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The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching
Copyright © 2005 by Christianity Today International
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robinson, Haddon.
The art and craft of biblical preaching : a comprehensive resource for today’s communicators / Haddon Robinson,
Craig Brian Larson, general editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-310-25248-2 (jacketed hardcover)—ISBN 0-310-25249-0 (companion audio CD)
1. Bible—Homiletical use—Encyclopedias. I. Robinson, Haddon W. II. Larson, Craig Brian.
BS534.5.A78 2005
251’.003—dc22 2004015689
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25248-1
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright
© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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The High Call of Preaching How Can I Be Faithful to What God Intends Preaching to Be and Do?
Chapter 1
Convictions of Biblical Preaching
Haddon Robinson
To do the tough work of being biblical
preachers, men and women in ministry
must be committed to certain truths.
(1) The Bible is the Word of God. As Augustine
put it, “When the Bible speaks, God
speaks.” This is the conviction that if I can
really understand a passage in its context, then
what I know is what God wants to say. (I don’t
believe that many evangelicals as well as liberals
really believe this.)
(2) The entire Bible is the Word of God. Not
only Romans but Leviticus, not only Ephesians
but Esther. Not merely the “hot” passages but
the “cold” ones.
(3) The Bible is self-authenticating. If people
can be exposed to an understanding of the
Scriptures on a regular basis, then they do not
need arguments about the veracity of Scripture.
Therefore, a listener or reader doesn’t have to
buy into the first two commitments before God
can work in a person’s life through his Word.
(4) This leads to a “Thus saith the Lord”
approach to preaching. I am not referring to a
homiletical method here, but to a desire to open
up the Scriptures so that the authority of the
message rests on the Bible. (This works against
the anti-authoritarian spirit of our society.)
(5) The student of the Bible must try to get
at the intent of the biblical writer. The first
question is, “What did the biblical writer want
to say to the biblical reader? Why?” The
Reader Response theory embraced by many literary
scholars today will not work for the study
of the Bible. Simply put, “The Bible cannot
mean what it has not meant.”
(6) The Bible is a book about God. It is not
a religious book of advice about the “answers”
we need about a happy marriage, sex, work, or
losing weight. Although the Scriptures reflect
on many of those issues, they are above all
about who God is and what God thinks and
wills. I understand reality only if I have an
appreciation for who he is and what he desires
for his creation and from his creation.
(7) We don’t “make the Bible relevant”; we
show its relevance. Truth is as relevant as water
to thirst or food to hunger. Modern advertising
creates needs that don’t really exist to move the
merchandise.
Chapter 2
A Definition of Biblical Preaching
John Stott
Iintend to supply a definition of biblical exposition
and to present a case for it. It seems to
me that these two tasks belong together in that
the case for biblical exposition is to be found in
its definition. Here, then, is the definition: To
expound Scripture is to open up the inspired
text with such faithfulness and sensitivity that
God’s voice is heard and his people obey him.
Now let me draw out the implications of this
definition in such a way as to present a case for
biblical exposition. The definition contains six
implications: two convictions about the biblical
text, two obligations in expounding it, and
two expectations in consequence.
TWO CONVICTIONS ABOUT
THE BIBLICAL TEXT
(1) It is an inspired text. To expound Scripture
is to open up the inspired text. Revelation
and inspiration belong together. Revelation
describes the initiative God has taken to unveil
himself and so to disclose himself, since without
this revelation he would remain the
unknown God. Inspiration describes the
process by which he has done so, namely, by
speaking to and through the biblical prophets
and apostles and by breathing his Word out of
his mouth in such a way that it came out of
their mouths as well. Otherwise his thoughts
would have been unattainable to us.
The third word is providence, that is, the loving
provision by which God has arranged for
the words that he has spoken to be so written
down as to form what we call Scripture, and
then to be preserved across the centuries so as
to be accessible to all people in all places and
at all times. Scripture, then, is God’s Word written.
It is his self-disclosure in speech and writing.
Scripture is the product of God’s revelation,
inspiration, and providence.
This first conviction is indispensable to
preachers. If God had not spoken, we would
not dare to speak, because we would have
nothing to say except our own threadbare speculations.
But since God has spoken, we too
must speak, communicating to others what he
has communicated in Scripture. Indeed, we
refuse to be silenced. As Amos put it, “The lion
has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign
LORD has spoken—who can but prophesy?”
(Amos 3:8), that is, pass on the Word he has
spoken. Similarly, Paul echoing Psalm 116:10,
wrote, “We believe and therefore we speak”
(2 Cor. 4:13). That is, we believe what God has
spoken, and that is why we also speak.
I pity the preacher who enters the pulpit with
no Bible in his hands, or with a Bible that is
more rags and tatters than the Word of the living
God. He cannot expound Scripture because
he has no Scripture to expound. He cannot
speak because he has nothing to say, at least
nothing worth saying. Ah, but to enter the pulpit
with the confidence that God has spoken and
that he’s caused what he has spoken to be written
and that we have this inspired text in our
hands, why then our head begins to swim and
our heart to beat and our blood to flow and our
eyes to sparkle with the sheer glory of having
God’s Word in our hands and on our lips.
That is the first conviction, and the second
is this:
(2) The inspired text to some degree is a
closed text. That is the implication of my definition.
To expound Scripture is to open up the
inspired text. So it must be partially closed if it
needs to be opened up. And I think at once I see
your Protestant hackles rising with indignation.