Why Bother with Expository Preaching?
Someone once said that if you do not preach expository sermons, then you
run the great risk of preaching impositionally, that is you start imposing your
ideas and your bias on people instead of God’s word.
JI Packer defines expository
preaching as “the preaching of the man who knows Holy Scripture to be the
living word of the living God, and who desires only that it should be free to
speak its own message to sinful men and women; who therefore preaches from a
text, and in preaching labours, as the Puritans would say, to “open” it, or, in
Simeon’s phrase, to “bring out of the text what is there.”[1]
This means that the preacher
first unpacks the Bible’s meaning as carefully and as clearly as he can and
applies it to himself and then to his congregations. In this way, the preacher always remains
under the authority of the Bible. He
allows it to instruct him, correct him and shape his thinking before he even
puts pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).
In this way, the Bible remains
in the driver’s seat of the sermon, it dictates the content of our message. Unfortunately in some churches, it is the
preacher who is in the driver’s seat, the Bible is either found in the
passenger seat where it pops up for a quick word now and then or worst of all,
the Bible is not there at all.
There are many other types
of sermons that are preached in churches. Topical preaching which systematically reviews topics such as prayer,
grace or Trinity. Biographical preaching
which takes the life of someone in the Bible and draws lessons from it. These may be helpful if done occasionally and
as long as they are primarily anchored and drawn from specific passages in the
Bible within their contexts.
Increasingly today, many
churches preach needs-driven sermons which answer the felt needs of the
congregation such as the need for security or prosperity or health using
various promises from different parts of the Bible.
The problem with these
approaches is that when the preacher exhorts the congregation, he will never
preach more than what he already knows. But
more dangerously, the preacher will often choose passages to back up points
that he has already decided upon. In
this way, the Bible becomes no more than a proof text for the preacher. Instead of his thoughts being shaped by Scripture,
he merely uses Scripture to support his thoughts.[2]
This was exposed most
frighteningly to me when I visited a church and the preacher made point after
point using passages which were totally out of context and even worse, used
different versions of the Bible to best suit his message when one version
disagreed with him. The sermon was
primarily drawn from motivational and self-help material but then dressed up in
the language of the Bible to legitimize it. This was not God speaking his word
through the preacher but the preacher merely speaking his ideas and dressing
them up as God’s word.
The preacher had failed in
his divine responsibility to preach God’s word.
He had used God’s word unfaithfully and carelessly. He had not heeded the warning that Paul gave
to Timothy: "Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and
who correctly handles the word of truth." 2 Tim 2:15
"All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work. In the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead,
and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and
out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful
instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound
doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a
great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth
and turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 3:16-4:4
We must preach the Word. We
must correctly handle the word of truth. The Bible must remain in the driver’s
seat in our churches and our sermons must be faithful to it so that the
authentic voice of God can be heard.
As Mark Dever says in his
book “What is a healthy church?”, “…God intends the church to learn from both
Testaments, as well as from every genre of Scripture-law, history, wisdom,
prophesy, gospels and epistles. An
expositional preacher who moves straight through the books of the Bible and
genres of Scripture, I believe, is like a mother who serves her children food
from every food group, not just their two or three favorite meals”.[3]
Written by Rev Andrew Ong
Bethany-Trinity Presbyterian Church
Written by Rev Andrew Ong
Bethany-Trinity Presbyterian Church
References:
P Adam, “Speaking God’s word”, IVP 1996C Green & D Jackman, “When God’s voice is heard” IVP, 1995
D Jackman, “ Why Bother With Expository Preaching?” November 19, 2010 http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/why-bother-with-expository-preaching-david-jackman/
M. Dever, “What is a Healthy Church?”, Crossway Books: 2007
J I Packer , “Expository Preaching: Charles Simeon and Ourselves”, Churchman 074/2 1960, http://www.churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/CMan_074_2_Packer.pdf
W Philip. Ed “The Practical Preacher”, Proclamation trust media, 2002
HW Robinson, “Expository Preaching: Principles & Practice (IVP, 1980)
[1] J I Packer , “Expository
Preaching: Charles Simeon and Ourselves”, Churchman 074/2
1960, http://www.churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/CMan_074_2_Packer.pdf. pg 1
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