Planning a Topical Sermon Series

Many preachers who share my conviction that the best preaching is “expository preaching” would also say that “expository preaching” requires that every sermon series be a meticulous verse-by-verse walk through a book of the Bible. Certainly there is great value and rich rewards in this kind of preaching ministry. However, you may at least occasionally (and perhaps quite often) feel you need to preach a series of sermons on a particular topic. Is it possible to be an expository preacher without limiting yourself to expository sermon series? I believe it is, but how you approach the planning of your topical series is important.

The “Pre-Fab” Series

Let’s say you want to preach a series of sermons on marriage. Where do you begin? For many preachers, the first impulse would be to read two or three good books on marriage, discern from these the Big Ideas that need to be presented, and then look for preaching texts that support these major chunks. Once you assign a preaching text to each of the Big Ideas on your list, you have the outline of your sermon series. The primary attraction of this approach is that you can ensure that you will cover what you need to cover in regard to the topic you want to address.

However, this approach comes with some real problems. First, the Big Ideas of the sermons are pre-determined, leaving little possibility that they could flow from the text itself. You “use” the text to say what you decided beforehand to say. Because of this, whatever study you do is likely not to be done with an eye to discover the text’s meaning, but rather to find ways to manipulate it, or “use” it selectively, to justify the statements you want to make from it. Using books on marriage to strengthen your sermon series is well and good. But they should function as illustration and development of the point of the text. In this scenario, the text becomes the illustration rather than the foundation of the message.

The “Word-Search” Series

Another possibility for a sermon series on marriage might be to search the Scriptures for everything you can find on marriage. Exhortations, examples of married couples, words of wisdom, or relevant poetry might all come to mind. Once you have all the possibilities before you, choose a direction and begin your study. The result might be a series called “A Christ-Centred Marriage” from Ephesians 5, or “Principles for Marriage” from Proverbs, or “Great Marriages in the Old Testament,” or “Romantic Love” from Song of Solomon.

This approach has the advantage of establishing the biblical text as the source and substance of the message. As long as you do solid exegesis, and conscientiously move from what you learn from the text in your study to what you preach from the text in your pulpit, you have confidence that you will be proclaiming biblical truth. However, you are likely to end up with a series that addresses only one facet of your topic. If your goal is a broad biblical view of marriage, you will likely find you need a broader selection of texts.

The “Big Story” Series

Here’s a third alternative for planning a topical series. Explore your topic from the perspective of the Big Story of the Bible. Begin your thought process by asking these three questions of your topic and its relationship to the Scriptures:

• What is God’s purpose?

• How has sin mucked it up?

• How has Jesus redeemed it?

I call these “Gospel Fluency” questions. Using these questions to explore your topic helps you to think through it in a thoroughly biblical and gospel-driven way. Perhaps even more importantly, it provides your hearers with a good example of applying the gospel story to any area of life. I’m convinced that gospel-shaped disciples must be able to think and speak the gospel into every situation. Our hearers will grow in their own “gospel fluency” as we model this clear and simple thought pattern. What is God’s purpose? How has sin mucked it up? How has Jesus redeemed it?

Let’s apply these questions to our marriage series.

1. What is God’s purpose?

The first sermon or two is likely to be based on the first two chapters of Genesis. Here we find God’s ideal for marriage in creation and in the garden. Husband and wife are “one flesh.” They share everything, including the very image of God. They are together commissioned by God to "be fruitful and multiply." They share a responsibility before God to exercise dominion as his vice-regents on the earth. They are naked and not ashamed.

2. How does sin muck it up?

The middle part of the series might also begin with Genesis, as we see the immediate consequences of sin in the shame, blame, and alienation between Adam and Eve. Beyond this, the possibilities are many. We might explore the dysfunctions that pop up in the marriages of various couples in the Old Testament. We could also study the concessions in the law to address marital brokenness. Then the Proverbs contain some powerful nuggets that address marital strife and unfaithfulness. The prophets also speak boldly to the issue.

3. How does Jesus Redeem it?

Here, we want to think through the various ways the Biblical story points to Jesus as the cure for the sickness that sin has brought to marriage. We might start in the Old Testament, where Hosea’s redemption of his wife prefigures the price God’s son would pay to reconcile his bride, and provides a drastic and vivid example of forgiveness in a home. In the Gospels we find Jesus correcting casual attitudes towards marriage and divorce, recalling God’s ideal of “one flesh” in Genesis. In Acts, we see an example of a husband and wife team, united in the spread of the Gospel. Then the household codes of the Epistles paint a radically counter-cultural picture of husbands and wives living in mutual submission to one another as an outworking of the gospel.

Consider preaching a “Big Story” series or two each year. It will give you the opportunity to address an important topic in a thoroughly biblical and gospel-driven way. Even more importantly, you will develop disciples by helping your hearers grow in “gospel fluency.”