Why We Prioritize Expositional Preaching (Part 1)
There are two primary ways churches serve preaching today: topical preaching and expositional preaching. Topical preaching begins with a specific idea and brings in different Scriptures that touch on it. Expositional preaching begins with a specific text, explains it and applies it to the congregation. Mark Dever defines exposition as “Making the main point of the text the main point of the sermon.”
Sound topical preaching is not bad at all. Pastor Tyler and I have preached topical sermon series at FBC that have been very helpful: Theology for Life, When People Are Big and God Is Small, etc. A topical sermon (at least, in the hands of an expositional preacher) is a good thing, because, if handled well, it can be a mini-exposition of several texts.
But we are convinced expositional preaching should be the main diet of our congregation. Why is that? In the next couple of weeks we will offer twelve reasons for why the lion’s share of messages we serve up each Lord’s Day are expositional sermons.
(1) Expositional preaching is modeled in Scripture. There is a pattern in Scripture of God’s servants doing exposition to help God’s people. That pattern simply involves announcing or reading God’s Word (the text) teaching its meaning, and applying it to God’s people. Before they entered the promised land, Moses announced the text of God’s Word (Deuteronomy 1:5) taught its meaning (4:1-8, 13-15, 23-24) and applied it (5:1-22). When God’s people returned after captivity, Ezra read the Word (Nehemiah 8:1-7) taught its meaning (8:8) and applied it (8:9-12). In Matthew 5-7 Jesus did the same with the law: announce, teach, apply. In Acts 2 Peter did this with the prophecy of Joel about the Messiah: announce, teach, apply. Finally, it’s not surprising that Paul’s prescription for Timothy’s preaching ministry was reading, teaching, and exhorting (1 Timothy 4:13).
(2) Expositional preaching gives authority to the sermon. Should all sermons be obeyed? Only if they speak for God. Martin Luther had a very high view of preaching and explained that it is an extension of the voice of God, only to the degree it is faithfully conveying the message of Scripture. Of course, topical sermons can do this if they are faithful to all the texts they reference (although I would argue the vast majority of topical sermons in pop Christianity are not) but a good expositional sermon is much more closely tied to the Bible. Pastors are not self-help gurus selling life hacks or motivational speakers. They are delivering the good news not editing it, taking the food to the table not cooking it. They are mouthpieces for God's Word. The very heart of expositional ministry is being more impressed with God’s ideas than one’s own.
(3) Expositional preaching protects the church from false doctrine. If you have ever talked to a recruiter from a cult (especially a cult claiming Christian ties) you know they can quote Scriptures to argue their point. People that don’t know how to handle the Bible are easy prey for these demonic false teachers, because they will not know the difference between a legitimate interpretation of a text and an illegitimate interpolation of one. But on a regular diet of God’s Word, correctly handled, you will know not only sound theology but how that theology is derived from Scripture. If your diet is mainly topical sermons, you may not have a framework for sound theology, or you may have one but not have a clue as to how it was constructed, and thus you will be more susceptible to dangerous heresies.
(4) Expositional preaching shows the church how to study the Bible. It always felt tedious in my geometry homework to “show my work.” But it was important to demonstrate I knew what I was doing. When you listen to expositional preaching over the length of your Christian life, you will not only pick up on what your pastors say, but you will see how they arrived at those conclusions in their study. Topical sermons that quote three, four, or even more verses may appear arbitrary in these selections (even if they are not) and Christians in the pew will not know the magic sauce of how the preacher decided on those texts to use for his topic. To dedicate yourself to exposition is to tell your people that your sermon is going to be controlled by the text. And a good expositional sermon shows the pastor’s work. The best compliment to hear after a sermon is never "that was an amazing sermon," but rather, "now I know what this text means."
(5) Expositional preaching is the best way to be truly evangelistic. This may seem counter-intuitive. The late mega-church pastor Jack Hyles taught that expositional preaching failed in this regard, because with topical sermons it is easier to tack on ‘the gospel’ at the end of each sermon. But of course the gospel is not a repetitive spiel but a message that encompasses the entire story of Scripture. In Luke 24 Jesus taught the two traveling disciples about himself from the entire Old Testament. When you preach expositionally (especially sequentially through books) you get to talk about how every part of the Bible stands in reference to Jesus Christ and his work. Since the whole Bible is about Jesus, you will have a much richer array of gospel presentations from every angle imaginable, rather than a tedious gospel-soundbite.
(6) Expositional preaching best enables your pastors to stand before God on the day of judgment. Hebrews 13:7 calls Christians to obey their pastors. This offends modern sensibilities because some misread this and assume the New Testament frames pastors as power hungry egomaniacs. Not true. The verse says to obey them because they must give account for you to God. How can pastors prepare for this great and terrible day without fear? Remarkably, Paul told the pastors at the church of Ephesus that he was innocent of the blood of all men. Why? He could say this because he “did not shrink from declaring to [them] the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27). Preaching the whole counsel of God is best accomplished by preaching through the Bible. “What paragraph did God inspire next?” is a much better question to live by than “What do I want to address next?” most especially if our readiness as ministers to stand before God is conditioned on us giving his whole counsel to his whole church.
Next week Pastor Tyler will add six more reasons for our emphasis on expositional preaching at FBC.
Sound topical preaching is not bad at all. Pastor Tyler and I have preached topical sermon series at FBC that have been very helpful: Theology for Life, When People Are Big and God Is Small, etc. A topical sermon (at least, in the hands of an expositional preacher) is a good thing, because, if handled well, it can be a mini-exposition of several texts.
But we are convinced expositional preaching should be the main diet of our congregation. Why is that? In the next couple of weeks we will offer twelve reasons for why the lion’s share of messages we serve up each Lord’s Day are expositional sermons.
(1) Expositional preaching is modeled in Scripture. There is a pattern in Scripture of God’s servants doing exposition to help God’s people. That pattern simply involves announcing or reading God’s Word (the text) teaching its meaning, and applying it to God’s people. Before they entered the promised land, Moses announced the text of God’s Word (Deuteronomy 1:5) taught its meaning (4:1-8, 13-15, 23-24) and applied it (5:1-22). When God’s people returned after captivity, Ezra read the Word (Nehemiah 8:1-7) taught its meaning (8:8) and applied it (8:9-12). In Matthew 5-7 Jesus did the same with the law: announce, teach, apply. In Acts 2 Peter did this with the prophecy of Joel about the Messiah: announce, teach, apply. Finally, it’s not surprising that Paul’s prescription for Timothy’s preaching ministry was reading, teaching, and exhorting (1 Timothy 4:13).
(2) Expositional preaching gives authority to the sermon. Should all sermons be obeyed? Only if they speak for God. Martin Luther had a very high view of preaching and explained that it is an extension of the voice of God, only to the degree it is faithfully conveying the message of Scripture. Of course, topical sermons can do this if they are faithful to all the texts they reference (although I would argue the vast majority of topical sermons in pop Christianity are not) but a good expositional sermon is much more closely tied to the Bible. Pastors are not self-help gurus selling life hacks or motivational speakers. They are delivering the good news not editing it, taking the food to the table not cooking it. They are mouthpieces for God's Word. The very heart of expositional ministry is being more impressed with God’s ideas than one’s own.
(3) Expositional preaching protects the church from false doctrine. If you have ever talked to a recruiter from a cult (especially a cult claiming Christian ties) you know they can quote Scriptures to argue their point. People that don’t know how to handle the Bible are easy prey for these demonic false teachers, because they will not know the difference between a legitimate interpretation of a text and an illegitimate interpolation of one. But on a regular diet of God’s Word, correctly handled, you will know not only sound theology but how that theology is derived from Scripture. If your diet is mainly topical sermons, you may not have a framework for sound theology, or you may have one but not have a clue as to how it was constructed, and thus you will be more susceptible to dangerous heresies.
(4) Expositional preaching shows the church how to study the Bible. It always felt tedious in my geometry homework to “show my work.” But it was important to demonstrate I knew what I was doing. When you listen to expositional preaching over the length of your Christian life, you will not only pick up on what your pastors say, but you will see how they arrived at those conclusions in their study. Topical sermons that quote three, four, or even more verses may appear arbitrary in these selections (even if they are not) and Christians in the pew will not know the magic sauce of how the preacher decided on those texts to use for his topic. To dedicate yourself to exposition is to tell your people that your sermon is going to be controlled by the text. And a good expositional sermon shows the pastor’s work. The best compliment to hear after a sermon is never "that was an amazing sermon," but rather, "now I know what this text means."
(5) Expositional preaching is the best way to be truly evangelistic. This may seem counter-intuitive. The late mega-church pastor Jack Hyles taught that expositional preaching failed in this regard, because with topical sermons it is easier to tack on ‘the gospel’ at the end of each sermon. But of course the gospel is not a repetitive spiel but a message that encompasses the entire story of Scripture. In Luke 24 Jesus taught the two traveling disciples about himself from the entire Old Testament. When you preach expositionally (especially sequentially through books) you get to talk about how every part of the Bible stands in reference to Jesus Christ and his work. Since the whole Bible is about Jesus, you will have a much richer array of gospel presentations from every angle imaginable, rather than a tedious gospel-soundbite.
(6) Expositional preaching best enables your pastors to stand before God on the day of judgment. Hebrews 13:7 calls Christians to obey their pastors. This offends modern sensibilities because some misread this and assume the New Testament frames pastors as power hungry egomaniacs. Not true. The verse says to obey them because they must give account for you to God. How can pastors prepare for this great and terrible day without fear? Remarkably, Paul told the pastors at the church of Ephesus that he was innocent of the blood of all men. Why? He could say this because he “did not shrink from declaring to [them] the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27). Preaching the whole counsel of God is best accomplished by preaching through the Bible. “What paragraph did God inspire next?” is a much better question to live by than “What do I want to address next?” most especially if our readiness as ministers to stand before God is conditioned on us giving his whole counsel to his whole church.
Next week Pastor Tyler will add six more reasons for our emphasis on expositional preaching at FBC.
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