David R. Helm explains what an aspiring preacher or Bible teacher must understand: preaching always involves two pressures—handling the biblical text faithfully and speaking meaningfully to today’s world. Many assume these two pull in opposite directions, but Hebrews 3:7 shows the opposite: the Holy Spirit still speaks through Scripture today. Faithfulness to the text is therefore the gateway to Spirit-empowered relevance.

Helm warns against blind contextualization—using the Bible like an impressionistic painter, glancing briefly at the text and producing ten ideas for modern life. When “today” drives the sermon, we lose truth, distort the passage, and ultimately lose Christ. This kind of preaching treats the Bible like a lamp post for support rather than illumination.

Instead, Helm lays out a sequential pathway for sermon preparation:

1. Text → Them: Begin with exegesis—literary, historical, and biblical context; grammar; and structure.
2. Them → Then → Christ: Understand the text in its place within redemptive history, asking how it relates to Christ without bypassing the original meaning.
3. Christ → Today: Only after exegesis and theological reflection should the preacher turn to application, argument, audience, and arrangement.

This disciplined, “long way around” prepares the preacher to speak God’s Word with integrity, clarity, and power—avoiding moralism, spiritualization, and manipulation, and enabling true gospel proclamation.

Pastors & Leaders Conference 2019