Author: Richard Bargas

What Is Expository Preaching? Part 7

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THE EXPOSITORY SERMON – ITS EFFECTS
Once the sermon is prepared and preached it still has not completed its work. Hebrews 4:12 states that, “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Such a powerful reaction can be expected to accompany the preaching of an expository sermon because it has allowed God to speak to His creatures. To be sure, wherever the Word is preached, there will follow certain effects.

It Glorifies God
In 2 Corinthians 4:5 Paul put preaching into perspective when he stated, “we to not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” Preaching is not finally about the preacher’s skill or ability to powerfully impact his hearers. It is not essentially about those who hear the message and their response to it. In the final analysis, preaching is about bringing glory to God.

The prophet Jeremiah was commanded to speak to the stubborn Israelites about then sinfulness, but God declared before Jeremiah spoke that they would not listen to his message, “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they
will not answer you” (Jer. 7:27). In declaring the Word of the Lord, Jeremiah was also declaring the righteous judgments of God not only to Israel but also to all the watching nations. The same thing is echoed in the words of the prophet Ezekiel, through whom God spoke saying, “But you shall
speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious” (Ezek. 2:7). The positive side of this call to faithfulness, is that when people hear of the mercy and forgiveness that has been purchased for them and they believe, then the name of the Lord is glorified (Acts 13:48-49).

Because expositional preaching allows the Word of God to speak rather than mixing God’s voice with other voices, it is God who is most clearly revealed in this type of preaching, and it is He who receives all the glory for His Word.

It Feeds the Soul
Jesus said it best when He declared, “It is written, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” Peter was instructed to make sure that he tended the Lord’s sheep in an appropriate manner that was reflective of the Good Shepherd (John 21:15-17), and that must include the regular diet of the Word of God.

Psalm 63 speaks of the hungering and thirsting for the Lord. This cannot be satisfied by emotional hype and other cheap substitutes. The satisfaction of the hungering soul can only be found in encountering God through the pages of Scriptures. It is also from this feeding of the soul through the preaching of the Word that Christians are able to grow up in their salvation (lPet 2:2). Of course, as the believer grows up in the faith, then it becomes his responsibility- to begin feeding himself (Heb. 5:12-13) along with the regular intake of the Word of God in preaching.

It Educates the Church
As a pastor feeds the sheep in his congregation on a steady diet of the Word expositionally preached, he will be developing in them a reverence for the Word as well as giving them a deepening understanding of how the Scriptures as a whole speak God’s message to them. In this day that we live in, our society is biblically illiterate. Some of this is because of our culture’s movement away from the biblical principles that were the
norm for society. But some of the blame must be laid upon the church for abandoning the expositional preaching of the Word of God for topical, thematic, biographical, social, moralistic and pragmatic messages that divorced the Word from its original message and intent.

The mission left by Christ, given to Paul and passed down to Timothy still applies to the church today, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2Tim. 2:2). It is therefore part of the expository preacher’s call to make sure that he is not just filling up forty-five minutes of time with lofty words, but that his message touches both the mind and the heart so as to produce faithful and knowledgeable disciples who are equipped to make other disciples themselves.

It Teaches Hermeneutics By Modeling
Part of the educational process of preaching is left unspoken but is a reality nonetheless. Expositional preaching (as all other types of preaching) eventually teaches the congregation how to study the Bible for itself. As the preacher proclaims the message, the listeners are discerning the process that he went through to derive such an interpretation. Shoddy preparation, eisogesis and shallow exegesis all proclaim to the church that the Word of God is not something to be taken seriously.

Because of this reality, the expository preacher must seek not only to be sure that he is fully prepared when he steps into the pulpit, but he must also seek to weave into his message explanations as to how he arrived at his conclusions and why he rejected others. Although he must be sure that he does not drown his listeners with confusing jargon and linguistics that they cannot understand, he must be prepared to teach them how they can delve deeper in their own personal studies. This will not only enrich their own lives, but it will also enrich the lives of those who are taught by them as well as further producing leaders and teachers who can equip others as well.

What Is Expository Preaching? Part 6

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A Text-Driven Outline

From the foundational information that was derived from the grammatical and
syntactical studies that were done earlier in the exegetical process, the expositor should
have been able to construct an exegetical outline. It is from this outline that the expositor
may want to stay as close as possible in order to derive his preaching outline. Some
homileticians recommend a big idea or propositional statement with a plural noun that
will lead into the homiletical outline. All of this is fine as long as it is not forced and
contrived. Although alliteration is a good device for keeping the main points in the
hearer’s memory for a longer period of time, one must be careful not to allow the outline
to begin to drive the sermon. All too often a preacher can get so involved in finding that
perfect word that will fit into his outline that he is willing to stretch the bounds of what
the text says in order to have symmetry. If one stays within the text’s boundaries, even
without fancy alliteration and other homiletical devices, God will be honored.

A Sermon that Starts. Stays and Ends with the Text

Expository sermons are marked by a high view of Scripture. This is further
evidenced in the way that the sermon is committed to stay with the text and to explain
that text in light of the immediate context and other considerations addressed in my previous posts on this subject.

Other types of preaching may give lip service to the text by reading it and going
elsewhere for proof-text. Others may use the text as a springboard to launch out into any
variety of subjects without ever coming back to the original verses. But the expository sermon attempts to stay with the text, to explain the text and to end with the text so that
the hearer leaves with a fuller and clearer understanding of the Scriptures than they had
before.

A Text-Driven Homiletic

Although this could be applied in different ways, the text-driven sermon needs to
take into consideration the genre that is being considered for the format of the sermon. If
a narrative section is to be considered, then the preacher would do better to allow the
story to unfold than to try to force the story into the form of “three points and a poem.” If
the genre is wisdom literature, as in Proverbs, the form might be clustering up proverbs
according to a theme. Epistolary books fit better into the traditional homiletical outline,
but even within these letters one can find other sub-genres. The idea is simply that the
expository preacher allows the Bible to speak for itself in whatever form God inspired the
text. We should not try a one-size-fits-all type of homiletical presentation for every
type of genre. If God gave us different types of writings, then we ought to search out the
appropriate format for that specific style of writing.

The Benefits of Expository Preaching

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  • It gives glory to God alone. Since expository preaching begins with the text of Scripture, it starts with God and is in itself an act of worship.
  • It makes the preacher study God’s Word. The first heart God’s Word needs to reach is the preacher.
  • It helps the congregation. It enables the congregation to learn the Bible.
  • It demands treatment of the entire Bible. It prevents the preacher from avoiding difficult passages or from dwelling on only his favorite texts.
  • It provides a balanced diet. Exposition affirms the priority and sufficiency of a text. We serve our people best when we make clear that we are committed to teaching the Bible by teaching the Bible.
  • It eliminates Saturday night fever. It liberates the preacher from last minute preparation and it doesn’t leave the congregation wondering what the preacher will talk about on Sunday.

Adapted from the new edition of Preaching for God’s Glory by Alistair Begg.

HT/Crossway

What is Expository Preaching? pt. 5: Abusing the Bible in Preaching

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Preaching is both an art and a science. There are some things that can be taught in a seminary and some things that must be given by God and developed by the preacher. With that said, there is some place for creativity in the sermon, although it must always be subservient to the biblical text and cannot drive the sermon.

When an expositor has done his homework (deriving the meaning of the text from grammatical, historical and contextual studies in the exegetical process) he will more easily be able to construct an exegetical outline of the text—one in which the biblical language and “dress” are still present and the main idea of the chosen text is firmly established. This “main idea” is not flexible—it is the idea that the original writer meant to convey when he wrote to his original audience.

This is important to get right before jumping ahead to a preaching outline and application. If this original meaning is not established and these important steps are skipped over, then anyone can make the Bible say anything that they want. But Scripture is clear that this is not the way one is to treat the biblical text:

 Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2Pet 1:20-21)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2Tim 2:15)

The Apostle Peter knew that he would soon be dying for the faith (2Pet 1:14) and that there were some claiming to have extra-special experiences and secret teachings that, in their opinion, should override the Apostles’ teaching (2Pet 1:16). Peter had experienced the Transfiguration of Christ, a clear manifestation of heavenly glory, complete with the double Apostolic witness of James and John in the presence of Jesus (v. 18). This experience, Peter wrote, was not as valuable or reliable as the very Word of God revealed (v. 19).

And Paul, who is also facing his own martyrdom, wrote to his young protégé Timothy from a Roman prison (2Tim 4:6-7) is not concerned for his own life, but rather that Timothy is faithful to “preach the Word” faithfully (2Tim 4:1-2) and accurately.

Yet, some pastors handle to Word so loosely that they teach the sheep in their congregation to do the same—handling it haphazardly, with little regard for what God meant when he wrote his Word.

The following is an example of an example of such careless abuse of the Word of God from a pastor who should know better, but apparently does not. This excerpt is from a local church’s website describing the senior pastor’s “revelation” from God including “God’s own words.”

One night, God ministered to Steve from Isaiah 54:2–4. Steve read it like this, with God speaking His words right into his heart.

“Enlarge the place of your tent”: It’s time to move to a bigger place so that I may do a bigger work.

“And let them stretch out the curtains”: Steve, I will have other people come by your side to co-labor.

“Do not spare; lengthen your cords”: Strengthen your leadership!

“And strengthen your stakes”: Steve, I am going to do a deeper work.

“For you shall expand to the right and to the left”: The church shall reach out to the right and left of the Los Angeles 110 freeway.

“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed!”

The property the church began looking at would fulfill all that God had promised to Steve. [1]

Notice that in its original context, the Scriptures are addressed to God’s people, specifically future Israel. If a person were to stop and look at the Isa. 54:1, the prophet Isaiah calls Israel “barren one” and verse 7 says that for a brief moment, the Lord had deserted her.  Would this pastor and church say that they had been barren and deserted by God previously, but now they were turning from their wicked rebellion and returning to God so that he would bless them? I do not think so, but even if they would say that this was true, it was not written to them for a private interpretation such as was given by this pastor, complete with references to the 110 freeway. Such fanciful interpretations are reckless.

This is why the whole sermon must be driven by the text and not the other way around where the pastor comes to the text with his own point of view and finds a text to fit his own preconceived ideas. To do so is to rape the biblical text.

[1] Bold emphasis mine. Quote taken from http://www.ccsouthbay.org/pastor-steve/. Accessed 4/19/11.

What is Expository Preaching? pt. 4

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The Expository Sermon-Its Proclamation

Long gone are the days when any person could go into any Christian church and the furniture all looked about the same. There were pews, and there was a pulpit in the front. Today, that isn’t as common. Some pews have been replaced by couches in the round or movie theater seating, while the pulpit has been removed from many churches altogether and replaced by a speaker on a bar stool.

But furniture is not the real issue, but an outward sign that something drastic has changed in the way that the leaders of the evangelical church have begun to think about communicating the message of the Kingdom. Even in many churches where there is a physical piece of furniture called a pulpit, there is no true preaching going on behind it.

When a man who is called by God stands in the pulpit to declare the very Word of God, there should be a sense of awe and even holy fear. He must speak God’s Words and he dare not mess up the message.  How many men in many of today’s pulpit show a disdain for the Word of God? They show it in their lack of study time. They show it in their flippancy about the holy things of God. They show their disdain when they substitute the meat of the Word with cheap fillers of drama, story upon story, personal anecdotes and heart-tugging emotional pleas. They show it when they cut the preaching of the Word down to bite-size 20-minute sermonettes.

The true servant of God must proclaim the Word—he is a herald (kerruso in Greek refers to the one who announced the coming of a king and his royal proclamations). He is not called upon by the King of Kings to manufacture the message. He is not called to “fix it up” or make it more palatable for his audience. He does not need to pick and choose the choicest passages that meet the felt needs of the flock, as if the Chief Shepherd did not already know the needs of His own. This calling to preach the Word is an awesome (in the old sense of awesome) task and is to be shunned by anyone who does not have a healthy fear of God. Jeremiah, a prophet who once felt that he could no longer continue with his assigned message also knew that he could not hold it in:

For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the LORD has become for me

A reproach and derision all day long.

If I say, “I will not mention him,

Or speak any more in his name,”

There is in my heart as it were a burning fire

Shut up in my bones,

And I am weary with holding it in,

And I cannot.  (Jer. 20:8-9)

Since the Word of God is to be the foundation of every sermon, the Bible must reign supreme in the preaching. The sermon needs to be thoroughly biblical. If the preacher deviates from the Bible and the proper interpretation of the text, he can make it say whatever he wants it to.

Next time we will look at how the Bible should drive the outline, the sermon body and even the preaching of the sermon.