Land The Plane

Have you ever heard someone say after the preacher finished preaching, “Wow! He landed the plane today”?

What did they mean?

While there’s a slight possibility that the preacher is also a pilot and was preaching over the intercom while safely landing an actual plane, it is more likely the person making such a statement is complementing the preacher on the fact that he delivered the message in such a way that made it easy to understand and apply.

For many, the application portion of a sermon/lesson is the most difficult and often left-out aspect of sermon/lesson preparation. It’s not difficult in the sense that making an application is technically more challenging than parsing Greek words or spending the time flipping through the pages of a particular book to see how the apostle Paul used a different word in chapter 2 for “love” than he did in chapter 6. Instead, it isn’t easy how the application stretches us and often moves us out of our comfort zones. We may sometimes spend very little time preparing for the application because we assume the application will be prominent and easily grasped. Don’t assume.

Never leave the plane circling the runway.

Could you imagine the Bible without any of the “Therefore” passages? You know, those passages such as:

Have you ever stopped to consider why these passages and others like them are in the Bible?

Simply put, it’s because the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to “land the plane.” For instance, before Matthew 9:38, we read in verses 36-37,

“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ”The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

The response of compassion on the part of Jesus and the observation of the great need for workers in the kingdom leads to what He says in verse 38. Thus, the response to the great absence of workers in the kingdom to gather the harvest is the point of verse 38, pray to God that He sends more workers. As we turn to chapter 10, we read of Jesus sending out (v. 5) the twelve disciples to work in the kingdom to gather the harvest found within the house of Israel (v. 6). The “Therefore” passage of Matthew 9:38 is the verse that shows the primary application.

The same occurs when considering the “Therefore” passage in 1 Corinthians 8:13,

“Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”

Before Paul ever writes this, he explains the problem amongst the Christians in Corinth of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Some disciples were still struggling with their pagan past, where eating the meat was tied to something significant in idol worship. While those Christians abstained from eating the meat, others ate it with no problem. Not only were they eating the meat, but they were also trying to influence the non-meat-eating Christians to do so. After explaining that we all know there is only one God and that eating the meat is of no significance, he writes verse 13, which “lands the plane” on the matter.

That’s what you and I must make sure to do when preaching and teaching. Go out of your way to highlight the central application. You may have multiple points in your sermon. Make sure all your supporting points direct the listener to one primary application. Doing so will help drive home the lesson and help the study you’ve engaged in stick in the listeners’ minds for a more extended period. Whether or not they leave saying, “Wow! He landed the plane today,” or not, is insignificant. However, when they leave and have a clear understanding of how to apply the lesson, and they do apply the study, that will be your “Wow!” moment.