Christ-Centered Preaching

An exegetical outline displays a passage’s thought flow; a homiletical outline organizes a preacher’s explanation, development, application, and communication of a passage’s truths.

Progression also slows when a sermon contains too many divisions. If one main point has five subpoints and the next has seven, no one will remember the subpoints, and the sermon itself will get lost.

but saying profound things simply is the true mark of pastoral genius.

By phrasing the application’s instruction with the key terms of the explanation, preachers help listeners not only understand why they were listening to the explanation but also connect the instruction of the preacher with the authority of Scripture.

Listeners gain an understanding of the principles they must heed when a sermon is removed from the realms of generality and irrelevance.

The structure detailed in this section exhibits certain instructional principles without intending to suggest that there are no other proper expository forms. At the same time, this structure can serve as a standard without making its specifics normative.

The last sixty seconds are typically the most dynamic moments in excellent sermons.

When we preach, God is the true audience of our efforts. Just as true but perhaps more humbling and emboldening is the conviction that when we speak the truths of God’s Word, God speaks (cf. Luke 10:16). The Second Helvetic Confession of the Protestant Reformation says, “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.” The idea that what comes

In classical rhetoric, three elements compose every persuasive message: logos: the verbal content of the message, including its craft and logic pathos: the emotive features of a message, including the passion, fervor, and feeling that a speaker conveys and the listeners experience ethos: the perceived character of the speaker, determined most signi