(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
162
served for ten years as professor of preaching at Dallas Theological Seminary.
In his preface, Sunukjian states that the purpose of the entire Biblical Preaching for the
Contemporary Church series (of which Invitation to Philippians is a part) “is to offer models of
the principles presented in the textbook [i.e., Invitation to Biblical Preaching]” (xi). Sunukjian
also gives this fourfold description of successful sermons: “A sermon comes alive when it is
true to the biblical author’s flow of thought, clear in its unfolding, interesting to listen to, and
connected to contemporary life” (xi). In his introduction, Sunukjian succinctly sketches the
exegetical contours and structural outline of Philippians in two pages, and then proceeds to
walk his readers through Philippians in a series of fourteen sermons.
Since Invitation to Philippians is written as a test case of his previous work, it would be
helpful to summarize two of the core tenets within Invitation to Biblical Preaching. First,
Sunukjian is a proponent of “biblical preaching,” and not necessarily expository preaching. 1
In other words, for Sunukjian, true biblical preaching is defined by “how the biblical material
is treated—that is, faithful to the meaning and flow of the original author and relevant to the
contemporary hearer.” 2 Thus, for Sunukjian, sermons that are textual, topical, or expository
all can be examples of truly biblical preaching. Second, and more important, Sunukjian’s work
assumes a thorough and detailed exegesis of the passage considering all pertinent historical
(descriptive) and theological (prescriptive) matters involved. 3 This is important because
Invitation to Philippians assumes, but does not model, this phase of the sermonic process.
Numerous strengths mark Sunukjian’s work. First, Sunukjian is a master homiletician
and communicator. His consistent style, creative use of humor, storytelling, illustrations,
and props work together not only to bring the text of Philippians to life, but also to connect
Philippians with the life and needs of the church today. Sunukjian first exegetes his audience,
then asks hypothetical questions and paints scenarios relevant to every member of his
congregation. Sunukjian then invites them to derive their own answers and conclusions from
within Scripture itself. Second, Sunukjian offers an effective model for preaching epistolary
material in an inductive, narrative style. This is the power of inductive preaching, storytelling,
and comedy, as any good comedian would never spoil the joke by giving away the punchline
at the beginning. Third, Sunukjian’s methodology is applicable to numerous other books in
the Bible. Sunukjian’s inductive sermonic approach can easily be applied not only to other
epistolary material, but to narrative as well—thus fostering the creation and delivery of
sermons that are at once “clear . . . interesting . . . and connected to contemporary life” (xi).
Despite its considerable strengths, Invitation to Philippians is not without its shortcomings.
First, careful readers will notice the lack of footnotes, endnotes, and bibliography for this
¹Donald R. Sunukjian, Invitation to Biblical Preaching: Proclaiming Truth with Clarity and Relevance
(Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 13–14.
²Ibid., 13.
³Ibid., 19–64.