What’s the difference between excellent preaching and less than excellent preaching? I’m sure that if you asked ten people to answer this question you’d get ten different answers. Yet, all of those answers would revolve around a consistent core of communicative concerns.
The Anatomy of an Excellent Sermon
First, a sermon must clearly communicate the mind of God for a particular people in a particular place and at a particular time. There must be a sense that what the preacher is communicating to the people has come from God and that the preacher has prepared the sermon in response to a living encounter with the word of the Lord.
Second, that word from the Lord must be cultivated and communicated as an exercise in biblical interpretation. The preacher does not merely hear from God and communicate what he says, but is a servant of the word of God–the Scriptures–and must be faithful to see to it that what he/she draws out from the Scriptures is really and truly there.
Finally, an excellent preacher knows how to provoke the right kind of response from the hearer. An excellent sermon will not only declare what God is saying through the pages of his word, but will also call for the precise response that God desires from the hearer in the moment.
In other words, a powerful sermon possesses a proclamation of God’s mind in the moment, an exposition of what God has said in Scripture, and an exhortation that calls for the appropriate response from the people of God. Cultivating excellence in preaching means cultivating skill in the ability to create and communicate each of these components.
A Key Biblical Example
In Mark 1:15, Jesus provides us with the perfect example of such a sermon:
The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the gospel.
This sermon begins with the proclamation, the time has come, which announces God’s mind in the moment. Next, Jesus connects this announcement to the central hope of the Old Testament Scriptures: the coming of the kingdom of God. Finally, Jesus finishes with a very clear exhortation, which calls those who hear it to repent and believe the gospel.
This schema can be used as an evaluation tool for assessing the success or failure of any sermon. It can also be used as the basis of an educational process for cultivating excellence in preaching. Although, this is not immediately obvious. Most people seem to think that powerful preachers are born, not made. You either have a powerful preaching gift, or you don’t. Well, I beg to differ!
The one promise that Jesus made when he called his disciples to come and follow him was that he would make them fishers of men. I’m sure we would all agree that this means that he was going to make them powerful proclaimers of truth in the earth!
God has impressed it so heavily on my heart that in 2015 he’s calling me not just to preach powerfully, but to empower many mighty men and women of God to rise up and take their places as powerful proclaimers of truth!
Psalm 68:11 has become the cry of my heart in this regard: The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it. God continues to give the word; it is now time for a great company to arise and proclaim it!
I’ve launched a new online program for this very purpose; it’s called The Gate, and it’s a subsidiary of Abba University. The Premier Preacher Program is open for enrollment now.
Every believer in Jesus Christ is called to be a proclaimer of God’s truth. My prayer for you is that you would find your voice, and take your place.
