As regular readers will know, I’ve got a bit of a thing about evangelistic preaching, especially its relative rarity in the USA – at least compared to Scotland.
- What is evangelistic preaching?
- 4 kinds of evangelistic sermons
- Why is evangelistic preaching so rare today?
- 4 characteristics of evangelistic preaching
- 4 (more) characteristics of evangelistic preaching
In that first post, I defined evangelistic preaching: “It expounds God’s Word (it is expository) with the primary aim of the salvation of lost souls (rather than primarily the instruction of God’s people). Obviously there’s a difference in content when a sermon is aimed at the unsaved more than the Christian. But there’s also a difference in the tone, in the pathos. An evangelistic sermon has a more urgent, pleading, persuading, and personal feel to it.
As many have asked me for an example, here’s a (far from perfect) attempt I made on Sunday evening. My fuller notes are here, my one-page summary notes are here, and the audio and video are here. Because I don’t use my notes in preaching, there are usually some differences between what I prepared and what I end up saying. Some of that is intentional, and some of it is plain forgetfulness!
My text was the second part of John 10v10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” My points were:
- Jesus gives abundant spiritual life
- Jesus gives abundant intellectual life
- Jesus gives abundant emotional life
- Jesus gives abundant social life
- Jesus gives abundant physical life
- Jesus gives abundant eternal life
One caveat, the church has the unusual tradition of stopping the sermon about two thirds of the way through to sing a Psalter, after which the pastor preaches his last point. I’m told that you eventually get used to it.
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