When sermon introductions work, they are a pastor’s best friend.

When the introduction of a sermon DOES NOT work… the sermon is over before it ever had a chance to start.

Introductions must grab your listeners’ attention.

Introductions give your audience a good reason to listen to you for the next 30 minutes of their life.

But introductions also need to orient your listeners to the Scripture that this specific sermon is based on.

In my mind, I always use a 4-Step System when creating a sermon introduction.

4-Step System to Creating Powerful Introductions (in this order):

(1) Engage the audience.

Lots of ways exist to do this, of course.  A good rule of thumb is typically to start with the listeners’ interests instead of our own.

This is what grabs their attention.

(2) Focus the sermon.

Here’s where you narrow the focus and begin to show them where the sermon is going.

(3) Provide any necessary biblical background.

This step isn’t always necessary.

Some sermons don’t need any biblical background info in the introduction.  But sometimes it’s vital to explain the background of the passage BEFORE you get to the main scripture passage in the sermon body itself.

(4) Preview the coming elements.

This is a map that you provide your listeners so they know how to follow you and listen.

It DOESN’T give them the answers to all the questions, but shows them more directly what questions you intend to answer in the sermon.

I’ve included a sample introduction of a sermon I preached recently at Life Pointe where I pastor.  I’ve highlighted the various elements that I’ve just mentioned:

Engage The Audience

A few years back, Dr. D. James Kennedy wrote a book entitled, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

It’s an intriguing title.  Makes you wonder.

How would our world be different today if Jesus had never been born?

If we had never heard of Jesus, never heard about Christmas… what would our world look like?

Some of the obvious things would be:

• We’d have a different calendar.  Jesus’ birth split time in two.  A whole new calendar began as a result of his birth.  We now mark time as BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini – Latin for ‘Year of our Lord’)

• Of course, no more Christmas music.  No, “Joy to the Word, the Lord is Come.”  No, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”  No, “Away in the manger, no crib for his bed.”

• Some of our cities would have different names.  No St. Paul, Minnesota.  No St. Petersburg, Florida.  Corpus Christi, Texas would go by another name too.

• We never would have heard of Billy Graham or Mother Teresa.

• No organizations like The Red Cross, Methodist Hospital or the Salvation Army.

• Charitable giving would plummet since an overwhelming percentage of charities have Christian roots.  And an overwhelming percentage of charitable giving in the world is done by Christian people.

• No Princeton.  No Harvard.  And no Yale.

• And some of our well-known phrases would no longer be so well-known:

“Turn the other cheek”

“She was being a Good Samaritan”

“Go the extra mile”

“Do unto to others as you would have done to you”

So the differences in our world would show up in lots of ways.

But there would be much bigger differences.

The world would be different in much more radical, significant ways.

The Focus of The Sermon

(FOCUS THE SERMON): The question we really find ourselves asking today is, “How did Jesus’ birth change the world?”  Beyond the obvious, how did Christmas impact our world?

Provide Necessary Biblical Background Info

(PROVIDE NECESSARY BIBLICAL BACKGROUND INFO): The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Galatia.  He says to them, “Jesus’ birth was no accident.”

His birth stands as part of God’s divine strategy for our world.

The TIME and PLACE of Jesus’ birth wasn’t by HAPPENSTANCE.

God knew exactly WHAT He was doing WHEN God did it.

Paul says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law…” (Galatians 4:4, NIV).

It’s as if the angels in heaven ask God, “Is it time?  Is it time to send your son?”

God looks at his watch and says, “Not yet.  Wait for it.  Wait, wait… in 3, 2, 1.  NOW!”

Christmas came at the perfect point in human history.  Jesus’ entrance into our world came at the perfect TIME and perfect PLACE for several reasons.

First, Jesus was born on the land bridge that connects three continents together.

Africa, Asia and Europe.

God sent his son to the one PLACE in the world that had immediate access in three different directions.  This made the Gospel spread much more easily.  God sent his Son to the one location on earth where Christ’s followers would have access to the majority of people on the planet.

Second, Jesus entered humanity at the precise TIME when the Roman Empire had conquered the known world.

This had a cumulative impact on Jesus’ ministry:

• For the first time in human history one dominant language unified the world.  Greek became the language of commerce and people spoke it in many places in the Empire.  This made it easier to communicate the Gospel without all the barriers of language differences.  Jesus’ teaching and preaching spread much more quickly because evangelists didn’t have to overcome all the difficulties of translation and communication.  God sent his Son during this unique moment in history.

• The Romans were famous for their elaborate system of roads throughout the Empire.  God sent his Son at the precise moment in human history when the Romans built roads that would allow Jesus’ message to go to the whole world.

• God sent his Son during the first time in history when the old mythological Greek and Roman gods were starting to lose their hold on the common people.  There was a growing disillusionment and people started to disbelieve.  More and more people started to have a growing spiritual hunger for something real and satisfying.

In this cauldron of place, time and events… GOD SENDS HIS SON.

The explosion that ensued was like taking a match to gasoline.  Jesus’ message IGNITED into the whole world.  Literally overnight.

Secular historians have said the timing and conditions were absolutely perfect for Jesus’ teaching to spread like it did.  It’s like nothing the world has ever seen.

The perfect “perfect storm.”

Paul says, “This was NO ACCIDENT.  God waited to send his Son until the time had fully come.”

God waited for the perfect moment in history.

Paul also tells us several things about Jesus.

He was God’s son.  Jesus is divine.  This is no ordinary human being.

Also, Jesus was born of a woman.  We read in the Scriptures how Mary gives birth to a son, Jesus.  This divine-human son experiences human suffering, human temptations, human hurts, human joys, human emotions and human pain and human loss.

Then Paul reminds us that this fully divine, fully human son was also born under law.  Here the word “law” refers to the Old Testament requirements and commands.  It means Jesus was born to a Jewish mother… into a Jewish nation.  He lived under the authority of the Old Testament teaching.  He submitted to all the requirements of the law.  He SUCEEDED where others FAILED.  He met PERFECTLY every requirement of the Old Testament law.

Turn in your Bible to Galatians 4.

The Preview Statement

(PREVIEW STATEMENT): Here Paul tells us WHY God sent his Son.  Here he tells us how CHRISTMAS changes everything.  Here we find out what Jesus’ birth accomplished on a grand scale.

From this point you would go into the body of the sermon.  Everything shared in this sermon up to this point forms the entire introduction.

Creating powerful sermon introductions can be done in 4 simple steps.

I recommend this template to you.  It’s very, very effective at drawing your listeners into your sermon and then positioning them to hear God’s Word for the day.

I’d love to hear what you think about my 4-Step System to Creating Powerful Sermon Introductions.  So, please post your thoughts below and please retweet and like this post to share it with your friends.

 

Your Sermon Coach,

Randall