Writing to the believers in Corinth, the apostle Paul mirrored on the weighty job of proclaiming God’s Phrase:
We’re the aroma of Christ to God amongst those that are being saved and amongst those that are perishing, to 1 a perfume from demise to demise, to the opposite a perfume from life to life. Who’s enough for these items? For we aren’t, like so many, peddlers of God’s phrase, however as males of sincerity, as commissioned by God, within the sight of God we converse in Christ. (2 Cor. 2:15–17)
Most pastors want cautious reminders of what’s fundamental to their job: the duty of creating positive their preaching begins with the textual content of Scripture, exalts God, and applies fact to their listeners’ hearts. This sort of preaching—expository preaching—finest displays what Paul had in thoughts in 2 Corinthians.
Preaching expository sermons has sure advantages that different approaches don’t. Listed here are six causes pastors ought to take into account preaching expositionally.
1) Expository Preaching Glorifies God
Why can we preach in any respect? Not in the end as a result of we take curiosity in lecturing on theology however as a result of it pleases God. The psalmist writes, “You’ve exalted above all issues your title and your phrase” (Ps. 138:2). When the Bible is really preached, God is actually glorified. On this sense, preaching the Bible is an act of worship itself, lifting up God’s title and Phrase.
Expository preaching begins with God and His glory, not with man and his want. It first asks, “What does the Bible say?” after which proceeds to clarify and apply the truths of the passage into account. The congregation that accepts and expects this type of preaching will probably be extra tightly tethered to the Phrase of God and the God of the Phrase than the congregation wherein the sermons start with their felt wants.
2) Expository Preaching Requires Research
A second good thing about exposition is that it presses the preacher to turn into a pupil of God’s Phrase. If he’s going to decide to this technique in his church over the lengthy haul, he can’t merely recycle previous sermon manuscripts each few years. Every week, he begins with one other passage and a clean slate, so to talk. He should examine himself full and assume himself clear earlier than he steps into the pulpit the upcoming Sunday.
When the Bible is really preached, God is actually glorified.
When pastors decide to the systematic, consecutive exposition of Scripture, they may by no means exhaust their job. There’s at all times extra to be taught. This way of preaching requires a spirit of discovery—studying to search for the shocking particulars and the overarching emphasis in a specific passage.
But whereas expository preaching engages the thoughts, it should additionally attain the guts. The textual content ought to cope with us as we cope with it. Sermons which are fully cerebral will seldom make an everlasting impression on the listeners. Because of this John Owen aptly warned,
A person preacheth that sermon solely effectively unto others which preacheth itself in his personal soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive within the digestion of the meals which he supplies for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he is aware of not however the meals he hath supplied could also be poison, except he have actually tasted of it himself. If the phrase don’t dwell with energy in us, it won’t go with energy from us.
3) Expository Preaching Allows Studying
How pastors preach the Bible impacts how their church buildings be taught and interpret the Bible.
If we’re stringing assorted Scriptures collectively week after week, selecting out elements at random to make some extent, then we shouldn’t count on our individuals to understand how all of the items match collectively. But when we preach systematically by means of biblical books and passages, exhibiting how the previous and following verses stream from one to the following, we really reinforce good Bible studying habits. Congregations that sit beneath expository preaching be taught the Bible in the obvious, pure method.
Preaching the Bible is an act of worship.
Merely put, exposition teaches the Bible by instructing the Bible. We don’t conjure up meanings which are international to the textual content. We preach not generic truths about God and man however specific truths from the passage we learn at first of the sermon. And in committing to this technique, we assist others grasp the Bible’s plain that means.
4) Expository Preaching Treats the Complete Bible
Greater than another form of preaching, exposition guards towards the dual risks of dwelling on a favourite textual content or avoiding tough passages.
Many people know the preacher who has a interest horse or two that he’ll convey with him into the pulpit sometimes, whether or not it’s eschatology, baptism, or another fancy. Finally and inevitably, nevertheless, the church that’s uncovered to one-sided preaching will develop lopsided of their theology. They’ll come to count on solely to listen to deeper revelations on a choose few topics.
By treating the entire Bible, preachers give their individuals permission to wrestle with tough doctrines—issues like predestination, religious items, the way forward for Israel, and so forth. After we preach the Bible, we contact on all of those issues in some unspecified time in the future as a result of the Bible addresses them.
5) Expository Preaching Gives a Balanced Food regimen
The results of preaching that treats your entire Bible is a congregation that enjoys a balanced food regimen of God’s Phrase—Previous and New Testomony, narrative and epistle, legislation and Gospel. Over time, this type of exposition builds out a theological framework for our individuals.
One instance is the framework of progressive revelation that culminates in Christ. We are able to present our congregations how the Previous Testomony predicts Jesus; how within the Gospels, He’s revealed; in Acts, He’s proclaimed; within the Epistles, He’s defined; and in Revelation, He’s anticipated. Such frameworks assist us navigate the complexities of the entire Bible, equipping us to know not simply the mere information of a Bible story but additionally its precise substance.
By definition, a balanced food regimen implies selection. Some congregations are dying beneath the burden of exhaustive and exhausting preaching. Week after week, phrase by phrase, the so-called expositor assumes he’s being trustworthy to the textual content simply because he’s granular with its particulars. We need to affirm the precedence of the textual content with out burying our individuals within the inconsequential nuances of a specific textual content.
One safeguard towards monotonous exposition is to evangelise the textual content with its style in thoughts. If we’re preaching narrative, we take our individuals on a journey by means of the textual content. If we’re preaching poetry, we spotlight the passage’s imagery and construction. If we’re preaching an epistle, we proclaim the instructions and emphasize the guarantees. Above all, we preach Christ from each textual content.
6) Expository Preaching Eliminates “Saturday Night time Fever”
Expository preaching liberates ministers from the strain of attempting to determine all of it out on Saturday nights. The place it’s systematic and consecutive in sample, neither the individuals nor the preacher has to marvel, “What’s going to the sermon subject be right this moment?” In the event that they preach this fashion, ministers will normally know the place to start examine on Monday morning: within the verse instantly following the one preached the day earlier than!
Charles Spurgeon, the good nineteenth-century preacher in London, would typically succumb to the burden of “Saturday evening fever.” Chatting with younger ministers on one event, Spurgeon remarked, “My textual content choice is a really nice embarrassment …. I confess that I incessantly sit hour after hour praying and ready for a topic, and that that is the primary a part of my examine.” Even Spurgeon, sensible as he was, couldn’t overcome the strain that accompanies last-minute sermon drafting. The takeaway is obvious: Most of us will probably be higher preachers if we keep away from the tyranny of Saturday-night sermon preparation.
“Who Is Adequate for These Issues?”
At the same time as we commit ourselves to preaching that begins with the Bible, factors to Christ, and shapes our hearers, we additionally should humbly ask with Paul, “Who’s enough for these items?” (2 Cor. 2:16).
Conscious of our inadequacies, we lean on Christ as we proclaim Christ. We might do effectively to make Charles Wesley’s hymn our prayer:
O Thou who camest from above
The pure celestial hearth to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
Upon the imply altar of my coronary heart!There let it for Thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze,
And trembling to its supply return
In humble prayer and fervent reward.
This text was tailored from the sermon “The Advantages of Expository Preaching” by Alistair Begg.
