I am honored to be invited to lead a seminar on “Expository Preaching from the Old Testament,” with my fathers and brothers at the third annual Korean Pastors’ Conference, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Our selected text for our “case study” will be Jonah Chapter 2.
Here is the information that we will be covering.
Expository Preaching in the Old Testament
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A Seminar
Presented to
Korean Pastor’s Conference
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, Georgia
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
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On Preaching in the Old Testament Book of Jonah, Chapter Two
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by
MICHAEL A. MILTON, PhD
BA, MDiv, MPA, PhD (University of Wales)
The James Ragsdale Chair of Missions and Evangelism, Erskine Theological Seminary
September 14, 2017
Expository Preaching in the Old Testament
Outline for Korean Pastor’s Conference
“The Christ of Nineveh: Expository Preaching in the Old Testament with Jonah Chapter Two as the Case Study”
I. Introduction
A. Seminar Description:
This is a Seminar that aims to review the homiletical planning and construction of an expository sermon in the Old Testament, using the Book of Jonah as a case study.
B. Seminar Objectives:
- To review the fundamental structure of an expository sermon.
- To relate the basic movementsof the sermon composition and its relationship to the study of the Sacred Text.
- To isolate and respond to specific challenges and opportunities for preaching a Gospel Bible message from the Old Testament.
- To be able to teach your congregation the blessings of Old Testament preaching, as a parishioner.
- To have walked through a time of exegeting and expositingan Old Testament text (Jonah Chapter Two) in the classical Expository Sermon model.
II. The Classical Expository Model
The Reading of Holy Scripture
- Ascription of Authority
- Reading the Text: Jonah 2
- Ascription of Praise
- Prayer for Illumination
The Preaching of Holy Scripture
- The Introduction
- (Movement from the Presenting Issue to the Exegetical Statement)
- Stating the Presenting Issue of the Text
- Why I prefer “Presenting Issue v. ‘Fallen-Condition Focus'(Rayburn, Chapell)”
- Illustrating the Presenting Issue
- Personalizing the Presenting Issue
- “I, Thou, God”
- Transitional Statement
- The Exegetical Statement (the Scripture movement)
- A summary of the text and how God responds in the Text to the Presenting Issue that He raises in narrative, history, wisdom, poetry, epistle, or didactic
- Should be a concise statement of the exegesis of the Text
- The Transitional Statement
- The Expository Statement (the Exposition Movement)
- Symmetry
- Presenting Issue anchored, Exegetically grounded, Expositional Directio
- Can pass the “Sticky Note” test
- The Interrogative statement
- The Transitional response with key word
- The Argument (the Major Movements of the Sermon)
- For each heading or “point” there should be:
- Complete sentences, symmetrical, each carefully answering the interrogative, introduced with transition and key word;
- A sense of discernable movement (“this sermon is going somewhere”).
- First Argument Heading
- Discussion of the Text
- Illustrating the Text
- Applying the Text
- Transitional statement with key word
- Second Argument Heading
- Discussion of the Text
- Illustrating the Text
- Applying the Text
- Transitional statement with key word
- Third Argument Heading
- There does not have to be “three points” in the argument; the argument is driven by the text and the presenting issue that you are addressing
- There are likely several issues, but the main issue must never be overridden by secondary or tertiary issues; these other issues of the text can be interwoven.
- Discussion of the Text
- Illustrating the Text
- Applying the Text
- Transitional statement moves to Conclusion
- There does not have to be “three points” in the argument; the argument is driven by the text and the presenting issue that you are addressing
- Conclusion
- Restate the expository statement and (“movements” or “headings” or “points” within the) argument.
- This should be done with seamlessness. Too much of a break from the organic flow and the statement can be isolated and “orphaned” from the flow of the sermon.
- Illustrating the vision of the sermon
- The concluding illustration is a “positive” illustration, whereas the opening illustration in the Introduction was “negative,” that is, it shed light on the presenting issue (not always the fallen condition, but often is).
- The concluding illustration is your “close” before the jury.
- The concluding illustration creates resolution and completion in the sermon and yet is yoked, intentionally, progressively, to the expository idea (which is grounded in the exegetical statement), and presented in the Argument (tethered to the Expository Statement by the transition statement with key word).
- Final Charge
- The final charge may take a variety of forms, including
- A simple closing statement of application;
- A poignant question;
- An incomplete thought that is self-evident
- This is a most effective closing statement, but is the most dangerous;
- If overused, it can become distracting (“I wonder what the pastor really wanted me to say?”)
- A Prayer of Commitment or a Trinitarian benediction to the sermon.
- It is most appropriate to close with, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
- The final charge may take a variety of forms, including
- Restate the expository statement and (“movements” or “headings” or “points” within the) argument.
- For each heading or “point” there should be:
Reflections
A time of theological, practical, and pastoral reflection on our time together.
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