Over the years, I have heard sermons (including mine) that contain lengthy exegesis of Scripture. While all good preaching is exegetical preaching, sustained exegesis over fifteen minutes here and fifteen minutes there is difficult to follow and falls short in effective communication. Some of the world’s best preachers even enter into the mode of lengthy sustained exegesis from time-to-time. If given the choice of hearing someone explain Scripture or tell stories, we should always chose the former. However, illustrations are very important in pulpit communication.
While my preaching style has changed over the past twenty years, I have always tried to follow a model of using illustrations in the introduction and conclusion and one illustration per major point. While I do not always follow this model, I do make an attempt at it. There are times when I am unable to find the right illustration for the truths that flow from the text. When this happens, I do not have an illustration. I do not want to force it.
Spurgeon once said illustrations are like windows into what the text is saying. Don’t worry. No one will accuse us of narrative preaching if we pepper illustrations throughout our messages. Illustrations help the contemporary listener understand what the first century listener both heard and understood. If illustrations are windows, then we regularly need to add them to our messages and allow some light to shine in for our people!
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