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MALAYSIA BIBLE SEMINARY





Homiletics: The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching (Onsite)

Lecturer: Rev Dr Tony Lim

Venue: On Campus
Time: Thursday, 9.00 am – 12.00 pm
3 units

The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching1

It is MBS’ goal that all our students will be trained and equipped with the basic competency to teach and preach the Bible faithfully and accurately in a way that is life transforming. This course will lay down the basic foundations to help us preach biblically. This course examines biblical preaching. Students will be given a comprehensive survey on the nuts and bolts of the Art and Craft of preaching. Students will also learn how to analyse biblical passages and to prepare sermons which communicate biblical truth to the congregation effectively and relevantly. It is very much “a hands-on” course where students get to listen and evaluate sermons during every lesson. Students will also be asked to preach a practice sermon which will be critiqued by their course mates.

COURSE OUTLINE

  1. The High Call of Preaching
  2. The Spiritual Life of the Preacher
  3. Theological foundations for preaching2
  4. Preaching as bridge building3
  5. Preaching: Oral or visual? The use of technology
  6. Preparing sermons: The Big Idea4
  7.  Selecting the passage. Studying the passage. Discovering the exegetical idea
  8. Preparing the introduction and conclusion. Stories and Illustration
  9. Special topics : Weddings, Funerals, Baptisms, child dedication, home dedication, evangelistic meetings
  10. Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power5
  11. Practice sermons

Footnotes:

  1. Our primary texts for the course are The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching. Eds Haddon Robinson & Craig Larson; Preaching with Variety, Jeffrey D. Arthurs, and John Stott’s Between Two Worlds and Robinson, and Haddon W. 2001. Expository Preaching: Principles and Practice. ↩︎
  2. John Stott’s Between Two Worlds, chapter 3. ↩︎
  3. John Stott’s Between Two Worlds, chapter 4. ↩︎
  4. Topics 6-8 is treated in the context of The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, Eds. Keith Willhite & Scott M.Gibson ↩︎
  5. Martyn Lloyd-Jones,  Preaching and Preachers, chapter 16. ↩︎

COURSE OBJECTIVES

  1. To be able to distinguish teaching from preaching.
  2. To be able to define expository preaching and to list its benefits relative to other styles of preaching.
  3. To be able to exegete a given passage and pick out the points of interpretation.
  4. To be able to prepare a sermon based on a particular passage which is well illustrated and applied.
  5. To be able to list all the areas to which sermons should be applied and to give examples of such.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

  1. Book review on either:
    • Preaching to a Shifting Culture, edited by Scott M. Gibson or,
    • Preaching and Preachers, by Martyn Lloyd Jones.
  2. Written sermon for a special service. 20%
  3. Evaluations of video sermons played in class. 20%
  4. One practice sermon to be preached. 40%

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adam, P. J. H. 2000. “Preaching and biblical theology.” In New dictionary of biblical theology (IVP reference collection) T. Desmond Alexander (ed.), Brian S. Rosner (ed. and author), T.D. Alexander (ed.) and B.S. Rosner (ed.). Nottingham: IVP.

Allen, Ronald J. and Gilbert L. Bartholomew. 2000. Preaching verse by verse. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press.

Carter, Terry G., J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. 2005. Preaching God’s word: A hands-on approach to preparing, developing and delivering the sermon. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Fee, Gordon D. 2002. New Testament exegesis: a handbook for students and pastors. 3rd ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Gibson, Scott M (Ed) Preaching to a shifting culture Grand Rapids :Baker Books

Goldingay, John. 1990. “Preaching on the stories in Scripture.” Anvil 7: 105–14.

Goldingay, John. 1995. Models for interpretation of scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Greidanus, Sidney. 1988. The modern preacher and the ancient text. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Jensen, Richard A. 1980. Telling the story: Variety and imagination in preaching. Minneapolis: Augsburg,

Keck, Leander E. 1978. The Bible in the pulpit: The renewal of biblical preaching. Nashville: Abingdon.

Lane, Denis. 1979. Preach the word. Welwyn: Evangelical Press.

Liefeld, Walter L. 1995. New testament exposition: From text to sermon. Carlisle: Paternoster.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. 1972. Preaching and preachers. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Miller, Calvin. 2006. Preaching: the art of narrative exposition. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Newton, Derek. 2003. And the word became… a sermon: A guide to biblical expository preaching. Fearn: Christian Focus Publications.

Osborne, Grant R. 1991. The hermeneutical spiral: A comprehensive introduction to biblical interpretation. Downers Grove: IVP.

Robinson, Haddon W. 2001. Expository preaching: Principles and practice. Nottingham: IVP (previously published in 1980 as Biblical preaching: The development and delivery of expository messages. Grand Rapids: Baker).

Senior, Roger G. 2012. Understanding and preaching narrative: making Luke’s gospel live today. Longwood, FL: Xulon Press.

Stott, John. 1982. I believe in preaching. London: Hodder and Stoughton (also published in 1982 as Between two worlds: The challenge of preaching today. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)

Stuart, Douglas. 1980. Old Testament exegesis: a primer for students and pastors. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press.

Van Cleave, N. M. 1985. Handbook of preaching. Revised ed. Manila: OMF Literature.

Vines, Jerry. 1985. A practical guide to sermon preparation. Chicago: Moody.



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