Biblical Preaching

What's the Big Idea?
guish between the organic structure of the idea, on the one
hand, and its development on the other. It is like beginning
with the skeleton in the study of anatomy. 10
Finding the subject and complement does not start when
the expository preacher begins construction of his sermon.
He pursues the subject and complement when he studies his
Bible. Since each paragraph, section, or subsection of Scripture
contains an idea, an exegete does not understand a passage
until he can state its subject and complement exactly.
While other questions emerge in the struggle to understand
the meaning of a biblical writer, the two—What is the author
talking about? and What is he saying about what he is talking
about?—are fundamental.
Examples of Forming an Idea
In some passages the subject and complement may be
discovered with relative ease, while in others determining the
idea stands as the major problem in Bible study. Psalm 117
provides an example of an uncomplicated thought. The
psalmist urges:
Praise the Lord, all nations;
Extol him, all you people!
For his love is strong,
his faithfulness eternal.
We do not understand the psalm until we can state its
subject. What is the psalmist talking about? The subject is
not praise, which is large and imprecise. The psalmist does
not tell us everything about praise. Nor is the subject praise
of God, which is still too broad. The subject needs more limits.
A precise subject is why everyone should praise the Lord.
What then does the psalmist say about that? He has two com-
10. Design for Preaching, p. 27.