Contextual Preaching

As one person in our church asked: “How many books do Christians use? I hear you talking about the Old Testament and the New Testament. The other day it was the Book of John and then it was the Book of Luke. How many books do you use?” This is not uncommon in our culture today. For those with no biblical reference point, the beginning point is often that of relevance. They are asking, “Does this have anything to do with my life?” Or “Is it relevant?”

Since we know it is true and we know it is relevant, we have to help them see that it is both.

After you have done the most important part of working through the Scriptures to understand and convey them accurately, then help your hearers understand why they should pay attention. So, we would encourage you to start like this:

1. Why is this important and how does it relate to me?

2. What does the Bible say about it?

3. What am I going to do with what the Bible says about it?

Instead of:

1. The Bible says this.

2. It is important.

3. You should do it.

Paul demonstrated this when he was invited to speak to a completely Jewish audience after entering a synagogue in Pisdian Antioch; he began with the Old Testament. While he did not quote directly from the Old Testament, he began by summarizing its historical account. “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country, he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert, he overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance. All this took about 450 years” (Acts 13:16-20, NIV).

When communicating to the less educated at Lystra (Acts 14), he used examples of nature, sea and crops. He spoke to an agrarian people with agrarian metaphors.

On the other hand, when Paul was in front of a very different audience in Athens, his starting point was different. We read in Acts 17, “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that in every way, you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23).

The apostle Paul began where the people he was speaking to were. For the Jews, the starting point was their ancient history rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures. On the other hand, Paul connected with the Greeks at their point of relevance. Notice that he presented Christ in both cases. For us, we may start in a different place, but the context of the message needs to be Christ and the fullness of Scripture. The key is where the communication begins. Scripture sets the agenda and shape of the message, but every message needs the question, “Why is this important to me/us?” If there is no point of connection, the message is simply meaningless facts rather than life-changing truth.