Founder, Ligonier Ministries · Senior Minister, Saint Andrew's Chapel, Sanford, FL
While indexing for all the usual metrics at work within our proprietary analyzer, we wanted to lean into Sproul's preaching of narrative. Thus sixty percent of the corpus comes from a single Gospel. 100% expository, 100% grammatical-historical, with an unusually high narrative register (203 units) that reflects the storytelling texture of Luke itself.
Christology leads at 263 units — with a Luke series corpus this is expected; the Gospel is about Jesus. Eschatology at #4 (132) is the distinctive feature: unusually high for a Reformed preacher, reflecting Luke's end-times parables and apocalyptic sections that Sproul engaged seriously rather than passing over. Christology and Eschatology together constitute his theological center of gravity in this corpus.
Personal story leads strongly (50), with historical example close behind (34). Sproul is an accessible, narrative preacher — the Luke series drew out his storytelling instincts. Analogy (2) is extremely low, the inverse of DeYoung. He illustrates by narrating, not comparing.
Luther (10×) and Edwards (8×) anchor the citation list — the expected Reformed inheritance. But the next tier is where Sproul is surprising: Augustus Toplady (6×), Meredith Kline (4×), and secular thinkers Marx, Russell, and Mill at 4× each. He quotes the enemies of the faith by name to expose and answer them.
"Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."
"The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked."
A recurring figure in Sproul's personal illustration archive — a tradesman whose practical wisdom and direct manner provided Sproul with accessible anchors for theological points across multiple sermons and years.
A wealthy figure who appears repeatedly in Sproul's illustrations, typically in the context of grace, generosity, and the economics of salvation. Possibly based on a real individual; used to make abstract doctrines tangible.
Years spent in one Gospel — this is not a preacher who circles the full canon annually but one who goes deep before going wide. The congregation at Saint Andrew's knew Luke. They had been formed by it. The high narrative register (203 units) is partly Sproul's gift, but it is also Luke's — the most story-dense Gospel, and a decade of it shapes a preacher's instincts irreversibly.
Eschatology at #4 with 132 units is a Hall outlier. Most Reformed preachers treat end-times material cautiously, aware of the speculative dangers. Sproul does not pass over Luke's apocalyptic sections — he engages them carefully and at length. For him, eschatology was not a distraction from the present but a frame that gave the present its weight. He took seriously what many Reformed preachers quietly skip.
Marx, Russell, and Mill at 4× each — Sproul's academic training (theology and philosophy at Pittsburgh, Amsterdam, and the Free University) never left him. He quotes the secular tradition not to appreciate it but to answer it. He believed the enemies of the faith deserved a serious response, not a dismissal. This is the Ligonier instinct: apologetics as the preacher's permanent duty.
"Ken the handyman" (6×) and "the eccentric philanthropist" (6×) are recurring illustration characters — a preaching signature. Sproul had a library of personal stories he returned to across sermons and years. The characters became known to the congregation, creating a shared illustrative vocabulary between preacher and people. Consistent with 34 historical examples: he narrates, he doesn't compare.