The Preacher Set It in Order
Once the preacher knows what his passage says and what its main idea is, he must decide how to lay it out for his hearers. That is the work of structure: arranging the sermon's main points so that the listener can follow the passage from beginning to end and watch its central idea unfold.
“And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.”ECCLESIASTES 12:9–10 · KJV
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes describes his own work in three verbs: he gave good heed, he sought out, and he set in order. The first two are the work of Analyzing the Text. The third is the subject of this topic. And notice what he was seeking: acceptable words, yes, but upright, even words of truth. Order and clarity serve the truth. They never replace it.
Jerry Vines has called outlining perhaps the most important step in organizing a sermon. A good outline gives the preacher a track to run on, gives the listener a map to follow, and gives the sermon a sense of movement. Without one, even sound exegesis can come out of the pulpit as a pile of true observations that no one can carry home.
An arrangement of a sermon's main points in which each point is drawn from the passage, follows the passage's own flow, and develops its central idea.
If a listener opened his Bible during your sermon, could he see your outline in the text?
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For Deeper Study
- Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository SermonsAmazon Jerry Vines and Jim ShaddixThe plan this series follows; its process chapters teach the analytical, key word, and sermonic plot approaches to outlining.
- A Practical Guide to Sermon PreparationAmazon Jerry VinesVines's earlier book on preparation, with his counsel on outlines that emerge from the text.
- Recapturing the Voice of God: Shaping Sermons Like ScriptureAmazon Steven W. SmithA Baptist teacher of preaching on letting each genre of Scripture shape the sermon's structure.
- Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository MessagesAmazon Haddon W. RobinsonClear guidance on developing a sermon's idea into an outline, from a broadly evangelical teacher of preaching.
- Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and TeachingAmazon Walter C. Kaiser Jr.Shows how the syntax and structure of a passage can supply the sermon's outline; Kaiser is a broadly evangelical Old Testament scholar.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Finding the Main Idea
Every passage has one central idea that holds it together, and the preacher's task is to find that idea, state it in one clear sentence, and make it the main statement his whole sermon explains, proves, and applies.
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