How Long Should a Sermon Be?

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In 2 Timothy 4 .2, the Apostle Paul told Timothy to preach the word.

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But for how long? Obviously, Paul wanted Timothy to preach the scriptures until his dying day, in season and out of season.

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But how long should a pastor preach a sermon? According to Pew Research, the median length of most sermons is 37 minutes.

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Throughout church history, sermons might be shorter to over an hour. The Puritan preachers would preach for hours more.

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In the Old Testament, the people would listen to preaching that would last all day. The book of the law would be read aloud.

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That's the book of Deuteronomy, which takes about three hours to read out loud. Nehemiah 8 .8 says they read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

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That would have taken even longer. In the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount is the longest written sermon.

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Read aloud, it takes about 15 -20 minutes. In Luke 4, Jesus stood up in the synagogue and read

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Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and said,

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Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. That would have taken barely 90 seconds.

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In Acts 20, Paul preached so long, a young man named Eutychus fell asleep, literally tumbling out a third -story window to his death.

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But Paul ran down and brought him back to life. Note to some zealous preachers out there, you can't raise the dead, do not try this at home.

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So, how long should a sermon be? Let's say anywhere from a minute to before someone dies, when we understand the text.