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.
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.