Preaching is like building bridges. A sermon should connect God’s eternal truth from the pages of Scripture to the hearts and lives of the listeners. As a preacher, you want to present a message that is faithful to the biblical text and honors Jesus Christ. To be honest, that’s easy with some passages, but much harder in others. That’s especially true when you’re preaching from the Old Testament.
THE STRUGGLE OF PREPPING OLD TESTAMENT SERMONS
I’d like to introduce you to Foundations for Expository Sermons, a resource for preachers (and students of preaching) by pastor and professor emeritus Sidney Greidanus. This is a set of six volumes that we are pleased to offer individually, or as a set.
In his own preaching experience, Dr. Greidanus recognized the difficulty of preparing expository sermons from Old Testament texts. On the one hand, he says, the sermons must be Christian sermons.
. . . a Christian sermon on an Old Testament passage ought to be different from a sermon preached by a Jewish rabbi, for the Christian sermon will need to take as its context the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. (Greidanus, The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text, p. 220).
But on the other hand, good expository preaching can’t simply take the Old Testament passage and spiritualize, moralize, allegorize, or otherwise tack on references to Jesus that don’t legitimately flow from the text. As a professor of preaching, Greidanus developed a philosophy and method for creating expository sermons that you can use to preach Christ from the Old Testament.
HOW GREIDANUS LEADS YOU THROUGH OLD TESTAMENT PREACHING
VOLUME ONE
Greidanus formulates his approach to biblical preaching in his first volume. It’s titled, The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Literature. In this book (which covers both the Old and New Testaments), he discusses how to choose the preaching text, how to consider its historical context , its genre, and its contribution to biblical theology, and how to make its message relevant to your hearers.
VOLUME TWO
In his second book, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method, Greidanus develops his step-by-step approach to creating expository sermons from Old Testament texts. First, he explores the passage on its own, discovering what it reveals about God, and identifying the text’s main theme or take-away. Next, he shows how to evaluate the passage’s connection to Christ. Greidanus chooses six legitimate approaches to bring these connections to light. Finally, he explains his ten steps from Old Testament text to Christocentric Sermon.
VOLUMES THREE THROUGH SIX
In the final four volumes of the Foundations for Expository Sermons set, Greidanus lets us observe his sermon creation process as he applies the ten-step method to the books of Genesis, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel. (The Genesis, Ecclesiastes and Daniel volumes each feature a series of expository sermons that cover the entire book; the Psalms volume contains sermons on the 22 psalms assigned for reading in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary). Each of these volumes also includes one or more bonus sermons.
FOUNDATIONS FOR EXPOSITORY SERMONS
Ready to up your expository preaching game, especially when it comes to Old Testament texts? Greidanus and his Foundations for Expository Sermons set is sure to get you there. Learn more about the set and how to purchase it here.
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