Following the posts on sermon introductions and outlines, here are my brief thoughts on conclusions, summarised with a great quote from Ramesh Richard
“The conclusion is the final movement of the sermon, so it crescendos to a climax. The preacher repeats or restates the central proposition (the main theme) to refocus the thoughts of the audience on what God expects of them. The conclusion will evidence two features, cohesion and resolution. Cohesion: The audience now hears in concise statements all the important points of the sermon. Resolution: The audience now has the feeling that the destination set out in the purpose during the introduction has been reached.”
Don Carson:
“There is nothing that our generation needs more than to hear the Word of God - and this at a time of biblical illiteracy rising at an astonishing rate. Moreover, it needs to hear Christian leaders personally submitting to Scripture, personally reading and teaching Scripture - not in veiled ways that merely assume some sort of heritage of Christian teaching while actually focussing on just about anything else, but in ways that are reverent, exemplary, comprehensive, insistent, persistent. Nothing else, nothing at all, is more urgent.”
