“Exegesis is not the finished product but rather a servant to it. It is not th end of the road but the road to the end — the preached sermon” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 39).
Preaching a New World
“God’s word at first created the world, and His word, from the lips of His servants, is to re-create it” (Henry Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 1).
A Mallet and Pliers are Not Homiletical Tools
“A sermon should not forced into a text but should be derived from it in a plain, natural and obvious manner” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 32).
Like Bees on a Branch
“The right text is the one which comes of itself during reading and meditation: which accompanies you in walks, goes to bed with you, and rises with you. On such a text thoughts swarm and cluster, like bees upon a branch” (J.W. Alexander, quoted in Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 29).
The Glory and Grace of New Birth
INTRODUCTION:This chapter can be understood in three basic segments. The first describes the condition of man prior to regeneration (vv. 1-3). The second is a treatment of how God’s grace works in such people, and the nature of the change accomplished in them (vv. 4-6). And the third is a description of the design God …
Fertilizing the Soil So No One Will Ask “Why Cumbereth It the Ground?”
“As time for reading is limited, the preacher should make sure he is reading the books that will produce the most sermons” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 27).
Not Beyond What Is Written
“When he enters the pulpit, he is not an entirely free man. There is a very real sense in which it may be said of him that the Almighty has set him his bounds that he shall not pass . . . It is a great thing to come under the magnificent tyranny of the …
No Isolated Texts
“The word ‘text’ is from the Latin textum, meaning woven. This suggests that as the sermon ‘text’ is woven into the whole fabric of the Scriptures, it must not be torn out of its connections and relations with the rest of Scripture. It also suggests that the ‘text’ must be woven into the whole fabric …
One of the Central Jewels
INTRODUCTION:Considering the book of Ephesians a chapter at a time is a little bit like taking pictures of the Rocky Mountains from outer space. There is no hope of covering everything; there is perhaps some hope of stirring up a desire in you to give yourself to a lifetime of meditating on the themes of …
No Kidding
“A preacher must have a systematic plan of regularly reading through the whole Bible, with a portion from both the Old and New Testaments being read each day” (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 17).