Now the question before us is this: What must be done with this idea to carry out the purpose? What shape will the sermon assume?

Stage 7: Thinking about the homiletical idea, ask yourself how this idea should be handled to accomplish your purpose.#

Sermons develop in three major ways: deductively, semi-inductively, or inductively.

• In the deductive arrangement, the idea is stated completely as part of the introduction to the sermon, and then the sermon develops out of that idea.

• In the inductive development, the introduction leads only to the first point in the sermon, then with strong transitions each new point links to the previous point until the idea of the sermon emerges in the conclusion.

Induction and deduction may be combined in a sermon. Your introduction may state only the subject of your sermon (what you are talking about), and then each point in the sermon presents a complement to the subject.

Another variation of the inductive/deductive development is that in your introduction, you lead up to your first point and develop it inductively. You may do that for the second point in the sermon where you will, for the first time, give the complete statement of your idea. Once your idea has been stated, the sermon must proceed deductively to explain or prove or apply the idea.

Basically our homiletical ideas expand in line with the broad purposes of the sermon. Just as any statement we make develops through explaining, proving, or applying it, so sermon ideas, too, demand explanation, validation, or application.

Deductive sermons, therefore, can take three different forms.

DEDUCTIVE ARRANGEMENTS#

An Idea to Be Explained#

Sometimes an idea must be explained. That happens when you want your congregation to understand a doctrine of the Bible. A truth correctly comprehended can carry its own application. All of this is to say that offering an audience a clear explanation of a biblical passage may be the most important contribution you can make through your sermon.

As an example, Alexander Maclaren preached a sermon to explain Colossians 1:15-18. In the body of the sermon, Maclaren explains what those relationships involve. Reduced to its outline, the sermon proceeds in this way:

I. The relation of Christ to God is that He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).

a. God in Himself is inconceivable and unapproachable. b. Christ is the perfect manifestation and image of God.

1. In Him the invisible becomes visible.
2. He alone provides certitude firm enough for us to find sustaining power against life’s trials.

II. The relation of Christ to creation is that He is “the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15-17).

a. Christ is the agent of all creation, and the phrases Paul used imply priority of existence and supremacy over everything. b. Christ sustains a variety of relations to the universe; this is developed through the different prepositions Paul used.

III. The relation of Christ to His church is that He is “the head of the body” who is “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18).

a. What the Word of God before the incarnation was to the universe, so is the incarnate Christ to His church. He is the “firstborn” to both. b. As “the head of the body,” He is the source and center of the church’s life. c. As the “beginning” of the church through His resurrection, He is the power by which the church began and by which we will be raised.

In the introduction to such a sermon we state the complete idea; in the body we take the idea apart and analyze it; and in the conclusion we repeat the idea again. Certainly such a development wins through clarity anything it loses in suspense.

One other thing is essential in a sermon about an idea explained: your introduction is crucial to its success. You must find a need for the explanation. This sermon form works only if you scratch your people where they itch. No one listens to instructions on how to make a soufflé if he or she has never even boiled an egg.

A Proposition to Be Proved#

Deductive sermons take other forms, however, and sometimes an idea requires not explanation but proof. When this is the case, the idea appears in the introduction as a proposition you will defend. Because your stance as a preacher resembles that of a debater, your points become reasons or proofs for your idea. You’re answering the developmental questions, “Is that true?” and “Why should I believe it?”

An example of a sermon in which a proposition is proved can be taken from 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, where Paul argues for the resurrection of the body. In the context Paul has contended that the Corinthians cannot believe that Jesus rose from the dead and continue to maintain that there is no such thing as resurrection. A sermon from verses 12-19 will defend the proposition, “The Christian faith is worthless unless Christians rise from the dead.” The preacher aims to convince the hearers that the doctrine of resurrection lies at the center of Christianity. The idea is stated in the introduction, and the major points defend it as a series of arguments. In outline form the sermon would look like this:

1. If Christians do not rise, the Christian faith lacks valid content (vv. 12-14).

a. If the dead do not rise, it follows that Christ did not rise. b. If Christ did not rise, then the gospel is a delusion. c. If the gospel is a delusion, then our faith in that gospel has no substance.

2. If Christians do not rise, the apostles are despicable liars (v. 15).

a. Since the apostles all preached the resurrection of Jesus, which could not have taken place if there is no resurrection, then they are “false witnesses.” b. They are guilty of the worst kind of falsehood, since they gave false testimony about God, whom they claimed raised Jesus from the dead.

3. If Christians do not rise, then the Christian faith is futile (vv. 16-17).

a. If Christ’s resurrection did not happen, which would be the case if there is no resurrection of the dead, then the effects ascribed to it are not valid. b. Christians therefore are still dead in their sins. A dead Savior is no Savior at all.

4. If Christians do not rise, then Christians have no hope (vv. 18-19).

a. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus was not raised and his death accomplished nothing. b. It would follow then that dead saints “have perished.” c. Christians suffering for Christ in anticipation of life to come are to be pitied. Without resurrection, the hope that sustains them is only wishful thinking.

Conclusion: The resurrection of the dead stands as a crucial doctrine of Christianity. If it falls, the entire system of Christian faith crumbles with it, and the Christian gospel and its preachers offer nothing to the world. Since Christ has been raised, however, the belief in resurrection and the Christian faith rest on a strong foundation. We live in hope.

At first the idea explained and the idea proved appear to be identical because both sermons set forth the sermon idea in the introduction and then develop it. What must be recognized, though, is that the sermons expand in different directions to accomplish different purposes.

A Principle to Be Applied#

A third form that deductive sermons take grows out of the question of application: So what? What difference does this make? In this type of sermon you establish a biblical principle in either your introduction or your first major point; then in the remainder of your message you explore the implications of the principle.

An outline of a sermon designed to apply a principle is drawn from 1 Peter 2:11-3:9. The introduction to the sermon discusses how our attitudes determine action and then asks the question, “What should be our attitude as Christ’s men and women in a world that is no friend of God and grace?” The purpose behind the sermon is to have Christians develop a submissive spirit in their social relationships. The principle to be applied appears in the first point.

I. We are to be subject for God’s sake to every human institution (2:11-12, 21-25).

a. Subjection brings glory to God (2:11-12). b. Christ illustrates submission even to institutions that worked evil against Him (2:21-25).

1. He was completely innocent (v. 22).
2. He remained silent and trusted Himself to God (v. 23).
3. His sufferings were redemptive (vv. 24-25).

II. This principle of adopting a submissive spirit for God’s sake must govern us in our social relationships (2:13-20; 3:1-7).

a. We are to submit for God’s sake to civic leaders (2:13-17). b. We are to submit for God’s sake to our employers (2:18- 20). c. We are to submit for God’s sake to our spouses (3:1-7).

1. Wives should have a submissive spirit toward their husbands (vv. 1-6).
2. Husbands should have a submissive spirit toward their wives (v. 7).

Conclusion: “All of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing” (3:8-9 NASB).

The three sermon forms we have discussed—an idea explained, a proposition proved, and a principle applied—are deductive arrangements of the sermon. In all three, your idea is stated in the introduction or the first major point of the sermon. Everything within the sermon, then, relates back to the idea.

SEMI-INDUCTIVE ARRANGEMENTS#

A Subject to Be Completed#

The first semi-inductive form presents only the subject in the introduction, not the entire idea, and the major points complete the subject. This subject-completed form of development is the most common one used in our pulpits, and many preachers never vary from it.

James S. Stewart, in an exposition of Hebrews 12:22-25, provides a case study. In his introduction, Stewart establishes his subject. The writer of Hebrews, he tells us, “is saying five things about our fellowship of Christian worship in the church.” The purpose of the sermon is, in his words, “to make us realize the riches of our heritage when we assemble in our places of worship.” With the subject “What makes our worship rich?” being stated in the introduction, each point in the body helps to complete it.

I. It is a spiritual fellowship: “You are come unto Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (v. 22). Christians have direct touch with that invisible spiritual world which is the only ultimate reality. (“I pass on to the second fact our text underlines concerning the fellowship of Christian worship.”)

II. It is a universal fellowship: “You are come to the church of the firstborn who are written in heaven” (v. 23). Christians are members of the greatest fellowship on earth, the Church universal.

III. It is an immortal fellowship: “You are come to myriads of angels in festal array, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (v. 23). When Christians are at worship, their loved ones on the other side of eternity are near to them and a cloud of witnesses surrounds them.

IV. It is a divine fellowship: “You are come to the God of all who is Judge, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (vv. 23-24). In your worship, he tells them—reaching now to the very heart of the matter, you have come to God as revealed in Jesus. (“One other fact about our fellowship in worship he adds, and so makes an end.”)

V. It is a redeeming fellowship: “You are come to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh of better things than that of Abel” (v. 24). “When our sins cry out to God for punishment and vengeance, something else also happens—the blood of Christ cries louder, overbears and silences the very crying of our sins, and God for Christ’s sake forgives.”

Stewart has no formal conclusion, but rather, his final point serves to bring the sermon to an effective close. Notice that in his transitions, he relates each separate point not to the previous point but only to the subject that it completes.

In Stewart’s sermon, it is the generic word things. Each of his five points is a “thing” about our fellowship when we come together to worship. One complaint about the subject-completed form of semi-inductive sermons is that it can be boring. It bores the preacher and, when it is used constantly, it can bore the audience. More important, there is a danger of imposing on the thought of the biblical writer what the writer himself is not saying. We force the thought of the passage into a previous mold. The advantage of the form, however, is that it is simple and easy to use.

Induction-Deduction#

Induction and deduction may be combined in your sermon. The idea is stated some place in the middle of the sermon. The introduction and first or second point will lead up to the idea, then the remainder of the sermon proceeds deductively to explain, prove, or apply the idea.

ne specific way the inductive-deductive sermon can be developed is to explore a problem. Within the introduction and first point you identify a personal or ethical problem, explore its roots, and perhaps discuss inadequate solutions. At the second point you propose a biblical principle or approach to the problem, and throughout the remainder of the sermon, you explain, defend, or apply it.

This inductive-deductive arrangement also applies to “life situation” preaching. In the introduction you discuss in personal terms a question, problem, or bewildering experience such as depression or grief. Finally, you offer a positive biblical solution in a practical, usable manner. Your sermon, therefore, becomes a bridge-building project that spans the gulf between personal needs on one side and scriptural truth on the other.

INDUCTIVE ARRANGEMENTS#

Sermons can also be developed inductively. Inductive sermons move toward a complete statement of your idea at the end of the sermon. In your introduction, therefore, you do not state the complete idea of your sermon. You will relate your introduction only to the first point of the sermon. Following that point, you must raise another question, directly or indirectly for the audience to consider. Your second point, then, grows out of your first point. When your second point is developed, you must raise still another question coming out of that point, which is answered in your next point. Only when all of your points have been developed will you state the idea of your sermon.

Obviously, transitions are crucial in an inductive sermon. Your audience cannot refer back to your central idea because you have not stated it. At the same time, inductive sermons have advantages. They produce a sense of discovery in listeners. In the inductive sermon, listeners can have the experience of learning truth for themselves. It can produce a strong sense of discovery.

Inductive sermons are particularly effective with indifferent or even hostile audiences. They work well with hearers who might reject your sermon idea out of hand. Through induction you can present a series of ideas that the audience will agree with until you come to your major idea, and they are forced to accept it.

It is difficult to sketch the structure of an inductive sermon using a traditional outline. Because all outlines have to be deductive (a main point stated and then supported), it is easier to map an inductive sermon in a series of movements that leads up to the sermon’s one major idea.

The inductive sermon is closer to a conversation than to a lecture. To make it work, we have to know how people actually think and act. Listeners have to feel “that could be me.” We also have to feel our way back into the Scriptures. The difference between a religious discourse and a sermon throbbing with life is the difference between reading a book on poverty and standing in line with a mother and her three hungry kids waiting to get some food stamps.

Inductive sermons work best when, from beginning to end, from current problem to biblical solution, we are talking about actual people, not about cardboard characters in tissue-paper plots.

A Story Told#

Inductive sermons have special appeal to inhabitants of a culture dominated by television and motion pictures. We have become a storied culture. The drama isn’t solved until the end of the last act, and the joke leads up to the punch line, and the sports event moves toward the final score. Inductive sermons fit that way of thinking. That is particularly true of a specific type of inductive sermon—a story told.

Anyone who loves the Bible must value the story, for whatever else the Bible is, it is a book of stories. Narrative preaching however does not merely repeat a story as one would recount a pointless, worn-out joke. Through the story you communicate ideas. In a narrative sermon, as in any other sermon, a major idea continues to be supported by other ideas, but the content supporting the points is drawn directly from the incidents in the story. In other words, the details of the story are woven together to make a point, and all the points develop the central idea of the sermon.

Narratives are most effective when the audience hears the story and arrives at the speaker’s ideas without the ideas being stated directly.

In the final analysis, there is no such thing as “a sermon form.” God’s truth would be better served if we didn’t think about preaching a sermon at all. When we have arrived at what we believe is the meaning of a passage and have thought about the needs and questions of our audience, then the question is, What is the best way for this idea to be developed? The shoe must not tell the foot how to grow; therefore, ideas and purposes should be allowed to take their own shape in your mind. To test a form, you should ask at least two questions: (1) Does this development communicate what the passage teaches? (2) Will it accomplish my purpose with this audience?

Stage 8: Having decided how the idea must be developed to accomplish your purpose, outline the sermon#

When you have derived a concept from the biblical data and shaped it toward your audience’s need, you must now fashion a blueprint, which is the outline of your sermon. Although content may exist without form, structure provides a sermon with a sense of unity, order, and progress. Certainly no sermon ever failed because it possessed a strong outline.

The outline is for your benefit. Congregations do not hear outlines. They hear a preacher speaking. Your outline, therefore, serves you in at least four ways.

• First, you view your sermon as a whole, and therefore, you heighten your sense of unity.

• Second, the outline clarifies in your eye and mind the relationships between the parts of your sermon.

• Third, your outline also crystallizes the order of ideas so that you will give them to your listeners in the appropriate sequence.

• Finally, you will recognize the places in your sermon that require additional supporting material that must be used to develop your points.

Sometimes the arrangement of ideas in the biblical passage will have to be altered in the outline. The biblical writer did not have your audience in mind. He may have followed an inductive order; but because of your hearers, you may select a deductive plan. Sermons based on the epistles fit more easily into outlines than do poems, parables, or narratives. Unless you remain flexible in the ways you communicate passages, you will find it impossible to accomplish the purpose of some passages with your audience.

Outlines usually consist of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

• The introduction (which will be discussed in greater detail) introduces the idea, the subject, or in the case of inductive sermons, the first point.

• The body of the outline then elaborates on the idea.

• The conclusion (also to be treated later) brings the idea to a focus and ends the sermon.

The sermon is made up of a multitude of ideas, all related to one another. Not all ideas in a sermon have equal importance. Some are more basic than others. The most fundamental ideas become the main points and make up the basic framework around which the sermon is built.

Simply listing these major points, however, does not completely develop the sermon. Because main points need expansion, secondary points elaborating the main points are added to the outline.

The addition of these subpoints improves the outline by making the development clearer and more specific. The outline can be even more complete if it brings in specific details to support your secondary points.

A sermon outline, in contrast to one for a thesis or research paper, should be simple and have relatively few points. A complicated outline broken into several indented subdivisions, while impressing the eye, will only bewilder the preacher as it is preached and the audience as it listens.

Keep in mind that each point in the outline represents an idea and thus should be a grammatically complete sentence. When only words or phrases stand as points, they deceive us because they are incomplete and vague.

There is something else to remember: each point should be a declarative sentence, not a question. Questions do not show relationships because they are not ideas. The points in your outline should answer questions, not raise them. Questions may be used in the delivery of your sermon as transitions introducing new points. You may include these transitional questions before your point, and in your outline they are placed in parentheses.

Carefully constructed transitions help your listeners to think with you so that together you and they move through the sermon. An effective transition notifies the audience that you are moving on. You will often review where you have been, identify the thought to which you are moving, relate what has been said to the main subject or idea, and interest the hearer in the thought that is to follow. Effective transitions state or imply the logical or psychological connection between the introduction and the body, the points within the body, and the body and the conclusion.

SUMMARIZE#

Deductive arrangement - the idea appears as part of the introduction, and the body explains, proves, or applies it.

Idea explained - the idea is presented in the introduction, and the points of the sermon are steps in the explanation of the idea.

Inductive arrangement - the introduction introduces only the first point in the sermon, then with a strong transition each new point links to the previous point until the idea emerges in the conclusion.

Outline - shows the speaker the relationship between the ideas of the sermon. You can tell at a glance which ideas are superior, subordinate, and coordinate.

Principle applied - the idea is stated in the introduction or first point as a principle of faith or life. The remainder of the sermon applies that principle to daily experience.

Proposition proved - the idea is stated in the introduction like the proposition of a debate. The points are proofs of that proposition.

Story told - a story of Scripture is narrated in such a way that the idea is developed directly or by implication.

Subject completed - the subject of the sermon appears in the introduction. The main points of the sermon are complements of that subject.

Transition - notifies the audience that the preacher is moving on by stating (or occasionally by implying) the logical or psychological connection between the introduction and the body, the points within the body, and the body and the conclusion.