Biblical Exegesis for Preaching

If Bible is competing for our meta-narrative, how do we preach it?

If our lives are story, how can we see ourselves in the Bible’s stories?

What kind of exegesis might inspire creativity, imagination?

How to engage a biblical imagination not information?

Beyond, “nice sermon, pastor” From recipients to participants Different starting point…

Biblical Exegesis

The Rhetorical Triangle(the preaching triangle)

Ethos-I

Speaker

Pathos-You

Audience

Logos—it, Jesus,

Subject (Material)

this point in time

this place

these people/this person

this purpose

Not “THE” meaning but “the” meaning for…

Biblical Exegesis

intellectual knowledgehistorical-critical method trained scholarshard workacademic

What do you want your sermon to do?

Effect not message (Mark Allan Powell)

Because the Word of God wants something to happen to you.

Function of the Sermon

the Word became flesh…as event …something is supposed to happen

John 20:30-3130Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe/continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

30 Polla. me.n ou=n kai. a;lla shmei/a evpoi,hsen o` VIhsou/j evnw,pion tw/n maqhtw/n Îauvtou/Ð( a] ouvk e;stin gegramme,na evn tw/| bibli,w| tou,tw|\

31 tau/ta de. ge,graptai i[na pisteu,ÎsÐhte o[ti VIhsou/j evstin o` cristo.j o` ui`o.j tou/ qeou/( kai. i[na pisteu,ontej zwh.n e;chte evn tw/| ovno,mati auvtou/

I have seen the Lord!

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Origin…Relationship…

Identity…

John 1:1 VEn avrch/| h=n o` lo,goj( kai. o` lo,goj h=n pro.j to.n qeo,n( kai. qeo.j h=n o` lo,gojÅ

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

15 (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'")

John, the Witness

Behold, the Lamb of God…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and

we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only

son, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

John 1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

grace upon grace…

John 1:18

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known

John 1:18 Qeo.n ouvdei.j e`w,raken pw,pote\ o` monogenh.j( o` w'n eivj to.n ko,lpon tou/ patro,j( evkei/noj evxhgh,satoÅ

who is the Word made flesh?

ESVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.NKJJohn 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.NABJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.NIVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

where is the Word made flesh?

ESVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.NKJJohn 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.NABJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.NIVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

what does the Word made flesh do?

ESVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.NKJJohn 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.NABJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.NIVJohn 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

Truth (about God, about ourselves), not advice

Transformation, not information Need, not things to do Affect, not knowledge Engagement, not treasure hunt Particularities, not generalities Listening, not talking Immersion, not coercion Experience, not report Discovery, not proof Incarnation, not excarnation Incorporation, not application What the Bible does and how the Bible says,

not just what it says

I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the light like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

 

Introduction To Poetry

Billy Collins

I was at Barnes and Noble today studying and working on a sermon for Thursday and a girl sat down at a table next to me. She said hello and asked me what I was doing...and being the fool that I am I said..."Working on a speech for a class"...then feeling that all too familiar kick in the conscious not to be ashamed of the Gospel and I said, "Well, actually, it is a sermon--something like a speech that pastors give to give witness to God ..." She said, "Oh, I see, cool." Then she brought all of her stuff, sat down at my table in the chair across from me, grabbed my notebook with my notes to look at, and said..."Ok. I'm listening..." And then I preached the word...the text: John 3:14-21. YES, THIS REALLY HAPPENED. What did [I] re-learn today? Our pulpits are truly not in the fronts of churches or high and lofty ivory towers; dare we even say the serpent raising institutions and mindsets, of which I am surely a part, that have misused and imprisoned texts like John 3:16 with false glory and condemnation. Nay brothers and sisters, our pulpits are and always have been in the world, and they are there in every new and unexpected place of darkness calling us to point to Christ and to shine the penetrating, life-giving light of the Gospel of God. The God who loves the world deeply. The God who makes all things new...creates out of nothing...brings hope out of despair...the God who constantly restores and reorders how we understand power and witness...Yes, our God, the great I AM who is revealed in Christ on the cross...the God who has called us each his beloved children...and the God who has freed us to live that very identity in the world. "This is my commandment: love one another." ♥ Silly God.