Note: The following article is the eighth in a series on “Characteristics
of Great Preachers.” The ongoing series was commissioned by the Louisiana
Baptist Message from Austin Tucker of Shreveport, a former Louisiana Baptist
pastor who now teaches and writes on religious subjects. He also is a frequent
pulpit guest in churches and serves as a member of the Louisiana Baptist Convention
Executive Board.
Note: The following article is the eighth in a series on “Characteristics
of Great Preachers.” The ongoing series was commissioned by the Louisiana
Baptist Message from Austin Tucker of Shreveport, a former Louisiana Baptist
pastor who now teaches and writes on religious subjects. He also is a frequent
pulpit guest in churches and serves as a member of the Louisiana Baptist Convention
Executive Board.
Austin B. Tucker, Freelance writer
Great preachers do not all think alike – but all truly great preachers
alike are thinkers.
They tend to have minds given to reflection and meditation, to innovation and
originality. Some, like Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin were theoretical and
abstract thinkers. Others, like Thomas Chalmers and F. W. Robertson were creative
thinkers. Their sermons were marked by fresh insights and lucid language.
Take a closer look at Fredrick W. Robertson (1816-1853) as a case study. Many
preachers suppose every sermon has to have three points regardless of the natural
divisions of the text. However, Robertson liked texts that suggest two points.
They might be contrasting ideas or comparisons; the second idea might complete
the first.
For example, a sermon is based on John 16:31-32. “Behold the hour cometh,
yea is now come that ye shall be scattered … and shall leave me alone, and
yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”
Robertsons title is “The Loneliness of Christ.” The twin themes
in the text as he preached it are first, the loneliness of Christ (“ye
… shall leave me alone”), and second, the spirit or temper of that solitude
(“and yet I am not alone, etc.”) It is, of course, a sermon also about
our struggle with loneliness and isolation.
Robertson grew up on a military post and wanted a military career. His father,
however, urged him to consider the gospel ministry. Shortly after he entered
Oxford at age 29, an offer of an officers commission came to him.
He had made his choice, though, and did not look back. At 32, he was ordained
and began a rigorous agenda that might break anyones health. Up at dawn,
skip breakfast, spend all morning in Bible study. All afternoon, rush from hovel
to hovel in the slums of London. Spend the evenings in discussions with your
supervisor. No leisure, no social life, no rest – until his health broke,
and his doctor then sent him to Switzerland to recover.
When he came back a year later, he began his pastorate at Trinity Chapel in
Brighton. Though he was thoroughly evangelical in theology and evangelistic
in ministry, many of his fellow pastors were suspicious of his concern for social
reform. After all, the “social gospel” was making inroads into many
churches.
While Robertson was ministering in the slums of London, Karl Marx was in that
citys library writing his Communist Manifesto. Robertson preached the
true gospel of Christ, however.
F. W. Robertson died at 37 years of age, counting himself a failure. In fact,
acclaim as a great preacher came but only after he died. Though his life was
cut short, he had memorized the whole New Testament in English and much of it
in Greek.
Robertson always preached extemporaneous sermons after thorough study and reflection
on his text. Then, on Sunday night after he preached, he wrote out his sermon
manuscript. After his death, these sermons began to be published. They are still
widely read and praised today.