4 questions for Preaching and Teaching
These are 4 Questions to be posed and/or answered within a sermon or lesson. They are avenues for clarifying difficult concepts, introducing apologetic elements, and providing direct application. Personally, I try to include at least one of each in a sermon/lesson. However, that doesn’t mean I use them only once! Question 3, (Do You?), can be used more frequently. But Question 4, (What Now?), lends itself to the end of the sermon/lesson.
Note: The 4 Questions can be used in concert or as stand-alone elements. All 4 questions could be used for one point of scripture and build off each other. However, they can also function in isolation. Do you? doesn’t need any of the other questions to cut the heart, and not every What’s That? needs to transition into a So What?, a Do You?, or a What Now?
What's That?
Anticipate questions from a non-believer, a child or young person, or laity. Seek to clarify a word or phrase in the passage. These can be either exegetical questions, cultural or background questions. Pose a question and answer that question:
Titus 2.11 - Why did Paul say all men? What does 'all' mean? What is grace and how can it appear? How can it bring salvation? All means all without distinction, not all without exception.
Aside from clarifying unusual concepts, this is useful for introducing an apologetic sidebar - defending against bad teaching, exposing bad teaching.So What?
What's the significance of the point? Continuing with Titus 2.11 - All without distinction, not without exception means that grace comes bearing salvation to Gentiles, men, and women, to sinners like you and me. Your life circumstances, background, and history don't disqualify you. But your sin does - salvation must come to you, and you must be saved.
Within So What? might also be the question “How should you act if you believed this was true?” This can help introduces the Law of the passage.
Apologetic Sidebar - So what? The world disagrees. Despite a narrative of inclusion, you can be cancelled for your history, you can be cancelled for your status, you can be cancelled for your skin color. But God is the one who cancels the debt of sin (Col. 2.14,15). The values the world champions as inclusive are exclusive. But in Christ, those values find their true culmination. That's what.Do You?
Direct application. Can be posed in the positive (+) or the negative (-). Example from Titus 2.14. Christ Jesus purified a people for Himself to be "zealous for good deeds."
(+) Do you have zeal for good deeds? Are you zealous for what Christ desires you to be zealous for?
(-) Or are you zealous for what the world has to offer? Do you long for your own desires which look like the world?
Do you live like one purified by Christ?
A good Do You? question should be followed by empty space. The temptation is to fill the silence, but the silence is the key. Give people a chance to answer that question in their hearts, even if they don’t answer it out loud.What Now?
Where do we go from here? Continuing with Titus 2.14.
There can be many answers, but 3 categories are helpful: Practical, Prayer, and Christ-Centered application.
What do we do now that we know we should be zealous for good deeds?Practical: Meditate on God's Law (Ps. 119.11) and discipline yourselves. You must participate in your sanctification. (Philippians 2.12,13). As Richard Gaffin notes, its 100% our responsibility. Yet, it is also 100% accomplished by God's power. 100 +100 = 100! Therefore:
Pray: Call out to God, repent from missteps, and ask for a heart that is zealous for good deeds.
Christ-Centered: We turn to Christ because it is by His strength we succeed and in our own failures, we can look to him as our Older Brother who identifies with us. He was perfectly zealous for good deeds. Ultimately, we are judged on His merit through our union with Christ. So we walk in good deeds because of Him, for Him, and by Him.
