The Introduction of the Sermon, Part 1

Driving home: You cannot expect to find the same degree of precision when there is this interpretation of natural revelation and a scantiness of materials from special revelation.

Martin uses the analogy of ten men describing the constituent elements of a domestic dwelling (house) to explain how different homiletical authors analyze sermon elements with varying levels of detail, yet all refer to the same fundamental parts.

Most of the differences relate to the extent of the detail of the analysis of these constituent elements, not the elements themselves. What one includes in one division, another makes into separate divisions. Let me illustrate. Suppose we were to say to ten different men, Please put on paper what are the constituent elements of a domestic dwelling, a house.

7:02 - 7:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Please don't assume that you are in, in that elite category [of unusual natural rhetorical ability]. Please don't assume it, because even if you happen to be in that category, nothing will be lost by your assumption that…

Quoting Dabney, Martin uses the analogy of sermons as 'living growths like plants or trees,' each with constituent parts (roots, stem, branches, foliage, fruits) but endless variety in their development, to counter the idea of 'cookie-cutter' sermons.

You've got one mold and every sermon is just cast into that mold and turned out. We'd say cookie-cutter sermons. Let me then in advance explain. They're sarcastic, and suggest an unjust analogy. Sermons are not dead casts run into any mold, changeable or fixed. Give a new mold for each attempt to be demolished when once used. I still reject and resent the illustration. Sermons should be living growths like plants or trees, none of them indeed monsters, none maimed, but each one modified within the bounds of the rudimental laws of its nature by its own circumstances of growth, so that they toge...

17:33 - 18:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Sermons should be living growths like plants or trees, none of them indeed monsters, none maimed, but each one modified within the bounds of the rudimental laws of its nature by its own circumstances of growth, so that t…

Martin recounts looking out his study window at shrubs, a weeping willow, and an elm tree, confirming Dabney's analogy of trees having constituent parts but diverse forms, reinforcing the idea of variety within structure in sermons.

Each individual, each tree determines their relative size so that we have every graceful difference of form and stature from the humble shrub to the tapering and lofty pine. And when I re-read this in preparation for the next sermon, I said, I'm not going to be able to tolerate this. I'm going to be able to tolerate this. And so when I read the preparation yesterday, I just looked out my study window and I said, you know, Daphne, you are as right as right can be. And I looked at some of the large shrubs that separate our property from my neighbor's property. And sure enough I can remember when...

18:59 - 19:45 Read in full sermon

The point: No little effort ought to be expended to cultivate the art of apt introduction.

The introduction is likened to John the Baptist, sent forth to prepare the way for the Lord (the main message), emphasizing its preparatory function.

All right? First of all, then, the functions of the introduction. Now, the introduction is essentially preparatory to the burden of the message. It is, if I may use the analogy, your John the Baptist sent forth to prepare the way of the Lord whom you trust will come in the preaching of the Word of God.

24:36 - 25:01 Read in full sermon

The point: No little effort ought to be expended to cultivate the art of apt introduction.

The introduction is compared to an appetizer for a sumptuous meal, designed to awaken taste buds and create impatience for the main entree, illustrating its role in exciting interest.

Its function can be viewed in the light of many analogies. We may go to the culinary analogy and say that your introduction is the appetizer to a sumptuous meal. It awakens the taste buds, it starts the juices flowing, and makes you impatient for the main entree. That's supposed to be the function of an appetizer.

25:01 - 25:24 Read in full sermon

The point: No little effort ought to be expended to cultivate the art of apt introduction.

The introduction is likened to a piston aircraft revving its engines at the end of the runway, building anticipation and preparing for takeoff, symbolizing the sermon's preparation for its main thrust.

Some of you pig out on your appetizers occasionally and ruin your zest for the main course, but that's understandable. I was young once, all right? We may change the analogy to that of the airplane and say it's like what they used to do when they had piston aircraft. You know, you miss a lot of things living in the jet age.

25:24 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the 'exordium' as the classical rhetorical term for introduction and emphasizes its vital, preparatory role in a sermon. He uses analogies like John the Baptist, an…

The introduction is compared to a porch leading into a house, representing the transition from general concourse to the specific dwelling of the sermon's biblical truths.

It's one of the aspects of piston flight that I still enjoy above jet flight, that I still would take the jets over the piston engines. But if you can think of your introduction in that sense, it's taking your congregation to the end of the runway, locking the brakes, revving the engines, apprising them of the fact that hopefully we're going to take off and cruise soon, all right? Or if we may change the analogy to the building trade, your introduction is the porch. Which leads to a house.

26:16 - 26:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So the challenge of the introduction is the challenge of exciting interest so that your hearers are convinced it is in their own best interest to give undivided attention to that which you are about to say.

Martin quotes Christmas Evans' description of Daniel Rowlands' preaching, highlighting how Rowlands used 'stirring, striking ideas' in his introductions, like 'a small box of ointment,' to fill the house with heavenly perfume and prepare the congregation for more sweetness throughout the sermon.

Not merely to direct the mind to that subject, but literally to excite their interest in the subject or substance of the sermon. It is one thing to get them to look in the direction of what you propose to tell them. It is another thing to have them look with keen anticipation and eagerness and thereby be prepared to resist anything that would turn their head back away from the subject that you are setting before them. So the challenge of the introduction is the challenge of exciting interest so that your hearers are convinced it is in their own best interest to give undivided attention to that...

30:30 - 31:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second function is to excite the hearers' interest, making them eager to listen. Martin quotes Christmas Evans on Daniel Rowlands' use of 'stirring, striking ideas' in his…

Martin references his own previous sermon on Philippians 3, where he used an analogy of a bachelor, to illustrate how a lengthy introduction can be pastorally necessitated to motivate hearers to grasp logical links and avoid insulting God's revealed mind.

to prepare the mind of his auditor for this plain dealing with his heart and with his conscience. The introduction in this case affords an opportunity to remind the hearer that preaching is for the soul's good and the soul's salvation, that when the subject requires it the plainest discourse is really the kindest and the most affectionate, that the truth which is to be established and applied is a part of God's revelation, and that however severe it may seem, it is the severity of divine wisdom and love. Now, for instance, if I may use an illustration present in your minds last Lord's Day morn...

37:28 - 38:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Our people ought to sense in our very introduction that we have a very tight rein upon our emotions. They ought to feel that there's something pent up behind our pastor's introduction.

Martin quotes Elihu from Job 32:18-20, describing his heart as 'full of words' and 'like new wineskins, ready to burst,' to illustrate the preacher's ignited emotions and mind concerning the truth.

And we've already anticipated this and it flows out of the other and it is warming the affections of our hearers to the subject or substance of the sermon. You get the mind, excite the interest, but now we want to even go further and warm the affections of our hearers. Often, at least I trust it will be often, we come to the pulpit not only full of self-conscious weakness, a sense of confusion who are we to speak to fellow mortals in the name of the God of Heaven, but I trust we will also come with the spirit of an Elihu described in Job 32, verses 18 to 20. I am full of words, the Spirit with...

39:14 - 40:13 Read in full sermon

The point: In nothing giving offense that the ministry be not blamed.

Martin recounts the story of a Massachusetts chaplain compelled to preach to a hostile Southern Presbyterian congregation during the Civil War. The chaplain's humble and tactful introduction, appealing to their shared faith in Christ, swept away prejudice and secured a respectful hearing, illustrating the power of an introduction to gain goodwill.

That was not a wise man who in the time of the civil war in a southwestern state commenced a sermon by laying a revolver on the pulpit by the side of the Bible saying that his life had been threatened and that he was prepared to defend it as he would against a mad dog. So you see what he was saying? He's saying I don't care what your political sympathies are in this war. I'm prepared to stand on my grounds by dint of my pistol. Now he gives a contrasting illustration. A humble Massachusetts chaplain was his superior in homiletic tact who was compelled by General Butler to preach to a wealthy P...

52:14 - 53:10 Read in full sermon