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Biblical Preaching – The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages
By Haddon W. Robinson
Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2025 (4thedition – originally published in 1980)
Some books just keep on coming. Biblical Preaching is a classic text that for some reason I missed out on, ‘back in the day’.
It is a pleasant book to own and use, with a look and feel that bears witness to its confidence and its place in history. It is beautifully presented, with boxed definitions, worked examples, exciting diagrams, student exercises, bibliography, comprehensive scripture and subject indexes and even a sample sermon evaluation. Its recent edit-update has been sensitively executed by Scott Wenig (the Haddon Robinson Chair of Preaching in Denver Seminary) and now uses inclusive language, if not an inclusive approach to preaching style. There is, unfortunately, a sense in which the title, Biblical Preaching, appears to attempt to hijack the skill. Perhaps that can be forgiven for the way this book could help a brand new preacher looking for a time-tested, ‘how to do it’ textbook.
Robinson’s premise is that to be authentic a sermon will begin with a passage from scripture, and then illustrate, defend, explain or apply (‘IDEA’) the text. To do this well the preacher will first find the ‘One Big Idea’ in the passage through asking diagnostic questions of the text, (‘what does this mean?’, ‘is it true?’ and ‘what difference does it make?’). They will then allow the homiletical idea to emerge from the exegetical one. There is instruction in constructing a sermon outline, on opening with a ‘bang’, joining up the dots with multiple illustrations, and trusting the Holy Spirit to do the rest…
A word much used throughout the book is ‘clear’, and as I read it I admired the clarity of teaching brought to this style of preaching. It reminds me of a settled world-view that I once took for granted. Trouble is, I now believe that world-view is too limited.
This means that while I think becoming an ‘expository preacher’ with the help of this book could get a nervous preacher off to a flying start, I think it would be a shame if it hindered them from also considering alternative approaches and methods. It would be a shame if it so satisfied anyone that God entrusts with ‘rightly handling the Word of God’ that they never also preach from a basis in a Biblical theme, or principle, or contemporary issue, or the hearers’ needs and neglect to put something of themselves regularly into what they share.
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