How Long Should a Sermon Be?

In 2 Timothy 4 .2, the Apostle Paul told Timothy to preach the Word. But for how long? Obviously, Paul wanted Timothy to preach the Scriptures until his dying day, in season and out of season. But how long should a pastor preach a sermon?

According to Pew Research, the median length of most sermons is 37 minutes. Throughout church history, sermons might be shorter to over an hour. The Puritan preachers would preach for hours more. In the Old Testament, the people would listen to preaching that would last all day.

Public Reading and Explanation of the Law

The book of the Law would be read aloud. 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.

That would have taken even longer. In the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount is the longest written sermon. Read aloud, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes. In Luke 4, Jesus stood up in the synagogue and read Isaiah 61, 1 and 2.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and said, Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. That would have taken barely 90 seconds. In Acts 20, Paul preached so long, a young man named Eutychus fell asleep, literally tumbling out a third-story window to his death.

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