What are three stages of preparing explanation? Well, do you remember that it's a IV guys here observation interrogation restatement observation interrogation restatement that is in preparing the explanation those are stages that we typically go through observation just saying what's here? interrogation What's it mean? So what's here? What's it mean? And then restatement? How can I best communicate it? observation interrogation restatement now that's somewhat different than the next question What are three stages of presenting explanation in a typical main point that is as you're actually presenting that material How do you typically work and this is real simple again? I'm hoping you're starting to listen to pastors do it. It is state what comes next state place prove state place prove And For us, I will tell you what usually happens is it's the place that gets forgotten We state a truth and then we begin explaining things out of the text or out of our doctrinal background But we don't say let me show you where it is in the text So state place prove is kind of that presentation pattern that's very familiar Now for the third time This is really the key that it's going to be on the midterm in it complete the following you oh no more to explanation Then what is necessary to make the point clear you oh no more to explanation than what's necessary to make the point clear And you oh no less now. What's necessary to what? Prove the point you oh no more than what's necessary to make it clear you oh no less than what's necessary To prove it and that's where that pastoral prudence takes over again, isn't it clear? Okay, it's maybe clear, but have I proven it yet? Well, I'm at to prove it then, but if I've proven it and it's clear move on and Typically we take the easiest course rather than most difficult course in that proof category Let's pray before we move forward here Heavenly Father we On this day Do not know for certain who our next president will be We remember that righteousness exalts a nation we remember that those who turned their eyes to you are those who are led to their security And so we as a people father would continue to pray for your will to rule That those who are in authority over us would be those who rule with justice with biblical righteousness We pray father that if there are those who are by your will ruling over us with whom we disagree That nonetheless we would count the privileges of being a people who can elect their leaders And even if we cannot elect our leaders we are still the people of God who believe that you sit upon your throne And rule over the affairs of men so that your will is done There are those who in the next days will be very frustrated May we be the people who even if we would not see our way Nonetheless trust your way Grant us to see eternally father what you are doing a plan beyond our own a hand beyond our own And a God who rules for the purposes of Jesus Christ We pray father knowing that sometimes the word is spread in times of persecution better than it is in times of ease We do not know what the day holds tomorrow, but we know that you know And in that we take great confidence We ask father for you to give us the faith that is necessary To be the citizens and the people of God that you require for Christ glory We make this prayer in Jesus name Amen We're going to talk about illustration today And if we could kind of remember it return to our Sermon skeleton here and think of the taxonomy of where we are We have looked at the introductory material into the body of the sermon the scripture intro scripture reading the introduction itself Proposition and then as we begin thinking about main points we recognize they had their own skeletal structure There was explanation Illustration application in this double helix form you now know very well And the explanation we recognize had its own structure typically if it was longer than a paragraph it had subpoints Now you and your last assignment turned in subpoints and conclusions and And as always is the case by doing them you learn far more about them Here's what always happens when you turn in that subpoint and conclusion assignment Typically for many of you it's the first time you get check minuses And the reason is even though I said it's three times in the last class period That not just the statements of main points are parallel But the answers to the questions are worded in parallel nonetheless about 35% of you did not do that You did not put your answers in parallel now that's just fine remember it doesn't affect your grade hardly at all And dr. Harris when I did real poorly on an old testament exam when I was a student here Comforted my by saying Brian you know Long term the only answers that you remember on tests are the ones that you missed If you didn't do well on parallel subpoint statements you know what you probably won't do it again You're gonna say oh yeah three times I was told that the answers are to be parallel Even in that quiz that I handed out to you that we didn't take But I said some of the questions are on the quiz we will take after lecture 14 Even on those quiz questions it was reminding you the answers are in parallel Now why are we doing that why are we making such an emphasis and grading so hard on something so simple as sub points Not only the statements, but the answers worded in parallel It is because the subpoint statements have key terms in them remember those words that change Everything's worded in parallel, but something changes That's drawing the attention of the ear and the explanation is going to be about the keyword changes What is the illustration going to be about the key word changes So if you didn't have subpoints worded in parallel you don't have the tools to form the illustration After all the illustration is illustrating the point So if the if the sub points are holding the the main conceptual point and they don't have key words We just don't even know what the illustration is going to be about So the necessity of sub points worded in parallel statements is so that you will have the key terms The ears now pay oh that's what this is about the ears heard it by the keyword changes So you automatically know that's what the illustration is going to be about your key terms of the sub points are giving you the raw material That would be necessary to form the illustration Now if you think about illustrations you must know I've alerted you before in the history of preaching Almost every component of exposition is debated at times remember the Huguenots didn't like explanation Many in reformed circles don't like illustration fair enough I mean, we just know there are people who think this is this is just kind of pandering to the ignorant that we have to use illustrations There are some for good theological reasons who think we shouldn't do application the solar Spirits as people should be the spirit alone you shouldn't be doing application But I'm going to try in the first part of this lecture today as we pretty much cover the material of lecture 13 And then move somewhat into lecture 14 try to give you some of the reasons Why why do we do illustration in fact why in the history of preaching has great preaching always included illustration We've just come out of preaching lectures here this Past 10 days or so and I can remember when I was a student and we had academic lectures that came here And I was invited to the president's residence after the academic lectures to kind of meet and talk to the man who had lecture to us And I can still remember him he was Dutch and so he sat in the breezeway smoking his cigar And as he kind of you know blew the smoke into the air and the circles, you know kind of moved away He actually was complaining And he was talking about the state of preaching and he said you know Television has ruined us all I will use illustrations But how I hated little tales for little minds Now being a student and very academically oriented. I kind of nodded my head that is right Isn't it ashamed the way that television has ruined us all and that we have to use illustrations for all the people with little minds out there Now at that time I was also pastoring a little church A little church over in Illinois in the cornfields there and To my horror now I remember some of what I did is I was preached sometimes I would actually take my systematics notes into the pulpit with me and I would preach right out of my class lecture notes And think I was giving them solid good information and it probably was solid good information But I can remember one particular time in which I was preaching out of philippians too And you all know that the key phrasing there is where Christ emptied himself and the word there is conosis And theologians throughout the centuries have made the point that when Christ emptied himself of heavenly glory He still remained divine And that word emptying does not mean giving away It means putting away without in any way taking away the authority of Christ glory So I can't remember kind of standing on the pulpit and banging away and saying to these farm and mine folk minor folk The word is conosis Conosis the word is it means that he is still God even though he put aside his glory I'm sure they said amen a few weeks later. I had a missionary come His name was Paul London And Paul London had been a missionary to Africa for many years before his wife's health brought him to New York City Where he still ministered to international Africans in the United States But he had a lot of African experience and when he came and ministered to our church, you know what text he asked the congregation to turn to Philippians to I thought oh no, I just did this two weeks ago. They're going to be so bored because I already explained it to them Now as Paul London went through that conosis passage. He said to the people You know the way I like to think about this is in this way when my wife and I Carolyn were were in Africa We ministered in a part of Africa that was very very dry almost a desert region And people would dig wells, but they're not the kind of wells that you're thinking about where you lower a bucket into the well And that sort of thing actually What they do is they sink deep shafts into the ground And the water actually condenses on the side walls and seeps in in in very little amounts And what they actually do is not put a bucket down there But they send people down into the well to wipe the walls and stop up the floor with rags and squeeze the water into buckets You've actually got to go down into the well and the way that they do that is these well shafts are very narrow And they put slits on the sides So that a man actually walks down into the well to get the water You know one day in our village there was a man who went down into the well But he only got a little ways down and he fell And he broke his leg at the bottom of the well Now somebody had to go down and get him He was a big man though And nobody was able to go get him nobody wanted to go down and help him out until the chief came The chief at that time was the largest and the strongest man in the tribe And what he did was this he actually took off his robe and his headdress and he put them aside and then he went down Down into the well And he picked up the other man and brought him back up Then Paul London said now folks I have a question for you When the chief took off his headdress and his robe Did he stop being the chief People said no he said no that's what Jesus did He took off his heavenly glory, but he did not stop being divine Now at the end of the service I stood beside Paul London as the people left And they shook his hand and mine and I can still remember them saying Why Reverend London that was the most wonderful sermon why I never understood that passage until
And I thought to myself It's not just little tales for little minds even I understood it better I understood it better Something deeper than just clarification is going on Illustrations rightly used do something fundamental of uniting the intellect with experience So that our very will is affected according to the word of God And the reason that good preachers in all times have used illustration Is not so that they will just have little tales for little minds not just so though entertain or spoon food or spoon feed the ignorant They know something more fundamental is going on that when experience is hooked to the intellect profound understanding occurs in a way that mere logical explanation does not encompass As you think about illustrations what I want you to do today is we move through lecture 13 is not be concerned about all the details of what I'm going to say but catch Catch the gist and when we get to 14 lecture 14 then I'll really push you on the details okay But for now I want you just to think about why we illustrate why do we do this in the history of preaching and in our preaching today First before we go into the wise why not because I want to kind of cut off at the past what I recognize our legitimate objections Why should we not The first reason I do not think we should illustrate is to entertain We do not illustrate just to entertain Some time ago I put on the board for you that chart of what Speech communicators call swastability or persuasion Do you remember what happens when speakers at the beginning of their speech start with an antic Antic dot just a humorous little story We know that interests Goes up very rapidly what happens to credibility It goes down almost as rapidly Particularly if it is not apparent that the story or the anecdote related to the concept at hand So swastability persuasion falls if all we are doing is entertaining and actually people know that's all we're doing So the very thing we think we're accomplishing that we're taking people along with us so that we'll be more persuasive Actually the opposite occurs if all we're doing is entertaining And it's not just that our persuasion falls it's that the effect of the preaching itself is damaged If people begin to think you know good preaching is the preaching that entertains me Think what shallow expectations we have created if it's not entertaining. It's not good If I don't find it funny, then it's not valuable I mean talk about miscommunicating what the word of God is about if the goal of our illustration is to entertain We have serilecy damaged ourselves and the word of God and the people who listen to it Now a second reason that we should not Illustrate is to spoon feed the ignorant To spoon feed the ignorant That is The condescending notion they're just too dumb to understand So I have to illustrate listen people are not too dumb to understand They're just as smart as we are they haven't got our seminary lingo down, but they're just as smart as we are And so to say what I'm doing is not dumbing down that's not why I'm illustrating something else needs to be going on I'm not illustrating because they're too dumb to understand by the way neither am I illustrating Because I am too dumb to do good explanation Hear that sometimes you think you know I just can't explain this very well my explanation is not logical or waiting up So I'll throw in an illustration because I just can't explain very well You know if you can't explain very well the illustration is not going to help you And the reason is for something I've mentioned to you before the primary purpose of illustration is not to clarify What is it do you remember? The primary purpose is to motivate the primary purpose of illustration is not to declare yeah Does it clarify sure it clarifies some but that's not its primary purpose Otherwise you'll think oh that was very clear. Therefore. I don't need to illustrate No, it's actually the opposite once it's very clear You still need illustration because the primary purpose of illustration is not to clarify It is to motivate Some of you have had teacher training you know these different distinctions when we do Explanation we are primarily dealing with the intellect right when I do explanation I'm primarily doing with information that you need with the intellect to properly process information out of the text Remember my goal is though my goal is not just to inform the intellect My goal is to transform the will Application So I've got explanation. I'm moving toward Application which is to transform the will now all of you in Education training what is between will and intellect It is affect It is affect it is the combination of intellect and my experience with that which needs change That affect is what illustration is dealing with I'm trying to point toward what transformation is needed But bring into experience that aspect of understanding that explanation is dealt with So explanation deals with intellect Application deals with the will illustration is trying to deal with affect The motivation factors that bring this truth to that aspect of life that the will will be addressing That that takes us to thinking about why we actually do illustration why do we actually do this The the first reason just on your list and you could Multiply these or even do them in different orders But the reason I think we do illustrations is because of the way that we live The way that we live and interact in our world It's been said not by me, but my many other people we live in the age of visual literacy We are in the age of visual literacy We are habituated to picture thinking
If you thought of what that means just just consider some of the following statistics and obviously these can be debated in different terms But you'll get the gist The average adult parishioner that is the average person that you will be talking to on a Sunday morning will spend roughly 50 hours a year in church Average adult parishioner will spend 50 hours a year in church. How many hours per year will they spend in front of a TV Average adult 2000 2000 hours a year in front of the TV now people will debate that because they're saying well That's just the time the TV is on in the home. It doesn't necessarily mean people are watching It's almost visual wallpaper isn't it in many homes It's just on all the time and is causing and habituation to picture thinking It gets scarier when you think of young people generations that are now coming up the average high school graduate Will have watched 15,000 hours of TV minimum Minimum 15,000 hours of TV He will only spent 12,000 hours in school itself some more more hours watching TV than being in school Now by the time he graduates high school, you've only spent 1,000 hours in church So a thousand hours in church now, this is you know, these are fairly faithful church people going You're saying I'm at regular church goers a thousand hours in church actually 1100 is what my notes here say 1100 hours in church 12,000 hours in class and over 15,000 hours watching TV will have watched 350,000 commercials Will have watched 350,000 commercials Here's the one that scares me the most The average preschooler in the United States will have watched more TV before entering the first grade Then he will listen to his father in his lifetime The average preschooler will spend more time watching TV before first grade Then he will spend time listening to his father In his lifetime We are deeply affected by the pop culture around us and even if we personally think we are not there is no question the people to whom we speak are deeply and profoundly affected by the age in which we live Now then you might say well now wait a second is all you're saying because we are habituated to picture thinking That we are just going to capitulate to our culture is that what you're talking about That we're just going to entertain because we're going to capitulate to the vices of the present culture Well, even though we talk about the way we live, I want you to think about the way of giants in the past If you think about those who have preached in previous generations I will ultimately contend that the reason that we use illustrations is not just because of this age But because of the way the mind functions in every age The way the mind functions in every age think of this in the middle ages There was a group of documents that would circulate among the monasteries It was known as the R's Predacondi the art of preaching it wasn't Preparation in del by John Broadus. It wasn't Christ's interpreaching or biblical preaching by Hayden Robbins Well, it was the R's Predacondi the kind of the curriculum for preaching that circulated in the middle ages among the monasteries Among the R's Predacondi were the documents that were known as listen to the term they were known as the exempla The the documents that were called the exempla was that sound like to you The examples guess what they were books of They were books of illustrations Not just whites 10,000 illustrations for preachers today that you can get over in the library You know not just barnhouses illustrations that you can get in the library today But as far back as the middle ages now think in a pre-electronic media age People who were preaching were still collecting illustrations And still using them as fundamental to what preaching was in these pre-electronic ages If you were to go to Good preaching in any age for instance Jonathan Edwards If I were to say to you what sermon do you remember of Jonathan Edwards what sermon would it be Sinners in the hands of an anger God and what is the portion of the sermon that you remember You remember the spiders over the flame now isn't that interesting that Jonathan Edwards was not on the radio He was not on TV and yet he was using profound Illustrations on the American frontier that we still remember to this day If you weren't to look in in the middle ages or you weren't to look at the American The early American great awakening time But you were even to go all the way back to Chris' system The earliest preacher that we are aware of golden tongue golden mouth and some translations he was called You will recognize he was powerful in his use of Illustrations there is something more fundamental than pop culture going on in the way that we understand remember again Affect Transform the will there's something that has to hook the will to the intellect and that typically in the history of preaching has been The use of illustration. I'm trying to think if you can think of others Spurgeoned it spurs and use illustrations Sure he did wrote a whole book on the use of illustrations. Did it was he on the radio? No pre-electronic era as well If you were to think of of moody or billy sunday Oh, here's one going for you. You heard the lecture on this um The Westminster devines and the directory for public worship. What did the Westminster devines? They should be included in our sermons Illustrations that do what remember? Delight you're saying it delight the heart of the hero now in that interesting even the Westminster devines pre-electronic era pre-tv all of that Before the age that's habituated to picture thinking are still talking about the use of illustration And the reason for that is it's just an old old old preacher's rubric that the goal of the preacher is to turn the ear Into the eye Hear that to turn the ear into the eye. I want to visualize what you're talking about now It's really more than that. It's I want to experience What you're talking about and the best preachers have always recognized that if I've only spoken given you head knowledge Heart knowledge is still a long way away I want you to experience what I'm talking about as part of effective preaching The reason for this is being discerned in more recent decades by the way that we learn By the way that we learn I think most of you who've been in teacher training or education in recent years recognize There's a revolution that is occurring in this country throughout the western world in understanding how we learn and incorporate information Up until the 20th century the Cartesian model ruled I Think Therefore what I am cogito ergo sim I think the intellect is the ground of knowing I think therefore I am But then you had the French philosophers particularly people like Merlot punty saying that's wrong in fact. It's backwards I am Therefore I think in fact they said I can I can be involved I can experience something I can go through something and as a result of going through it I can actually think about it in fact if I haven't gone through it I can't really think about it yet now you you Recognize this is dangerous philosophy Talk about subjectivism if I don't go through it. It's not real You're the damage of that and yet it is ruling much of the way in which education is going these days Now we should recognize the danger of this kind of radical subjectivism if I don't experience it. It's not real And at the same time the power of saying but when I experience it don't I understand more Now you all know these different things dales cone of experience this came out of a study the Michigan State University You know these things don't you we will understand excuse me we will retain This is that learning pyramid or dales cone we will retain 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 60% of what we do Now would that be true you think
If you read something and have not had any other action with it do you retain much of it? You know instinctively we say well at least it's not as powerful as if I read it and experienced it now in in a weird way that I'm Recognize I'm pushing limits here a little bit. It's even what happened in your last assignment Remember I said to you three times Answers of sub points need to be in parallel statements gave you a quiz that even had that answer on it But when you turned in your papers 35% of you did not put your sub point answers in parallel statements now this no fall to you It actually is confirming this Now that you've done it Interacted with it those words really will sink in they'll mean a lot more in fact you kind of know I didn't even know what he was saying We said word your answers in parallel. I mean I heard the words but I didn't really know what it meant But now having done it having interacted with it you know a whole lot more of what it means I want to tell you how it profoundly is affected your education experience and mine I think mine was probably the first generation in public schooling that decided It would go on Field trips to go on field trips in your education Did your grandparents go on field trips in their education? No All this stuff from Michigan State University dails kind of experienced the philosophers of the French schools coming to the United States were saying You know what those kids have to interact with it. Don't just tell them about firemen take them to a fire station Don't just tell them how Bread is baked take them to a bakery And you know what lots of you remember those field trips a lot more than you remember I mean just instinctively you know that interaction somehow drives knowledge deep You also know because of the generation Turin that people learn differently don't you? It's the reason we're a little suspect of the notion that everybody needs to learn by experience Granted the late-night TV will tell you come to our truck driving school and you'll get hands on experience At the same time you're wondering is that the only way people learn But intuitively you know it's the only way some people learn So we're going to be talking to all kinds of people and one of the wonderful things It's happened generationally through some educational transfers is almost everyone has become more understanding of different learning styles We recognize some of us learn very easily just linear thinkers just read it and I got it But we understand a lot more about each other some people have to have some hands on Or even say it to me rather than read it to me or let me hear you say it rather than have me read it Or else let me do an exercise and then I'll understand it more than just having What's preaching trying to do? Reach all of these different people all these not just some of them reach all of these different people and use the different tools That the history preaching provides it really is the way of giants of the past and the way we learn today Number four, it's the way we motivate it is the way even we motivate If my child says to me something like dad What why should I save money? I'll say now listen Sometimes you're going to want to get a Christmas present for your mom and now what am I starting to do? I'm not going into an economics lesson on the nature of savings and you know interest income accrual and what am I doing? I'm telling a story I'm trying to motivate my child by saying what will be the implications of your doing or not doing something I explain a principle by saying here's an experience you will have as a consequence of involving or not involving that principle in your life I thought of this in terms of just how we How we feel the weight of illustration by hearing Some good ones here in a sermon That was underscoring the importance Of every child of God having a role in God's kingdom here the principle Every child of God has a role in God's kingdom now. I can just kind of principally state that right No matter who you are you have a role now after you think you're insignificant just a child you have a role in God's kingdom But I want you to think of this illustration not only in terms of what it communicates of knowledge But what it does to the will at the same time okay? So think of it as it's not just clarification But motivation and think of what the preacher may be doing here again as it's saying the importance of every child In the kingdom the role of every child in God's kingdom Rising out of the swamps just north of Savannah, Georgia Is an historic church named Jerusalem Salisburg Lutherans built this church in the 18th century after being expelled from their Catholic homeland General Ogathorp offered free land to these Lutherans who would assume The role of screening Savannah from hostile Indians all around Salisburgers from Austria brought their faith to this newfound land and named their town New Ebenezer The name Harkin back to biblical images more solid here. I raised my Ebenezer means what? Doug Stone of my help so they're raising this town out of swamps and what do they call their town Rock Rock of my help here in this swamp that they need The name Harkin back to biblical images more solid than the bogs surrounding the town The dangers of the land and the diseases of the swamp Soon decimated these early Lutheran settlers But no trial could deter them from setting up their community of faith The few able-bodied men continued to climb scaffolds to hoist bricks up to forming the massive walls of their church Women molded and baked sandy clay Children carried the materials both to the women on the ground and the men on the scaffolds And to this day if you go to New Ebenezer You will see embedded in the brick of the church the fingerprints of children When you picture in your mind those little children transporting bricks to their sick or dying parents Your heart may still break But I imagine those children would rather your heart soar For the print of each child is a poignant reminder that God can even use little ones For his work as they endure in his purposes Here with the preachers wanting to do could he just say Kids have a role in the kingdom But he's not just wanting you to feel the information He's wanting you to feel the impact of it on experience so that Heart and mind and body and all aspects of us are involved as well Do you get a little feel of that the role of illustration is not just to clarify? It is supremely to motivate to bring intellect To the will by dealing with affect It is the way that we motivate Beyond the way we motivate it is the way that scripture teaches does the Bible use illustrations
A lot of it depends on how you define an illustration right But if you said are there accounts of people experiencing the truths of God Then we would say yes actually how much of the Bible is historical narrative Do you know estimates vary on this but round figures how much of the Bible is historical narrative About 75% now that that's an amazing teaching understanding If we say you know the stories just don't have a place in teaching God's people Wait a second 75% is that really just little tales for little minds 75% it's not Just even the composition of the Old Testament we recognize or the new but even the way if I were to say to you how does Redemptive history unfold Granted there's lots of law and proposition but if I said how does redemptive history unfold we typically think the garden And the flood And Jacob's ladder the patriarchs We think of the kingship of David and the following kings we think of Christ on the cross We think of these major images that are signaling the epochs of biblical history But also the flow of biblical truth It could have just been a systematics you ever get frustrated with God Why isn't it just a systematics book God? I mean that would have been so much better. Why didn't you just put it down as a book of doctrine? Why do you think that is? Because of the genius of the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit recognizes that if it had just been propositional statements Then those propositions would change with the experience of subsequent people We will always interpret propositions out of our experience So what is the Bible doing? It's giving propositions But it's giving the experience of God's people in that proposition So that the experience is explaining the proposition even as the proposition is explaining the experience They lock each other down it becomes transcendent truth Because it's not governed by my experience of the proposition It is governed by my seeing the experience of God's people to live it through their experience Now I know what the proposition means when God says you shall have no other gods before me. How do I know what that means? I see the people of Israel over and over again turning to other gods and the consequence of that I understand the proposition By living through in the described detail the experience of the people of Israel the experience locks down the meaning of the proposition Further explains it motivates us to do what the proposition says the proposition is absoluteness That's where the modern philosophy is wrong It says if I don't experience it. It's not true The Bible says it is true and here's the experience of God's people who show you and prove that truth Therefore there is no temptation taken you but such as is common You now know this truth because of the experience of people like you When we begin to see what the Bible is doing I'll tell you the more I studied kind of modern herminutics The more I thought God is really really smart In the way that he put together the Bible I mean we would have on our own we would have just put together a book of doctrine a systematic theology book And not recognized that would actually have lost people over time Having the story with the proposition is what actually locks down meaning It is of course the way that Jesus speaks I put this little Thing up on the board earlier, right?
The man in the bottom kind of echoing a lot of our concerns about preaching in my opinion So this person listening to this man preaching on the mount In my opinion he needs to use fewer parables and more scripture Ever hear that complaint? Sure is it ever valid? Sure I think there's almost an even gelical instinct that if it's all story What people call skyscraper sermons story on the story on the story on the story on the story on the story You know skyscraper sermons we all kind of object because what we feel is going on Is entertainment rather than preaching? You just want to keep me engaged so you just keep telling me stories And it's more your concern for how you're doing as a public speaker Then it is for communicating the truth of God at the same time. We object to arrogance that says I will never connect with you I will never connect this biblical information with your life We have to earth heaven at times. That's really the goal of the preacher always isn't to bring heaven and earth together And one of the things that we're doing in illustrations is we're taking the experience that people have And we're saying how it relates it says in mark four you read this passage in your readings in mark four Without a parable Jesus did not say anything to them Now that's that's a remarkable pun if you think about it both ways It could just mean without a parable. He didn't say anything else. So we're keeping proposition linked to parable But in educational theory it has another meaning Without a parable nothing was communicated. It didn't come across Now did he ever use parables to keep things from coming across You remember that happened too right without a parable he didn't say anything to them But when they were in private he then explained it Which in my mind is again biblical genius coming through if it is just story Without proposition it also does not have meaning if it is just proposition without story It does not have transcendent meaning What makes it have meaning is proposition that is transcendent And experience that links that to our world so that transcendent truth comes into our world has meaning for us as the scriptures intended One of the remarkable places that this has said Is in the gospel of John and then in the in the epistle as well now Here's what I'm going to try to move you to think about before we move into lecture 14 What Merlot Pante the various French philosophers and most teacher education this country in recent years has said is That the way in which stories work they have power to engage people But the way they work is what was with what with what is called lived body detail It says though I live through the experience again in my body That's what makes the affect occur My mind the abstract propositions are now lived through as though my body were in the experience of those propositions Now great abstract truth maybe Listen to how John the Apostle uses it This is what he says in John 1 14 and 18 The glory of God who cannot be seen Here abstraction the glory of God who cannot be seen Was revealed in the Sun Who made known That is Arrest Middle indicative of exogeo my Which AT Robertson some of you mean read to mean to bring out in narrative The Sun made known the glory of the Father By bringing it out in narrative That's the interesting concept how does he do that how does he bring it out in narrative by the way he lived among us This is how John says it then in his epistle Now think again of lived body detail That which was from the beginning The Sun removed from us Which we have now heard Which we have seen with our eyes Which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life Which was with the Father and manifested unto us that which we have seen And heard we declared to you So that you may have fellowship with us Because our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ Now listen to what the Apostle is doing There is the glory of the Father which is revealed in the Sun We know that glory of the Father because the Sun lived among us in narratives in our lives And now the way that you're going to know it Is we're going to communicate to you what we have seen And heard and handled do you hear live body detail And what we have seen and heard and handled Is the glory of the Sun Which is of the Father And we've had fellowship with it And the way in which you are going to have fellowship with it is what By us telling you what we have seen and heard and handled The live body detail communicated Is what is ultimately going to communicate the abstract to our experience Famous study done in the 1970s by a pair of researchers named Steineker and Bell You don't have to know this it's just kind of incidental thing They began to say this when they recognize the power of experience They said well how can we make learning occur when everybody cannot have the same experience That they can't all go on field trips to the same place So how are we going to and they get to test something They said if I won't just have someone go through an experience But I will fully describe and experience and hear the language fully describe and experience How much of the experience will be known by them You know what they discovered? There was no testable difference No testable difference Between what people actually experienced And an experience that was communicated to them as long as the experience was fully described Now testable difference is an interesting qualification Because I still say probably if you actually go through a scuba dive It's a little different than somebody describing it to you fully But in terms of a testable difference they said there is no testable difference Between an experience that is live through and one that is fully described now think of what John is saying That which we have seen and heard and handled We tell you about So that you will know the glory of the Father revealed in the Son lived body detail