How to Tell a Good Sermon from a Bad Sermon
Do you want to confidently evaluate the sermons you hear? You must have a theological grid, or template, in order to do it. A “checklist” of sorts.
The following article from Pastor Todd Wilken should be required reading for all confused Christians who have stumbled out of bad churches and need help:
A Listener’s Guide to the Pulpit by Todd Wilken
Here are a few quotes from the article:
“Contrary to popular opinion, bad preaching isn’t when the preacher reads his sermon, mumbles or bores his audience. That is merely bad delivery. No, bad preaching is preaching that does not rightly proclaim God’s Word of Law and
God’s Word of Gospel to sinners.”
“Today’s preachers are finding new ways not to preach the Gospel. There are some sermons that are worse than bad. While even a bad sermon contains the bare elements of the Gospel, these sermons have no Gospel at all. The listeners are
left with nothing but Law, sometimes not even that.”
“A sermon that mentions Jesus but still has you driving the verbs is still about you, not Jesus. The Gospel is all about what Jesus does for you. A sermon about
what you do for Jesus isn’t the Gospel. For the Gospel to be preached, Jesus must be driving the verbs.”
“Finally, Jesus said, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations.’
This is precisely what the first preachers, the Apostles, did. They preached repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of the crucified and risen Jesus. They preached it boldly, happily, and at every opportunity. They preached it to Jews and Gentiles, to unbelievers and believers, to kings and to the crowds. They preached it from house to house, town to town, from exile and from prison. They preached it at the cost of their own lives. They called it ‘the Good News’ because they knew that they had nothing—nothing—better to preach.
No, it isn’t too much to ask preachers to do the
same today.”
Pastor Todd Wilken is the host of a terrific show called “Issues, Etc.”
Steven Kozar
Steven Kozar started The Messed Up Church; he is an artist (StevenKozar.com is his art website), musician, blogger, and stuff. He makes videos, too, on The Messed Up Church YouTube channel.