Haddon Robinson’s Biblical Preaching
Haddon W. Robinson is the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching, senior director of the Doctor of Ministry program, and former interim President at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Robinson joined Gordon-Conwell in 1991 and from July 2007 to August 2008, he served as Interim President. Widely regarded as an expert in the area of preaching, Preaching Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential preachers of the past 25 years in 2010. He was also recognized by Christianity Today in the top 10 of its “Top 25 Most Influential Preachers” from 1956-2006. He was named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world in a 1996 Baylor University poll and in 2008 he received the E.K. Bailey Living Legend Award. Haddon Robinson has written dozens of books and even more publications on the subject of expository preaching. He writes Biblical Preaching to explain the mechanics involved in the exercise of preaching. It has been widely accepted as the primer of expository preaching and used frequently throughout bible colleges and seminaries.
Chapter one Robinson concerns himself with defending the need for expository preaching. He calls for the preacher to be in position where he can be used of God to deliver His message to His people. He further calls for preaching to be more than what it has been in recent years. He sets out to offer the reader a roadmap through his process of sermon preparation and delivery that communicated the message of Scripture.
Chapter two the author lays the foundation for sermon development by calling our attention to the “big idea” of the text. He says that there is importance in having a single idea (17) and that “a sermon should be a bullet and not “buckshot” (16). He describes an idea as having a subject and a compliment (21). He then delineates between a grammatical subject and the subject of a text. He says that the subject of a text is never one word but answers the question “what am I talking about?” (21). The subject cannot stand alone and therefore needs a compliment or the element that completes the subject. It answers the question “What is it that I am saying about what I am talking about?” (22).
Chapter three entitled Tools of the Trade talks about having a method the preacher must follow during sermon preparation. Robinson explains that one must select a passage, study the passage, and discover the exegetical idea contained within the passage. He identifies several tools that are most helpful in studying the passage in pursuit of its big idea and meaning. He urges the exegete to study the passage and relate the parts to one another to discover the exegetical idea (39).
“The Road from Text to Sermon” is the title of chapter four where the author helps to recognize the ideas drawn from Scripture and how they relate to life (47). Here, Robinson spends time exploring how to analyze the exegetical idea. The exegetical idea must be submitted to three developmental questions: 1) what does this mean? 2) Is it true? 3) What difference does this make?
Chapter five discusses forming the homiletical idea and determining the sermon’s purpose. This chapter is preparing the preacher’s mind for the message. Robinson calls for a restatement of the exegetical idea in light of the audience’s knowledge and experience (69). He says “No matter how brilliant or biblical a sermon is, without a definite purpose it is not worth preaching” (71). The sermon must have a known purpose.
Chapter six discusses how the preacher should accomplish the purpose of the sermon and offers help with outlining the message. In this chapter, The Shapes Sermons Take, the author explains the shapes as deductive, semi-inductive, and inductive. He also states that “the points in the outline should answer questions, not raise them” (94).
Chapter seven, Making Dry Bones Live, talks about how to flesh out the outline with supporting materials that explain, prove, apply, or amplify the points” (97). The aim of this chapter is to deepen the preacher’s understanding of the elements that make up the sermon. The author does this by defining every element associated with this stage of sermon development.
In chapter eight Haddon Robinson teaches the proclaimer how to develop introductions and conclusions that help the sermon convey its intended message. He makes the impression on the reader that in the final analysis the audience does not hear the sermon but rather the communicator (119). He shares what effective introductions and conclusions do for the listeners.
The Dress of Thought is the title of chapter nine. In this portion of the book the focus is on sermonic style. He asserts that the style of the sermon should be clear, direct and personal, and vivid. He urges that having a discipline to prepare a manuscript for every message improves preaching. Clarity in sermons come from clear manuscripts which come from clear outlines (139). Dr. Robinson spends considerably less time dealing with being direct and personal than he does on having a vivid style.
Chapter ten, How to Preach So People Will Listen, is the point of the work. Here, Robinson deals with the delivery of expository sermons. He says “the effectiveness of our preaching depends on two factors: what we say and how we say it” (149). The author deals with the nonverbal, internal, and oratorical aspects of sermon delivery.
Another element that the author includes that makes the book invaluable are the many student exercises, evaluations and samples. These exercises and example further amplifies the concepts that have been shared throughout the book and leaves the student with tangible resources to refer to at a later date.
The author simply states that “this book is about expository preaching” (1). He further lays out his argument by describing the various circumstances where there is a lack of appreciation for expository preaching and how other elements have overshadowed the need for such preaching. He even makes the point that many preachers “tip their hat at expository preaching” by acknowledging a need for it but not practicing it in their own preaching assignment. He centers this book on the notion that many preachers are guilty of preaching far too many ideas within one sermon rather than developing the big idea of the passage and using supporting material to further illumine the main idea or purpose of the text. For the process that Robinson is about to describe, he offers a working definition for the preacher’s consideration as he continues to understand the concepts being introduced through the ten step process toward exposition sermon crafting. In this, the author is placing more weight on the technical aspects of sermon preparation more than the centrality of Christ in the preaching event. It is evident in his definition of expository preaching:
"Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical and literary study of a passage in its context which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through him to his hearers" (5).
Robinson suggests that many “would-be” biblical sermons are neither expository nor sermons. He states that “not all passionate pleading from the pulpit is” preaching. He believes that many messages lack divine authority. His thesis contends that authentic expository sermons must focus on presenting the "big idea" of a specific biblical passage. True expository sermons must draw their subjects from the main idea of the text itself. The preacher must state the big idea in terms of a subject and a complement. The main points of the sermon work to develop and support that subject as it relates to its complement. Robinson insisted that preachers do not deliver sermons; they deliver messages from God as revealed in the Scriptures. If the message is true to the text in that it does not augment what the original author intended to communicate, the truths are accurately mined, interpreted in its proper context and culture, and delivered with passion and persuasiveness then Haddon Robinson qualifies it as a sermon.
He believes that many are pressured to abandon Scripture in order to preach messages surrounding politics or some other concern beyond that of the text. It can be seen throughout this country, and others, that those who occupy some of the largest pulpits are weakening the faith and holy practices of those who listen to messages void of spiritual conviction for that which does not make uncomfortable and does not offend. Martyn Lloyd-Jones would argue “that the decadent periods in the history of the church have always been those periods marked by preaching in decline.” When careful and thoughtful consideration is not given to Scripture and the message degenerates to the topic of the day, preaching is in jeopardy of becoming “salt that has lost its savor and is good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of men,” to borrow a phrase from Jesus.
For those who are interested in learning an organized system of sermon preparation that also addresses some of the issues surrounding sermon delivery then Biblical Preaching is a great place to begin that discussion. Dr. Robinson does a great job of outlining his method and strategically working through every segment of his outline in order to illuminate the principles shared in the book. His book presupposes that the preacher understands there is a need for the text and does not include a step which calls attention to the human need or human failure as is the case in Brian Chapell’s book Christ-Centered Preaching. Robinson’s answer to that problem is addressed when the exegete does proper work developing the explanation of the text based on the text itself as a result of the various helps he identifies for the preacher’s use.
Robinson makes his claim for the need to return to biblical preaching yet fails to give the preacher the proper incentive to make Christ central in biblical preaching which has transformative power in its demonstration. He does speak of a power that comes through the preached word that cannot be realized in the written word but still does not make much of the Savior the Word points to from testament to testament. This omission could be seen as somewhat of a weakness even though Dr. Robinson does a masterful job of laying out an easy to follow plan for preparation. The omission of a heavy emphasis on Jesus can make this text seem void of the burning passion that comes when the preacher knows who is at the center of every message preached. If the purpose for the sermon is to persuade others to follow Christ then the sentiments of John 12:32 should be woven throughout the book. John records Jesus as having said “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (KJV).
The question that really begs to be answered is does the author successfully accomplish his goals that he sets out to accomplish? The answer has to be an enthusiastic “Yes”! Haddon Robinson does indeed accomplish his goals of instructing the preacher through a system of sermon preparation that is translucent and practical. Because it is used so widely across the country and beyond, it is apparent that others feel the same way. The value in this work by Robinson is not in his claims of the centrality of the Christ in preaching but the method by which sermons are developed from Scripture. This is the recognized value because it gives the researcher a firm foundation in the mechanics of preparation and to a lesser degree, on delivery. It is unmistakably a seminal work from which other writers have taken core truths from Biblical Preaching and further expounded on them.