One Thing I Hope to Learn From John Piper In Preaching

We preachers can be a bit like mynah birds in that we mimic our favorite preachers. It’s a little silly when we pick up some of their quirky delivery methods. But it’s also okay to learn from those who faithfully handle the text. I’ve learned from many preachers. Today I will share something I’ve learned from John Piper that I believe he does better than almost any other preacher I’ve heard.

In his book Christ-Centered Preaching, Bryan Chappell gives six questions for the preacher to answer on his path to preparation:

1. What does the text mean?
2. How do I know what the text means?
3. What concerns caused the text to be written/
4. What do we share in common with those to (or about) whom the text was written and/or the one by whom the text was written?
5. How should people now respond to the truths of the text?
6. What is the most effective way I can communicate the meaning of the text?

For me, I struggle the most with that second question. That question is meant to help the preacher walk the listener through how he came about his conclusions. I have so much room to grow in this. I think I do decent at introductions, I think I’m faithful to the text, I believe I deliver it with passion and hopefully with clarity. But where I really struggle—and I see how it causes my people to be stunted in growth—is in the area of helping them see how I came to see what I see in the text.

John Piper is one I can learn from in this regard. Go to Desiring God and click on about any sermon and what you’ll find are a few common statements. If you listen to any Piper sermon what you’ll find is him stating what he believes the text is saying and then faithfully showing you how he got to that point.

Piper loves to use words like “notice”. What Piper so faithfully does is stick or nose in the text and then faithfully walk us through the argument in the biblical passage. As he traces the authors main point what he is essentially doing is showing how he came to his major point in the sermon.

He is also fond of saying something like, “If we are right about this claim then we’ll see ____” He then shows how the progression of the argument in the biblical text proves his point. Again what he is doing is showing from the Scriptures why he holds the position that he does.

Now you may not agree with all of Piper’s points. But you cannot say that he isn’t getting his points from the Scriptures (at least in the way he is reading them). And this has a tremendous impact on those who sit under his preaching. He isn’t just telling people what to think. He is training them how to think. And that is what my people will be missing if I don’t continue to pursue improving in this area.

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