Expository Preaching: The Key to Growing a Healthy Church

One of the most distinguishing marks of a healthy, growing church is the presence of regular expository preaching.

This may seem like a bold statement at first blush, and part of that is because we are conditioned to recoil from definitive statements like this. But, if you will stick with me through this Field Note, I think it will become clear why I feel comfortable with making such a definitive statement.

To see healthy church growth in your faith community you need to incorporate the use of expository preaching. This will allow you to preach the scriptures in a way that conveys the original author’s meaning as God intended them to be heard. When the scriptures are read with their original meaning, life change happens and the Holy Spirit moves in supernatural ways.

Introduction

Why should you preach?

As a pastor or ministry leader, have you ever stopped to ask this question?

If you are like most who devote any time to preaching, you just do it. You were placed in a role that had the expectation, or job description, that obligated you to preach. Now, for most of us who are involved in a preaching ministry, we love to preach and would happily do it even if we weren’t obligated to by a job description or title. However, it still remains necessary to ask the question, beyond obligation, why do I preach?

When we examine the purpose of preaching we can see the value and necessity of it. There was a time in history when preaching was the only way anyone knew what the scriptures said. It is easy to take our literacy for granted and it is easy for us to forget that many people over the centuries were illiterate and unable to read the scriptures for themselves. This made sermons necessary for the masses to possess basic knowledge and understanding of the scriptures.

But, how should that change today when there is a very high percentage of the world population that is literate? For most of us, every one of reading age in our faith communities can read the Bible for themselves.

In a great article in the Expository Times titled “Why Preach? How to Prepare for it?’, Chris Knights gives us three reasons why we preach in an age where information transfer is not the main goal:

Glorification

As we preach the word of God, one of our primary goals should be to glorify God. Regardless of the scripture we are using or the topic we are exploring, our sermons should focus first and foremost on the glorification of God, his characteristics, and his role in our lives. In a world that greatly misunderstands God, this is incredibly important.

Proclamation

Glorification of God is of utmost importance, but the proclamation of Jesus Christ is the mandate we have been given. “Go and make disciples…” is what Jesus left with his followers. Our sermons should always point to Christ, whether it is pointing forward to Christ from the Old Testament or pointing back to Christ in the New Testament. It is through his name we are all saved, so our sermons should not exclude him from the conversation.

Edification

As God’s people, we should be confident, powerful, joyful, and impactful people. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that is how many Christians live out their lives. After 20 years of ministry, I feel much of the reason God’s people don’t walk in the joy God has given them is that too many of us who preach to them use guilt, obligation, and even manipulation to get them to live their lives in a way that glorifies God. Our sermons should teach the truths of scripture in a way that equips God’s people to live encouraged rather than condemned.

In this series, How to Overcome Biblical Illiteracy, we are examining the steps we need to take as pastors and ministry leaders to combat the growing epidemic of God’s people not knowing God’s word.

(If you want to check out the introduction to this series, click here.)

A major contributing factor to God’s people not knowing God’s word is preachers not presenting it in a way that those in their faith communities understand it.

There are many seasoned Christians who don’t fully understand that the Bible isn’t made up of a thousand different stories, but is one story being told in a thousand different pieces. When people understand the Bible is a continuous story of redemption, love, and conquering triumph, they are drawn deeper into their reading.

As preachers, if we preach a verse here and verse there, the people in our congregations have a disjointed understanding of scripture and become satisfied with the Sunday School version of the Bible they received as kids. This fractured approach to the Bible in our preaching contributes to the fractured approach most people have with the Bible itself.

In this Field Note, we continue our series How to Overcome Biblical Illiteracy by looking at why we need to adopt expository preaching as our primary model for presenting the word of God if we want to bring the scriptures alive and reverse the epidemic of Biblical illiteracy.

What is Expository Preaching?

If you were placed on the witness stand in a court hearing you would place your hand on a Bible and be asked this question, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?”

Well, when you step into that pulpit, or behind the lectern, or just on the stage to deliver a sermon you are being asked the same question. Do you swear to tell the truth of what is found in God’s word, the whole truth of those scriptures, and nothing but God’s truth?

I know for me when I think of it that way, it adds a greater level of gravity to the moment when I take the mic and communicate God’s word. In my own preaching history, I know it is easy to slip into preaching topical sermons week after week.

What’s Wrong With Topical Sermon?

Topical sermons are typically developed from an idea, concept, or point we as preachers are trying to make. We want to preach on love, forgiveness, grace, secularism, or whatever, so we scour the scriptures (and Google) for passages that relate to the topic we are wanting to address. We artfully craft our sermons using these passages, and a few illustrations, jokes, and whatever sermon elements we are comfortable with, and we put together a sermon that proves the point we originally set out to prove.

Now, this is not inherently bad as a sermon style. Topical sermons are valuable tools to use, however, when improperly used they can become dangerous.

We have all heard the saying, “you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to”. Well, this is true, particularly when you are starting with a topic and pulling passages to prove the point you are trying to make. Topical sermons are fairly easy to develop, however, they take a great deal of discipline to be used properly and resist the temptation of misuse.

Though a topical sermon can be an effective tool, it does have one major drawback. It does not clearly teach the overarching story of the Bible, primarily God’s pursuit of his people.

Topical sermons are like looking at different pieces of a puzzle. Imagine grabbing puzzle pieces with different shades of green. You could talk about how similar they are, what can be learned about green from these pieces, and even about how the green plays into the whole puzzle. However, if all you ever do is pick up random pieces and discuss how they are related, you will never see the puzzle put together and appreciate the beauty of the entire image.

This is where expository preaching fits in. The goal of expository preaching is to start with the biblical text and study it to determine the original author’s intended meaning for the original audience. Once that meaning is discovered and understood, the preacher is then tasked with the objective of transmitting that truth to a contemporary audience in a way that applies to their lives while maintaining the original meaning.

In his book Christ-Centered Preaching, Bryan Chapell gives a more concise definition of expository preaching by putting it this way:

…the technical definition of an expository sermon requires that it expound Scripture by deriving from a specific text main points and subpoints that disclose the thought of the author, cover the scope of the passage, and are applied to the lives of the listeners.

In an expository sermon, the points and subpoints all come from one passage of scripture. It could be a whole book of the Bible, a chapter, or even a collection of successive passages. In some instances, an expository sermon can be derived from the entire Bible, however, the real test is whether or not the passages used are being presented from the perspective of the original authors and their original meaning. This is very challenging to do, however, it can be done.

The primary goal of preaching in an expository style is to present the scriptures in their purest form to capture God’s original intent for the original audience. Then, to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the contemporary application for your faith community.

What Makes Expository Preaching Effective?

At this point you may be saying, “Okay, Brandon, that sounds all well and good, but how does preaching in an expository style make a difference?”

Well, I am glad you asked!

In a nutshell, if you consistently use an expository style of preaching, you will see your faith community grow in depth (spiritual maturation) and width (influence and numerical growth).

Preaching in an expository style brings life to the scriptures and introduces your congregation to the whole story of God’s redemption of His people. Without an expository approach to sermons, we all have tendencies to preach on the same topics (grace, love, relationships, outreach, leadership) and use the same passages over and over. If people are leaving your church through the backdoor evaluate your sermon content.

Most of us can preach topical sermons for 3-5 years without really rehashing the same things over and over again. When people have heard you speak about reaching your neighbors through relationships time and time again, they lose interest and either shut down as they sit through your sermons, or they go somewhere else seeking a fresh revelation of the scripture. This can be avoided as expository preaching lends itself to fresh revelation each week, which keeps people coming back for more and bringing their family and friends to share in the experience.

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Another benefit of expository preaching is that it removes us from the equation and allows God to become the focal point (well, almost).

Okay, so the quality of our presentation can never be removed from the equation. This is why it is important to hone our skills as presenters, which we will cover in a later Field Note. What I mean is that we don’t want to build our own Kingdoms, but we want to contribute to the advancement of God’s kingdom. When we preach expository sermons we don’t unwittingly shape how people read the Bible, we simply present the Bible as it is and allow the Holy Spirit to do the shaping.

As pastors and ministry leaders we need to be aware of the power of our influence. A quick glance in our history will reveal leaders, pastors, and televangelists who used God’s word to influence people improperly and hurt thousands in the process. Spiritual leadership is not something we should approach lightly, nor should we approach preaching God’s word lightly. The more we can remove ourselves from the process the healthier it is for God’s people to follow Him, hear His voice, and be obedient to Him.

As a practical benefit of expository preaching, it is the best method for preparing ahead. So many of us get caught in the cycle of working on this week’s sermon this week. We begin on Monday morning asking the question, “God, what should I preach about this week?”

When you are using an expository style, you are in the flow of working through a specific book, chapter, or piece of scripture. The progression is laid out for you as you study the scriptures. There is less guesswork involved and you lower the risk of just “throwing something together” on Saturday night.

Now, for all my brothers and sisters in the charismatic, evangelical, Pentecostal world of church ministry, we have an innate issue with this because we believe we need to be open to the direction of the Holy Spirit in the moment rather than boxing him in with preparation.  Well, we serve a triune God who is infinite and not bound by time, so whether I ask him Monday about this coming week’s sermon, or I asked last year about this coming week’s sermon, it is all the same to Him. He already knows either way. If we ask a year in advance, six months in advance, or even a month in advance, we find ourselves better prepared and I feel like it shows God’s greatness even more.

My point is when we are preaching expository sermons we are able to focus more on developing our content and delivering it well rather than figuring out what we are going to preach week to week.

Relationship with Biblical Illiteracy

One of the contributing factors to Biblical illiteracy is a disinterest in the Bible. Many of us have been hearing the story of David and Goliath, Noah, and Daniel and the lion’s den since we were in first grade, assuming we were in church back then. So, in our 30’s and 40’s, if we are still hearing those same Sunday School stories repackaged, we are simply growing disinterested.

However, preaching from the book of Hosea, Ruth, Hebrews, and 1 John opens up sections of the Bible that many of your congregants may have never read and most certainly haven’t heard a sermon on. Study into the depths of God’s word and bring it to life for your congregation. Pique their interest in the Bible again and then send them home to read their own Bibles to discover the awesome truths and amazing stories of God’s hand of redemption.

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As people are inspired in their discovery of scripture in a corporate setting they will be compelled to discover more personally. When they discover more about the Bible, they grow deeper in their relationship with Jesus, which compels them to engage their communities more effectively.

Biblical illiteracy grows because people’s disinterest in the Bible grows. If we adopt an expository style of preaching on a regular basis, those in our faith communities will want to learn more about the Bible and they will dig into their own scriptures at home.

They will also be more faithful to attending services as they enter into the quest to discover more about God’s word and the story he is telling.

Resources

• Halloran, Kevin. (2015). Why Expository Preaching?. Leadership Resources. https://www.leadershipresources.org/why-expository-preaching-20-reasons-to-preach-expositional-sermons/
• Hubert, John. (2018). Preach the Word: Moving Toward an Expository Preaching Model for Minnesota Assemblies of God Pastors. 
• Knights, C. (2004). Why Preach? How to Prepare for it? The Expository Times, 115(4), 119–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/001452460411500403
• McDill, Wayne. (2014). Seven Qualities of Expository Preaching. Facts and Trends. https://factsandtrends.net/2014/01/08/seven-qualities-of-expository-preaching/
• Robinson, Haddon W. (1980). Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (1st ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker)
• Stetzer, Ed. (2014). Biblical Literacy by Numbers. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/october/biblical-literacy-by-numbers-3.html
• Thomas, Derek. (2016). 6 Advantages of Consecutive Expository Preaching. Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/blog/6-advantages-consecutive-expository-preaching/