Material for the Sermon
Text: (No specific text; homiletics — principles from II Tim. 3:16-17)
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Topical
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Identify the source of all fundamental sermon material and explain why the Bible is sufficient as that source.
- Name the seven categories of fundamental material and give one example of a sermon that could develop each category.
- Explain the role and the limit of secondary material (illustrations from experience) in a sermon.
- State why young preachers are specifically disadvantaged in the use of experiential illustration.
- Describe the balanced approach to controversial subjects — explaining both the extreme to avoid and the abdication to avoid.
Thesis
The Bible is the source of all fundamental sermon material. Everything a preacher needs to address the human condition is present in the revealed facts about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, sin, and promised blessing. Secondary material — illustrations from experience — supplements but does not supply this foundation. The sermon that is burdened with secondary material at the expense of the primary has inverted its own foundations.
Burden
The question behind this outline is simple: where does a sermon come from? The preacher who does not know where the material comes from will either go to the wrong source or go to the right source incompletely. The sermon that accurately presents facts about God, Christ, the Spirit, the church, sin, and blessing — in whatever combination the occasion requires — has found its material. The preacher's task is to know where that material is and how to find it.
Introduction
"What should go into a sermon?" The question is more specific than it first appears. It is not asking what topic to choose or what text to preach — it is asking what kind of content constitutes the substance of a sermon once the topic and text have been chosen. The answer organizes everything else: there is fundamental material, without which there is no sermon; there is secondary material, which serves the fundamental but cannot replace it; and there is the category of controversial subjects, which requires a specific discipline.
"Where may we find the material?" The answer to this question is also the answer to the most basic question a preacher can ask: why does the Bible exist and what does it give us? "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (II Tim. 3:16-17). The word "adequate" (artios) and "equipped" (exērtismenos) together say: the Bible is sufficient. Everything the preacher needs to address every human condition is in the source.
I. Fundamental Material for the Sermon
Seven categories constitute the fundamental material — the content from which every sermon is built.
Facts about God. Not facts about his existence — the congregation assembled for worship has already answered that question. Facts about his characteristics, nature, and attributes: his holiness, his justice, his mercy, his immutability, his knowledge, his power. The preacher who has spent inadequate time in the doctrine of God will treat God as a given rather than as the ground of everything that follows, and the congregation's understanding of God will remain small.
Facts about Christ. His life: the record of what he did and said, in the context of the world into which he came. His mission: the purpose for which he came ("the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost," Luke 19:10). His death: not merely as a historical event but as the event on which the gospel rests — the atoning sacrifice through which remission of sins is possible. His resurrection: the vindication of everything he claimed. His characteristics: the attributes of the one who was both fully human and fully divine.
Facts about the Holy Spirit. Who he is — the third person of the Godhead, not a force or influence but a person. His work — the roles he has occupied in the history of redemption: in inspiration, in the direct gifts to the early church, in the ongoing work of conviction and new birth. How he works — through the word, which is the instrument through which the Spirit accomplishes his purposes in the heart of the hearer. The preacher who does not know who the Spirit is and what he does will either over-claim (assigning to present supernatural operations what the text assigns to the completed revelation) or under-claim (treating the Spirit as irrelevant to the present work of the gospel).
Facts about the church. What is the church? Not merely a human institution or a voluntary association — but the body of Christ, the people called out, the kingdom of God in its present form. How to become a member: through the new birth, the obedient response to the gospel that begins with baptism (Acts 2:38). How to live in the church: the responsibilities of membership, the obligations of relationship, the disciplines of the corporate life. The organization and government of the church: the roles of elders, deacons, and members, and the authority that governs the whole.
Facts about sin. The universality of sin: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). No sermon that addresses the human condition can avoid this fact; the person who does not know themselves to be a sinner does not know why the gospel is necessary. The consequences of sin: what sin does to the person who commits it, to the relationships they inhabit, to the community around them. The punishment of sin: including the final punishment — hell — which the gospel exists to make avoidable.
Facts about promised blessings. The remission of sins: the specific promise of Acts 2:38, the foundation of the new life. The gifts of the Holy Spirit: the ongoing presence of the Spirit in the life of the obedient. The hope of heaven: the destination that gives the present life its ultimate orientation, the promised inheritance of those who remain faithful until death (Rev. 2:10).
These seven categories together constitute the complete field of fundamental sermon material. Every legitimate sermon is built from some combination of them. The preacher who has mastered these has the whole of the gospel's substance available.
II. Secondary Material
Secondary material supplements the fundamental; it does not supply it.
Illustrations from the Bible. The biblical narratives are the richest source of illustration precisely because they are also revelation: the illustration drawn from Genesis or Acts carries the weight of the text from which it comes. The congregation that has heard a doctrine explained and then illustrated from the text's own narrative context has received the explanation and the confirmation in a single movement.
Illustrations from experience. The illustration drawn from personal experience or from the observed experience of others has the force of immediacy — it connects the abstract truth to the concrete life. But it has limits: the illustration from experience is not the foundation; it is the window through which the foundation becomes visible. The sermon that consists primarily of illustrations from experience is a series of windows with no walls.
The value of experience for preaching requires time to accumulate. The young preacher who has not yet lived long enough to have accumulated the experience that produces useful illustration is not disadvantaged in fundamental material — the Bible is fully available to the person of twenty-five as to the person of sixty. But the young preacher lacks the range of experiential illustration that the older preacher has. This is not a permanent disadvantage; it resolves with age. The young preacher who recognizes this limitation will draw more heavily on biblical illustration, which is not a second-best but in many ways the best.
The sermon must not be burdened with secondary material. The illustration that takes more time than the truth it illustrates has become the sermon's center of gravity. The congregation that remembers the illustration and has forgotten the doctrine has received the window without the wall.
III. Controversial Subjects
All subjects are controversial at some point. There is no doctrine, no moral teaching, no biblical claim, that someone will not dispute. The response to this fact requires navigating between two failures.
The first failure: some just debate. The preacher who treats every sermon as an occasion for controversy — who frames every discussion as a polemic, who reaches for the disputatious tone when the explanatory tone would serve better — has reduced the gospel to debate. The congregation that is perpetually positioned for a fight is not being formed in faith; it is being trained in combativeness.
The second failure: some avoid controversial subjects altogether. The preacher who will not touch anything that might produce disagreement has surrendered the preacher's primary responsibility. The gospel is inherently controversial — it makes claims that many people dispute, and those claims must be stated plainly. The preacher who avoids controversy in the name of peace has avoided the gospel in the name of comfort.
The balanced approach: address the subject, state the truth, develop the case, and leave the rhetoric of combat to those who cannot trust the text to do its own work. The truth, plainly stated and clearly supported, is more persuasive than the same truth stated combatively.
Application
For the preacher: audit the material of your last ten sermons by these seven categories. How much time was spent on facts about God? Facts about Christ's death and resurrection? Facts about the church — specifically, what it is, how to enter, how to live in it? Facts about sin — including the consequences and the punishment? The audit will reveal where the preaching is strong and where it is underprepared.
For the congregation: recognize that the fundamental material is the measure of the sermon. The sermon that is engaging, that illustrates well, that holds attention — but that does not present, explain, and apply the revealed facts about God, Christ, Spirit, church, sin, and blessing — has not been a sermon. It has been a talk. The distinction matters.
Conclusion
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (II Tim. 3:16-17). The fundamental sermon material is the profitable Scripture — all of it, in the seven categories that cover its primary content. The preacher who works in these categories has all the material needed. The one who looks elsewhere for the foundation of the sermon has gone to the wrong source.
Invitation
The facts about sin and the facts about promised blessing — the two categories at either end of this outline — are the gospel's diagnostic and its remedy. You are a sinner; remission is available. The gospel that makes the diagnosis cannot stop there; it must supply the cure.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). The material of this sermon has been the facts about what God has done; the invitation presses those facts to the response they require.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profitable / Useful | ōphelimos | Beneficial, useful, advantageous. | Used in II Tim. 3:16 for what Scripture is: "all Scripture is... profitable." | The word establishes the functional sufficiency of Scripture as the source of sermon material. What the preacher needs to do their work — teaching, reproof, correction, training — is already present in the source. The word is practical, not merely theoretical. | II Tim. 3:16-17 |
| Adequate / Complete | artios | Fitted out, complete, adequate to the task. | Used in II Tim. 3:17: "so that the man of God may be adequate." | The adjective describes the condition of the preacher who has been formed by Scripture's profitable content: complete, lacking nothing for the task. The implication for sermon material is direct: the fundamental material is sufficient; no supplement outside Scripture can supply what Scripture already provides. | II Tim. 3:17 |
| Illustration | parabolē | A comparison placed alongside — from para (beside) + ballō (to throw). | Not used in this specific text but governing the concept of secondary material throughout. | The parable form — placing one thing alongside another to illuminate it — is the model for all sermon illustration. The illustration is not the truth; it is what is placed beside the truth to make the truth visible. When the illustration becomes more prominent than the truth, the parable has overwhelmed the point. | Matt. 13:3; Luke 15:3 |
| Controversial | (Latin controversia) | A matter turned about — contra (against) + versia (turning). A subject that can be turned and examined from opposing directions. | Used in Section III for the category of subjects that generate dispute. | The etymology reveals why controversy is unavoidable: any truth that can be examined from multiple sides will be disputed by those who are standing on the other side. The question is not how to avoid controversy but how to address it without letting the controversy become the sermon's center. | (Conceptual) |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "All Scripture profitable — equipped for every good work" | Intro./Concl. | II Tim. 3:16-17 |
| "The Son of Man came to seek and to save" — facts about Christ's mission | I.3 | Luke 19:10 |
| "All have sinned" — universality of sin | I.6a | Rom. 3:23 |
| "Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins" | I.7a | Acts 2:38 |
| "Faithful until death — crown of life" | I.7c | Rev. 2:10 |
| Baptism for remission — fundamental material pressed to response | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 147. Primary text: none stated; homiletics (principles from II Tim. 3:16-17 as governing text). OCR corrections: "materia/1" → "material"; "lll." → "III." Part of the four-sermon homiletics series (145-148). Doctrinal audit: the sufficiency of Scripture for sermon material affirmed from II Tim. 3:16-17 without restricting the preacher's use of illustrations from experience — secondary material is legitimate within its proper limit; the balanced approach to controversial subjects developed without either the combative extreme or the avoidance extreme; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
