While attending my doctoral seminar this week, Dr. Cook has provided some helpful notes on the topic of expository preaching. Often people have a misguided view of expository preaching in their minds, but when the topic is considered fully – it seems that the method of expository preaching accomplishes two important things, (1) fully feeding the people from God’s Word and (2) forcing the preacher to proclaim the whole counsel of God’s Word rather than his “favorite” passages.
On the subject of expository preaching (verse by verse studies through the Bible) – should Sunday School teachers be teaching in this manner in the Sunday School classes? Would our churches become more healthy if we equipped our teachers to teach in the same way that Bible preachers proclaim the Word on a given Sunday? The answer to that question is obvious – YES! At times topical studies may be helpful to cover a specific topic or doctrine, but as a whole – our church should be centered on clear Bible teaching.
Read and consider the following information on expository preaching and provide any helpful comments or ideas that may be on your heart related to the subject.
Basic Characteristics of Expository Preaching
1. An expository sermon should normally focus on one basic passage.
2. An expository sermon is faithful to the text. It has hermeneutical integrity. Our goal should be to reproduce the significant elements of the passage with the same intentions as the original author. The main point of the sermon is the main point of the text.
3. An expository sermon serves the text it does not use it. The passage is the Word of God and must treated like the whole of God’s Word.
- You must consider literary genre as you interpret the text. Narrative literature for instance forces us to preach larger chunks.
- The intent of the original author must be considered.
- The legitimate application must be considered carefully.
4. An expository sermon has unity.
5. An expository sermon should have movement and direction. It should move the hearer in the direction the original author intended it to go. We should not leave the sermon asking, “What is the point?” or “What is the main idea?”
6. An expository sermon must apply the text to the congregation. It is imperative that the message should have application for a contemporary audience.
Advantages of Expository Preaching
1. When we preach expository sermons, we can be confident that we are preaching God’s will when we preach God’s Word.
2. We are confined to the biblical text and subjectivism is minimized.
3. When we preach through the Scriptures, we are proclaiming the whole counsel of God rather than riding our hobby horses.
4. When we preach expositional sermons we discover that the context and content of the passage usually include its own application.
5. The words of the sermon should provide the structure of the outline.
6. When we preach expository sermons through books we can address touchy issues without being viewed as taking advantage of the pulpit.
7. When preaching expository sermons it provides the preacher an opportunity to demonstrate how to read the Bible and teach the Bible to his congregation.
The preacher and teacher who open up God’s Word should tremble at the responsibility of accurately dividing the Word of the Lord. All preachers and teachers will stand before God and give account of how faithful they have been in that task. Therefore, no haphazard attempt will suffice in sermon or lesson preparation. All of those who stand with God’s Word should speak it accurately – not seeking to appease a group or individual. It is God’s Word – not the Word of man! Therefore, it seems clear that this task is best carried out through expositional preaching and teaching.
For the glory of God!
Josh Buice
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15 Responses to “Expository Preaching”
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Sounds like good stuff! Wish I was there.
You are here! You should pay attention!
I agree with all of what you said.
A few years ago I decided to teach proverbs. But proverbs isn’t arranged in a way I found easy to go verse by verse through. It was like… (forgive me)… Strings of random Hebrew Fortune Cookies! I found it easiest to catagorize similiar proverbs and deal with them in groups. Is that in any way expository?
When preaching through a book, pacing is definately an issue. How fast to move, and how big a chunk to take at a time.
David,
I would say that my personal opinion is that we need to preach the text in the way the Spirit inspired it (speaking of order here). So, the question is – is it alright to break chapter divisions or even verse divisions in Proverbs? I would be careful in this area, but I would most likely break form here before I would in any other book of the Bible simply due to the random and often broken ideas that the author provides.
I recall my pastor preaching through Proverbs on Wednesday nights before God called me into the ministry. Looking back on that, I have often wondered how to attack that study since it is very lengthy and it contains a broken thought pattern.
Josh Buice
i think that pastor’s should preach how God leads them to. the verses in proverbs are often times each a wealth of info in itself. david is right that they are a string of “fortune cookies.” personal opinions are dangerous, josh.
Mae,
I agree – personal opinions are very dangerous. I would never encourage anyone to preach their personal opinion – only the Word of God.
Regarding that task – I think it is best to preach in the inspired order of the text rather than backwards or chopped up in differing ways. While it may be alright to do that in Proverbs to a degree, as a whole, the Bible needs to be proclaimed in the manner in which God inspired it and preserved it in order to see the original author’s intent.
Josh Buice
My wife has learned more sitting under expository preaching in 8 months, than she did in 20 yrs without it. I personally love it.:)
Just your wife, Bill ?
i guess she’s the only one who needed to be taught. or maybe she’s the only one who would be taught.
Wednesday nights are ALWAYS expository for us. We go through books. We just finished Judges and then Ruth. Wow. And next week we will start Haggai and Zechariah. I can’t wait.
Rebecca (my wife) says I go through books of the Bible just so I can buy piles of commentaries. I’ll have to show her Josh’s blog on the other reasons to follow an exposition method of teaching.
I made a commitment a year ago to try and teach a lot more from the Old Testament. So far, Books I’ve taught throug:
Genesis, Exodus (current), Judges, Ruth, 1, 2 Samuel (Life of David) , Joel, Jonah, Various Psalms , Mark, Luke (1 year, Sunday a.m), John (year 1/2 Wed nights), Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians (twice), Colossians, 1 thess. , Titus, Philemon, Hebrews (But I had no idea what I was talking about when i did Hebrews, too young) , 1 John. But who’s counting, eh.
Books I do not really look forward to teaching through: Song of Solomon, Ezekiel, Revelation (I take a historical view, my congregation is all pre’s). I mention Ezekiel because that’s what the Wednesday crew most recently wanted to go through, but I vetoed them and said we would do Hag. and Zac. Pastoral leadership?
By the way, I don’t each Psalms cover to cover, either. But do a series of Psalms between Wednesday studies before going into the next book.
Forgive me for rambeling.
Good question David. I have been listening to John Piper and others for years now, so I’ve been exposed to expository preaching for awhile now and I love it.My wife is not one to just sit and listen to preaching on-line or CD like me, so I am thankful to God that He sent us Bro. Josh. It has been a blessing to see her and my children grow.
The 7 advantages that Josh listed are right on point too.I agree with all of them….
i think the point is, bill,, that you are saying they are the only ones who have grown…
I was teasing you, Bill.
@ Mae,
No, I have grown also.:)
@ David,
I kinda knew you were teasing, I just wanted to explain a little more about the situation.
This month, I led our church on a pilgrimage through Proverbs. Those who wished to participate were assigened to read one chapter daily in the month of January. Each Sunday night I have preached a message taken from the previous week’s reading. It’s not necessarily expository, but I had the freedom to pick and choose what I wanted to preach, and provided a systematic way to get some people involved in reading scripture. In February, we’ll do the same thing in Colossians; but instead of a chapter per day, the reading assignment will be to read chapter 1 daily in the first week, chapter 2 daily in the second week, etc. I’ll preach from that particular chapter on Sunday nights.
Tom