Listen here :
Anyone who knows anything about public speaking knows that the most important parts of any public speech are the first thing and the last thing spoken. There are good reasons for this. If the speaker doesn’t get your attention when he begins, he’s not likely to get it at all. And people tend to remember the first thing a speaker says and the last thing he says.
The same thing applies to preaching. I had very few really good professors while I was in college. In Bible colleges and seminaries as in most colleges and universities, those who cannot do the work are hired to teach the courses. — But I did have a few very good professors. One of them was my Homiletics/Pastoral Theology professor (Dr. Billy Martin). He constantly stressed the need for careful study and preparation. He taught us that in sermon preparation preachers should always give as much attention to the sermon’s introduction and conclusion as to the main points of a message.
If you read sermons, especially those men wrote out for their own use and never intended to have them published, the good ones, those from which people really benefit, almost always have three parts:
1. The Introduction
2. The Main Body: (Doctrinal Points and Exposition)
3. The Conclusion, or Application.
In the 16th chapter of John’s Gospel we have the conclusion of our blessed Savior’s last sermon just before he suffered and died as our Substitute at Calvary. Continue reading
For the Love of His Truth 