The exposition of the Word of God is of vital importance for the congregation, since through it the church can be very blessed. But is it just standing in the pulpit, opening the Bible and God filling our lips? We can not fall into this error, we must prepare ourselves in every sense of the word before exhorting in the temple. That is why today we are going to talk about some points to take into account when preparing a sermon.
Actually, to hear that our name is on the program of the week is a huge blessing and if we like preaching, we should feel highly privileged to be able to speak to the people of God. But, it is not enough to simply feel privileged, because as Mark Denver said: “We are sending the brothers who are only motivated, but we are not sending the trained ones”.
Preaching goes far beyond the degree of motivation we can have, we must prepare ourselves, we must know how to prepare a sermon, so that after being there in front of all of us it does not happen that we do not know what to say or we just go through the whole Bible and end up getting tired of others.
If we were to draw up a list of the steps we must take into account to prepare a sermon, the first thing is prayer, that communion with God, since our discourse is not simple, it is about God, and this needs spiritual preparation. The second thing would be to study very thoroughly on the subject that we wish to expose, be accompanied by biblical dictionaries, different translations of the Bible, look for those words that we do not know, know what was the intention of the author at the time of writing such text to be faithful to the biblical context.
Something that I also think that can be very useful when drafting is the following:
Let’s say that my text to expose is John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
We can begin by talking about how famous this verse is, how even a child easily knows about this quote and at the same time tell them that although this verse for many people looks simple, it is one of the deepest revelations of the Scriptures, of how one is of the verses in the Bible that have their own light and how we could spend hours talking about only this verse.
After we give our introduction, we can divide this verse into points:
1- “Because in such a way”: Here we can put a lot of emphasis on the phrase “because in such a way”, since it expresses the great love with which God loved us.
2- “God Loved the World”: Talk about how we as sinners God loved us.
3- “He has given his only Son”: To speak of how God gave the most valuable for us, how God’s love surpasses all the loves that may exist.
4- “That everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life”: Talk about God’s powerful plan of salvation for humanity, that barrier that Christ brought down on the cross through his sacrifice.
We can also include other verses that have to do directly with this context. It is my habit to always do it, in addition to this, when preparing a sermon I always look for phrases from different authors, but phrases that have to do with what I am exposing, always giving credit to the original author, because it is not honest to say something that another said as if it was oneself who said it.
On the other hand, we can also mention a story to make some contrast with our preaching and thus get the audience to connect more with what we are expressing. The apostle Paul once did this in a certain city called Athens:
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Acts 17:22-28
Notice that Paul preached to the Athenians with many of his own phrases to present to God. And in that way it is good that we make contrasts in our preaching and also in that way we manage to flow better and awaken the listener’s mind faster.
How to conclude our sermon? I usually conclude where I started, ending my sermon in a summarized way and with a prayer. After this, I thank the audience for having listened to me for the time of my preaching.
Remember something, preaching is something very important and we must do well, since it is the Word of God and we should be prepared for such responsibility. I hope these notes have helped you and that God will help you grow in the ministry of preaching his Word.