Final Exam Q's

Question 1

Name and describe at least four of the five basic overarching moves that we make when preaching or teaching and what repeated phrase from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount reveals these five moves?

Answer 1

1. It
   
   • Denotation
   • Connotation
   • Exposition - denotation and connotation of the text in the original context
   • Big Idea
2. You have heard said
   
   • Cultural Grammar
   • Cultural Backtalk
   • Worldview Window
3. But
   
   • FCF
   • COR
   • Garden Lens
4. I say to you
   
   • Locating the Vine
5. How do we know?
   
   • We read it in the Bible

Question 2

What is the Big idea?

Answer 2

The Big Idea is the thesis. It is a short statement that expresses what you are going to talk about and what the sermon will call the [hearer] to do about it

Question 3

What are the two sides of a Big Idea?

Answer 3

The Big Idea in its full form:

1. Divine Provision
2. Human Response

Question 4

Name at least two ways a Big Idea goes wrong

Answer 4

1. A double divine provision: Human response using God language (We must recognize that God is faithful)
2. A double human response (We must trust God because we’ve believed in Jesus)
3. Too long
4. Using the same terms with no discernable distinction
5. Talking about God in terms of a true statement but needing to go further to describe an action of God’s provision (God is faithful, God is Holy, God is loving)

Question 5

Give a full definition for the FCF

Answer 5

• The mutual human soul condition that contemporary believers and unbelievers share with those to or about whom the text was written
• Stated in a sentence: “like those (…) we too (…)”

Question 6

Name at least one passage of Scripture that supports why we use an FCF.

Answer 6

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man (I Cor. 10:13).”

Question 7

Name the four kinds of FCF.

Answer 7

1. Fallen Condition Focus
2. Finite Condition Focus
3. Fragile Condition Focus
4. Faltering Condition Focus

Question 8

Give a full definition of the COR

Answer 8

• Context Of Reality
  
  • Contextual work, which is not background but part of the story
• Concerns the pressures of living in a physical world

Question 9

What are the different kinds of external pressures? (COR subdivision)

Answer 9

• cultural: ideological, political, geographical, seasonal, racial, economic challenges to the gospel.
• geographical: the physical location or life-circumstance in which we find ourselves
• Seasonal pressures: a time to be born or die, sickness, tsunami, bodily pain

Question 10

Why is it important to establish the COR?

Answer 10

It is important because without it, we begin to preach as if we and the world are souls without bodies, hearts and minds without physicality and geographies.

Question 11

What are the consequences of not having a COR?

Answer 11

1. We leave those who follow Jesus without the Biblical map they need for the real physical world and
2. thoughtful other-than-Christian people will dismiss us rightly so, and not take us seriously.

Question 12

Define both denotation, connotation and exposition. Why are both necessary for preaching/teaching?

Answer 12

• Denotation - definition of the word. be clear.
  
  • both parties are using different meanings to same word
  • “when you hear this you might think…”
• Connotation - feeling and experience of the word that someone has
  
  • To make sense to others we need to take into consideration the emotional impact of words and meanings
  • “when you hear this you might feel…”
• Exposition - denotation and connotation of the biblical text. what the text means.
  
  • “what the author of Scripture means is…”

Question 13

What do we mean by equivocation when applying the text?

Answer 13

Using two different definitions for the same word, which leads to spiritualizing the Biblical text.

Question 14

Give an example of equivocation

Answer 14

Joseph was thrown into a pit. “What are the pits in your life?”

• Hole in the ground vs. metaphor
• Problem: that pit was no metaphor for Joseph
• Topics: slave-trade, when good men are brought to the ground

Question 15

What is the first source you must look to in order to find illustrations for your message?

Answer 15

The Bible; your text

• Because often there are picture words there that we can brainstorm off there to find connections in our world today
• Illustration can also be stories

Question 16

After you illustrate your point and before you apply it, what must you do?

Answer 16

Anchor back in textual world

• “This is something similar to the text…”
• “The same way this text…”

Question 17

What is Near and Far Application? Give an example of both.

Answer 17

• Near application is close to the meaning and teaching of the text
  
  • 1 Timothy 1 and a minister afraid because of hostile context
• Far application is far from the meaning and teaching of the text
  
  • 1 Timothy 1 and Marriage

Question 18

What are the four categories of hearers? Cite the primary Scripture passage we use to establish this principle.

Answer 18

• Hard-hearted unbeliever
• Soft-hearted unbeliever
• Hard-hearted believer
• Soft-hearted unbeliever

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thess. 5:14)

Question 19

What is Cultural Grammar? Cite an example from one of Paul’s sermons in the Bible.

Answer 19

• The words, stories, artifacts, mental maps, and talk that a person or group uses to make sense of God, ourselves and the world.
  
  • You have heard “____”, but what Paul is saying is “___”
  • denotation, connotation, exposition
• Acts 14 “Zeus & Hermes”

Question 20

What is Cultural Backtalk? Cite an example from one of Paul’s sermons in the Bible.

Answer 20

• Rival beliefs or counter narratives in a particular locality, generation or individual that create objections, doubts, cynicisms, skepticisms, or hostilities toward Jesus and His gospel.
  
  • Has to do with resistance from them, and persuasion from us.
• “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’” Acts 17:32

Question 21

What is a Human Response Consistent Communication Outline?

Answer 21

• Anchor is going to be Divine Provision
• All your main points are human responses
  
  • All of this flows from a divine provision
  • Question from: “where, who, why, what, when, how?”

Question 22

What is a Divine Provision Consistent Communication Outline?

Answer 22

• Anchor will be Human Response
• All your main points are divine provision
  
  • Reminds us that we do have responsibility which is anchored by the divine provision
  • Questions: mainly from “why?”

Question 23

What do we mean when we say that we communicate with redemptive vulnerability?

Answer 23

Using ourselves as illustrations in a way that affirms both our limitations and the redemptive power of Jesus

Question 24

The two aspects of redemptive vulnerability are treasure talk and clay jar talk. Define the difference and cite at least one Scripture passage that shows this

Answer 24

• Clay jar - personal experience of the leader: human limits, external circumstances, and internal thoughts and feelings
• Treasure - God’s character, presence and redeeming provision in Jesus
• Scripture: 2 Cor. 4:7-9: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Question 25

What do we mean by Locating the Vine and what passage from Scripture do we turn to establish what we mean?

Answer 25

• The relationship that this Biblical text has to the person, work, teaching and provision of Jesus
• “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5)

Question 26

What do these three places in Scripture tell us about preaching Jesus from the Old Testament? (Luke 24:27-45, Hebrews 1:1-8, Colossians 1:28)

Question 27

Why does our gentleness matter when preaching and teaching? Cite at least one Scripture.

Question 28

Why does prayer matter for preaching? Cite at least one Scripture we used to establish prayer as part of preaching.

Answer 28

• He must become a man of prayer before becoming a man of words.
  1. To know what to say and what to leave out in light of what our listeners most need
  2. So that our message and our manner both reflect the wisdom of the Scriptures we preach

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished,
one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)

Question 29

Differentiate Direct and Indirect Speech and give examples of both

Answer 29

• Indirect speech relies on poetic tools such as metaphor or parable, simile or riddle, question or allegory. One is invited into a story rather than given an explanation or statement. The story is the statement.
  
  • Nathan the prophet and David
• Direct speech is saying what you mean
  
  • “Woe to you”

Question 30

What is an Apologetic Hint and how does it differ from an Apologetic moment?

Answer 30

• Hint: We recognize there’s an issue we’re not gonna talk about today. A one to three sentence recognition of cultural backtalk that acknowledges the resistance but defers the conversation until another time
• Moment: We recognize the issue, let’s talk about it. A three to four-minute response to cultural backtalk that rises in response to what the text says.
  
  • The idea is not to win an argument, but to win the person.

Question 31

What is a Worldview Window?

Answer 31

• Because an increasing number of persons see no distinction between Jesus, the Gospel and other religions, the goal here is education and truthfulness regarding views of God and life. We take 3 minutes to show the distinctness of Christianity.
• To inform how Christianity distinguishes itself between the other religions and/or worldviews

Question 32

What is the dual voice in preaching? Cite at least one Scripture

Answer 32

• The Testimony of Scripture About God’s Presence in Preaching.
  
  • God is not busy with other things, he is there speaking through his word.
• “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Question 33

What is a common misconception about boldness? What is boldness? Cite at least one Scripture reference.

Question 34

What do we mean by “Garden Lens”?

Answer 34

• To connect what this biblical text reveals as fallen, to the beginning of the story, so that we can see afresh the good we fell from, that God by His Spirit in Christ is seeking to recover and restore.

Question 35

How does the Garden Lens help us in our preaching/teaching?

Answer 35

1. Preachers use the garden lens, to restore our creation image and mandates. We search the text not just for our mutual sinfulness but for our mutual human nobility.
   
   • Sin is not the only thing true about us.
2. Preachers also use the garden lens to see reflections of-communicable attributes.
   
   • God’s communicable attributes refer to those characteristics of God that he created human beings to imitate. Such attributes include our God-given capacity for love, knowledge, mercy, and justice.

Question 36

How do you know how to choose between HRCO or DPCO?

Answer 36

• Let your text lead you
  
  1. If it’s mostly exhortations to obey, believe, etc.
     
     • HRCO
  2. If it’s mostly what God does
     
     • DPCO
  3. If it’s equally
     
     • Prudence