PREACHING-EXPOSITORY
The first
mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching. It is not only the first mark; it is far and
away the most important of them all, because if you get this one right, all of
the others should follow… If you get the priority of the Word established, then
you have in place the single most important aspect of the church’s life, and
growing health is virtually assured, because God has decided to act by His
Spirit through His Word… The congregation’s commitment to the centrality of the
Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one specially gifted by God
and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,
Crossway, 2000, p. 25, 38.
Expositional
preaching is not simply producing a verbal commentary on some passage of
Scripture. Rather, expositional preaching is that preaching which takes for the
point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture. That’s it.
The preacher opens the Word and unfolds it for the people of God.
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 26.
A church in
which there is expositional preaching will be a church that is encouraging
Christian growth – as we listen to God speaking from His Word into our lives.
God’s Word is what we need if we are to grow. But we won’t learn that basic
fact by looking to the culture around us to tell us what we most need. We can’t
even look into our own hearts for such knowledge.
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 191.
Consequently, unless the Scriptures
constitute the basis for all the structural elements of a sermon and unless the
expositor labors diligently in the context of each of the texts he cites, a
sermon will inevitably lack the power of the Word of Truth rightly divided, and
hearers will be misled, both in the substance of what is taught and in the
example of Bible study methodology. The preacher must lead his people into
the text, not away from it.
Charles Koller
Expository Preaching Without Notes, Baker, p. 22.
Exposition is
preaching that derives its content from the Scripture directly, seeking to
discover its divinely intended meaning, to observe its effect upon those who
first received it, and to apply it to those who seek its guidance in the
present. It consists of deep insight into and understanding of the thoughts of
God, powerfully presented in direct personal application to contemporary needs
and problems. It is definitely not a dreary, rambling, shallow verse-by verse
commentary, as many imagine. Nor is it a dry-as-dust presentation of academic
biblical truth, but a vigorous, captivating analysis of reality, flowing from
the mind of Christ by means of the Spirit and the preacher into the daily lives
and circumstances of twentieth century people.
Ray Stedman
On Expository Preaching.
Only in the
context of a firm belief in Scripture’s inerrancy has expository preaching
thrived.
Derek Thomas
Feed My Sheep, Soli Deo Gloria Ministries,
2002, p. 71.
Expository
preaching is rooted in the accurate explanation of Scripture and seeks to
expose, or open up, some portion of the Bible.
Curtis C. Thomas
Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books,
2001, p. 240.
It
means to preach the Bible in such a way, that the meaning of the Bible passage
is presented entirely and exactly as it was intended by God. That's the
challenge – the divine Word coming through the preacher.
John MacArthur
One of the
reasons for the disinterest in expository preaching is surely that so many
attempts at it prove lifeless, dull, and even thoroughly boring. I never cease to be amazed by the ingenuity of
those who are capable of taking the powerful, life-changing text of Scripture
and communicating it with all the passion of someone reading aloud from the
Yellow Pages!
Alistair Begg
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway,
1999, p. 22.
We are on the
wrong track if we think expository preaching merely as a preaching style chosen
from a list (topical, devotional, evangelistic, textual, apologetic, prophetic,
expository)… As John Stott says, “All true Christian
preaching is expository preaching.”
Alistair Begg
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway,
1999, p. 28.
Since expository
preaching begins with the text of Scripture, it starts with God and is in
itself an act of worship, for it is a declaration of the mighty acts of
God. It establishes the focus of the
people upon God and His glory before any consideration of man and his need.
Alistair Begg
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway,
1999, p. 33.
The great,
God-blessed churches in the world today have one common characteristic: an
insistence upon an exposition of God’s infallible Word.
O.S. Hawkins
Expository
preaching is the faithful explanation and application of the Bible in which the
text of Scripture supplies the matter of the preacher’s exhortations rather
than the preacher using the text as an occasion for his own expostulations,
however helpful they may be.
Ligon
Duncan
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. xi.
An
expository sermon as that which requires that it expound Scripture by deriving
from a specific text main points and subpoints that
disclose the thought of the author, cover the scope of the passage, and are
applied to the lives of the listeners.
Bryan Chapell
Christ-Centered Preaching, Baker Books, 1994,
p. 129.
By expository
preaching, I mean that method of pulpit discourse which consists in the
consecutive interpretation, and practical enforcement, of a book of sacred
canon.
William Taylor
The Ministry of the Word, Baker Books, 1975,
p. 155.
Exposition
alone is not preaching. A minister who only presents the grammatical and
historical meaning of God’s Word may be lecturing or discoursing, but he isn’t
preaching. The Word must also be applied. This application is an essential
characteristic of Reformed preaching. Without it, vitality is quenched.
Joel R. Beeke
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 103.
The minimal
elements of expository preaching guarantees the message is:
1. Originated in Scripture.
2. Extracted from Scripture through careful exegesis.
3. Prepared whereas it correctly interprets Scripture in its normal sense
and context.
4. Clearly explains the original God-intended meaning of Scripture.
5. Applying the Scriptural meaning for today.
R.B. Kuiper
Scriptural Preaching, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1967. Used by Permission.
Expository
Preaching:
1. Emulates biblical preaching both in content
and style.
2. Best achieves the biblical intent of
preaching: delivering God’s message.
3. Promotes scripturally authoritative
preaching.
4. Magnifies God’s Word.
5. Provides a storehouse of preaching material.
6. Develops the pastor as a man of God’s Word.
7. Ensures the highest level of biblical
knowledge for the flock
8. Leads to thinking and living biblically.
9. Encourages both depth and comprehensiveness.
10. Forces treatment of hard-to-interpret texts.
11. Allows for handling broad theological themes.
12. Keeps preachers away from ruts and
hobbyhorses.
13. Prevents the insertion of human ideas.
14. Guards against misinterpretation of the
biblical text.
15. Imitates the preaching of Christ and the
apostles.
16. Brings out the best in the expositor.
James A. Alexander
Thoughts on Preaching.
The big
difference…between a lecture and a sermon is that a sermon does not start with
a subject; a sermon should always be expository. In a sermon the theme or the
doctrine is something that arises out of the text and its context, it is
something which is illustrated by that text and context.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, pg.
71, Used by Permission.
No
matter what the length of the portion explained may be, if it is handled in
such a way that its real and essential meaning as it existed in the mind of the
biblical writer and as it exists in the light of the overall context of
Scripture is made plain and applied to the present-day needs of the hearers, it
may be properly said to be expository preaching. It is emphatically not
preaching about the Bible, but preaching the Bible. “What saith the Lord” is the alpha and omega of expository
preaching. It begins in the Bible and ends in the Bible and all that
intervenes springs from the Bible. In other words, expository preaching
is Bible-centered preaching.
Merrill Unger
Principles of Expository Preaching, Zondervan, 1955, p. 33. www.zondervan.org.
Expository
preaching has three decided advantages for any pastor: First, it takes the
congregation through a book of the Bible so that they are able to observe and
understand the various covenantal themes contained in it. Second, this type of
“series” preaching protects the congregation from the pastor’s “hobby horses.”
Therefore, rather than preaching on a number of his favorite topics, he is
bound by the text to preach and teach the variety of doctrines found in the
Word of God. Moreover, in the history of preaching it has been this expository
approach that has proven to be the most spiritually beneficial to God’s covenant
communities. Third, this will solve the problem for the younger pastor of
choosing a text every week. Being guided by the text and your exegesis, you
know what you’re preaching on next week.
Ron Gleason
To the Young Pastor, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 70,
Used by Permission.
The explanation
of Scripture forms the dominant feature and the organizing principle of the
message. All preaching should be based on the apostolic kerygma and didache.
Exegetical preaching is governed by the goal of expounding the meaning
and significance of this “faith once-delivered” in terms of the actual way in
which it has been delivered, namely the structure and content of the biblical
revelation, in which truth is revealed not in the form of a series of
theological or topical loci (God, sin, justification, sanctification;
war, money, social ethics, etc.), but through history, parable, narrative,
argumentation, poem, and so on. Exegetical preaching therefore sees as its
fundamental task the explanation of the text in its context, the unfolding of
its principles, and only then their application to the world of hearers.
Sinclair Ferguson
The Preacher and Preaching: Reviving the Art in the Twentieth Century, ed. Samuel T. Logan, P&R, 1986, p.192-193.
[Benefits of] expounding
the Scriptures:
1. [It] encourages the congregation to bring their Bibles to
church, and everything that leads believers to value the Scriptures is important.
2. Exposition may open the Scriptures to them and create in
them a desire to meditate for themselves. When they
again read over the portion of the Word which has been expounded, they will
remember what has been said. Thus, it leaves a more lasting impression on their
minds.
3. Expounding large portions of the Word, such as an entire
gospel or epistle, leads the teacher to consider portions of the Word which he
might otherwise overlook. This keeps him from speaking too much on favorite
subjects and leaning too much to particular parts of truth – a tendency which
will surely sooner or later injure both himself and his hearers.
George
Muller
Excerpted from: The Autobiography of George
Muller, 1984, p.33-34. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker
House are used with permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are
available at Christian bookstores everywhere.
Accuracy, not
to speak of integrity, demands that we develop every possible skill to keep us
from declaring in the name of God what the Holy Spirit never intended to
convey.
Haddon W. Robinson
Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1980, p. 59.
Expository
preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and
transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage
in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and
experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers.
Haddon Robinson
Biblical Preaching: The Development and
Delivery of Expository Messages 2nd ed., Baker Books, 1980, p. 21.
Expository
preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and
transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage
in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and
experience of the preacher, then through him to his hearers.
Haddon W. Robinson
Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1980, p. 20.
Five reasons why
I believe expository preaching is superior to all other styles:
1. Expository preaching models and teaches the congregation
how to read and study the Bible for themselves. Most Christians will mimic (in a good sense) the model
they see and hear week in and week out in the pulpit. The way they see and hear
their pastor approach and handle and proclaim the Scriptures will become, often
unconsciously, the way they do so in their own study and devotional life.
2. Expository preaching is the most effective way to teach
the content of the Bible. Exposition unpacks for people both the broad sweep of God’s activity in
redemptive history and the particular principles and truths of theology so
essential for growth in Christ.
3. Expository preaching is the most effective way for the preacher
to learn the content of the Bible. The sort of preparatory study essential to preach expositionally
enhances the preacher’s growth in the knowledge of the Word in a way that other
forms of preaching do not. When one is compelled to preach systematically
through a book of the Bible, the preacher finds that he must address a greater
number of issues and problems than would otherwise readily spring to mind.
4. Expository preaching is a check against hobby-horse
preaching. That is to say,
preaching verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible guards the preacher from
obsessive preoccupation with his own cherished themes, which are all too often
remote from either the interests or needs of the congregation.
5. Expository preaching insures that the people of God will
be fed a full, well-balanced diet of the Word of God. The Scriptures are such that consistent exposition will
yield teaching on the full range of theological issues, ethics (both individual
and corporate), family obligations, social responsibility, etc.
Sam Storms
An Appeal to All Preachers: Why and How We Should
Preach – Part III, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.