Page 117 - Homiletics I Student Textbook

Study Section 17: Preaching and Teaching Like Jesus

17.1 Connect

When it’s time for the sermon on Sunday morning, most preachers rise to the pulpit, open
with a cute story, then preach a three-point outline using the lecture method for the next 45
minutes to an hour. If you look around the congregation after about 20 minutes you will see
some people nodding off to sleep. Others will be counting the number of tiles on the ceiling.
Wives might be planning the menu for lunch. Honestly, if you as a typical member of the
congregation what the sermon was about last week or two weeks ago, you probably will get
a “spaced out” look. Very few preachers actually “get through” to the minds and hearts of the
congregation. The real test of your effectiveness as a preacher is how many people in the congregation
are different from last week to the previous week.

There are some things you can do as a preach of God’s Word to have a greater impact on the lives of
your hearers. Let’s take some time to look how the greatest preach of all times shared God’s Word with
His congregation…

17.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to take what has been taught and apply it to creating a couple of
sermons based on assigned passages.

17.3 The Example of the Greatest Teacher of All Times

Over the eons of time there have risen some very great teachers. Of the greatest
was John Chrysostom (A.D. 345 – 407), Greek scholar, teacher and pastor, who
was among the most prolific writers of early church fathers. He was called the
teacher with the “Golden Mouth”. Chrysostom was and still is hailed as the
greatest pulpit orator the Eastern Church has ever had. But even though God
used Chrysostom’s unique ability to teach, his abilities paled in light of the
greatest teacher of all times, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher of all times!

We must remember that Jesus, being the Son of God, was also 100% human. Philippians 2 states that
Jesus emptied Himself and became a human being just like you and me. To do so, the pre-incarnate
Jesus, who existed as co-equal to the Father, had to set aside some of his attributes of being God. One
in particular, he set aside was his omniscience or ability to know everything. He purposely set aside this
attribute to become a man who had to learn. He was born a baby and had to learn Hebrew and he
probably went to school. He learned Joseph’s trade. Jesus had to LEARN just like we learn. And
learning is hard work!

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