Everywhere I was called on to preach weekly, I prepared content three or four weeks ahead of time. This allowed truths to marinate in my own heart and become more deeply and practically understood. On the week of the sermon, I preached it aloud to myself many times. In doing so both my understanding of the passage and the creative ways it would be communicated deepened and developed.

First, there is the content part of preaching. Preaching is all about accurately exegeting and understanding the truths of the gospel as they unfold in a particular passage of Scripture. I cannot rush this aspect of my preparation. I cannot leave the discipline of content until I have understood the purpose of the passage. And if I cannot practically apply the truths of the passage to my life and to those to whom I will preach, then I haven’t yet fully understood the passage. The exegetical process doesn’t end with understanding, it ends with application.  

It is necessary for me to live with a passage, to carry it around with me, and to marinate my soul with its nourishing and thirst-quenching waters. I simply can’t do this in a couple hours. I need meditative time with the passage so the Spirit can work through it in me and through me to the people under my care. I’m about to make some of you angry, but I’m going to say it anyway. If you are developing original content late on a Saturday evening, you have no business preaching it on Sunday. It’s unlikely that you will have understood the full range of the radical gospel glories of the passage, it’s doubtful that they have confronted your heart, and it’s unlikely that you have developed much readiness to communicate them winsomely and practically to your listeners.  

At that late hour you will settle for a surface scan of the passage and call it a sermon. You will pirate the work of others even if you don’t know you’re doing it, and you will have little ability to portray the radical confrontation and encouragement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because you have not taken the necessary time, you will preach depersonalized doctrinal bits and pieces disassociated from the gospel of grace. You will communicate ideas, but you will not powerfully preach a glorious Christ who is powerfully present in every passage you will ever be called to preach. You will default to offering people a system of redemption, but you will not help them to find their hope and help in a Redeemer. So your people will think they’re growing in maturity because they are growing in theological understanding; but your preaching will not bring them to the end of themselves and to the cross of Jesus Christ. We must always, always remember that the theology of the Word of God is not an end in itself, but a means to an end—a radically grace-transformed life.

Craft of Communication  

But there is a second essential aspect to preaching. Preaching is not just a craft of content; it is also a craft of communication. You must meditate, pray, labor, and wrestle with how to communicate the truths you now understand to the particular people in your care. I am persuaded that we have devalued the communication aspect of powerful, effective, life-changing, gospel preaching. I am not talking about trying to be a John Piper or Tim Keller. I’m talking about your commitment to do everything you can to winsomely and cogently explain and apply the glorious truths you have exegeted as you committed yourself to the necessary discipline of content. If the process hasn’t begun until Saturday, you have no time whatsoever to develop the communication aspect of your sermon, to think of a helpful turn of phrase, an illuminating personal illustration, or a practical point of gospel application. You’re just relieved that you got the content down, that you actually have something to say when it comes time to stand up and preach.   

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