Jim

I’ve been doing a lot of preaching lately, and so I’ve been reflecting a bit on the challenges of preaching and teaching and the strategies that we use.  I’ve been talking about some of these things with the pastor of the church in Jesús María as we try to learn together.

Recently I read a blog post from Brian Croft, who was teaching pastors in Zambia.  He was answering the question: Why am I urging Zambian pastors to preach expository sermons?

You can read his excellent insights about expository preaching for yourself, but I’d like to share a few things that I’ve been noticing recently.

Expository preaching basically involves working your way through a passage and explaining what it means.  This is in contrast to preaching on a theme, for example.

There is a place for various kinds of preaching.  And, incidentally, expository preaching does not mean you do not mention other Scripture passages when they’re relevant.

I am concerned about some of the sermons I have heard, however, when a verse happens to be read in the beginning but the rest is basically ideas and stories that seem to come from the preacher’s own imagination.  His ideas sound “Bible-ish”, but he rarely provides any proof that what he’s saying is true.

Our job as preachers, I believe, is to read the Bible and explain what it means.  Yeah, that’s pretty much it.  Of course, I’m assuming that we’re doing that with prayer and the power of the Spirit.

Anyway, preaching carefully through a specific passage of Scripture is a great way to do this.  Lately, I’ve found that expository preaching is…

• Balancing.  It’s so easy to bring our own biases to the study of God’s Word.  Our traditions.  That class we happened to take on this topic.  Our need to emphasize certain things in our culture.  But when I’m reading and explaining one passage of Scripture, I find that God’s Word brings about a wonderful balance that we don’t often have in our everyday conversation.
• Demonstrating.  Ok, this was a tricky word to choose.  But when I say “demonstrating”, I mean that by expository preaching you are demonstrating something that other people can do.  Although good education helps, you don’t need to be a genius or a great speaker or a master in Greek or a human Bible encyclopedia to teach or preach in this way.  It also sets an example for anyone studying God’s Word – read things in context, don’t just string together a few sentences (verses) from 6 books and think you’ve proven something.
• Focusing.  I always come to a passage with lots of ideas about what I want to say.  But I find that expository preaching forces you to focus on what this passage is really saying.  Actually, it’s one of the biggest challenges I find in Bible studies when we’re going through a passage (ie the Chronological Bible Study).  I ask a question about the passage, and miraculously — all the answers come from elsewhere in the Bible!  It’s dangerous to think that the Bible “generally teaches x” – without really taking the time to focus on what an individual passage is saying – in context.
• Humbling.  Oh, this is humbling in so many ways.  It’s humbling because some passages/sentences/ideas are very hard to understand!  You have to struggle with them.  It’s humbling because it reminds me that we as a Church are under the authority of God’s Word, not the other way around.  It’s humbling because the Holy Spirit has an amazing way to teach these things, and I have to realize that my brilliant plan for an outline doesn’t fit.
• Orienting.  Not only does expository teaching or preaching or studying bring balance, it also brings orientation – it points you in the right direction.  Again, we all have our trains of thought and worldviews, but actually going through a passage in context has an amazing way of directing your thoughts in wise and godly way.
• Surprising.  This is one of my favourite things about expository preaching.  I never know where I’m going to end up.  Seriously, I might get halfway through, and discover that the Holy Spirit (through the text), is bringing up a topic I never dreamt I’d be preaching on.  Never a dull moment!  It’s a blast.

So yes, I do encourage others to use and demonstrate this method of teaching and preaching.  It’s not the only kind of sermon, but I believe it should be the kind that is regularly used in the Church.