(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] What is a sermon?
If you're like most Christians,
you'll probably listen to
thousands of sermons in your lifetime.
You hear sermons every Sunday,
and you probably even listen to sermons online
from nationally known preachers.
- [Man] We must exult over those doctrines
with affections that are due to him!
- [Narrator] You might have listened to Doctor John Piper
preach about the glory of God.
- [Man] You and I are impossibly broken.
We cannot fix ourselves,
even our best day falls short.
- [Narrator] Maybe you've heard Matt Chandler
preach about the power of the explicit gospel.
It's likely you've heard Doctor R. Albert Mohler Junior
preach about engaging the culture
with the truth of God's word.
- [Man] It's a very dangerous world out there.
But you know what?
You would know that listening to many preachers.
You would not know that it is a dangerous world
if you were paying attention to many pulpits.
- [Narrator] Or maybe you've even read famous sermons
from influential pastors from church history,
like James Boyce, Charles Spurgeon or Jonathon Edwards.
(upbeat music)
But have you ever thought about the question
what is a sermon?
John Broadus, the second president
of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
provided a lasting resource for considering this question.
Charles Spurgeon called him
the greatest of living preachers.
Broadus' book on preaching continues to be
one of the most influential sources on the topic.
Broadus believed that, as he said in his own words,
a preacher should be willing to
let the scripture mean what it wants to mean.
In other words, a sermon is the result
of letting the Bible speak for itself.
Expository preaching is a call
to deliver from the pulpit
what has already been delivered in the scriptures.
A sermon is the product of a preacher
explaining a biblical text
so that it's original meaning is brought to bare
on the lives of contemporary listeners.
But why do we need preaching?
Why can't God just speak directly to people today?
God has spoken directly to people throughout history.
God spoke to Moses,
God spoke to prophets like Isaiah and Micah.
God spoke to King David,
God spoke to the apostles,
and men spoke from God
as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
And now God speaks through his word,
as it is read personally
and as it is proclaimed corporately in the church.
Sermons are God's primary means
for communicating with his church today.
A sermon should begin
by seeking to understand
the biblical authors intended meaning
for his original audience.
The sermon then moves from the first century,
in the example of a sermon based a New Testament text,
and then transfers this truth
into the 21st century,
so that an audience can rightly understand
and apply God's word.
So a sermon derives as a big idea,
it's meaning, it's structure
and even it's immediate application
from the biblical text.
Because a sermon isn't really a sermon until it's applied.
So what is a sermon?
A sermon is a Christ-centered,
church building, gospel proclaiming,
truth-driven,
biblically grounded proclamation
for the purpose of God-glorifying transformation.
So what is a sermon?
That is a sermon.
(upbeat music)