“Sermon Introductions”

Key Resources for Studying Sermon Introductions

0:03 You'll learn them by observation, by reading sermons, by listening to sermons. Now these are four of the major sources for the introduction. And if you want a more complete list, a more detailed list, let me give you a brief bibliography at this point. Broadus, pages 268 to 272.

0:23 Broadus, 268 to 272.

0:29 You will soon be reading in Dabney his suggested sources, page 146 to 148.

0:37 And then the most complete list that I have in my library is found in Phelps, Austin Phelps. And I don't know if we have that in the library here. If we don't, I'll stick my copy in for a while, so eventually you can read some of this. Pages 266 to 274.

0:56 And I think he lists 12 sources of introductions.

1:02 Phelps, The Theory of Preaching. This is the author of the book, the banner printed called The Quiet Hour on Prayer. The little paperback, this is the same Phelps. Austin Phelps, The Theory of Preaching, 266 to 274.

Learning from Charles Spurgeon's Introductions

1:19 Learn by observation and practice. When you read sermons, ask yourself, what is this man doing in his introduction that makes me want to read on into the body of his sermon? Now here's where Spurgeon can be a great help to you. You will notice both judiciousness in his introduction, tremendous variety in his introductions, all of these principles that I've mentioned.

1:44 You can take almost any volume of Spurgeon, I did it yesterday, and thumb through at random and find Spurgeon using introductions derived from the text or the universe of discourse, circumstances in the life of the people, circumstances in his own life, the life of the church, or giving you the biographical, historical setting of the passage. You see Spurgeon is a wonderful illustration, and I think again, from the human side, that's one of the reasons he was listened to with such profit and eagerness over so long a period of time, tremendous variety in his introductions. Sometimes it's just a paragraph, and he'll say, we're going to plunge right in. Other times there's two, two and a half pages of introduction.

2:26 Tremendous variety in the length. So study Spurgeon as a good model in this area. I've been interested in

Samuel Davies's Varied Introductory Approaches

2:36 beginning to try to get into some of these sermons, some of the sermons of Samuel Davies, who was a great preacher. And what I did yesterday was to take his volume one of his sermons and notice his introductions. And it was tremendously interesting to see the variety of his introductions. Let me give you a little sampling, and I think we have these in our library.

2:58 In his opening sermon, which is on the divine authority and sufficiency of the Christian religion, his text is Luke 16, 27 to 31. Then he said, I pray, therefore, Father, you would send into my father's house. I have five brethren that he may testify to them. And Abraham said they have Moses and the prophets.

3:15 If they will not hear them, they will not hear the one come back from the dead. What Micah said surreptitiously when he was robbed of his idols, you've taken away my gods, and what have I more? May be truly spoken with regard to the religion of Jesus. If that be taken from us, what have we more?

3:36 The generality of you, you owe all your hopes of a glorious immortality to this heaven-born religion, and you make it the rule of your faith and practice, confident that in so doing you please God. But what if after all of this you should be mistaken? What if the religion of Jesus should be an imposture? I know you're struck with horror at the thought, and perhaps alarmed at my making so shocking a supposition, but this suspicion, horrid as it is, has probably been suggested to you at times, by infernal agency.

4:10 And then he goes on to draw out the consciousness of every believer. What would it be like if I had no certainty of the world to come, of heaven and hell? And then he goes on to open up his text in which the scriptures themselves are the self-attesting declaration of these great realities. And all the way through you'll see the different approaches he takes.

4:33 And another time he speaks of his sense of frustration. He quotes his text, dealing with the final judgment. And he says, as I've wrestled with what I should bring for the benefit of your never-dying immortal souls, I have felt frustration and agony to know just precisely what note I should sound, but convinced that this note can never be wrong. Then he launches into a sermon on the second coming and the judgment of the great day.

Cultivating Homiletic Discipline

5:00 Well, reading men like this, seeing what they did, and again, brethren, if that was something that came, as it were, automatically to these men, it was only after years of a cultivated discipline. And you, brethren, at the point where you must cultivate the disciplines that will become mental, spiritual, homiletic habits with you in later years. So I urge you, learn by observation and practice Spurgeonism, excellent help. Read the sermons of Shedd.

Studying Shedd and Warfield for Judicious Introductions

5:31 Notice his different introductions. If you want a helpful model of judicious introductions, Warfield's Faith in Life. And again, I did this yesterday, so I'm not telling you to do something I didn't do. I tried to do this, but I tried to concentrate it into many hours.

5:47 Didn't finish up till 8 o'clock last night. But if you want a good example of how to use both the context, the thrust of the text, parallel concerns as judicious introductions, Warfield's Faith in Life will be a great help to you. These are sermons that he preached to the students at Princeton on Sunday afternoons. And so you're seeing Warfield, the preacher, here as you do not see him in any of his other works.

6:18 And you want a model of a preacher. Warfield, I don't know what he was like in his presence, but the stuff comes across with tremendous unction and tremendous intellectual satisfaction. And no little part of it are his excellent introductions.