Video Transcript: Session 5 Preparing to Preach -- Exegesis

Welcome back to the fifth session in this class, the preacher preparation and  presentation and class on making and preaching sermons. We've been talking  about preparation. In fact, I told you a couple of sessions ago about the old joke  about the guy who quit preparing sermons is another one about a man who just  decided to quit preparing for sermons. And so he would get there on Sunday  morning. And he would be sitting up on the platform, and he'd be praying to God desperately, God give me a message, God, give me a message, God, give me a message. And then he would go up, and he would talk off the cuff to his  congregation. And one Sunday, the story goes, he was sitting up on a platform,  he was saying, God, give me a message, God, give me a message, God, give  me a message. And all of a sudden, somewhat to his surprise, God gave him a  message. God broke through and said, Ralph, here's my message. You're lazy.  We're talking about preparation for preaching, and preparation has to be done.  And so far, we've seen that, you know, when you've got to prepare, by praying  and having people pray for you, you've got to prepare by immersing yourself in  the word and making sure you're preaching the Word. While these next  sessions, we're going to talk about what that means to preach. The word. There  are a ways to approach the word, there are ways to study the Word that will  yield sermons. And there are some ways that are maybe more effective than  others. And so we're going to be looking at those. And you'll note those words in  the middle there. And in fact, we're going to look at definitions of those and  experience of those over the next several sessions. The definitions for words  like exegesis, eisegesis, topical sermons, we're going to do a look at that, and  weeks ahead, and that nasty word called hermeneutics and a way of interpreting the word. Now, for these kinds of definitions. These are very common, if you're  in seminary, they're not necessarily common outside of that area, or Bible  school. But they're important definitions for you to know as you think about how  am I going to approach the Scripture? I'm called to preach the word that's the  charge I gave you. As I ended the last session. We're called to preach the Word, how do you do it? Now one of the people that I have just been experienced,  incredibly blessed by is a man named Francis Chan. In fact, I used to go away  for Friday mornings, on occasion, tried to do that regularly to a monastery near  where I live. And there I'd spend time in prayer and meditation and reading the  Word and immersing myself in the word and I will try to listen to a Francis Chan  sermon on those mornings. Because Francis Chan is a marvelous expositor of  God's Word. And word means exposes God who is a great Bible teacher. But he also preached in a way different from me entirely. And so I wasn't tempted to just take his stuff and use it as as a sermon, and we'll talk about that down the road,  plagiarism. But anyway, so I would listen to Francis Chan, but one of his  messages, he talks about these first two definitions, exegesis, and eisegesis.  And we're going to take a break right now and listen to the next three and a half  minutes or so to Francis Chan, when he was pastoring, in Southern California, 

and his interpretation and definition of exegesis, and eisegesis into the world.  But just to start off what I want to say right here, I want to take you back to one  of the first lessons I learned in seminary, when they were teaching us how to  interpret Scripture is one of the few things I still remember. But one of the first  lessons we taught, we were taught, were was was what the difference between  exegesis and eisegesis, okay, two kind of seminary type words been thrown on  the screen. So you exegesis. exegesis is an attempt to discover the meaning of  the text objectively comes from a Greek word of means to draw out or to lead  out. The whole idea is you're taking a text of Scripture, and you're objectively  trying to discover what does this really say? Now, eisegesis is the idea of  importing a subjective meaning into the text. Here's what I mean, you can look  at the Bible in two different ways. One is you can start with the Bible, and that's  exegesis, you start with the Bible. You start with a text and go, Man, what does  that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? And you try to get the meaning out of it. The other eisegesis, what you don't want to do is we all have  desires, we all have thoughts, we all have wants, you know, we all have  traditions. And what we'll do is we'll go into the Scripture going, You know what, I think this is true. Let me prove it by taking verses out of the bible to prove my  point of view. So you understand the difference. Like, like, it's very easy to, to  you know, the temptation is do eisegesis that means and you can do anything  with you can you can prove text, anything if you really want to. If you want to get a divorce, you can go well you know what this verse actually could mean this.  You want to build a mansion you go, Well, you know what if you take this one  verse here, I could justify this. You want to hate someone you will you know  what, there's this one guy that hate. You can justify anything that's eisegesis,  you have this desire, you start with an idea, and then you pull verses to support  it versus exegesis. What you start with the Bible and go man, what would I come up with? If I started with this? And I could put my feelings my desires aside?  What does this really say that is exegesis? Now in seminary, I was taught to  teach exegetically. That's why sometimes I'll like what like right now, we've been  teaching through the book of Philippians. And I'm kind of going into Philippians,  go on. Okay, whatever it says, let's just do it. Now. Let's find out what it says.  And I don't really have a desire for Philippians. Like, I wanted to say this, or I  wanted to, I'm just gonna just go verse by verse and whatever it says, That's  what I'll teach. And I'm learning every week with you. Here's what it seems like it says, am I right? Am I crazy? You know, isn't this what it says? Even though I  don't like it some time, even though it doesn't fit with my lifestyle, rather than  changing the scriptures, I gotta change my lifestyle. And so I try to teach  exegetically. And the tougher thing is to live exegetically is to say, Okay, how  would I live, if I just read this Bible, and I put aside my culture, put aside my  desires, put aside what everyone else is doing, and just go with, I started with  this, what type of lifestyle lifestyle would come out from here. And that's very 

difficult. And that's what we've been trying to do with the church. Now, I hope  you enjoyed that. I mean, he's a unique kind of speaker, and he's a very  effective kind of speaker. But note again, the the definition of exegesis means  from out of the word as opposed to eisegesis, where we come from outside and  we impose our thoughts or ideas or our themes on to the word exegesis should  come out of the word. Now, it's important that we learn that skill of being  exegetes. In other words, we are people who are charged to preach the Word,  how can I find out what this word is saying in such a way that I can express it  well to others, while there are certain things that you have to know because if  you get this wrong, if you don't go through the process of exegeting a passage,  you will end up with a wrong interpretation. Let me give you an example. Here's  a passage from Revelation, Jesus is here, speaking through John to the seven  churches of Asia Minor, and he has a message for each one. This is the  message for the church in Laodicea. He says, I know your deeds, that you are  neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Now, if  we read that, and we say, Yeah, I want to preach that message, because that's  the way I view my congregation and the people around it. There are some who  are really hot for Jesus. In other words, they're excited. They're at church, every  time the doors are open, they're, they're studying their Bible, they remain faithful in their attendance and Bible studies. That's, that's a hot person. And we know a cold person, right, a cold person is somebody who is standoffish. So it's  somebody who maybe maintains an identity as a Christian or a follower of  Christ. But they're, they're far away from Jesus Christ at this point, or certainly  his church. And then the middle ground is lukewarm. And those people must  have been lukewarm or they are, you know, it's kind of good if it's a good thing.  Now, that makes a good message. It really does. But it doesn't take into account the historical context, which is part of the exegetical process to learn what did  this mean to the people back then? That's the first step and exegesis. What did  it mean to those first readers? What was the writer intending to them? Now,  when you look at those words, in the context of the history of that area, you get  a different view of it. For instance, here's the Lycus Valley. I know, notice that.  Here's the city of Colossae to which Paul wrote Colossians. Here's the city of  Hierapolis. Here's the city of Laodicea. Now, all three of these are mentioned  together in the book of Colossians. Because Paul says, you know, make sure  that you read those letters to each other in these three different towns here in  the Lycus Valley. Now I had the privilege of actually standing in this area and  going to each of these sites, and just stand where Colossae was. There's  nothing much there there except potsherds. Now in the field Don't have to stand  there, you can look over the Lycus valley. And you can see Hierapolis and  Laodicea. And the distance. And so these were three cities that were very close  to each other. And yet they had some rather different characteristics to them. For

instance, Colossae, was known for its cold water, it was on the side of the  mountains, the mountains gathers snow in the winter, as snow would melt. And  there was a stream that came right down through the city of Colossae. And it  was known for its cool, crisp, refreshing water. Hierapolis was known for hot  water. In fact, here's a picture of that area, this is the city is up here on a hill. And this is the water flowing down to it had mineral hot springs is what were what  was in Hierapolis. And so it became a place of healing, just as people go to Hot  Springs now to get renewed and refreshed and healed. In fact, you know, back  then when battles were very common soldiers would come here during the  wintertime when people didn't fight back then. And they would just spend time in  these mineral mineral pools, soaking, healing, getting better. Now that  characteristic, so you've got Colossae, which has the very, very cold water,  you've got Hieropolis, which has a very, very warm water, mineral water  Laodicea had none of that. In fact, they had very little water, so they had to pipe  it in. And when they piped in the water, it would become lukewarm in the  process. And so it still would work to drink, and you would get the water that you needed. But it was nothing all that pleasant about it. Now, so So What was  Jesus saying, when you know this context here? What was he saying to these  cities, and get the wrong one there. What he's saying to the Laodiceans, is not  so much that there's this hot person who's really hot for Jesus or cold people,  but he's saying, You're not useful. You're not helping people. If you go to  Colossae, you can be helped, you can come out of the valley where it's hot, and  you can be refreshed by their cold water. If you go to Hieropolis you can get in  the warm water, and you can be healed as a result. And so Laodicea you know  what, you're not doing anything, you seem to be worthless in helping people. So  it's not just, you know, am I reading my Bible? Am I going to church? But are you helping people? Are you delivering on the promise of Jesus Christ and make a  difference in the world? And so you see, it's, it's a little different nuance. If you  look at the historical context, in the situation, it gives you another message of  closely related message, but it's a different one. So the message that you might  preach on this passage would be something about, are you somebody who's  just become interested in yourself? Are you somebody who is not giving to other people, not helping other people not having a redemptive part of your life of  seeking to give out of what God has given you to make a difference in the lives  around you? Or are you like, the people of my country, in many situations, they  say, We're growing right now the most narcissistic generation in the history of  the world, who are only interested in themselves. And the call is to love one  another, to encourage one another, to hold each other accountable. And you can use all the one another phrases in the scripture that would make a powerful,  powerful message. So just one example of how exegesis allows you to look at  the historical context, what did it mean in the original context? Now go  backwards, sorry, here we go. So it means historical context first, what did it 

mean for those people, then there's the Canon issues. Now the Canon means  canonical, or involving the Bible? What does this passage speak about? That is  spoken about elsewhere in Scripture? What can I learn from what else the Bible  so you're looking at the Bible as a whole and you let the Bible interpret the  Bible? Now, this means that you don't just jerk verses out of context. If you're  looking at a passage canonically you don't do that back. There's the old sermon  illustration about the guy who wanted to know God's will. And so he went to his  pastors pastor said, we'll just open the Bible and see what God says to you. And so he flips up to the Bible, points his finger down, and he reads, Judas went and hanged himself. Well, it doesn't mean anything to me. So what the world has  that means? So he tries it again. takes the Bible, Eyes closed, opens the Bible  puts his finger on it, and he reads go thou and do likewise. That can't mean what God is speaking to me. So he shuts it again, one more time tries it and he puts  his finger down. And it says, what thou doest do quickly. That's the kind of  misinterpretation that you get. If you don't look at the scriptures as a whole, what does the Scripture say about the subject that you are talking about the passage  that you are looking at? In that canonical issue, you also look at the type of  literature that it is. Now in other classes and CLI hopefully, you're learning about  Bible knowledge. And you're learning that there are different types of literature  within the scriptures, that the Bible has things like the the first one, the law, the  Torah, the first five books in the Bible, but then there's history books, they give  history, and they're wonderful lessons to see how God related to his people in  history. And then there are writings, the writings of Job, Psalms, Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, now the writings are treated differently than like  the New Testament letters in the writings. Solomon as a wise man was making  observations about how things work in the world. And so, you know, he talks  about a generous man is going to be blessed. And that's something he  observed, and so his wisdom allowed him to say that, and he says, a cheerful  heart does good like medicine. Well, why because, you know, if you're cheerful,  and now we know that, and it's been confirmed, and a lot of a lot of studies that  have been done in the modern world, that, you know, if your heart feels good, if  you're happy about your life, it's going to help you stay healthy and heal if you  have a problem. So those are observations. But sometimes we want to take  them as ironclad promises. And so we take a passage, like Train up a child in  the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And we  believe that. And we believe that's a promise to us. And so we train our children.  And then one of them wanders off we say, God, what's wrong here. Whereas  Solomon was making observations, and he saw, you know what, for the most  part, when you look at somebody who grows up within a Christian household,  and they, they learn the values, and they learn the Bible, most likely they're  going to hang on to their faith. That's what he's saying. It's not an ironclad  promise a boy, you talk to your kids, so you know, I'm going to make sure that 

they never fall away. That just isn't true. And so you treat the writings differently,  the prophets differently, as the prophets come with all these statements of  judgment against Israel, that it can be related to us today in a variety of ways.  But we have to understand the context, the historical context of what they said,  and what the original readers felt. And then we look at that. So we look at the  kind of literature is it the Gospels? Is it the letters in the New Testament? Is it the history in the New Testament? Is it the prophecy in the New Testament, Book of  Acts and the book of Revelation, for instance? So we look at these historical  context, then we look at the Canon issues, are there anything about that rest of  the Bible that we can learn from here? And and what kind of literature am I  dealing with in the Bible? So that's part of exegesis. The next one is we look at  symbols. Are there any symbols in here that are given to us next week, next?  Well, next week, or whenever you take the next lesson, we're going to look at a  sample exegesis where I'm actually going to go through a Christmas message  exegesis. In other words, the study has been done in the passage before the  preaching event. And and then the next time I'll actually preach that sermon,  Matthew 2:1-12. While in there, there are some symbol, I'll give you the short  version. Now, there are some symbols about the star and Jesus being the light  of the world. Some symbols about the wise men coming and, and that's a  symbol that scripture identifies as the Gentiles coming and becoming part of it.  And back to the book of Genesis where God says to Abraham, you, I'm gonna  make a covenant with you and for your descendants after you, and through you, all nations of the world will be blessed. And so there's those kind of connections  of symbols that when you look at these, okay, where are the connections of  these symbols? And what do they mean? And sometimes that can be very, very  powerful. I'm preaching the next two weeks in the church, I'm serving right at the moment. I'm preaching spiritual warfare. And so I'm going to start with Elijah in  the city of Dothan. And he's surrounded by the army. And then the servant is  panicking. And Elijah prays for the servants eyes to be open so he can see the  army of God surrounding the army that surrounding him. And then the next  week, I'm going to preach on Ephesians 6 beginning at verse 10, where it talks  about the armor of God and how that's used as a symbol of what we do in taking on our protection. So you look for these kinds of symbols. And that's part of what we do when we do exegesis. And then I'm going to call the next division rational  thought. Which is simply that you sit down and you say, Okay, how does this  work anyway? How would this work in what what kind of themes come out of  this, so there could be a message here. And so I begin to give that thought and  reflection and prayerful reflection. So hopefully the Holy Spirit guides you. And  so that's the exegetical process that will help you preach the Word. And make  sure it's the word that you're preaching, not to your own understandings of, or  opinions about various things. Now, I want to introduce you to somebody here,  Kevin Smith, who teaches at South African Theological Seminary. He's 

somebody who wrote a blog that I read about exegesis and talks about the  presumptions that you have, in other words, one of those things you presume,  when you are going to become exegete of Scripture? Well, here they are. First  of all, the scriptures are the inspired Word of God, that's something you  presume that there's power in the scriptures, because because there's a work  behind it, and in it, and through it, that they are breathed by God, as, as Paul  says, In his letter to Timothy, you know, All scripture is God breathed or inspired  and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and  righteousness, that this is something that's powerful behind that. That's one of  my presumptions. Another one is that the primary goal of biblical interpretation is to discover the author intended meaning. And so I'm not just looking for a quick  verse that I happen to like. And so I'm gonna find some way of applying it to my  life. And I'm looking for what did the author originally intend when he wrote this?  And then another presumption is that each text has one author intended  meaning? And so I've got to look for that meaning, what did he mean when he  wrote those things? And so, you know, as we saw from Revelation, that it's a  different thing when you understand Colossae, Laodicea, Hieropolis. And so  what did the author intend? When he wrote those words? What, what did John  intend, as he's listening to Jesus? What did Jesus intend as he was speaking  those words to John, so we're looking at what is the one author intended  meaning now here's another principle, the Bible should be interpreted literally,  according to the normal rules of interpretation. Now, there are times when Jesus spoke figuratively, when he said, the word like A sower went out into the field  that began sowing seed and seed is the word of God. That's a figurative kind of  metaphorical kind of statement. Certainly there are those all over the scriptures.  But as some people try to dive deeper into Scripture is what they call it. And they start assigning some kind of a mystical kind of interpretation to things. And so,  you know, what they will say is, God spoke to me and said, Now, I have no  doubt that God speaks to us. And sometimes, you know, as I said, a couple of  weeks ago, couple of lessons ago, sometimes he speaks to us in ways that all  of a sudden, we have a message that's given to us because we know it's from  God. But in the moment, be very careful with those things. Because it's not just  a magical kind of thing, when we approach scripture, but it's something that  Spirit inspired. So we're going to look at it, we're not going to treat it as  something magic, that there's all these hidden meanings that we have to find.  And then we hear about those, you know, in the Jewish tradition, they have the  Kabbalah, which is all these mystical interpretations of the Old Testament  scriptures and the Talmud and the other Hebrew writings that we don't do that.  Then there's one meaning author intended one meaning, but there could be  many applications to that meaning. And so we're people who wouldn't we find  that meaning say, Okay, now, what makes this relevant for today, and that's the  last principle of the last presumption assumption that I'm making, that there is 

relevance for the scriptures that I'm looking at for today. Now, all of that is about  exegesis. The next time, as I said, we're going to look at Matthew 2:1-12. And  we'll just do look at some of the stuff that historically and canonically and we're  going to look at the symbols that exist there we're going to look at it and say  what can be seen for preaching and so I invite you to come back next time and  we'll just use that as an example of what we've been talking about here as we  begin this process of talking about how you approach the scriptures as you  prepare to preach