Page 6 - Homiletics I Student Textbook

Some Bible was written in an expository manner. Within a passage, there are topics that are dealt with
systematically. There are major sections of Scripture that are historical narratives from which sermons
can be developed, but serious caution should be taken when developing a sermon from what individuals
did in history. The Bible certainly does say that what is recorded historically was given to us to help us
learn more about God and how we should relate to Him. Consider this passage:

Romans 15:4
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through
endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Every passage of the Bible was written within a historical context. Time was created by God during the
first days of creation, when he spun the earth. Since then, man has existed within the realm of time.
Since God used men to write His Word, they lived within a certain time in history, and their writings
bore witness of what was happening around them. Almost half of the Bible is a history book. It tracks
the history of mankind from day one to the establishment of Israel. It reveals the coming of the Messiah
at the right time. And the book concludes with what will happen as time concludes. So as we look at
Scripture, we need to consider when the passage was written and what was happening historically at
that time.

A Word of Caution: Quite often, the actions of various individuals within the history of the Bible are
used to build a case for various doctrinal beliefs. For example, we can look back at a historical event in
the Bible that occurred in Genesis 14. Abram had just saved his nephew, Lot, from the kings of the
North. After the battle, a unique person walked up to him named Melchizedek, King of Salem, and
blessed Abram. Abram’s response was that he gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils of the war. That
was a historical event.

Some preachers might look at that passage and say, “Wow, that will make a good preaching sermon!”
This preacher might reading this passage of Scripture take this historical event and from it, and make
this statement as the topic for his sermon: Every believer should give 10% of his income to Church as the
basis of New Testament giving. His basis is that since Abram gave a tenth of the booty of the war,
believers today are obligated to give 10% of their income to the church. This is a total misinterpretation
of this text!

Here is the problem with that line of historical interpretation: In Genesis 17, Abraham journeyed to
Gerar. Knowing that Sarah was extremely beautiful, he asked her to tell others that she was his sister,
rather than his wife, because he was afraid the people in the land would kill him to take Sarah from him.
Abimelech, the king of Gerar took Sarah from him to become his wife, and then found out that Abraham
had lied to him. He rebuked him for his dishonesty and sent the two away. Both Abraham and Sarah
lied.

From this historical event, using the same philosophy as the previous interpreter, we could create this
doctrinal belief for today: There are some situations we find ourselves in that warrants lying and in
these cases, it is not wrong to lie. This is nothing more than situational ethics and is not Biblically
correct. Again, we have made an error by creating a doctrine based on a historical event.

This practice is common among believers today. Quite often we will hear that the 1 century church did
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sometime this particular way, so we should do that in our church. The 1 century church selected seven
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