Mike Kiser
“The word text is from the Latin textus or textum and signifies something woven or spun. It is, therefore, that out of which the sermon is woven, the basis of the sermon or discourse” (William Evans, How to Prepare Sermons, p. 25).
One of the first questions to be dealt with must be: “Does a sermon have to have a text?” Phillips Brooks in his monumental work Lectures on Preaching made this observation:
For over six hundred years now it has been the almost invariable custom of Christian preachers to take a text from Scripture and associate their thoughts more or less strictly with that. For the first twelve Christian centuries there seems to have been no such prevailing habit.
Some today would say yes, a sermon should have a text, and some would say no! My personal preference has always been to preach from a text.
A good thing to keep in mind is that a text out of context is nothing more than a pretext. This can happen when the preacher takes a passage of scripture as the text for his sermon and then makes no further use of it or allusion to it. Probably most young preachers starting out have been guilty of failing to handle aright the word of truth on this matter.
Sometimes the temptation to be sensational causes the immature to select outlandish titles for their sermons such as: “Seven Ducks in a Muddy Stream,” “Seven NOTS in the Devil Tale,” “Giving the Pigs a Permanent Wave,” and such like. Then off the preacher goes to twist a text around to fit his topic. The congregation gets carried away but not necessarily to get their feet planted on higher ground. If an older preacher happens to be in attendance, he reflects upon an occasion or two in which he carried on like that in his pulpit, and with a silent whisper to himself says, “He will quit doing that after a while.”
It is a good thing to preach “from” a text and not come along after the sermon has been constructed and search through the concordance for a verse to hang over the front door. To use the words of William Evans again, “The text is not to be a mere motto for a sermon, nor is it to be chosen after the theme or subject is chosen, and the sermon finished” (p.25).
G. Campbell Morgan gave three solid reasons for preaching from a text: (1) the authority that is in the text as being a part of the word of God, (2) the definiteness which it must give, when properly dealt with, to the Christian message, and (3) the maintenance of variety (Preaching, p. 60).
A well-chosen text can arouse the interest of the congregation. It also can gain the confidence of the congregation that the preacher is going to proclaim the Word of God, that indeed they are about to hear a “thus saith the Lord.” James David Burrell wrote:
As the shadows of the Dark Ages gathered and deepened, the Bible became a neglected book, almost as wholly forgotten as in the period preceding the reign of Josiah. Preachers began to take their text from the fathers, from Aristotle or other philosophers, from almost anywhere. As a result, the message of the pulpit became distinctively ethical, not infrequently secular, and the Biblical factor was largely eliminated from the current consideration of the problems of life (The Sermon, p. 29).
Some congregations may be headed for the Dark Ages again as their esteemed pulpit committee praises them over their selection of “Dr. Boorus Moore” to occupy center stage to entertain the faint-hearted with his worthless opinions. And “I say so” from the pulpit is a sure way to send the sheep into a wilderness wandering and the young folks to their ever-ready texting machines! A text will always help the congregation to stay with the preacher’s train of thought, and at the same time, it will keep the preacher on track as well. The text is a sure nail on which he is to hang his arguments.
Jacob Fry, in his short but worthwhile work, Elements of Homiletics (1897), gave some good advice on the subject of “Choosing a text.” He had a list of eleven “dos and don’ts.” These three I will share with you: (1) “Texts should neither be too long or too short.” His words of caution suggested that an “extended passage” could confuse the mind by the variety of subjects included and because the text is not easily remembered. But the opposite problem would be selecting one or two unimportant words from a verse and building the sermon around them. (2) “Passages should not be chosen for text simply because they are unusual and striking.” The problem being they may not teach what the sermon is meant to set forth. (3) The following worthwhile observation was on the question of whether it is proper to use “texts by way of accommodation., i.e. selecting a text for the purpose of illustrating some truth to which the text has no reference or connection.” Fry gave this observation: “The chief objection urged against it is that it is an unauthorized use of the sacred narrative and puts a meaning into it which was never intended” (p.15-24).
How do we choose a text?
Texts are sometimes chosen out of our regular reading, sometimes in order to deal with some special need, sometimes in order to define doctrinal teachings, and sometimes because of their revelation of great things...in that regular reading of the Bible devotionally, there will constantly be discovered some one text, some one statement, some one verse, which grips. When such is the case let us never hurry on. It is good to stop and put it down. Postpone further reading, until we have at least said to ourself, Why did that arrest me; what is there in that which pulled me up? Make note of it (Morgan, p. 64, 65).
The Bible is a big book! A Bible-reading preacher will never run out of ammunition.
—Gospel Gleaner. Summer 2022.