Expository preaching is based on the grammatical, historical, theological method. Such sermons may be drawn from a verse or a passage, or they may develop a biblical topic or Christian doctrine.
The Nature of Expository Preaching
The type of preaching that most effectively lays open the Bible so that men and women are confronted by its truth is expository. At its best, expository preaching is the presentation of biblical truth, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, spirit-guided study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit applies first to the life of the preacher and then through the preacher to his or her congregation.
The Role of Scripture. This definition has several parts. First of all, the substance of the expository sermon is derived from the Scriptures. The expositor realizes that although the Bible is a book like no other book, it is still a book. In fact, it is a collection of writings that can be studied like other literature. R. A. Montgomery, in his book Expository Preaching ([New York, 1939], 42), makes this point:
The preacher undertakes the presentation of particular books (of the Bible) as some men [or women] would undertake the latest bestseller. The preacher seeks to bring the message of definite units of God’s word to [the congregation]. [The preacher] discovers the main theme or constituent parts of the book’s message as they were in the mind of the writer.… His [or her] treatment of words, phrases, texts, portions is important not only for what they may say separately but as they relate to the main theme of the writer and the end he [or she] had in view in writing this book.
In a larger sense, therefore, expository preaching is more a philosophy than a method. It is the answer to a basic question: Does the preacher subject his or her thought to the Scriptures, or does the preacher subject the Scriptures to his or her thought? Is the passage used like the national anthem at a football game—to get things started but not be heard again? Or is the text the essence of the sermon to be exposed to the people?
Although it is possible to preach an orthodox sermon without explaining a biblical passage, unfolding a portion of Scripture guards the preacher’s thought against heresy. Doing this regularly forces the preacher to speak to the many issues of life dealt with in the Scriptures that he or she otherwise might easily overlook. Above all, the preacher speaks with an authority not his or her own, and the man or woman in the pew will have a better chance to hear God speak directly.
Methodology. A second important factor in the definition involves the means by which the biblical message is communicated to the congregation. The preacher transmits it on the same basis by which he or she received it. In the study of the passage, the expositor examines the grammar, history, and context. In the pulpit, the preacher must deal with enough of the language, background, and setting of the text so that an attentive listener is able to check the message from the Bible itself.
As a result, effective expository preaching will be occupied largely with the explanation of Scripture. A good expository sermon will reflect the passage, not only in its central message, but also in its development, purpose, and mood. As this takes place, people not only learn the Bible as they listen, but they also are stimulated to study the Scriptures for themselves.
Benefits. Expository preaching offers great benefits to the preacher. For one thing, it gives him or her truth to preach. Many ministers spend a frustrating part of their week “starting to get underway to begin” their sermon preparation. Only a genius can think up enough original material that is fresh and stimulating and that will keep the same audience interested one hundred times a year. The preacher who draws topics from his or her own mind and experience dabbles in a puddle. The preacher who expounds the Scripture does business in great waters.
Expository preaching provides the preacher with many types of sermons. He or she may expound a single verse (Alexander McLaren was outstanding in this respect). The preacher may expound a passage—this is what is usually considered expository preaching. In addition, he or she may trace a topic or doctrine through the Bible. To do this, the preacher finds the many places in which a topic or doctrine is dealt with. First, the preacher relates the topic to the particular passage in which it is found, then the different passages to each other. Biographical preaching may also be expository. Much of the Scripture comes to us in the form of history or biography. Genesis, for example, is almost entirely composed of biographical material.
Our definition tells us that expository preaching also helps develop the preacher into a mature Christian. When an expositor studies the Bible, the Holy Spirit probes the preacher’s life. As a man or woman prepares sermons, God prepares the person. Alexander McLaren said that everything he was, he owed to the fact that day after day he studied the Scriptures. T. Forsyth understood this when he wrote, “The Bible is the supreme preacher to the preacher” (Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909], 11).
Purpose. Finally, the basic purpose of expository preaching is the basic purpose of the Bible. It takes place so that through it the Holy Spirit may change lives and destinies. Preaching and teaching, of course, are not the only means by which God builds up his people, but they are the major means. The effective expositor knows that God is not speaking to people today about the Bible as though it were a textbook in history or archaeology. The Holy Spirit speaks to people today from the Bible about themselves. The person in the pulpit or the people in the pew do not sit in judgment on Judas, or David, or Peter, or Solomon. Under the teaching of Scripture, they must judge themselves.
To carry out this purpose, the expositor must know not only the message but also the people to whom it will be delivered. The preacher must exegete both the Scriptures and the congregation. Imagine that Paul’s letters to the Corinthians had gotten lost in the mail and had reached the Christians in Philippi instead. Those people would have been perplexed at what Paul wrote. The believers in Philippi lived in different situations from the Christians at Corinth. The letters of the New Testament, like the prophecies of the Old Testament, were addressed to specific people living in particular situations.
“Doctrines must be preached practically, and duties doctrinally,” was the way our Protestant forebears put it. Perhaps this is the largest problem in what is called “expository preaching” today. The preacher lectures about the “there and then” as though God lived back in the “once upon a time,” and he or she fails to bring the eternal truth to focus on the attitudes and actions of people in the “here and now.” Application is not incidental to effective expository preaching; it is crucial.
In relating the Bible to experience, however, the expositor dares not twist the Scriptures to fit people’s lives. Instead, the preacher calls persons to bring themselves into subjection to the standards of the Bible. Christians must conform to the age to come, not to this present age. The application moves both ways. Biblical truth must be related to men’s and women’s lives; but on the other hand, their lives must be changed to be relevant to biblical faith.
Conclusion
F. B. Meyer, himself a gifted expositor, understood the awe with which a biblical preacher approaches his task. “[The preacher] is in a line of great succession. The reformers, the Puritans, the pastors of the Pilgrim fathers were essentially expositors. They did not announce their own particular opinions, which might be a matter of private interpretation or doubtful disposition; but, taking their stand on Scripture, drove home their message with irresistible effect with, ‘Thus said the Lord!’ ” (Expository Preaching: Plans and Methods [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954], 60)
The major problems of our society are ultimately spiritual. People always stand in desperate need of God. “They will not ask for help unless they believe in Him, and they will not believe in Him unless they have heard of Him, and they will not hear of Him unless they get a preacher, and they will never have a preacher unless one is sent. But as the Scripture says the footsteps of those who bring Good News is a welcome sound.… So faith comes from what is preached, and what is preached comes from the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:14–17, NJB).