"If we get all academic and forget that we need to address people with the Word of God where they're at, we're missing the point of pastoral ministry," Walton said later. "Most laypeople can't hang in there for a long, drawn-out theological argument, and that's why I'm always careful to structure my exposition around just the sixty or seventy most relevant points."

"A sermon that communicates the heart of the passage in just a few dozen sermon points is much more effective than one that drones on and on with piles of theological minutia," he added.

At publishing time, sources had been able to confirm that Walton's message also included a detailed explanation of approximately two dozen Greek words along with zero points of application for his listeners.