Proclaiming the Word (eBook)

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What Is Expository Preaching?

My aim in these opening chapters is to establish some vital, basic principles so that we have solid foundations in place to build on and develop our practical skills. Sometimes this means taking time carefully to define the terms we are using, and the word expository is an important case in point. Most preachers who use the Bible in their preaching would claim to be expository because something of biblical truth is included in what they say. That is all well and good. It is certainly preferable to preaching that is based on the preacher’s bright ideas, but I want to use the term with a more specific and focused definition. An illustration may help us.

Let’s think about our preaching using the analogy of a car. Here’s the question: where is the Bible in the car? The illustration can equally be applied to your church or your own personal life, but we’ll stick with our preaching as the focus.

For some preachers the Bible is out of sight in the trunk, hidden away and largely forgotten. As in many car trunks, the Bible in this illustration sits among a number of items that have been discarded and ignored. Preaching like this is governed by the preacher’s own thoughts and opinions, discussion of current political and cultural issues, or just a series of agenda items for the management of the church. But the preacher is firmly in the driver’s seat.

For others, the Bible seems to be permanently in the back seat not exercising any discernible influence on the preaching but perhaps once in a while providing an illuminating or provocative comment. Backseat drivers can cause considerable irritation to the driver, and for some the Bible has an inhibiting, restrictive effect. It belongs to a generation and a set of values long past so that it is best used only occasionally, if and when it chances to be relevant. This keeps the preacher still in the driver’s seat.

Perhaps the most popular place for the Bible, however, is in the passenger seat, where it can certainly perform some useful functions. The Bible is viewed rather like a conversation companion on the journey, a sort of celestial satellite navigational system to help us travel in the right direction, a useful map reader to keep us on track. Such preaching uses the Bible to clarify or illustrate what the preacher wants to say, especially trying to make it relevant to today. But here, too, the preacher remains in the driver’s seat.

The Principles of Expository Preaching

There is, of course, another place for the Bible in the car: firmly in the driver’s seat. This is the defining mark of expository preaching.

Expository Preaching Is Driven by the Bible

The Bible determines the content of expository preaching because it takes the Bible seriously. The text of Scripture governs and directs all that the preacher says. Since we glorify the speaking God not only by listening to what he says but also by ensuring that his living and enduring word is our supreme authority in what we believe and how we live, that word must necessarily be at the center of our preaching.

Critics sometimes claim that this is equivalent to worshiping the Bible, displacing Christ from his proper headship in his church, or inhibiting the work of the Spirit. But how does Christ mediate his authority among his people? He rules by his word through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, opening the minds and hearts of God’s people to its truth. So as the word is in the driver’s seat, Christ—whose word it is—instructs and guides his people by his Spirit.

This is the testimony of the Lord Jesus himself in John 6:63: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Later he promises the apostles that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak. . . . He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13–14). It is through the apostolic witness in the New Testament Scriptures that we hear Christ’s voice. We do not worship the Bible, but it is the divinely appointed means by which we come to worship the true Christ—as revealed in the Scriptures—and not a figment of our own imagination.

Consider the alternative. If the word of God is not driving our preaching and teaching, then something or someone else will be. There are plenty of rival candidates. It may be the preacher’s wisdom or originality, a charismatic personality, popular opinion in the congregation, or the social and political agendas of our current culture. But when we realize how unstable, transient, and subjective each of these will prove to be, the necessity of expository preaching becomes even more obvious. The apostle Paul warned the Ephesians that congregations are easily “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). In contrast, when the Bible is in the driver’s seat, the voice of God is heard, even through the imperfect human channel.

Of course, the Bible is a blending of the human and divine. The biblical books were given to us through the words of the original writers at specific points in space and time. The writers necessarily have different styles and write both from and to different historical and cultural contexts. Yet because the Scriptures are divinely inspired—“breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16)—they have eternal significance and validity.

God did not give us a book of rules or a set of theological propositions. He spoke to and through real people in real life situations so that the human ingredients are seamlessly woven together with the divine. To grasp the Bible’s unchanging divine message, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of the original hearers or readers in their particular contexts. When we see what the text meant to them, we soon realize that our external cultural differences do not affect the Bible’s continuing authority. Although all Scripture is culturally positioned, this fact does not reduce its validity and relevance since its divine author is unchanging and eternal. Its revelatory truth is not culturally conditioned.

Expository Preaching Recognizes That the Bible Determines the Structure and Scope of the Preaching

The Bible is to be in the driver’s seat in determining not only the content of the preaching but also the shape and course of the exposition. Beyond that, it should determine the very contours of our continuing ministry. Starting with the premise that God must be, by definition, the perfect communicator commits us not only to rigorous study of what the biblical text says but also to recognition of the means by which its significance is conveyed—such as the text’s tone, literary characteristics, genre, promises and meanings, encouragements and motivations. The biblical text drives the what of preaching, but it drives the how and the why as well.

It follows that expository preaching is normally practiced as the systematic, consecutive treatment of successive passages through a particular biblical book. It is preaching that works its way through entire books or major sections of the Bible. This gives due recognition to the way in which God has given us his word. Otherwise, one can all too easily develop a butterfly mentality in the selection of preaching texts, hopping from topic to topic or extracting favorite passages from their context. This pick-and-choose approach means that texts are often treated in a stand-alone manner rather than understood within their biblical contexts so that they may be related to the whole sweep of redemptive history. God’s method, by contrast, is to produce whole books, each with its own unique purpose and serving a cumulative effect. Expository preaching uses the larger units to inform our understanding of a particular section and vice-versa so that our picture of the whole book begins to sharpen its focus.

I have sometimes tried to illustrate this by taking an open Bible in my hand and holding it, facing outwards, extending it toward my hearers. In doing so, I am indicating that the expositor’s task is, with his finger firmly on the text, to guide his hearers through the passage. He does not want to stand in front of the Bible so that the congregation becomes preoccupied with him rather than God’s word. That would effectively make him a barrier to the understanding of the message of the text. But neither should he hide behind the text, as though preaching were just an anonymous, faceless communication mechanism. Rather, in the act of preaching we have a further blending of the human and divine.

Expository Preaching Conveys God’s Unchanging Truth through the Preacher’s Individual Personality

No two preachers are alike because we all have different personalities. We should not try to be replicas of our favorite pulpit heroes, attempting to imitate their style, bearing, or gestures. We have to be ourselves as God has made us and is remaking us. Each preacher is uniquely shaped and equipped by God for the particular task and context he has for us to fulfill. So when someone comes to you with a well-intended compliment, “You know there’s no one else who can preach like you,” don’t be flattered. It’s just a statement of fact! There is no one else who will do it like you.

Phillips Brooks, an American pulpit...