, when the time comes to put the sermon together we already have some direction in place.
The foundation for this approach is the general truism that biblical preaching is the communication of a truth that has been revealed by God in the ancient world, to hearers who live in the contemporary world, by a preacher who is intimately acquainted with both worlds. A classic image of the preacher is a person who stands before the people with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
It is true, as John Stott said, that we stand “between two worlds.” Cultivating this cross-cultural capacity is indeed important for every preacher. However, as the sole path from text to sermon, the “Preacher-as-Bridge” method will almost always fall short. Some days we are more creative and intuitive than others. And some days we have nothing at all. Also, if I am applying the text week after week to the same congregation, eventually all my applications will begin to seem the same, reflecting my own tendencies, “pet peeves” or “sweet spots.” We need some prompts to get us going and to keep us fresh.
The Devotional Method
Another approach is to process our study through spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation. As we pray through a text with our hearers in mind and meditate on its meaning, we rely on God’s Spirit to guide us to a contemporary application that fits his agenda for the people who will hear the message.
This approach has some real theological merit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in revealing Christ, through both inspiration of the Scriptures and through the illumination of those who read and/or hear them. Both the ancient world and the contemporary world are the spheres of the Spirit’s activity. We should expect that the preacher’s mind and heart would be as well.
Like the “intuition” principle above, the devotional component should permeate our preparation process from beginning to end. Every preacher should have a constant awareness of preparing sermons in God’s presence, under God’s direction, for God’s purpose. By all means, walk the path from text to sermon in communion with the Holy Spirit. Yet, there is still a sense that our journey could use some objective signposts to help us to stay on track.
The “Principlizing” Method
I was taught in seminary that the best path to application was first to determine what the text meant when it was written, then translate that meaning into an eternal truth that stands behind it. Finally, translate that eternal truth into the language and experiences of the contemporary world.
This is a reasonable approach that sees the link between what the text’s original meaning and its contemporary meaning as an eternal meaning. Behind what was true then and what is true now is a meaning that is true always. The very exercise of articulating the eternal truth behind the text can be clarifying and stimulating.
This approach also has its strengths, but it has two had two significant weaknesses. First, the requirement of a double translation is a bit cumbersome. I know from a lifetime of speaking multiple languages that something is always lost in translation. If we must translate from a first language into a second, and then translate again from the second language into a third, we are even farther removed from the original meaning. The second weakness is that the “universal principle” tends to sap the real-life energy from the text. Placing a generic principle between the text and the hearers can have an anesthetic, depersonalizing effect.
Gospel-Driven Theological Reflection
In my own search for the best path from text to sermon, I began to look for a process that would provide some objective “guide rails” for my “preacher’s intuition” and spiritual discernment. The process also needed to help me see the text in its broader significance without distilling it to a generic universal principle. My answer came at the intersection of this quest with another question: “How do we proclaim the gospel in every sermon?” To answer both of these, I propose including in the center of our process of sermon preparation a time for theological reflection that examines the truth of the text through the lens of the gospel.
The “guide rails” as well as the “engine” for this gospel-driven theological reflection are a series of questions that help us to see each text in light of the full revelation of God:
The Story Question: How does this text fit into God’s grand story?
The Brokenness Question: What area of human brokenness does this text address?
The Redemption Question: How does this text point to or anticipate Jesus as the solution?
The Application Question: How does this text invite us into God’s story?
Since I will write a post on each one of these questions, I will not discuss them in detail here. But I would note the general arc. The story question is in its essence a contextual question. It calls us to look beyond the literary context to an even bigger picture – the context of the entire Canon. The brokenness and redemption questions serve the purpose of keeping the gospel at the core of the message we are preaching. The application question helps us to discover application that is more focused than a preacher’s intuitive leap and also broader than a merely utilitarian list of “things to do.”
I have found that asking and answering these four questions in the middle of my journey from text to sermon has been transformative for my preaching. First, it has made this journey so much easier and less stressful. Once I have defined my exegetical conclusions, I spend an hour or less answering these questions, and the substructure of the sermon comes easily to the surface. The paragraphs I write in response to each question often find their way into my sermons. Even when they do not, they shape the sermon significantly. Beyond these practical benefits, I believe my preaching has become more God-focused and worshipful. Perhaps most importantly, I believe my hearers are gaining a more robust biblical worldview.
These four simple questions might seem rather elementary and perhaps even a waste of time. But I would encourage you just to try adding this step to the middle of your process a few times. I think you will find it worth your while.
