How Do We Interpret the Bible?

Paul told Timothy to "be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15)." Of course, Paul was speaking to Timothy,
the young pastor of Ephesus, so therefore that verse does not apply to all of us. Not so. It certainly
primarily applies to pastors and teachers in the Church but in a Reformed Church all believers are
prophets, priests and kings – this is what the Reformation was all about. All believers are to be students
of Scripture for we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly so that, in all wisdom, we may teach and
admonish one another (Colossians 3:16). But how are we to handle the Word of Truth correctly, or rightly
divide it so we come to a correct understanding of it? The basic principle to remember is that the Bible
has essentially one author and that is the Holy Spirit. Thus we may say, the Holy Spirit interprets the Holy
Spirit. Says the Westminster in its last paragraph of Chapter 1:

The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of
councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in
whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture.

A poet once said, when asked the meaning of a couple of lines of a poem he had penned some time
previously, "When I wrote that, both God and I knew what I meant; now only God does!" I've experienced
the same when I've looked at my sermon notes in the pulpit some Sundays. But when it comes to the Bi-
ble, its author is God, so there is no question of a faulty memory entering the equation. This principle is
clearly enunciated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned, but we have
received the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Under this basic given then, what subsidiary principles can we outline to help us interpret God's Word
rightly?

1. The Bible Interprets Itself⤒🔗

That is, in a way, only repeating what I have already said, but there are implications that must be drawn
from it for this principle is violated time and again by many so-called Bible scholars today. We normally
think of this principle as violated mainly by the Roman Catholic Church and the sects. That is quite true.
For instance, the Second Vatican Council says,

... hence, both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal feelings of devotion
and reverence (for both together) make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God ... the task of
giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of
Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone (p.755).

Our argument with Rome here is two-fold;

1. Concerning what is inspired by God, what is the Word of God; if we accept that only the Bible is
inspired and not these oral traditions, then we cannot accept this teaching. For Paul says in 1 Corinthians
2, "the things that come from the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned." In that these oral traditions of
Rome do not come from the Spirit of God, then the things that come from the Spirit of God, the Bible, are
being discerned, interpreted, not spiritually, but by human teachings (these oral traditions).

2. The second problem here is our old argument about whether all Christians have direct access to
God or whether we must still go through the priest. Hebrews tells us quite clearly that we may speak
directly to God. On the other hand, God also speaks to the individual believer through the Word. Besides
all the many commands of Scripture that come to all the various groups of people in the Church, even
children, for example, Jesus says, "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out ... and His sheep
follow Him because they know His voice (John 10)."

The so-called Jehovah's Witnesses do the same as Rome. They say:

Not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also,
that if anyone lays the (JW) Scripture Studies aside, even after he has used them, after he has become
familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years – if he lays them aside and ignores them and
goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that
within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he merely read the Scripture Studies with
their references, and not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in the light at the end of the two
years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures.Watchtower, July 1, 1957, quoted in GI
Williamson's  The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes

All round, that is a particularly arrogant statement. In the Lord Jesus Christ, the veil in the Holy of Holies
has been torn in two and the way into the presence of God is open for every believer. We must never let a
tyrannical Church take that privilege and blessing away from us.

Unfortunately, we are not free of it for a new tyranny has arisen within Protestantism. At the moment it
looks like a new freedom – to some. But the end result will be as closed a Bible as is offered in Rome and
the sects. I refer to the place historical research, or what is passed off as historical research, is beginning
to play in the interpretation of the Bible. One could think of the way the Gereformeerde Kerken in Holland
in their report, God With Us, at least as reported by those who can and have read it, disposed of some of
the disparaging remarks of Psalm 60 and 108 that God made about Moab and Edom. One could think
about how the same Church and many others argue to justify homosexuality. They say that those
prohibitions in the OT refer only to homosexual prostitution in pagan temples or to casual liaisons. And we
know this, not from the Bible itself, but from what we have learned from other historical records about
pagan culture and religion of the time. That is what is being prohibited, not long-term, stable, loving
relationships – so the scholars using historical research tell us. But is that what the Bible seems to say?

I trust none of the readers of this magazine have any sympathy for the practice of homosexuality, but is it
possible that some of us might be verging on the brink of such methods of reading the Bible? Take the
matter of women in ecclesiastical office. Paul says, "Spiritual things are to be spiritually discerned." That
is, what the Spirit has said in Scripture is to be interpreted by what the Spirit has said in Scripture, and not
by what human beings have written in the history books. History is fascinating, but it is notoriously fallible!
What is more, it is even more notoriously subject to what its writer wanted to prove in the first place, or,
for that matter, its reader. And even I can pick a lot of holes in a good deal of the historical research that
is brought to bear upon the question of women in ecclesiastical office.
But why do I bring this matter up? I do so because it will not stop at this question. We have seen too
many times that Churches that open ecclesiastical offices to women, either at the same time or very soon
after, also begin to sanction the practice of homosexuality. Thus so in the GKN; it is now openly talked
about in the CRCNA. There is a reason for that and the reason is because of the way the Bible is now
being read. It is no longer being interpreted in terms of itself but rather outside material, and some of it
very shoddy work, is being used to overrule what the text, at least on the face of it, says, and has
appeared to the whole Church for 2000 years and more to say.

There is also a very strange assumption behind this and that is that the NT writers, and maybe even
Jesus Himself, were simply reflecting the mores of their age in all these matters. Why ever Jesus and any
of the Apostles, who actually died for standing right against the great philosophical and religious ideas of
their day, should buckle under on these two questions, is beyond me.

Perhaps some will not appreciate my making the connection I just have. But on the other hand, many of
us cannot believe what has happened to their mother Church in Holland in less than 50 years – or the
Church all round the world, for that matter. But since it has, why should we be so sure we can go some of
the way along what is, in principle, the same path but not go as far in the end? "Let him that thinks he
stands, take heed, lest he fall," Paul would remind us. So, if not for ourselves, then for love of our children
and grandchildren, let us think very, very hard about whether we are discerning spiritual things with
spiritual or whether we are subjecting the Word of God to the word of man. As Noel Weeks said in
a Call article some time ago, "It is the Bible that is infallible, not the writings of the fallible historian."

2. The Bible, in Any Given Text, has Only One Meaning←⤒🔗

Right from the time of Origen, around 200AD, many in the Church have believed there were three levels
of meaning in any given text – the literal, the moral and the allegorical. The literal sense was for the
ordinary believers, the mere hoi polloi, and meant just what you read in the words on the page. The moral
sense would give a meaning for how Christians are to act over against one another and with unbelievers.
But it is the allegorical sense that gives the really spiritual meaning and is, therefore, the most important.
So, for example, Rebecca drawing water from the well for Abraham's servants and camels is telling us we
must come to the wells of Scripture in order to meet Christ – true, no doubt, but that Genesis 24 is saying
that I have my doubts. And there is still a bit of that going on today.

By the time of the Middle Ages, there was even a fourth level of understanding that could be got out of
any passage but the Reformers said:

The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a
question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be
searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.  Westminster 1.9

Notice that the Confession speaks of the "true and full sense" (singular). Rowland Ward, in his
modernised text of the Confession, has here that that one meaning is to "be found in the proper
grammatical sense in its context." I don't know if he gets that from another text of the Confession than that
which we have adopted, but he is quite right in what he says. In other words, just take the words in their
ordinary meaning, taking into account whatever else is said in the passage and what kind of literature it is.
As John Stott says,
Because the Bible is the Word of God, we should read it like no other book; but, because it is the word of
man, we should read it like every other book.The Essentials, Edwards & Stott, p.93

So, if it is plainly a teaching passage, like the NT Letters or the commandments, we are to read them
quite straightforwardly. If it is figurative language, read it just as we do figurative language everyday even
when we drop just a phrase into ordinary everyday speech. We all know that a heavy drinker is not
someone who weighs 23 stone and drinks a lot of water. So leave off the dead literalism. Especially the
easterns loved to speak in pictures. Even we utilitarian westerners are not so mundane.

Once again, this question comes down to the honesty of God. Has He spoken to us as the sheep of His
pasture who should be able to follow Him simply and plainly and put full trust in Him? Or has He spoken
to us in riddles and conundrums that only the very clever can solve and the rest of us should follow them
blindly as all good Roman Catholics and sectarians? Was Jesus being up front when he said we are to
come to Him with the simplicity of children? Or was that just another of His encoded obfuscations?

3. Difficult Passages are to be Interpreted in the Light of the

Plain←⤒🔗

It should be perfectly obvious to all that the plain teaching passages of Scripture should rule us, not what
we think a story from Israel's history or some character in the Bible or some description of early Church
life might possibly mean. So, to take an example that Mormons abuse, we won't take that verse that
speaks, just as a passing comment, about people being baptised for the dead and construct a whole
doctrine out of it, much less alter our understanding of plain teaching elsewhere in Scripture. Un-
fortunately, this one also is greatly violated among so-called reformed and evangelical writers these days.

4. Scripture Itself is the Final Judge←⤒🔗

There is something else very beautiful that the Reformation gave to the Church and that is the idea of the
progress of the history of salvation. The Bible is a record of God saving His people. Everything comes out
of that mother promise in which God said to Satan,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your
head and you will strike his heel.

So, as we read the Bible, we remember its flow of history and how God never changes, but is constantly
working out what He has already said and is bringing the old promises to fulfilment. Thus Jesus never
actually brought a new way of salvation. Abraham and David were saved in exactly the same way we are
– by grace through faith (Romans 4). We can even say that all the laws of sacrifice have never been
superseded by something new. They have just been fulfilled in Jesus' sacrifice. Indeed, none of the
ceremonial laws, the food laws, and so forth, have really been done away – not the meaning of them.
What all those laws – about clean and unclean food, and not using two types of cloth in one garment, or
planting two types of grain in one paddock, and so on - what all those laws mean is still with us. God still
says, "Come out from the world and be separate." It is just that the Church with the Holy Spirit come in
power in the heart of every believer, has now come of age and no longer has all these childish restraints
anymore. We're out of the playpen now.
Mind you, there is another side to this. Some ask: is not God continuing the history of salvation? And as
He does so, does not the Church today see that the principles of freedom or emancipation should go
further than the early Church was able to take them. Even as, for example, it took centuries to abolish
slavery? So therefore, should we not go on progressing beyond what the Bible has explicitly said? Again,
this is often said in the women-in-office debate and that about sexual morality and marriage. (Indeed, why
should marriage not be abolished among Christians? It is going to be in heaven.)

In 1 Corinthians 4:6, Paul concludes his teaching about how the Corinthians should view different
teachers in the Church by quoting an old saying; "Do not go beyond what is written." If Scripture is the full
and final revelation of God to man and if it is sufficient for our faith and life, we should accept that, on
whatever subject, God has said all He has to say and, although the world might change somewhat, this is
the last age of the earth's history before Christ comes again. Therefore the NT gives us a full revelation of
God for this final age. If we say the Bible doesn't go far enough here or there, then we should also be
looking forward to some other great work of God, some new age and some new unfolding of God's
dealings with man. But all the NT ever teaches us to look forward to is the glorious appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ to bring this age to an end. For this age until He comes again, we have enough in Christ
Himself and His Word, the Scriptures.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Scripture itself is the final judge; we may not go beyond what is written and with the Spirit's decision in
Scripture, we are to be content. Luther summed up the difference between the Reformation and the
Renaissance nicely when he said once to the great scholar Erasmus:

The difference between you and me, Erasmus, is that you sit above the Scripture and judge it, while I sit
under Scripture and let it judge me.

As usual, Luther hit the nail squarely on the head. May the Lord ever find us standing right there with Him.

How to Interpret the Bible

Every believer ought to be concerned to interpret the Bible correctly – not just pastors and professional
theologians. But, you may think, since the Bible is God's word to his people, its meaning should be clear.

The Necessity for Interpretation⤒🔗

There is an important element of truth in such reasoning – an important truth recaptured by the
Reformation. Roman Catholicism taught then (as it still does today) that the Bible is so obscure and
unclear that the average person cannot trust what it seems to say, but rather must believe only what the
Church says it says (the official teaching of the Church). This deadly error led to a massive exchange of
divine truth for confused human reasoning and superstition in the Roman Church. So the Reformers
resolutely insisted on the clarity (or perspicuity) of Scripture. They declared that the central message of
the Bible (that is, salvation in Christ) is quite clear and can be sufficiently understood by all who receive it
in faith. Scripture is not basically unintelligible and ambiguous.

But Luther, Calvin, and the other Reformers never meant to suggest that there are no difficult passages in
the Bible or that it doesn't need to be explained. Rather, the Reformation unleashed a period of
widespread, unprecedented preoccupation with interpreting Scripture. Calvin's commentaries on the Bible
are perhaps the most impressive and enduring evidence of this concern for biblical interpretation.

Scripture contains "some things that are hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16). There we discover "the deep
things of God," things which "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived"  – things which,
by God's Spirit, need to be searched out or investigated carefully (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10). We must not
overstate this point, but, when we go after its full meaning, Scripture is difficult.

On balance, to use an illustration attributed to Augustine, the Bible is like a puddle through which a lamb
can walk and barely get its hoofs wet, but also like a deep forest pool in which an elephant can take a
bath.

The difficulties involved in biblical interpretation ought not to be magnified. It is not an esoteric activity far
beyond ordinary believers and their abilities. Basically, interpreting Scripture is nothing more than reading
it – carefully, thoughtfully, and with discipline. That's the way God intends all of us, not just the specialists,
to read it. No doubt such reading may sometimes involve aptitudes and expertise that only some
believers have. But we can note at least three basics that are given with the "literacy level" that God
expects of every believer.

The Unity of the Bible←⤒🔗

Most importantly, the Bible must be read with a conviction of its God-given unity. In giving Scripture to the
church, God utilized various human authors in the full integrity and distinctiveness of their individual
personalities, and the Bible is misread if that diversity is neglected. But God is ultimately its author; it is
his word. Consequently, the Bible does not contradict itself. In the multiplicity of its parts, its teaching is
coherent and unified. We properly speak of "the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." (This
may seem obvious to us, but many people today no longer accept the Bible as the Word of God. They
treat it like an anthology of mutually contradictory, often confused, and outdated religious convictions.
They think that it is up to us to decide what, if anything, in it is true and useful.)

The Reformers were firmly convinced about the unity of Scripture as God's very word. That conviction
moved them to stake everything (as we today must be ready to do) on the principle of sola Scriptura.
Luther made explicit the cardinal importance of this principle for biblical interpretation, saying
that "Scripture is its own interpreter."

When we say that the Bible interprets itself, we do not mean that it is to be interpreted in isolation from
history and God's surrounding revelation in the creation. Rather, because Scripture is unified and
harmonious in its teachings, it is its own best interpreter. That is, every passage is to be understood in the
light of the rest of Scripture.

It is helpful, when reading the Bible, to think of each passage as being surrounded by a set of concentric
circles, where each circle represents a wider context. That is, a passage of Scripture must first be
understood within its immediate context (a paragraph or chapter), then within the section of the book in
which it is located, the book as a whole, the section of the testament, the testament as a whole, and
finally within the Bible as a whole. A text may have a close connection with another one elsewhere in
Scripture, but that connection should not be drawn without first considering each text in the light of its own
set of contexts.

Christ the Center←⤒🔗

Secondly, the Bible is basically a book about Christ. He is the center of everything in it. He, preeminently,
is "the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole," to use the language of our Confession (1:5).
Today, this is not to slight the fact that Scripture reveals our God in his triune fullness. Nor is it to
depreciate the fact that the Bible addresses our contemporary needs as individuals. Nevertheless,
Scripture is God's special or saving revelation, in which Christ is uniquely crucial:

There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.Acts 4:12
He is the one mediator between God and men.1 Timothy 2:5

Further, to say that Christ is the center of the Bible means, pointedly, that he is the center of the
redemptive history that it records. He is "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End" (Revelation 22:13) of the covenantal drama that began in the Garden of Eden and whose
final resolution has already been settled by his death and resurrection and is ready to be revealed when
he returns. The Bible is not just about Christ in general, but about something that his disciples have
always had difficulty in keeping central – "the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow" (Peter
1:11; see also Luke 24:25-27, 45-47). Only this Christ, as crucified and glorified, is both the consummate
revelation of the triune God and the very life of believers in each and every one of our personal concerns
(Colossians 2:9, 3:3, 4). When the Bible is read in any other way than this, Christ is effectively supplanted
by someone or something else, however "piously" that may happen.

Everything in the Bible is related to Christ, even where that may not be immediately apparent. For
instance, the wisdom of Proverbs degenerates into deadening moralism and the married love celebrated
in the Song of Solomon loses its spiritual dimension when they are detached from the Christ "in whom are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3) and who is "the head of the church,
his body" (Ephesians5:23).

The Spirit as Interpreter←⤒🔗

Finally, in reading the Bible we must never forget that the Holy Spirit is its true – and, ultimately, it’s only –
interpreter. Apart from his regenerating and illuminating work we cannot even begin to understand
Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:14). As Calvin put it rather pungently, an unbeliever with the Bible is like an ass
at a concert! Sound biblical interpretation is one of the Spirit's great gifts to the church. That's why our
Bible reading must not only be careful but prayerful.

You may not be capable of doing all that your pastor and others in the church are called and set apart to
do as interpreters of Scripture. But when you read it in the power of the Spirit and with prayer, alert to its
unity as God's own word and as focused on the exalted Lord Jesus, then you will close the distance
between yourself and the expert, and you will become more of the interpreter and teacher that God
desires each of his people to be (Hebrews 5:12).
 Seven Fundamentals of Biblical Preaching
JOHN DIVITO

Whenever I step behind the pulpit to preach, I am reminded of the sacredness

of the task and the holiness of the moment. It didn’t used to be this way for
me, since I did not have a good understanding of what it means to preach
God’s Word. So what does it mean to be a biblical preacher? Here are seven
fundamentals to preaching Scripture faithfully:

Preach as God’s Mouthpiece

When we preach Scripture, God speaks to His people through us. So the pulpit
is not the place for me to share my personal spiritual insights or my practical
living advice. God does not call His church together to listen to me and
whatever wisdom from the world that I may have learned. God’s people come
together to hear from Him! As amazing as it is to recognize, I have been called
by God to serve as His mouthpiece. He has entrusted to me the responsibility
of bringing His message to His church. I do not preach myself or my thoughts
but God’s Word. As much as I am faithfully proclaiming His truth, God speaks
through me. This is why the Second Helvetic Confession summarizes
preaching this way: “The Preaching of the Word of God Is the Word of God.
Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers
lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is preached, and received
of the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be feigned, nor to
be expected from heaven: and that now the Word itself which is preached is to
be regarded, not the minister that preaches; who, although he be evil and a
sinner, nevertheless the Word of God abides true and good” (I:4)

Preach Expositional Sermons

If we preach as God’s mouthpiece, then this means that our sermons must
deliver His message. And how do we know His message? Through what He
has revealed in His Word. So the meaning of a passage is the message of the
sermon. We don’t begin a sermon with what we want to say and then try to
find a passage or some verses of Scripture that will prove what we want to say.
We place ourselves under God’s Word, seeking to learn what it is saying to us,
so that we can turn around and show our people what God is saying to them.
Scripture rules over what we preach because we are simply explaining what it
says and applying it into our lives and the lives of God’s people. Therefore, we
must take time to understand what God has revealed clearly so that we can
pass it on to His people.
Preach the Whole Counsel of God

All of Scripture is God’s Word, and His people deserve a balanced diet from all
of the Scriptures. As preachers, we generally have our preferences for certain
kinds of books and favorite passages in Scripture. And I have found that this
often leads to a focus in America on the letters of Paul for sermon series. But
the majority of God’s Word is history, most of which is found in the Old
Testament. If we do not preach these stories, then our people are missing out
on hearing the majority of what God has sovereignly chosen to reveal to us!
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t preach from the letters of Paul, or that we
shouldn’t preach from other books in the New Testament. But it does mean
that preaching from the Old Testament should be a regular part of our
preaching ministry.

Preach to Yourself

We need God’s Word to penetrate our lives as well. In one sense, our
preaching ministry to others is simply the overflow of what God has already
worked in our hearts. We cannot separate what we preach from who we are.
So we must put our lives under the rule of Scripture, first preaching the
message to ourselves and applying its truths in our own lives. As preachers, we
must not be hypocrites: bold behind the pulpit while compromising and
unrepentant in our lives. My sermons should be coming from the overflow of
my heart and life, preaching to God’s people as a fellow sinner saved by grace
and striving to live a life that is pleasing to God.

Preach After Much Prayer

We must pray for the Holy Spirit to give us insight, wisdom, and power to
proclaim God’s truth. Nothing that I do in sermon preparation has any value
apart from the blessing of the Holy Spirit. I need His insight to understand
God’s Word, I need His wisdom to apply God’s Word to my life and the life of
others, and I need His power to open minds and hearts to receive His truth, to
convict and save lost sinners, and to edify and equip believers in Christ. As a
result, my sermon preparation should be filled with prayer!

Preach with Confidence

When I preach, it becomes easy for me to focus on my failures and on how

people respond (or don’t respond!) to my message. I don’t see much fruit from
my ministry, and it makes me wonder if I should continue. Of course, I have a
long way to grow as a preacher, and I should learn from my failures and pray
for God to bless the preaching of His Word with fruitfulness. At the same time,
I also take comfort in remembering that God’s Word shall not return to Him
empty, but it shall accomplish that which He purposes, and shall succeed in
the thing for which He sent it. My confidence does not come from my abilities
and skills as an orator, or in my knowledge and wisdom as a theologian, but
from the power of God’s Word to carry out His will for His glory.

Preach Christ

As pastors called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, every sermon
must connect to Christ. We must have the same mindset as the Apostle Paul
when he said: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Or as Paul said to the Colossians: “Him we
proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we
may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28). This is why we preach—so
that Christ will be known and believed in for salvation! We want all who hear
us to receive eternal life and to become more and more like Christ.

Here are two diagnostic questions that I like to use before I preach a sermon:
First, Would a Jew Disagree with Anything that I Preach in this Message? By
asking this question, I check to make sure that Christ has been clearly
proclaimed in my sermon. This question is especially important when
preaching from the Old Testament. Second, Would a Roman Catholic Disagree
with Anything that I Preach in this Message? When I ask this question, I want
to make sure that the gospel of Christ has been clearly proclaimed in my
sermon. I want Christ and the gospel to be so clear that those who do not
believe in Christ and trust in His gospel will be confronted with their need as
sinners and with His promise as our Savior!

My prayer is that these seven fundamentals of biblical preaching will prove

helpful to you as you seek to faithfully open the Word of God so that our
Savior will be glorified and His church will be built. What a glorious privilege
we have to preach! Let us not take the pulpit for granted.

4 keys to preaching more engaging sermons

HOW LONG SHOULD A SERMON BE? AS A PREACHING
PROFESSOR AND A PASTOR, I’VE ASKED AND BEEN
ASKED THAT QUESTION A HUNDRED TIMES. YOU CAN
PREACH AS LONG AS YOU HOLD THEIR ATTENTION.
By Hershael York • January 15, 2016

“How long O Lord?” That lament echoes through the Psalms, appears in

Habakkuk, recurs in Revelation—and pervades the meandering minds of
restless parishioners obliged to suffer the pastor’s preaching past the
point of effectiveness and endurance. An expression of extreme suffering
and bewilderment is hardly the response a pastor hopes for when he
delivers his sermon after a week’s worth of preparation.
HOW LONG SHOULD MY SERMON BE?

How long should a sermon be? As a preaching professor and a pastor,

I’ve asked and been asked that question a hundred times. Today, after 35
years in ministry, I have a definitive answer: You can preach as long as
you hold their attention.

Obviously (though perhaps not to everyone) that means some preachers

are able to preach longer than others, not because of mere natural
gifting, but because of faithfulness to biblical and practical techniques,
which are not at all contradictory. In fact, they go hand in hand. Many
preachers have on the one hand consoled themselves that their churches
are filled with people who have itching ears, and on the other prided
themselves that they don’t compromise the truth when really all they’ve
done is preached God’s Word badly.

While such situations certainly exist—and my heart goes out to any

faithful preacher who lovingly and skillfully preaches the Word to people
with cold, indifferent hearts—we shouldn’t be so quick to assume the
problem lies exclusively in the pew with no responsibility in the pulpit.

Lest I be misunderstood, I am not arguing for shorter sermons. If

anything, I believe many churches need to devote more time to
preaching, not less. The preaching of the Word is the central act of
worship for the gathered church. The widespread biblical illiteracy
among professed Christians neither will diminish because pastors
shorten their exposition, nor will it change because pastors preach longer
dull sermons.

FOUR KEYS TO LISTENER ENGAGEMENT

How can one preach better and still afford to preach longer? Faithful
preachers who are also interesting learn four key moves to delivering the
kind of sermons that help listeners remain engaged.

First, fill your sermon with biblical substance. Perhaps it seems

counterintuitive, but the way to keep the attention of disengaged church
members is not by feeding them a steady diet of spiritual cotton candy. It
may be sweet to the taste, but it has no nutrition; too much of it will
make them sick! The Word of God is what will draw and keep them
interested. Don’t dumb it down; serve it up! Christ promised that if He is
lifted up He will draw them to Himself. So, point to Christ in text and
type, in redemption and relationship.
Second, arrest their attention. Once you know the content of your text,
think on the perceptual level in developing the sermon. Find a way to get
their interest at the very beginning. Peter did it on Pentecost. Paul did it
on the Areopagus. Ezekiel did it by building a model city and laying siege
to it. Jesus did it in Galilee with eight promises of blessedness. Spurgeon
did it. Jonathan Edwards did it. Listen to the preachers you admire and
notice how they adorn the gospel with thought-provoking and engaging
delivery.
Third, constantly weave personal application into biblical
explanation. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 drove his audience to ask, “What
shall we do?” Explanation without application leads to frustration.
Content without conviction breeds boredom. The inherent power of the
Word and the Spirit demand a response, repentance, renewal. Without
that, sermons may seem to be merely Bible trivia games.
Fourth, the best preachers develop audience awareness, always discerning
how well folks are listening. Respond to their restlessness with energy,
focus and excitement about the text. Is your voice lulling them to sleep?
Change your pitch, pace and volume. Let the Word that has saturated
you in your study overflow in your pulpit to them in the pew. You may
preach as one who knows the Word, but do you preach as one who loves
the Word? They’ll listen better—and sit longer.

Keeping it interesting as a young

preacher
Phillip Jensen | 1 December, 2001
Experienced preachers often get asked by young preachers to give them advice on their craft. How do I
preach better? Should I preach longer? Or shorter? Should I use illustrations? Should I use a full script or
just notes?
Each preacher develops opinions on these things, and before long the young preacher is offering advice to
the even-younger preacher.
There are certainly techniques and approaches to preaching that can be learnt. There is also an element to
it that seems to spring more naturally from the personality. A combination of learning techniques and
listening to your mentors will most likely help you to achieve the goal of faithful, thorough and
motivating Bible preaching.
Below is a list of seven tips for those who are beginning to preach. They are not an exhaustive program
for preaching effectively; rather, they are simple ideas that I have found to bring more success than
failure. They are focussed on one question: how do I keep it interesting?

1. When you preach, be as good as you can

This seems like stating the obvious, but it is a good thing to keep in the forefront of your mind as you
begin a preaching life. If your congregation is used to biblical preaching, they may tolerate you being a
little boring now and then, because their faith in the Bible lets them know it’s still worth listening. They
believe in the Scriptures, so as long as you stick to them they are willing to put up with you. However, if
you are trying to persuade your congregation that expositional preaching is especially valuable, your
delivery will need to be especially good. Preaching is always worth the extra effort.

2. Fledgling preachers tend to be boring

If you’re not boring when you emerge from Bible College, you probably didn’t learn anything. Your head
will be full of theology, Greek phrases, the latest ideas on running a service, and whatever else has
grabbed your intellectual fancy.
Five years out of College, if you’re still boring, you have a problem.
However, it is better to come out of college and preach heavy sermons than to come out of college and be
too light. If that is the case, in five years time you may have nothing left to say.

3. Work out how long you can preach for and still be
interesting
To do this, you need people in the congregation who can give you good feedback—who can tell you that
by 35 minutes no one was listening any more. If you learn you’re a 35 minute preacher, then make sure
you do the job in those 35 minutes. Don’t feel you have to preach for 45 minutes just because someone
else does. Having said that, if someone tells you after your first sermon that you should keep it to 10
minutes from here on in, that shouldn’t dictate your sermon length for the rest of your life. Give yourself
a chance.

3. Avoid commentaries
Commentaries can be useful tools, but they can be deadening for preachers. Spend more time in the
biblical text and thinking for yourself about it, and less time answering the problems of the commentators.
Scholars who write commentaries are talking to each other, answering each others’ questions. They are
not the questions that the person in the pew has, and they’re often not what the text is about either. Even
the best, biblical commentators still have to answer many questions entirely irrelevant to the people you
are serving on a Sunday morning. Knowing the answers to these questions is still important, but you can’t
let it take up all your sermon preparation time.

4. Find the logic units of the book; don’t just preach on

chapters or paragraphs
The Bible book must determine the sermon. A book like Job, for instance, is not suited to chapter by
chapter exposition. On the other hand, you might want to take John 3:16 on its own. It is crucial to
understand the logic of the material you are preaching.

5. Young preachers should start with bigger sections

This is for self-protection. Preaching on large slabs of Scripture means you are less likely to read your
own agenda into the text. Preaching on one or two verses takes much more knowledge in order to get it
right. With longer passages, the congregation will be able to hear the Bible speaking for itself.

6. Expository preaching is worth fighting for (but a lot

of other things are not)
If expository preaching is a new concept for your congregation, go easy on everything else. It is important
that you establish the priority of teaching the Bible. It’s also important that you love your congregation
and that they learn to love you. Live their lives with them, care for them in all the ways they appreciate,
and don’t change things you don’t have to. If they know you love them, they will be much more willing
to accept your leadership in preaching the Bible.
3 Reasons to Say “You” More Often in Your
Sermons
May 16, 2012 //  by Eric McKiddie

Saying “you” in sermons has become uncomfortable for preachers. Like third grade
teachers who switch from red to green pens, many preachers are afraid of coming
across too strong.

What I mean by saying “you” in a sermon is that the preacher uses “you” to make it
obvious that his exhortation is aimed directly at his people.

The postmodern values of acceptance and tolerance have saturated the worldviews of
churchgoers and pastors. This has caused saying “you” to feel abrasive to preachers
and listeners alike.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons why.

First, saying “you” feels authoritarian. The pastor thinks, “What right do I have to tell
these people that their hearts are in the wrong place? I don’t know them.” Or, he puts
himself in the TOMS of his congregation and imagines them thinking, “What right
does he have to tell me my heart is in the wrong place? He doesn’t know me.”

The second reason pastors avoid “you” (and it’s related to the first) is oversensitivity to
the need to identify with your people. This results in the preacher saying “we” a lot, but
rarely “you.” The pastor thinks that if he doesn’t admit he’s wrong every time he tells his
people they are wrong, then they will reject his message because he is inauthentic.

This attitude sees the Bible only as a stumbling block, but not also as a living and
active, double-edged sword. You think that people will only respond as Jews or Greeks,
but never as David. He responded in repentance to “You are the man!” without Nathan
having to qualify himself with, “But I am tempted in those areas, too, and I might have
done the same thing if I were in your position.”
The bottom line is that avoiding “you,” demonstrates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit to
convict and change people through the word.

So that is why we avoid “you” in sermons. But why should we use “you” more often
when we preach? Here are three reasons.

1. The biblical authors say “you” all the time

Read Jesus’ words in the gospels. Read Paul. Read the prophets.

They say “you” all over the place.

It follows that not preaching “you” sermons that relate directly to the congregation isn’t
preaching in a fully biblical manner.

You may respond by saying, “But we aren’t the biblical authors. What authority
do we have to preach in the same way they wrote?”

Well, Paul expressly commands Timothy to preach “you” sermons: “Preach the word…
reprove, rebuke, and exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul also expects Timothy to follow his
manner of ministry (3:10-12), and to raise up other preachers in his mold (2:2).

So if you have any desire to be a biblical preacher, preach directly to your

audience, and let them know you are preaching directly to them by saying “you.”

2. “You” communicates the authority of the text

What do you do when someone comes up after your sermon and asks, “Are you saying
that I’m not allowed to sleep with my girlfriend?”

You calmly say, “Yes, but not ultimately me. Ultimately, it is God who demands sexual
purity from us. So yes, I said it, but I was only delivering what God has said.”

We speak with authority precisely because it is not our ideas that we expound. We can
say “you” without a shred of postmodern squeamishness because the substance of our
sermons is not our opinions.

This gives us freedom to say “you” to those who hear us, free from anxiety over
anyone’s postmodern (in)sensibilities.
3. “You” personalizes your message to your
congregation
Many pastors avoid saying “you” in sermons by switching to “they.” But “they” sermons
leave your people knowing how everyone else needs to change, except for them.

The result is that your people remain as safe as a pig in their sinful house of sticks
because your uncontextualized sermon doesn’t huff or puff in their general direction.

“They” preachers talk about all the sinners outside the walls of the church. You preach
about the sins of hipsters, entertainers, pyramid schemers, and politicians, but never the
sins of the people ten feet in front of you. Your congregation leaves bemoaning how bad
the world is, and proud of how well behaved they are.

The word “you” clearly indicates you are talking about the people in your pews, not the
“sinners out there.”

The other way of replacing “you” with “they” is to talk only about the original audience of
the passage. Thus you rag on the Israelites, the Corinthians, and the Pharisees – being
true to the text! – without mentioning that your people’s hearts are in the same
condition.

You can sound very bold this way, banging your pulpit as you address the sexual sins of
Corinth. But your boldness is a façade; it’s very easy to speak boldly about people who
are dead.

Will you address the sexual sins of your congregation head on? They will tell you are
doing so if you say “you.”

How to say “you” without sounding like a hypocrite

The trick is to preach “you” sermons without unnecessarily alienating your listeners.
Here are three ways to not sound like a spiritual know-it-all.

1. Feel the tension of humility and authority. In How Sermons Work, David Murray

writes about a pendulum that must swing in the preacher’s heart while he is preparing:
from humility to authority. If you feel both sides of the pendulum, your hearers will sense
that you are not being authoritarian as you speak with authority.

2. Preach “you” sermons with “complete patience and teaching.” That is, after all,
how Paul finishes off 2 Tim. 4:2. “Complete patience” trusts that the Spirit will do his
work in his time. “Teaching” will not merely point out sin, but also instruct how to turn
away from sin by the power of the gospel.

3. Practice redemptive vulnerability. The times you say “I” will stand out more than
the “you’s.” Think of Paul: “I am the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9), “I am the very
least of all the saints” (Eph. 3:8), “I am the foremost of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). His
confidence in the gospel enabled him to admit his failings. But he doesn’t dwell on them,
speaking just long enough to let his readers know that he needs the gospel, too.

You or We?
Posted on December 13, 2012 by John van Eyk

There are two kinds of preachers; those who predominantly use the second person pronoun in their
preaching and those who usually use the first person plural pronoun. There are those who say, “You
need to trust God in the difficulties of life,” and there are others who say, “We need to trust God in
the difficulties of life.” Okay, I admit, there are some who say, “You and I need to trust God in the
difficulties of life.” (Actually, there are too many who say, “You and me need to trust God in the
difficulties of life”!)
So which is it? When speaking personally, should we use 2  person pronouns or 1  person pronouns?
nd st

Is it “you” or “we”?
I Get the You
 I understand why some argue that preaching should be
predominantly in the second person pronoun. They emphasise that preaching comes from another
world. It is the voice of heaven penetrating earth. The minister is not sharing; he is declaring. He is
an ambassador, a herald, speaking on behalf of Christ. In fact, when the minister preaches the Word
of God, Christ himself preaches.

That being the case, in a sense, the Christian minister is not part of the congregation as a minister
though he is part of the congregation as a Christian. The minister wears two sets of clothes; he is a
minister who is speaking on behalf of Christ and he is a Christian who is being addressed by Christ
through his own preaching. I think the minister of my youth believed this. At least that would explain
why he would occasionally interject his sermons with, “And remember, Minister, you are also
preaching to yourself.”
This means that when he is calling the congregation to holy living, echoing the Apostle Paul, he
declares “You must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy
language from your lips” (Colossians 3:7-8a). Mind you, while he does that, he must remember that
he is one of the “you” God is addressing.

Second person pronoun preaching has a lot going for it. It follows the predominant pattern of New
Testament epistles and it highlights the authoritative nature of Christian preaching.

 I Get the We
I don’t think we should use second person pronouns exclusively. Or should I say, “You shouldn’t use

second person pronouns exclusively”?

The main reason I say this is because the New Testament epistles don’t. In Ephesians 2:3 Paul
says we were by nature children of wrath. In Titus 2:12 he mentions that the grace of God trains us to
renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the
present age. And the writer to the Hebrews, in his brief exhortation, swings between the second and
third person pronouns, sometimes in successive verses (Hebrews 3:12-14).
First person plural usage helps the congregation to remember that the minister is himself subject to
weakness (Hebrews 5:2). And because of that, though the minister comes with the authority of the
Word of God, as an ambassador of Christ, he himself is under that authority. The Word read and
preached addresses and challenges him too. He is not a guru who has mastered Christian living and
has risen above the struggles and temptations of his followers; he is a fellow sinner privileged to
strengthen his brothers and sisters through the ministry of God’s Word. The congregation doesn’t sit
at the feet of the minister; the minister and congregation sit at the feet of Christ the Prophet who
ministers to them by his Word and Spirit.
Personally Speaking, Use Both
I wouldn’t want to quantify the amount one should use the first or second personal pronouns. It
seems to me that the preacher will find the balance as he is conscious of two things: he himself is a
sinner desperately needing the grace of God in Christ and to be strengthened through the Word
preached, and, that he speaks as the mouth of God, as one of his ambassadors.

I just finished Herman Selderhuis’ book, John Calvin: a pilgrim’s life, and was struck by how this
dual emphasis shaped Calvin the preacher. Selderhuis writes: “Calvin thought that when he spoke as
a preacher, it was God himself who spoke”. He supports his assertion with Calvin’s comment, “For
of myself I have nothing to say, but I speak as if the mouth of the Teacher.” On the other hand,
Selderhuis gleans that Calvin had enough self-knowledge to realize that he himself had to be subject
to the Word as well from these words from Calvin: “When I climb into the pulpit, it is not simply to
instruct others. I do not exclude myself, since I myself must remain a student as well, and the words
that come from my mouth are to serve me as much as others. If not, woe to me!”
In boldly declaring God’s Word may we who are ministers be acutely aware of the need for that
Word ourselves.
I am a sinner preaching to sinners
I AM NOT WORTHY TO BE A MINISTER, BUT CHRIST
WAS WORTHY FOR ME. I DO NOT AND WILL NOT
MEASURE UP, BUT JESUS PERFECTLY MEASURED UP
FOR ME. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE FOR GOD’S PEOPLE IN
THE PEW AND IT IS TRUE FOR ME, HIS HERALD, AS
WELL.
By Jeff Robinson • January 17, 2017

I have served as a pastor around six years now, and one reality I still
cannot reconcile is the notion of preaching to other people the myriad
texts (all of them, so far) I find exceedingly difficult to obey myself. I
preach about slaying the deadly viper of pride, but then I am proud of the
way I exposited and communicated the text. I tell my people that they
should pray without ceasing, and yet my prayer life is too often as
inconsistent as summer rainfall in Kentucky. I preach about seeking
God’s grace to lower the thermostat on our tempers after I have fired
angry darts at my wife and children on the way to church, “Shut up, we’re
going to worship!”

You get my drift. For a man called to preach God’s Word each Lord’s
Day, this creates an existential crisis.

A particular Sunday presented a prime example of the tension that grips

me when preaching God’s Word, a tension that always morphs into a
full-blown fear that each week behind the sacred desk I am a trafficker in
unlived truth. The text was Matthew 5:9 from the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Great
verse. Great opportunity to talk about selflessness in relating to others,
displaying both love to God and love to neighbor and the like.
 I made this application point: “When we are in conflict with others, we
must talk less and listen more. We must learn to turn the other cheek in
the way we respond verbally to others.” Ouch. I was getting paid to talk.
And in conflict with others, sometimes I still struggle mightily to be like
my Lord to turn the other cheek. On the way home that particular
Sunday I kept thinking, I just preached on peacemaking and my own pastor
(that would be me) falls miserably short of God’s glory in this area.
DYING MEN PREACHING TO DYING MEN

How are God’s undershepherds to come to grips with this daunting

reality? How do we reconcile the all-too obvious truth that we are sinners
preaching to sinners? How do we get some in our congregations over the
notion that we are popes, we are monastics who descend from the
cloister each week where we’ve been holed up all week, dodging the
world, the flesh, and the devil? Sin dwells even in monasteries because
sinners live there.

FREE BOOK ON PREACHING

Provide your email address to receive this free ebook.

 First  Last




  Would you like to receive more resources from Southern

Equip?
Submit
 

But many of the people to whom we are called to minister don’t really
believe this about us, and when we sin—and we will—some of them write
us off as phonies or Pharisees or worse. In the early months of my first
pastoral ministry, a man told me I wasn’t qualified to be a pastor because
I sinned. He seemed a bit stunned when I admitted that, though I
believed his case for ministerial perfectionism unbiblical, I acutely felt
the tension of of my standing as a saved-by-grace-sinner calling other
sinners to walk God’s inspired line. I told him, “If you think that one
thing you just mentioned is the worst weakness I have, you don’t know
the half of it!”

Veteran pastor and counselor Paul Tripp, in his excellent book Dangerous

Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry, rode to my
rescue by reminding me again that I am, in the words of the great
Puritan Richard Baxter, a dying man called to preach to dying men. I
must sit under my own preaching and teaching. My weekly preparation
must never be less than devotional. And for any pastor to survive this
sanctifying meat-grinder known as the pastoral ministry, it must never
become clinical.
Pastors differ from garden-variety pew-sitters only in this fact: we have the
unique privilege—and profound advantage—of being called to study in
significant depth God’s chosen sin-killing, heart-renewing, image-restoring
agent: the Bible. Yes, we are our own pastors, and we must listen to our
preaching each week, which is to say, we must do far more than “handle”
God’s Word: it must handle us as well. Thus, we must ask difficult questions
about canceled sin that still clings to our hearts like barnacles on an old shrimp
boat. We must ask God to use his Word to expose our besetting sins and hidden
weaknesses so that we become more and more like Christ.
PASTORS ARE PAPER PLATES

And we must remind our people that, despite popular misconceptions

about the perfections inherent in God’s ministers, the inspired witness
says we are mere clay pots, Walmart crockery, weak men in the midst of
our own sanctification—just like the hearers of the sermons we preach.
We stand in desperate need of wave upon wave of grace to wash upon the
shores of our lives every moment, and we must not hide that face from
our people behind a mask of subtle perfectionism.

Best of all, I do not have to be paralyzed by the expectation of perfection

—whether it arises from my mind or the congregation’s— because Jesus
was perfect for me. I am not worthy to be a minister, but Christ was
worthy for me. I do not and will not measure up, but Jesus perfectly
measured up for me. The gospel is true for God’s people in the pew and it
is true for me, his herald, as well.

May God grant his ministers grace to hear and heed their own preaching.

A Pastor’s Reflections: Did I Apply the Text?

JULY 25, 2017

VFT Westminster Seminary California

The last question I ask myself when I’m evaluating a sermon, including my own, is, Did I
apply the text? This is an important question, though perhaps it’s often debated because
people disagree on what constitutes application. In the minds of some preachers,
application is a well-intended but nevertheless sinful effort to impose moral obligations
upon a congregation apart from biblical warrant. In eighteenth-century Germany, preachers
were typically evaluated on whether their sermons were practical. Church historian Jaroslav
Pelikan recounts how pastors would therefore give gardening tips in their sermons so they
would be perceived as being practical. Others believe that it’s the job of the pastor only to
hold out Christ and that the Spirit of God is the only one who can apply the text. I certainly
acknowledge the vital truth that only the Spirit makes the word effectual in the conversion
and sanctification of God’s people. That being said, the Bible certainly presses the point that
preachers must apply the text of Scripture to their congregations.
But what do I mean by application? In grammatical terms, we want to preach both the
indicatives (what Christ has done and who we are in him) and the imperatives (what the
Scriptures expect of us in terms of our conduct). The Bible is filled with indicatives and
imperatives. Take, for example, the book of Ephesians. While this is a slight exaggeration,
Paul largely dwells on indicatives in the first half of the book and then imperatives in the
latter half. A similar pattern appears in the book of Romans—Paul expounds the indicatives
in Romans 1-11 and then addresses imperatives in chapters 12-16. This is not an airtight
pattern, as there are undoubtedly imperatives and indicatives in both portions of Ephesians
and Romans, but it illustrates the unbreakable bond between both categories. Preachers,
therefore, have the responsibility to preach both indicatives and imperatives, but we must
always be mindful of their logical order. Indicatives (what Christ has done for us) always
serve as the foundation for the imperatives (our Christian conduct). We can never reverse
this logical order. Christ through the work of the Spirit is the source of our capacity and
ability for growth in sanctification. We do not offer our good works (imperative first) so we
can then somehow secure the indicative of redemption. We can reverse the order in our
sermonic rhetoric—i.e., you can begin with the imperatives but then show that you need
Christ to carry them out. You’re still preserving the logical order between the two even if you
invert their presentation.

So you should always ask, Did I apply the text? The Westminster divines were adamant
about this when they wrote their Directory for Public Worship. They state: “He [the
preacher] is not to rest in general doctrine, although ever so much cleared and confirmed,
but to bring it home to special use, by application to his hearers.” Application might look
different depending on the text that you preach. In some texts (John 1:1ff, e.g.) the
indicative is, Christ is God, and the imperative might be worship him! In other texts, such as
Joseph's flight from Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39), the indicative would be, because we are called
to holiness and set apart through our union with Christ, we must therefore flee sexual
immorality (imperative) even at great personal cost—devotion to Christ and holiness
outweighs the consequences (such as Joseph’s imprisonment). Context ultimately
determines the nature of the application.
These are the four rules for preaching:

Did I exegete the text?

Did I explain the text?
Did I organically preach Christ from the text?
Did I apply the text?
These are four simple questions to ask any time you evaluate or write a sermon. God willing,
by asking these questions you will be better equipped to evaluate or prepare sermons.

A Pastor’s Reflections: Did I Preach Christ?

JULY 18, 2017

VFT Westminster Seminary California

The third question I ask when evaluating sermons (including my own) is whether I preached
Christ organically from the biblical text. Many preachers regularly ask this question of
themselves, but at the same time they’re not quite sure how to do this. Charles Spurgeon
once famously stated, “I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross.” In other words, it
didn’t seem to matter what the text said, Spurgeon always introduced Christ. One the one
hand, this is a good desire. On the other hand, preachers must responsibly preach Christ
from the Bible. You want to avoid two things in this regard: (1) failing to preach Christ, or
(2) preaching a Christ shingle-sermon. The Christ shingle-sermon is where you never
organically connect Christ to your sermon text, but you know you’re supposed to talk about
Jesus, so you tack Christ on to the end of your message like a shingle. Or to use another
metaphor, the preacher shoe-horns Christ into the sermon. This is why I regularly ask
myself the question, Did I organically preach Christ from the biblical text.
I believe that all biblical texts relate in one way or another to the person and work of Christ,
but determining how, precisely, is the exegetical challenge. Numerous examples of bad
exegesis litter the interpretive landscape—preachers appeal to various aspects of the text
and claim spurious connections to Christ. I once read a sermon where the preacher claimed
that when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, the wood that Isaac carried for the burnt
offering was a type (foreshadow) of sin. I think such claims may appeal to people because it
gives the appearance of unlocking a secret portion of the Scriptures, but the problem is that
such an explanation lacks sufficient biblical warrant. Are there any other passages of
Scripture that liken sin to a bundle of sticks? Is there any interpretive warrant for taking
every minute detail of a narrative text and assigning a specific meaning to it? If the wood
was supposedly symbolic of sin, what about the mountain, the donkeys they rode, or
Abraham’s servants?

The safest way to ensure that you organically preach Christ from a passage of Scripture is to
follow the interpretive patterns you see in the Bible itself. For example, look at the book of
Hebrews and see what it does with the various Old Testament passages it cites. The author
of Hebrews makes a connection between Moses, a servant in God’s house, to Christ, the One
over God’s house (Heb. 3:5). The Bible itself connects the ministries of Moses and Christ.
Hebrews repeats this pattern throughout its thirteen chapters regarding the Levitical
priesthood, the tabernacle, temple, the old covenant, and so forth. Another surefire way to
preach Christ is to ask, Is this text before, during, or after the earthly ministry of Christ? If
it’s before, for example, then the text likely points forward to Christ’s work. Sometimes a
text may have a latent connection to Christ. When you read the book of Ruth, Christ does
not explicitly appear, but several important factors do point to Christ—God’s continued
faithfulness to his covenant promises to Abraham to bring about the birth of the descendant
of Abraham, the offspring of David. The fact that Ruth’s name appears in Christ’s genealogy
(Matt. 1:5) gives us a clue regarding how we can organically preach Christ from this book of
the Bible.

In the end, these observations only touch upon some of the principles that ensure that you
preach Christ responsibly from every text of Scripture. For a more detailed explanation of
these principles, definitely read Dennis Johnson’s Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ
from All the Scriptures. It’s an excellent resource for Christ-focused preaching.
Nevertheless, always ask the question, Did I preach Christ organically from the biblical
text? Always strive to do so—you want always to feed your congregation with Christ, the
manna from heaven.
16 Ways to Find a Wife According to the
Bible
JUNE 13, 2012

VFT Westminster Seminary California

As a pastor, over the years I had my fair share of people approach me to find out if we were a
"courtship" church or a "dating" church. The people invariably would tell me that their
approach was "the biblical way." I eventually become leery of such claims given that the
Bible does not say much about how to find a wife, or does it? Perhaps you've seen this list
floating around the world-wide-web, but it's worth reviewing because it makes a very
important point. So here it is, 16 ways to find a wife according to the Bible:

1) Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and
give her new clothes. Then she’s yours. (Deut. 21:11-13)

2) “Lay hold on” a virgin who is not betrothed to another man, and "know" her, but
afterwards pay her father a sum of money. Then she’s yours. (Deut. 22:28-29)

3) Find a prostitute and marry her. (Hosea 1:1-3)

4) Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock.--Moses (Ex.
2:16-21)

5) Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal.--Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)

6) Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to
be your wife.--Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)

7) Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib.--Adam
(Gen. 2:19-24)

8) Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman’s hand in marriage. Get tricked into
marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to
marry in the first place. That’s right. Fourteen years of toil for a wife.--Jacob (Gen. 29:15-
30)

9) Cut 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law’s enemies and get his daughter for a
wife.--David (1 Sam. 18:27)

10) Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you’ll definitely find someone.--
Cain (Gen. 4:16-17)
11) Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest.--Xerxes or Ahasuerus
(Esther 2:3-4)

12) When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, “I have seen a woman;
now get her for me.” If your parents question your decision, simply say, “Get her for me.
She’s the one for me.”--Samson (Judges 14:1-3)

13) Kill any husband and take HIS wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though.)--David (2 Sam.
11)

14) Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law!)--
Onan and Boaz (Deut. or Lev., example in Ruth)

15) Don’t be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity.--Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)

16) A wife?--Paul (1st Corinthians, chapter 7)

Obviously, this list was written with humor in mind, and some of these "ways," are not
prescriptive but descriptive of the sinful ways that God's people have conducted themselves
in the past--they are in no way exemplary. But this does demonstrate an important point--
people often want the Bible to say certain things, such as how to find a spouse and marry,
but they ignore portions of Scripture that don't fit their paradigm. The Bible has more to say
about arranged marriages, for example, than it does "courtship" or dating. So then, how do
we proceed?

We have to realize that the Bible does not speak to every issue we will face in life. Just ask
Solomon, who had to use wisdom when the two prostitutes came to him claiming to both be
the mother of one child. We must follow those things that God has given us. In all of our
relationships we have the obligation to exercise the fruit of the Spirit and not mistreat
anyone, that is especially true for a prospective spouse. We also have the clear biblical
command that a Christian is free to marry whomever he or she chooses, so long as the
prospective mate is "in the Lord" (1 Cor. 7.39). But in the end, choosing a spouse calls for
wisdom.

The Bible does not give us a specific means by which we can find spouses. Some might be
introduced by family or friends. Some might cultivate a letter-writing relationship (or as we
might more commonly find it, e-mail, or some form of social media). In some cultures the
thought of dating or courting is out of the question. I once walked in on one of my office
mates in grad school--he was a Christian training for the ministry in Japan. He was intently
reading a file; it looked like a personnel file. Out of curiousity I asked him what he was
reading. He told me it was a file on a young woman that his father had sent him. His family,
sight unseen (except for a few photos in the file) was arranging his marriage. I was stunned,
but nevetheless made aware that godly Christians don't all do things the same way. I.e., just
because it's American and Christians do it doesn't mean its biblical or the only way. 

The greater doctrinal point here is that in the pursuit of finding a spouse, we must be
mindful two things: (1) that we are mindful of God's revealed will in the moral law--we
should not violate it in word, thought, or deed; and (2) Christian liberty--where God has
spoken, we are bound, but where he has not spoken we are free. We are not bound by the
commandments of men. This means that godly Christians may differ in how they live their
lives, but it doesn't mean that one is holier than another because she dates and doesn't
court. 

We should also note that in its collective history, the church has never addressed the issue in
its creeds or confessions about how to find a spouse. Perhaps this should tell us that it is a
matter of Christian liberty and that in the end, we should rely on God's grace, wisdom,
prayer, and godly counsel rather than make claims that the Bible has never made.