A Discussion on the Eight Movements in an Expository Biblical Sermon
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A Christian sermon should be the word of the living God speaking through Man under the authority of and strictly according to the inerrant and infallible Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible.
We trust the following discussion will be toward that glorious end. What follows is the text from my course, “Homiletics I: The Preparation of Expository Biblical Sermons.” One may access an outline of the discussion at this location: https://michaelmilton.org/2020/07/12/the-8-essential-elements-of-an-expository-sermon/
The 8 Movements in an Expository Biblical Sermon
Reading the Scriptures. The public reading of Scripture is the critical first step in an expository biblical sermon. Paul admonished Timothy to “Give attention to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4:13).
The Presenting Issue. Rather than calling it “the problem,” or, another phrase denoting a sinful condition, the Presenting Issue considers both ideals and problems since both may occur in a respective text.
The Presenting Issue is introduced with “The Summary Statement,” or “The First Word.” The First Word is the initial utterance by the preacher in the sermon. Rather than beginning with an illustration, the preacher begins with a summary sentence, and then the illustration. In this way, the first words heard by the congregation are those words that alert them to the divine issue, viz., the Presenting Issue, at work within the text. The Illustration follows.
The proper introductory illustration is one that depicts the Summary Statement of the Presenting Issue in the biblical text. The introductory illustration is proportional to the other relative movements and presented with the intent to help the congregant to experience the presenting issue. The illustration preempts references, concepts, and other literary elements that would lead the mind of the auditor in an unwanted (i.e., an unnecessary direction, from the attitude, i.e., literary trajectory, within the text). The introductory illustration, like all sermon illustrations, serves to enliven the presenting issue addressed in the sacred text, to employ relatable or observable evidence in the service of understanding a concept in the Presenting Issue
Our Lord’s saying, “Consider the lilies of the field” is an example of how an illustration must function.
“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious” (Matthew 6:28-31a ESV).
The presenting issue can be an ethical or moral concept, including an existential crisis, or a state of mind. In the case of Matthew 6:28 our Lord Jesus confronts the human existential crisis that is “anxiety:” Specifically, one may become anxious over an essential human need: clothing). The Lord states presenting issues. The illustration—not an introductory illustration, but a division of thought illustration—addresses the existential concept with a readily observable and relatable phenomenon. The “lilies of the field” is an illustrative choice in the service of the concept, of “anxiety.” The illustrative potential of the subject is considerable. Lilies of the field can convey information about growth, life, death, planting, and other values. Because an illustration is “a servant” that must be constrained by its service to “its master” (the concept), it is regulated. Jesus limits its use to one message, “As God takes care of the lilies of the field—that is, He provides for their ‘attire’—God will take care of you.”
The introductory illustration has a “negative charge.” By “negative charge” we speak metaphorically. We mean to say that the introductory illustration is treating a concept that is, in many cases, a “negative,” that is, a “problem.” Teaching most often begins, as in Paul’s epistles, to pastorally “treat” a pathology: e.g., a concept or condition that needs real or ethical-moral repair (or we might say, “physical or metaphysical” correction or transformation).
The “first word” may then be restated. Afterward, the presenting issue is personalized using the “I-thou-God” motif. Following Martin Buber’s (187-1965) theological vision of authentic communication (“dialogical existence”) the preacher identifies with the summary statement of the presenting issue. “I, too, have known this truth in my life.” The preacher, then, seeks an “audience” with the listener, which is the “thou” of the construction. “I suspect that you have known the reality of this in your life.” Finally, the personalization concludes with God’s revelation in the Bible text. This sentence serves as the transition to the Exegetical Statement. E.g., “So, you and I know these things to be true. Thankfully, God has, also, given us His word on the matter. Look at Matthew 1.1”
The Exegetical Statement. This is a summary of what the text is about in its native context. How does one quantify a “brief summary?” It may be stated in qualitative terms. Thus, the Exegetical Statement conveys the setting of the text with its salient features in as few sentences as possible. The preacher is establishing authority from on high. The preacher cannot advance to the next movement, exposition unless exegesis is sufficiently established. Using the rhetorical evaluation schema of Aristotle, an effective argument necessarily involves logos (observable, known authority, the undeniable, the immovable), ethos (credibility), and pathos (emotive connectivity to the listener), pathos being called the most effective dynamic of the three (therefore, subject to misuse by the speaker). In preaching, the Aristotelian tripartite constitution of speech is fully expressed in the Word of God. Thus, the Word is the Logos. The Logos is pathos. The Logos has its own ethos. The persuasive power (pathos) and the authority (ethos) are resident in the biblical text (Logos). “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV). In this sense as in many others, the sermon is unlike other forms of human elocution.
The Exegetical Statement is connected by the sinewy material of a transitional statement. The transitional statement is an unassuming but reliable presence in the sermon. The transitional statement is always serving the needs of others. The transitional statement links movements. It is a walkway between two buildings on campus. It is the matchmaker for otherwise independent ideas. The transitional statement is the indispensable literary or rhetorical tethering material between a preceding movement (an ante-movement) and its next movement (a post-movement). For example, in the ante-movement of Exegesis and its post-movement partner, Exposition, the preacher having established the biblical setting may announce, “Thus, we can locate the Word of the Lord for our lives.” The sinew gives structure and allows for the strength of each movement to stand together forming a great singular tower.
The Expository Statement. The expository statement is set forth in an A – B construction in which A = the presenting issue, and B = the universal message from God drawn — i.e. exposited — from the exegetical summary statement.
The Interrogatory Statement. This is a statement, spoken, or unspoken, which is formulated by the preacher to the expository statement. Using “who, what, when, where, or how,” the preacher can set up the “Transitional Statement with the keyword.”
The Transitional Statement with Keyword. This is not only the rhetorical response to the Interrogatory Statement but will become the sinew for the structural body of the sermon, viz., “the Argument.”
The Main Argument. Also known as the body of the sermon, the argument is divided by divisions of thought that are linked together by the transitional statement with keyword. Each hitting or division of thought within the argument contains a discussion of the scripture, an illustration of the concept, in the division of thought, and an application of the concept to the lives of the congregants. The argument is divided by headings of no more than four. Each of the divisions of thought is supported by “the transitional statement with the keyword.”
The Closing Argument. The conclusion is composed of a tripartite recapitulation of the expository statement, the transitional statement with keywords, the argument, headings, i.e., the divisions of thought, an appropriate illustration that has a positive value — that is, the illustration shows what life could be, if one followed the teaching in the passage, viz., the Word of the Lord in the text for today. Finally, the closing argument ends with “The Last Word” (following “the First Word” of the sermon). Rather than answering a rhetorical question, e.g., “So, what do you want me to do?” There is another question that arises from the biblical text, “What does God require of thee?”
References
American Association for the Advancement of Science. “The Principles of Elocution. By Alexander Melville Bell. revised and enlarged. Washington, John C. Parker. 12°.” Science 248 (1887): 223-223.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. “The Principles of Elocution. By Alexander Melville Bell. revised and enlarged. Washington, John C. Parker. 12°.” Science 248 (1887): 223-223.
Braga, James. How to Prepare Bible Messages. United States: Multnomah Press, 1969.
Buber, Martin. I and Thou. New York, NY: Howard Books, 2008.
Chapell, Bryan. Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2018.
Homiletics and Hermeneutics: Four Views on Preaching Today. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2018.
Plumptre, Charles John. King’s College Lectures on Elocution: Or, The Physiology and Culture of Voice and Speech, and the Expression of the Emotions by Language, Countenance, and Gesture. To which is Added a Special Lecture on the Causes and Cure of Impediments of Speech. Cambridge, UK: Trübner, 1881.