Finding the Text’s Purpose: Developing the FCF, AQ, and MPS
In a recent article I wrote, “if one believes Christ, trusts Christ, and truly worships Christ, then he will preach Christ.” As MTI students prepare to matriculate into their 3rd year, they will embark on a journey to develop exegetical and homiletical skills. One component of this endeavor is a course, Christ-Centered Expository Preaching. This course aims to equip pastors and church leaders to faithfully exposit God’s Word and preach Christ in every sermon. The following is insight into how to sharpen your sermonizing skills while remaining faithful to the text. This introduces and describes the Fallen Condition Focus (FCF), Main Proposition of the Sermon (MPS), and Analytical Question (AQ).
Fallen Condition Focus (FCF)
A necessary question for understanding a text’s meaning is the reason God included it in the canon. You can properly discern a text’s meaning to a limited extent, but the full breadth of its meaning and purpose is revealed only when the expositor discovers the full context of the passage. This context provides insight that informs the sermon’s purpose, meaning, and delivery.
Bryan Chapell gives preachers much to consider:
“Consideration of a passage’s purpose ultimately forces us to ask, What caused this account, these facts, or the recording of these ideas? Why were these concerns addressed? What was the intent of the author? For what purpose did the Holy Spirit include these words in Scripture? Such questions force us to exegete the cause of a passage as well as its contents and to connect both to the lives of the people God calls us to shepherd with his truth.”
The Fallen Condition Focus (FCF) is an indispensable component of a sermon that guides a preacher and his congregation through the text and the sermon. Think of the FCF as a directional sign on a long mountain trail. Every week, the pastor takes his congregation on a journey into God’s Word. Who is more trustworthy: the guide who tells you where you’re going and why, or a guide who says, “Trust me, bro?”
Bryan Chapell defines the FCF this way: “The Fallen Condition Focus (FCF) is the mutual human condition that contemporary persons share with those to or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God’s people to glorify and enjoy him.”
How do you develop an FCF?
Chapell provides three excellent questions for the preacher to answer in developing the FCF. First, what does the text say? Second, what spiritual concern(s) did the text address (in its context)? Third, what spiritual concerns do listeners share in common with those to (or about) whom the text was written?
I’ve found the following principles to be helpful as well:
1. The FCF should come from the text.
When you get to the moment of putting “pen to paper,” you’ve likely read and reread your text several times, prayed, and looked at the biblical, grammatical, historical, cultural, and theological context of the passage. At this point, you likely know why this text was written. Consider Jesus’ words just before the Lord’s prayer: “5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).
If you were preaching a sermon on these two verses, how would it be developed, and how would you write the FCF? Here’s what I’d start with: Due to our fallen nature, our prayers are frequently hypocritical performances meant to win praise from man instead of seeking heaven’s reward and God’s presence. Why? This highlights the man’s loss revealed in the text, uses language from the text, and it’s rooted in the Fall.
2. The FCF should be a single sentence.
Although you can add evidence and reasoning to your FCF during the homily, it is important to have a single sentence that is specific and faithful to the text because it will likely be the statement that bears on the conscience of a preacher’s audience to drive their spiritual desire for Christ in this sermon.
3. The FCF should be refined through sermon preparation.
At the beginning of sermon writing, the preacher will likely revise, revise, and revise again. The final draft is never truly finished until delivered. Therefore, one must view the FCF and all other sermon elements as drafted in pencil, not in pen. My FCF, AQ, and MPS often undergo several revisions from a thought paragraph to a single concise sentence.
Analytical Question (AQ)
An analytical question is the natural response to the FCF. The text brings up a problem that applies to us. The AQ is “The statement that precedes the question supplies the “universal truth” of the proposition on which the sermon will be built.” The universal truth is the MPS that provides the grace and hope found in Christ for the fallen human condition revealed in the FCF. The AQ helps shape the sermon while capturing the congregation's attention.
Here is an example of an AQ based on the text and FCF above: How can hypocrites like us pray in a way that pleases and glorifies God? This AQ is text-driven, derived from the FCF, and flows naturally from a provoked conscience.
Main Proposition of the Sermon (MPS)
In determining a sermon’s Main Proposition, it is critical to ensure unity after the main point is determined. As he points out, “A sermon whose main points allege that (1) God is loving, (2) God is just, and (3) God is sovereign is not ready to be preached until the preacher determines that the sermon’s actual subject is not these three different things but rather “the nature of God.” The single idea will contain the others and, by illuminating their purpose, will deepen their impact.”
The main proposition introduces the congregation to what the preacher intends to communicate in the sermon. The following is a singular or a series of main points that align with the MPS. These can be formal, informal, or take the shape in ways that best suit the preacher’s style of preaching.
Based on the text above, here is an example MPS: Our private prayers are rewarded by the Father because Jesus’ righteousness covers our hypocrisy. This statement moves the sermon from sin to Christ, then to the experiential grace from God in Christ. Most importantly, this central point of the sermon is the main point of the text.
If you are a pastor, elder, or church leader who preaches regularly and would like to learn how to study Scripture more deeply while preaching Christ-centered expository sermons, then check out the Ministry Training Institute at mtiprogram.com. As the Ministry Year Coordinator, I am personally dedicated to helping others exalt Christ by developing a robust culture of Christ-centeredness among pastors and church leaders who wish to deepen their congregation’s love and dependence upon Jesus.
