In 1980, Haddon Robinson, Baptist minister and professor of preaching at Dallas Theological Seminary, Denver Seminary, and later Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (he also served as president of Denver Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) published Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001). In his preface to the second edition, Robinson talks about the change in American culture, how “television and the computer have influenced the ways we learn and think” (10). Today’s culture is a picture or image-based culture, and so Robinson notes the importance of narrative preaching. He devotes more time in this second edition to the discussion of inductive preaching (10, 124, 126). Still, “this is a book about expository preaching” (17) and this means we can expect the focus to be on deductive, propositional preaching. Robinson does not disappoint such expectation.
“The type of preaching that best carries the force of divine authority is expository preaching” (20). Yet, having said that, Robinson is convinced that most preachers fail to understand and practice expository preaching (21). He defines expository preaching as “the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers” (21). Expository preaching, governed by the text (21-22), seeks to convey the thought of Scripture (23-25), with proper application (27-30).
Robinson provides an in-depth discussion of homiletical method, beginning with his focus on “the big idea” or “single dominant theme” (37) in chapter two. Too many sermons “fail because they deal with too many unrelated ideas” (35). In chapter three, Robinson discusses the nuts and bolts of sermon construction, suggesting various tools that enable the preacher to determine the subject (“What am I talking about?” 41, 66) and the complement (“What am I saying about what I am talking about?” 41, 67). Chapters four and five continue the discussion of sermon development, asking how to address the text to a particular audience in a particular time and space (74), asking three key questions about the text: 1) “What does this mean?” (77); 2) “Is it true?” (80); and, 3) “What difference does it make?” (84). Robinson says it is essential to know the purpose for preaching a particular sermon. He says “if we are not clear about where we are going, we will probably land someplace else” (109).
In chapter six he discusses the shapes of sermons, looking at the deductive (118), the semi-inductive (124), and the inductive (126). Deductive sermons are propositional, with the preacher convincing his hearers as though he is a debater (121), while inductive sermons are “closer to a conversation than to a lecture” (129) and “have special appeal to inhabitants of a culture dominated by television and motion pictures” (129). Robinson says there is “no such thing as ‘a sermon form’” (38, 116, 131), though it is clear that his work privileges the deductive or propositional form of preaching. Chapter seven addresses illustrations and other ways of “enlivening” the text, while chapter eight focuses on the introduction and conclusion. Chapter nine focuses on questions of preaching style while chapter ten deals with the mechanics of delivery, such as movement and gestures (207-211), eye contact (211-212), and voice delivery (213-218).
Biblical Preaching is a classic, Protestant text on homiletics. From start to finish, Robinson covers the whole process of sermon development. The utility of this work is demonstrated by the fact that over 200,000 copies have been sold. For the reader who is interested in late twentieth-century methods of traditional Protestant expository preaching, Biblical Preaching is exemplary. However, the remarkable fact is that this volume, one of the pre-eminent works by an evangelical homiletician in the last few decades, has only two oblique references to the preaching of Jesus. He notes that Jesus “came telling stories, and most of them have entered the world’s folklore” (130) and Jesus “demonstrated the impact of narration in the parables He told” (149). This is it. In what is one of the standard evangelical texts on preaching, the author makes two brief, undeveloped observations about the preaching and teaching of Jesus. That a volume that is called Biblical Preaching makes almost no reference to the greatest preacher in the Bible, indeed in world history, is remarkable.
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