Topic: A.

Tools for Sermon Preparation: The Lexicon, Concordance, bible Dictionaries/ Bible
commentaries, knowledge of the biblical world and the contemporary world.

B. Sermons of Different Types: Testimonial, Occasional, Doctrinal, etc.

Introduction

Sermon is a speech about a moral or religious subject that is usually given by a religious leader.
It is a serious talk about how someone should behave in a speech, conduct and duty. A sermon is
a message exegetic from scripture, regarding God’s position on man's practices, policies and
procedure in life. It is the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to a congregation.
For effective sermon a preacher need to study the Bible and understand its context historically,
presently and eternally.

Lexicon:

Lexicon provide definitions and meaning of Biblical words found in the original Old Testament
Hebrew and New Testament Greek of the Holy Bible. The word lexicon derives from the Greek
“neuter” meaning ‘of or for words’. Lexicon helps in understanding the origins and root meaning
of the ancient language. Additional, lexicons give the context and cultural meaning intended by
the author. It helps us to understand whether the word is from Hebrew or Greek. They are two
types of lexicon.
1. New Testament Greek Lexicon: The Greek lexicon has been designed to help the user
understand the original text of the Bible. By using lexicon the preacher can get a deeper
knowledge of the passage and helps to expound the message effectively that he or she is dealing
with. The last half century has witnessed a heightened interest in New Testament lexicon. This
has resulted in the wealth of resources for a study of New Testament words and idioms. It has
also given special attention to the theological interpretation of the New Testament scripture.1

2. Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon: The Old Testament was written 2,500 to 3,500 years ago
by the people whose culture and lifestyle were very different from our own. So, lexicon has been
developed to aid the user to understand thoroughly the Hebrew Old Testament. Lexicon comes
into two main verities, traditional philosophical and theological dictionaries. Although both types
of reference may treat comparative Semitic data and survey, the range or meaning and syntactic
construction to a greater or lesser degree, the theological dictionary ultimately aims in treating
theological concepts organised around certain key words to which this are related. 2

Concordance:

1
Peter R. Rodgers, "Lexicon, NT”, Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer
(Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 450-451.
2
John A. Cook, " Lexicon, OT", Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of The Bible, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer
(Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 451-452.

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The most helpful single book for a good sermon is a good Bible concordance. Concordance is
state in which things agree and do not conflict each other. Concordance teaches us that which the
bible does and does not include, that which may be studied with the help of the bible. It is an
alphabetical list of all the words in a Bible or in a set of works written by an author. It helps to
find the entire place and gives brief information about the persons that are mentioned in the
Bible. A concordance is especially helpful for word study one need to find out where and how a
word is used throughout the Hole Bible. An excellent feature of this work is its practice of
dividing up the references according to the original Hebrew and Greek words.3

Bible Dictionary:

Bible Dictionary is one of the most practical and useful theological reference books. It helps to
discover the meaning of words and study them in context to the theological concept of the
specific verse or passage. A Bible dictionary lists and explains words and subjects found in the
Bible. The most important tool for Bible study is a good bible dictionary. It summarizes the
biblical meanings but does not necessarily give many references. It tells, for instance. How many
people in the bible were named John and who they were. It provides information about historical
and cultural background and gives the greater thoroughness. Bible dictionaries are a general and
topical reference suitable for readers with little or no formal training in Biblical history or
language.4

Bible Commentaries:

Bible Commentaries is the study of scripture to provide explanation and interpretation of Biblical
text Commentaries are analyzed on individual book of the Bible, which proceed chapter by
chapter and verse by verse format. Commentaries deal with greater understanding with
background information on authorship, history, illustration and theme of the Gospel. Some Bible
commentaries work provides analysis of the whole scripture. There are four main types of Bible
Commentaries expository, exegetical, devotional and cultural Commentaries provide systematic
explanation of the text making it easy to read and practically applicable format.5

Knowledge of the Biblical world and the Contemporary world:

Our knowledge and our prophecy are always incomplete without the knowledge of Biblical
world and the contemporary world. Knowledge is needed because there are problems as a result
Of the fall. Knowledge that is true allows problems to be solved and avoided. God gives us
knowledge to help broken people, protect ourselves from the difficulties of life and allow love to
express it in good works. By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations. By understanding He
set the heavens in place, by His knowledge the deeps were divided (proverbs 24: 3-4). By

3
T. Norton Sterrett, How to Understand Your Bible (Downers Grove: Inter Versity Press, 1974), 36-37.
4
T. Norton Sterrett, How to Understand Your Bible, 36-37.
5
John F. MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible commentary .[Link] 8:30

2
knowledge a house is build, and through understanding it establish, through knowledge the
rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Knowledge has been used to create a new application which almost everybody uses knowledge
of the contemporary world is to discuss, evaluate proposals an applications of scientific
knowledge of social interest concerning heath, environment materials, energy, source, leisure etc,
in order to evaluate the scientific and technology means of mass communication and independent
judgement to acquire information.6

Testimonial Sermon:

In Latin word testimony means 'testis', meaning a witness. In the Christian context it means
letting the good news of Christ be shown. In Testimonial Sermon the Preacher tells the story
about his or her life, or some portion of their life. In the testimonial Sermon the preacher uses the
scriptures to illustrate various moments in life when he or she learnt some specific spiritual truth.
Though it is a testimony it still uses scripture to illustrate the points made. This is a preaching of
one's own personal testimony.7

Biographical Sermon:

The Biographical type of sermon is an interesting and valuable way to preach about the colorful
characters in the word of God while expounding the biblical truths that relate to their lives. It is
basically the study of person's life and the spiritual lessons that can be learnt from it. It warns us
from that person's failure and encourages us from that person's success. In reality, therefore, it is
a message about the person's character and career based on that character (e.g. lessons from the
life of David). It also seeks the exploration of the particular person's character, reputation,
background, and spiritual life from the scriptures. For a Biographical approach is to select three
or four qualities of persons like on which you want to focus and then show that what quality we
learn from the person's situations and incidents into our lives when we need to demonstrate that
same qualities.8

Occasional Sermon:

Occasional sermon refers to special events or celebration that occurs in daily life. It can be
understood as a sermon which a preacher shares in a special occasion. For instance, special
occasions can be Christmas, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Father’s day and

6
[Link] 11-11-2019, 8:30 pm.

7
,8:30 pm.
8
[Link] 11-11-2019, 8:30 pm.

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Mother’s Day and so on. The preacher reminds the congregation about particular day and how it
is to be celebrated.9

Doctrinal Sermon:

Doctrinal preaching is the foundation of all true Christian experience without a sound doctrinal
foundation Christian experience is like cut flowers stuck in the ground -they soon wither and die.
Doctrinal truth is not only the foundation but also the super structure of all true biblical
preaching. The doctrinal sermon is a very significance in the delivery of the word of God with
clarity and precision which transform the life of the people. Topical study is very needed in the
construction of doctrinal sermon. The doctrinal selected furnishes the topic. We may limit the
topic to just one aspect of a doctrine for example we can choose the meaning of redemption as
the theme, and select the few key passages to form the basis of the outline. Having studied the
references in its proper relationship to the context, we gather analyze and classify our findings
and thus should be able to obtain a sound biblical for our conclusion.10

Conclusion:

Through this paper we have learn that there are certain type of tools of sermons which are used
in preparing a sermon which helps us to understand the sermons better. It help us to preach the
colourful characters in the word of God while expounding the Biblical Truth that relate to their
lives.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Cook , A .John. " Lexicon, OT", Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of The Bible,
ed., Kevin J. Vanhoozer. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005.

Rodgers, R. Peter."Lexicon, NT” , Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible,

Sterrett, Norton. How to Understand Your Bible. Downers Grove: Inter Versity Press,
1974.

WEBLIOGRAPHY:

[Link] 11-11-2019.

http:[Link]/fj23/the-priority-of-doctrinal-preaching 11-11-2019.

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http:[Link]/fj23/the-priority-of-doctrinal-preaching 11-11-2019, 8:30 pm.
10
, 8:30 pm.