Preaching Doctrine with Flavor...Continued from page 2

STEP 3:

Blend together a variety of styles and structures.

Doctrinal sermons tend to be didactic, deductive and dry ? not that didactic and deductive sermons have to be dry! However, try different kinds of sermon styles and arrangements to add variety and spice to the mixture.

Inductive arrangements, such as Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, can bring listeners along the journey of discovery with the pastor. If you give people the same opportunity that God gave you in searching the text, they may come to the same conclusion without kicking and screaming along the way. Unlike Craddock and others who believe the pastor should preach as one without authority, you can use inductive arrangements and still lead people to propositional truth, make specific applications, and offer conclusions.

Narrative sermons can be wonderful vehicles to convey doctrinal truth. Couched in a story about the legal beagles at Galatia, the doctrine of grace can come alive. Walking the halls of heaven in John 1, you can paint a beautiful portrait of the pre-existent Christ ? thus, teaching Christology without using the word. What pastor has not related the drama of Abraham bending his son over an altar, a sharp knife poised in his hand, as he teaches the doctrine of substitutionary atonement?

Preaching the great doctrines offers wonderful opportunities for evangelistic sermons. People don’t just need to know they can be saved by grace through faith; they need to be saved by grace through faith. The doctrine of sin, matched with the doctrine of grace in Romans 6:23, makes a motivational mixture for sinners to receive God’s free gift in Christ.

Yes, you can still use deductive, didactic structures; just don’t do so exclusively. Too, don’t be satisfied with a teaching objective. Incorporating an action objective can invigorate the outline with a clear purpose that moves the hearer along to a strong conclusion. By varying your style and structure, you keep your people interested and eager for the next installment ? sort of like mom mixing vegetables in with a bit of applesauce to get nourishment into finicky babies.

Word your main points in full, presenttense sentences. Verbs move people to action. Points that use a word or two as if they were titles, even if alliterated, do not mean much to the average listener. For example, would you rather listen to a sermon from John 1 with these points:

I. The Pre-existent Christ
II. The Creator Christ
III. The Incarnate Christ

or with these points:

1. Before the world was formed, the Father and the Son walked the halls of heaven.
2.When God formed the world, He spoke it into being through the Word.
3.When the world was ready for its Savior, the Son of God became the Son of Man.

Many pastors want their people to be able to follow the sermon with a “fill in the blank” outline. Unfortunately their idea of visuals is limited to a text-only PowerPoint slide show. You can offer an outline during the sermon or have summaries of the sermon available after the service, but avoid turning the sermon into a doctrinal lecture.

Use pictures (even cartoons) with your PowerPoint outline to help people connect with the ideas. Images do not have to be pictures of the point, but should help the people understand abstract ideas. A picture of a father holding his newborn baby helps people relate to the point from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son …” A background image of the Milky Way galaxy could be superimposed by the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The doctrine: God is the Creator. A photo of the congregation itself could be used to illustrate the doctrine of the church, using the point, “The church is a specific group of believers” from a text such as Colossians 1:2.

You can even incorporate drama into a doctrinal sermon. Find a script based on a modern prodigal son to illustrate eternal security ? “He may be a prodigal, but he’s still my son.” Several scenes from the drama could be woven into the sermon, much like you would use illustrations following each point.

Use metaphors and word pictures to help people understand the abstract. McDill points out that, “Concrete language brings ideas and principles down to earth for clarity and understanding. Concrete means those things which can be perceived by the senses as actual and particular. The opposite is abstract, which means conceptual, transcendent.” 10

STEP 4:

Add a generous helping of practical application and people-oriented illustration.

Jay Adams was wrong in attacking expository preaching because it, in his view, lacked application. Bad expository preaching might do that, but good exposition is accompanied by relevant application.

Ask, "How does this doctrine affect my life?" If you can’t answer honestly, don’t preach the sermon. It is one thing to preach that the Holy Spirit has certain characteristics and functions. It is quite another to see how the Holy Spirit works in your own life. If you can understand the actual application of the doctrine for your life, you can explain to others how this truth affects them.

Bryan Chapell argued that all doctrine is applicable doctrine: “Paul expects Titus’ doctrine (Titus 2:2-5) to give the people of his congregation specific guidance for their everyday lives. Such instruction does not merely characterize this one passage; it reflects the patterns of Paul’s epistles. The apostle typically begins each letter with a greeting, moves to doctrinal instruction, and then applies the doctrine to a variety of circumstances. Paul refuses to leave biblical truth in the stratosphere of theological abstraction. He earths his message in the concerns of the people he addresses.”11

Populate the word. Don’t use a lot of personal illustrations, but put people into the passage. You can do this in two ways: First, take your personal example and universalize it. You don't have to say “me,” but you can see how this truth is universal in human experience and say “we.” Put the experience into an everyday situation that the average person can understand and say, “Yes, that’s me!”

Personalize the word. Often the problem is that we preach with lofty ideas unrelated to the average person. How many people will bless God as you expound on superlapsarianism? Chappell argues, “Biblical preaching moves from doctrinal exposition to life instruction. Such preaching exhorts as well as expounds because it recognizes that Scripture’s own goal is not merely to share information about God, but to conform his people to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Preaching without application may serve the mind, but preaching with application requires service to Christ.”12