Sermon of Authority

Crafting a sermon of authority was undoubtedly on the mind of the late Samuel D. Proctor when he published the book “The Certain Sound of the TRUMPET Crafting a Sermon of Authority.”

 Dr. Proctor certainly was certainly among the top ten African American preachers of the twentieth-century. He could deeply etch in your mind and imprint upon your spirit the logos, the rhema of God, in a way that brought you closer to the glory and wonder of God.

How he was able to do this begins with understanding sermon preparation and outlining your sermon which is the focus of the book.

Fundamentally, the Sermon outline in short would incorporate these elements:

Subject

Text

Introduction (Antithesis)

Transition (Thesis)

Relevant Question

Body (synthesis)

1.      Point

      Illustration

2.      Point

      Illustration

3.      Point

      Illustration

 

Conclusion

Now to understand this method of the sermon outline presupposes that we understand the philosophical thinking upon which it is built---so let’s take just a moment to familiarize ourselves with that system.

This outline method is based on a process of thinking called “the Hegelian dialectic” founded by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831).

Hegel believed that the world is in a dialectic process and that the absolute, nature, and man’s mind, or thought, constitutes a dynamic interaction. 

God, the Absolute, is not some entity separate from the world and man, but is more like a complex organism which embraces the whole. Further, God’s laws or ideas are impressed upon and expressed by Nature which man in turn can read out by his reason or rationality.

                                                                                    (Stanley Sutphin, 1977)

 

Basically the process is this:

 A sermon thesis is an intellectual proposition.

The sermon antithesis is simply the negation of the thesis, a reaction to the proposition.

The sermon synthesis solves the conflict between the thesis and antithesis by reconciling their common truths (gospel content) and forming a new thesis, starting the process over.

 

Sermon Outline

 

Text:   Romans 1:17

 

Proposition:     The center of living as believers in Jesus Christ

                             is to live in faith.  Faith is the beginning of our

                            relationship with Christ; faith is the continuance of

                             our relationship in Christ; faith is the object

                             and end in Christ that we might be justified

                             by Him.

 

Subject:              Living in Faith

 

Introduction (antithesis)

 

Often we sing the songs of Zion, we pray for the sick and sit on many committees in our church, and we even create many programs to be instituted. We do all these things and more with knowledge of Holy Scripture, under the teaching and preaching of persons sent by God and in the hope of doing our best to serve the Lord.

 

Transition (thesis)

 

In all that we do not only in the assembly of saints, but in our every day lives at home and work those who believe in Jesus Christ are required to ‘live by faith’. The revelation of God is that ”the Just shall live by faith.”

(NOTE: THAT THE THESIS OR ANTITHESIS CAN BE USED TO START THE SERMON)

 

Relevant Question

 

What does it really mean to live by faith and why is it so difficult to accomplish?

 

Synthesis (body)

 

In our text this morning, the apostle Paul makes his confession, “ I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone that believes: first for the Jew, then for the gentile.

 

The gospel carries within it the power of God for the salvation of everyone—this word ‘salvation’ in the sense that Paul uses it here means all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification.

 

Then he goes on to say, “for in the gospel a righteousness from God is reveled, a righteousness that is from ‘faith to faith: (ek pistews eis pistin faith the starting point and faith the goal) as it is written” the just shall live by faith.”

 

            One word in the Greek:

 

1)     Dikaioo---Justification means….

 

          Two words in Greek

1)     pistis---faith….

2)     pisteuo---I believe…

 

P1.  God has revealed the meaning of Faith

            Illustration..Hebrews 11:1

 

P2   Persuasion of the mind

            Illustration. James (faith without works is dead)

            Illustration (demonstration of mental assent)

 

P3 What it means to trust in God & take Him at His word (Prov.3:6)

          Illustration (from the O.T.) From present day experience

 

 

 

Conclusion (Celebrate this gospel!)

Show what it means to live by faith and how to walk by faith daily!

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