POWER IN EXPOSITORY PREACHING
by Faris D. Whitesell 
Chapter 8 Power Through IMAGINATION

Imagination is one of the most godlike capacities of man. It plays a significant role in all creative pursuits. The poet, the novelist, the dramatist, the musician, the painter, the sculptor, and the architect would be sadly handicapped without the use of imagination. The same thing is true in the commercial world. The inventor, the advertising man, the salesman, the radio broadcaster, the television producer, the business executive, the educator, the statesman, and the military leader must rely heavily on the power of imagination.

           What about preaching? Yes, imagination plays an important role in preaching. Read what some of the homiletical authorities say.

           Johann Michael Reu has written: "But an actor may select his words with the utmost care, and observe scrupulously all the laws of variety, euphony and rhythm; nevertheless, his oration will be beautiful only if at the same time imagination plays in it the role which belongs to it. Imagination rejoices in tropes and figures. She trails the ornamental epithet round the bare substantive as the gardener trails the ivy round the pillar. She loves to speed home her thought by climax and antithesis. She cultivates the figures of simile and metaphor in order to shed new light upon old truths, comparing spiritual with natural and natural with spiritual things."¹

           Daniel P. Kidder wrote: "Which, now, of the cognitive faculties conduces most to the gathering of new material for the preacher? Clearly the imagination; for while study enables us to perceive truth elaborated by others, memory to conserve it, and comparison and reflection to weigh it and determine its fitness, it is only imagination which penetrates the region of the new…. Imagination therefore must be regarded as the pioneer and leader of invention….The truth is that neither artist nor poet needs so ready a use nor so perfect a control of the imagination as the public speaker."²

           Andrew W. Blackwood has stated: "The biblical sermon is likely to be weak where it should be strong; that is, in appealing to the imagination. According to a mighty preacher, Horace Bushnell, the Gospel is ‘a gift of God to the imagination.’ "³

           John A. Broadus wrote: "A preacher, without imagination, may be respected for his sound sense, may be loved for his homely goodness, but he will not move a congregation, he will not be a power in the community….It is a matter on which preachers seldom bestow any thoughtful attention; and yet few things are so important to their real success, as the possession, the culture, the control, of imagination."⁴

           Halford E. Luccock declared: "Using the image-making faculty in preaching is a means of helping people to see. And that is a primary purpose of sermons….For the purpose of preaching is not to make people see reasons, but visions…."⁵

           In his Yale Lectures on preaching, R. W. Dale said: "…imagination is a most legitimate instrument of persuasion. It is an indispensable instrument. The minds of men are sometimes so sluggish that we cannot get them to listen to us unless our case is stated with a warmth and a vigor which the imagination alone can supply."⁶

           Walter Russell Bowie affirmed: "It is a ‘sanctified imagination’ that can lift a sermon up into the realm of poetry….Too many men convey the great truths as thinly as though they were making a paper bag to put them in."⁷

           What do we mean by imagination? It is the picture-making faculty of the mind. It is not the same as fancy, fiction, or daydreaming. Imagination is always under the control of reality. The fancy can soar into areas completely beyond the realm of human experience, or the possibility of human experience, and get out of touch with all reality—not so the imagination. Fancy can create the weird and impossible—ghosts, goblins, brownies, fairies, space ships from other planets—but imagination stays with the hard, concrete facts of known existence. Dreams and daydreaming combine the real with the fantastic and lift the individual into a grotesque world of unreality. Imagination can combine the real into new combinations, and can pierce through the visible and tangible to lay bare the underlying principles of eternal truth. Imagination can see what might have been, what can now be, and what might yet be, with the same vividness as it sees what is.

           The dictionary definition of imagination is this: "a) the act or power of forming mental images of what is not actually present. b) the act or power of creating mental images of what has never been actually experienced, or of creating new images or ideas by combining previous experiences; creative power. "

          Imagination is often regarded as the more seriously and deeply creative faculty, which perceives the basic resemblances between things, as distinguished from fancy, the lighter and more decorative faculty, which perceives superficial resemblances."⁸

           The imagination may be abused and wrongly used. Before the Flood, "every imagination of the thoughts of his [man’s] heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5, kjv). The Biblical reason for the darkness and lostness of the heathen world, according to Paul in Romans 1:21 (kjv), is that, "…when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." But we are thinking about the valid use of imagination in expository preaching. Perhaps we can distinguish four uses of this splendid faculty.

          In dealing with the historical or narrative material of the Bible, the imagination can fill in the details as they might well have happened. The preacher should avoid bringing twentieth-century details into Biblical scenes; that would be anachronism. But he can use considerable liberty in painting a scene against its own proper background.

           Alexander Maclaren was quite restrained in the use of his imagination but he does light up the Biblical events here and there with flashes of imagination. In his sermon on Zacchaeus, "Melted By Kindness," we note these uses of imagination:

G. Campbell Morgan also was modest in his imaginative material, but he did bring his imagination into play frequently. From his sermon on Acts 16:25-26, "Songs in Prison," we select these passages: "Their backs were bruised and bleeding and unwashed. They were cast into the inner prison, some inner chamber or dungeon from which light was excluded and probably almost all air was shut out. The final barbarity was that their feet were made fast in the stocks."¹³

           A second use is the creative one. Morgan so used it but he was always true to reality. Here is an example from the same sermon: "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy….Look back over the years. There they are, travel-worn years; much of light is upon them, but much of darkness also; many days of triumph, marching with the band playing and the flags flying, and many days of disaster and defeat. Already you know that the greatest things of life have come, not out of the sunlit days, but out of the darkened hours."¹⁴

           Frequently the preacher will be at a loss to find a fitting illustration for a particular point. None of his books or files yield one that suits. Let him see if he can imagine an illustration. He should introduce it with such words as: "Let us suppose…," "Imagine that…," "Can you conceive…?" A good imaginary illustration can be more closely fitted to the material that it illustrates than any other because it is invented exactly for the purpose. Here are two imaginary illustrations that the author has used.

The first one illustrates justification by faith:

This illustration is purely imaginary but the writer has had good response to it. The second illustration is of salvation by grace through faith apart from works of any kind:

A third function depicts the future. It may foresee the blackness of the lost sinner’s life as he goes on without Christ and God, or it may describe the carnal Christian’s coming days when his works pass through the fire and are all burned.

          Futuristic imagination also deals with the events of the last times, the second coming of Christ, the judgment scenes, the glories of heaven and the terrors of hell. Care must be taken not to go beyond what is written, or what is true to the character of God and the total of Biblical revelation.

           G. Campbell Morgan, in his sermon, "Songs in Prison," makes this reference to the future: "…men who sing at midnight are citizens of that city of which it is said that they need no light of the sun or moon, for the Lord and the Lamb are the light of it…Abraham lived in it though he never saw it; he walked its streets though it was never built; he held communion with its inhabitants though he never reached it. Paul and Silas, where are you living just now? In Philippi? No, in the City of God!"¹⁵

           Morgan takes another imaginative peep into the future on the human level in this quotation from the same sermon: "The singing of a prisoner is a message to prisoners and they will listen. I cannot go any further. I do not know what happened to those prisoners afterwards. If you will allow the speculation, I believe that some of them were brought to Jesus Christ as the result of that singing. Cancel that if you do not agree."¹⁶

           The fourth possibility is the use of imagination in entering into the experiences of others and seeing life through their eyes. It creates sympathy and understanding. D. L. Moody approaches sympathetic imagination when he describes Barabbas in his cell awaiting execution the next day: "Maybe they let his mother come to see him once more before dark. Perhaps he had a wife and children, and they came to see him for the last time. He could not sleep at all that night. He could hear somebody hammering in the prison yard and knew they must be making the cross. He would start up every now and then, thinking that he heard the footsteps of officers coming for him.

"At last the light of the morning looks in through the bars of the prison. "

‘Today—this very day—they will open that door and lead me away to be crucified!’ "Pretty soon he hears them coming. No mistake this time. They are unbarring the iron door. He hears them turning the key in the rusty lock. Then the door swings open. There are the soldiers.

"Goodbye to life and hope! Death—horrible death—now! And after death—what will there be then? "The officer of the guard speaks to him: ‘Barabbas, you are free.’ "¹⁷

T. DeWitt Talmage was outstanding in the use of his imagination. The following from his sermon on "Isaac Rescued" is a sample: "So Isaac’s arms are fastened, his feet are tied. The old man rallying all his strength, lifts him up on a pile of wood. Fastening a thong on one side of the altar he makes it span the body of Isaac, and fastens the thong at the other side of the altar, and another thong, and another thong. There is the lamp flickering in the wind, ready to be put under the brushwood of the altar. There is the knife, sharp and keen. Abraham—struggling with his mortal feelings on the one side, and the commands of God on the other—takes that knife, rubs the flat of it on the palm of his hand, cries to God for help, comes up to the side of the altar, puts a parting kiss on the brow of the boy, then takes a message from him for mother and home, and then, lifting the glittering weapon for the plunge of the death stroke—his muscles knitting for the work—the hand begins to descend. It falls! Not on the heart of Isaac, but on the arm of God, who arrests the stroke, making the wilderness quake with the cry: ‘Abraham! Abraham! Lay not thy hand upon the lad, nor do him any harm.’ "¹⁸

           This example of imagination is largely historical but it also enables the listeners to enter into the experience of Abraham sympathetically.

           We have already shown something of Alexander Whyte’s use of imagination. Let us follow him again. Speaking about the resurrection of Lazarus, he imagines the experience of Lazarus being called back from death to life: "And thus it was that scarcely hand Lazarus sat down in his Father’s house: he had not got his harp of gold well into hand: he had not got the Hallelujah that they were preparing against the Ascension of their Lord well into his mouth, when the angel Gabriel came up to where he sat, all rapture through and through, and said to him: ‘Hail, Lazarus, highly honored among the glorified from among men. Thy Master calls up for thee. He had some service for thee still to do for Him on earth.’ And the sound of many waters fell silent for a season as they saw one of the most shining of their number rise up, and lay aside his glory, and hang his harp on the wall, and pass out of their sight, and descend to where their heavenly Prince still tarries with His work unfinished. And Lazarus’ soul descended straightway into that grave, where for four days his former body had lain dead, and towards which our Lord was now on His way."¹⁹

           Or, let us stand with the sinners Whyte weighs in the balances in his sermon on Belshazzar: "Belshazzar was weighed with weights of his own, that no man before nor since has ever been weighed with but Belshazzar himself. And you will be weighed, you are being weighed at this moment, with your own proper weights also. God Almighty has a special pair of balances beside Him, waiting and filling up till your life also is numbered and finished. Look up, sinner, at the awful instrument. Forecast the awful scene. All that God has done for you in your birth, in your godly upbringing, in your means of grace, in providences, and in all privileges, in divine calls to a better life; all such warnings, and all such instructions are collecting into one scale, and your soul—your naked and shivering soul—into the other scale with the whole universe looking on. Well may your knees knock! Well may your thoughts trouble you."²⁰

           This quotation illustrates how to gear the power of imagination to the creation of new material and to the use of it in application.

           An example of the futuristic use of imagination comes from Clarence E. Macartney, a Bible preacher though not regularly an expository preacher. In his sermon on "Isaiah—the Man Who Saw Christ’s Glory" he tells us that one of the glories of heaven will be listening to the great heroes of the Bible preach from day to day: Moses, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Peter, John and Paul. But when the seventh day comes: "I imagine the preacher for the day by universal consent will be Isaiah; and we shall see these great preachers I have named, and all the prophets and apostles…sitting at the feet of Isaiah and listening to him…."²¹

           What a way to arouse interest in Isaiah—the man and the book!

Both the introduction and the conclusion are vital parts of the sermon. Unless the introduc-tion elicits the interest of the hearers and leads them to the theme and thesis of the sermon, the preacher has lost part of his opportunity. Therefore, an introduction should be vitally related to the body of the sermon, interesting, brief, clear, simple, and modest. The worst way to begin is to start talking about the text or its backgrounds in a matter-of-fact way. A better beginning is an illustration, a quotation, an observation, or a striking statement. Imagination can play an important part in creating the introduction. The preacher can say to himself, "If I were to hear this sermon, what introduction would I like?" "Rather than use the usual type of introduction, could I use something imaginary and suppositional with more striking effect?" If we give imagination a chance it will often create exactly the right idea.

           The expository preacher should keep his introduction short because he has so much material to present in the main body of the sermon. However, he cannot make it too short, or leave it half-prepared. The right procedure is to prepare all the rest of the sermon first. Then his introduction can be exactly tailored to that particular sermon.

           Joseph Parker was noted for his active imagination. He used it to create the introduction to his sermon on Matthew 24:1-41, "The Exciting Element in Christ’s Ministry," in these words: "Imagine a river very broad and deep, rolling quietly and rhythmically for long miles, not a bubble upon the surface, no noise, no tumult, a great, deep, strong, noble stream of water, and imagine that stream suddenly coming to a terrific precipice. What a cataract, what a roar and rush and tumult, what rainbows made by the sun, what snowy veils and screens, what infinite wizardry of shape and sound and suggestion! It does not look like the same water. Nothing is so accommodating as water; it will do anything, it will allow itself to be broken up into little drops that shall sparkle like diamonds in the shining sun, and gather itself driven by the wind. It will run through gardens, it will come into houses dripping and dropping just to suit the capacity of your little cup; it will gather itself into infinite blackness in the heavens, and fall in daily baptism upon the thirsty earth. There is nothing so genial, yet so terrible, as water—unless indeed, it be its mate and contrast, fire. It is even so with these speeches of Christ."²²

           This introduction may be somewhat elaborate and overdrawn but it is captivating and individualistic.

           In a sermon on "The Gift of the Gospel," Romans 1:14-18, the writer introduces it in words somewhat like these: "Suppose you had the opportunity to do something great, good and breath-taking for your world, what would you choose to do? Would it be to wipe out crime at a single stroke? Or, to do away with ignorance? Or, to eliminate poverty all over the world in one day? Or, to banish war forever and bring in universal peace? Any of these would be towering contributions and would insure your fame through all coming history. But if you asked Paul, the writer of our text, this question, he would have but one answer: ‘I choose to give the world the gospel of Christ.’

          " Imagination developed this introduction. It prepares the audience to consider why the gift of the gospel is so important.

           Similarly the conclusion should be well prepared. If the introduction is like the porch to a house, the conclusion is like the roof. It too must be brief, clear, appropriate, vitally related to the discussion it follows, interesting, and persuasive. Recapitulation is usually appropriate in the conclusion but it is not enough. There should be the focusing of truth upon the hearer, the suggestion of ways and means of practicing it, and the appeal for action. All of this must be done in a short time or the sermon becomes too long. Imagination can help formulate the conclusion. If the preacher lets his imagination play over the sermon it can suggest an appropriate and compelling close. He is seeking not just any conclusion, but the very best one.

           Notice Joseph Parker’s use of imagination in the conclusion of his sermon on Matthew 27:20-54, "The Crucifixion," when he says: "O thou great hell, take the victory. Spirit of evil, damned from all eternity, mount the central cross and mock the dead as thou hast mocked the living! The night is dark enough—no such night ever settled upon the earth before. Will the light ever come again—is the sun clean gone forever—will the blue sky ever more kiss the green earth? All the birds are dead, their music is choked; the angels have fled away and the morning stars have dropped their sweet hymn. This is chaos with an added darkness. What is happening? "

          May be God and Christ are communing in the secret places away beyond the mountains of night—may be that this murder will become the world’s Sacrifice—may be that out of this blasphemy will come a Gospel for every creature. It cannot end where it is—that cannot be the end of all! What will come next? We must wait."²³

           But suppose you say, "I have no imagination"? We admit that some people display very little imagination; they live humdrum, matter-of-fact lives. But the truth is that every person has imagination. All little children live in the world of imagination and fancy. They are sometimes unable to distinguish the real from the imaginary and fanciful. The process of modern education tends to develop the reasoning powers but neglects the imagination. But schools of art, music, drama, and writing must pay attention to cultivating the imagination.

          We can cultivate imagination by reading and meditating upon the Bible. It is a Book of colorful, poetic, and dramatic material. By ministering to others and sympathetically entering into their problems and needs, the imagination becomes active in seeking to meet their needs. By reading poetry, drama, fiction, biography, and noting the metaphors, similes, comparisons, analogies, allegories, we will develop the imaginative faculty. When we listen to good music and let it carry us away into the realms of harmony and meditation, we are ministering to the imagination. By conscious effort in sermonizing, we can add touches of imaginative material, and often we can recast the Biblical scenes in realistic but imaginary backgrounds.

Chapter 9: Power Through PREPARATION
Any type of preaching should require a sizable bulk of time for preparation