Directed 6.22.2023

     An effective sermon will have a focus. It will have a goal. It will be directed. So far this month we have considered what it means for a pastor-theologian to focus on specific domain knowledge. We have considered that the process of studying and preparing for each presentation needs to be grounded in the details of the text and audience. And we have admitted that when we do this job well with an attitude of discovery, our hearts will be delighted. We will enjoy this work to which we are called.

    If we are in the text, if we master the details, if we are constantly discovering new, delightful nuances of the text that allows us to be very direct in our sermon preparation. By directness, I mean the targeted application of scripture. This requires a hermeneutic which is founded upon accurate exegesis. All the study that we pour into the text is designed to help us get a sermon out of the text. We do the same next week the week after that and so on till we die. In a located ministry your flock knows you. They know your expressions, gestures, inflections, and other personally identifiable characteristics of your preaching. They should also know the identifiable characteristics of your study habits. These habits should inform every sermon and lesson you present. 

    One of our tasks is to leverage our numerous opportunities before the congregation to enhance and advance our preaching program. We should always be oriented to where we are going and where we have been. And the people who hear us week after week should be able to discern a cumulative pattern to our weekly preaching. They should sense—and we should remind them that the 52 weeks of this year form a unified whole. Each individual sermon contributes to that whole, even as it addresses the message of that week’s chosen text to the needs of the hour. 

Directed preaching is not accidental. It is a purposeful approach to the task set before us by our Master. 

“1Corinthians 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 1Corinthians 1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 1Corinthians 1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:21–25 ESV)

     So, Paul tells us that his only purpose was to preach Christ crucified, God’s saving wisdom to the world. And yet, he appears to know an awful lot about the culture into which he is proclaiming those saving words. He knows the prejudices and intellectual quirks of both Gentiles and Jews. He understands their objections and can speak directly to them because he has done his homework. 

    Later in his life and ministry, Paul will encourage his young protégé Timothy with the following:

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2 ESV)

     The content of this teaching is, is, of course, scriptural truth. The object is to exalt Christ. Again, Paul knows quite a bit about the context in which he would be pursuing this ministry. So well does he understand it, that he can remind Timothy that the content and intent of his preaching will be defined by several different emphases, each speaking directly to a congregational inflection point. 

    When we have done the hard exegetical work and have prepared a clear and direct sermon based upon that exegetical work, we can confidently affirm to our congregation that “this is God’s Word for us today.”