Sermons - Mini or Maxi?

     
Mark Twain didn’t like long sermons, or short ones, either, for that matter. He said, "No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon." Gospel preaching is not rated very highly by many people. With tongue-in-cheek (I hope), George Burns said, "The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then have the two as close together as possible." Really now, how long should the sermon be? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Twenty? Thirty? Forty-five? A poll of ten different people might reveal eleven different opinions!
Sermons in the Bible varied in length – two examples mark the extremes. First, Jonah 3:4 records that when reluctant prophet Jonah finally got to the wicked city of Nineveh (after a divinely scheduled and enforced 3-day stay in the belly of a great fish, Jonah 1:17), the prophet cried out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Those eight words record the entirety of his sermon (as far as the Bible record goes). If you’re a fan of short-sermons, I’m here to tell you, Jonah is your man! In the pulpit and out before you even have time to get sleepy! No warm-up, no wrap-up. Just eight blunt, jarring, in-your-face words! The only thing more remarkable than the brevity of Jonah’s ultra-short sermon is the depth and breadth of response of the people of Nineveh in verse 5: "So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them." Even the king humbled himself and repented. As a result, "God relented from the disaster He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10). From that example of an ultra-short, mini-sermon, we move to a marathon-length, maxi-sermon preached by the apostle Paul at Troas in Acts 20:7-11. There we read about a sermon that went virtually all night long! The Bible says Paul "spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Staying awake through that maxi- message proved too much for a young man named Eutychus. Verse 9 tells us he sank "into a deep sleep" until he "was overcome by sleep" – and as Paul continued speaking," he fell out of the 3^rd story window he was sitting in "and was taken up dead." To be fair, we are given no insight into why Eutychus grew sleepy (there may be a legitimate reason why someone is sleepy at church – age, fatigue, medications, etc.). But Eutychus was blessed that day – the Bible says that Paul restored his life to him. Paul then "talked a long while, even until daybreak" (verse 11). The long and short of it is (no pun intended) the Bible is more concerned about the content of the sermon than the length of it. Common sense and consideration will guide thoughtful preachers to be reasonable and remember that "the mind cannot absorb more than the seat can eudure." At the same time, concientious Christians should reflect the attitude expressed by the Gentile Cornelius when the apostle Peter arrived at Cornelius’ house in Acts 10:33 – "... we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God." Circumstances may call for a shorter sermon or for a longer one. But whether mini or maxi God wants preachers to "preach Christ ... preach the gospel ... preach the word." What do you want? 

            "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him." - Acts 8:35 

– Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN