The three sermon forms we have discussed -- an idea explained, a proposition proved and a principle applied -- are deductive arrangements of the sermon. In all three, your idea is stated in the introduction or the first major point of the sermon. Everything within the sermon, then, relates back to the idea.

There are also semi-inductive sermons. These sermons fall in between deduction and induction.

Semi-Inductive Arrangements

A Subject to Be Completed

The first semi-inductive form presents only the subject in the introduction, not the entire idea, and the major points complete the subject. This subject-completed form of development is the most common one used in our pulpits, and many preachers never vary from it.

In the hands of a skilled preacher, a sermon patterned this way can produce tension and strong climax. James S. Stewart, in an exposition of Hebrews 12:22-25, provides a case study, in his introduction, Stewart establishes his subject. The writer of Hebrews, he tells us, "is saying five things about our fellowship of Christian worship in the church." The purpose of the sermon is, in his words, "to make us realize the riches of our heritage when we assemble in our places of worship." With the subject "What makes our worship rich?" being stated in the introduction, each point in the body helps to complete it.

I. It is a spiritual fellowship: "You are come unto Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (v. 22). Christians have direct touch with that invisible spiritual world which is the only ultimate reality.

("I pass on to the second fact our text underlines concerning the fellowship of Christian worship.")

II. It is a universal fellowship: "You are come to the church of the first-born who are written in heaven" (v. 23). Christians are members of the greatest fellowship on earth, the Church universal.

("I pass on to the third description he gives of our fellowship in Christian worship.")

III. It is an immortal fellowship: "You are come to myriads of angels in festal array, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (v. 23). When Christians are at worship, their loved ones on the other side of eternity are near to them and a cloud of witnesses surrounds them.

IV. It is a divine fellowship: "You are come to the God of all who is Judge, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant" (vv. 23-24). In your worship, he tells them, reaching now to the very heart of the matter, you have come to God as revealed in Jesus.

("One other fact about our fellowship in worship he adds, and so makes an end.")

V. It is a redeeming fellowship: "You are come to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh of better things than that of Abel" (v. 24). "When our sins cry out to God for punishment and vengeance, something else also happens -- the blood of Christ cries louder, overbears and silences the very crying of our sins, and God for Christ's sake forgives."2

Stewart has no formal conclusion, but rather, his final point serves to bring the sermon to an effective close. Notice that in his transitions, he relates each separate point not to the previous point but only to the subject that it completes.