Is Expository Preaching Biblical?
John Kitchen
A friend who is tasked with raising up the next generation of pastoral leaders once emailed me, asking: Is expository preaching biblical?
The heart of expository preaching is to be biblical. Thus, the question strikes at the essence of the very thing itself. Yet the query may be helpful, for shouldn’t we be asking that about all we do in pastoral ministry?
I responded to his query at some length. Perhaps my response to him will stir your own thoughts.
Dear __________,
Some opine that “expository” preaching (or, in some folk’s minds, preaching of any kind) as a part of Christian worship is a dated, left-over relic from the Reformation, an antiquated practice that may not have much validity as we strive to “move in the apostolic” in our ministries today.
I wonder, however, if we might find, upon closer examination, that expository preaching was not invented by the Reformers, but recovered by them. It was, after all, a re-formation of the church around the apostolic necessities, a rediscovery of that which is essential and had been lost.
First, a word about the term “expository.” It is just that – a term. At one time it probably meant something fairly clear, but like so many of our terms (e.g., “evangelical”), over time it became weighted down with so many divergent notions that it has become almost useless in actually describing anything.
I like the notion of “text-driven” preaching. The text of Scripture drives the sermon, not the preacher’s internal feelings/leadings/nudges/notions, not the trends of the day, etc. That doesn’t negate the need to exegete the culture and our particular audience. It simply says that the preaching act itself ought to be an act in which the proclaimer submits himself, his sermon preparation, delivery, and his listeners to the authority of God’s written Word. The text of Scripture ought to determine the shape, substance, and spirit of the sermon.
Is that biblical? Yes, I think so.
Someone objects: “Show me an example of expository preaching in the NT!”
I read somewhere recently that John Stott said that the NT nowhere gives us a description of a Christian worship service, which includes preaching, except in Acts 20:7. I’m not sure about the accuracy of that, but it is instructive that Stott goes on to point out that this is no reason to believe preaching was an exception to the rule.
In the book of Acts we find narratives that largely describe evangelistic messages made in public forums, not examples of the gathered church in worship. While we do not have many such examples, we do have instructions about what those settings are to include.
Among other things, let’s take, for example, the way Paul ends the book of Romans. In what seems to be his most thorough exposition of the grace of God to us in Jesus Christ, Paul ends by saying this: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you …” (16:25a). I think “strengthen” is better rendered “establish” (cf. NIV, NASB, NKJV, etc.). The idea there is to make steady, firm, and strong, to found, and to establish. Sounds like discipleship to me. How did he suggest this was to happen? “… according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith” (vv.25-27). How are disciples grounded, founded, and established in their faith?
1) through the gospel of Jesus Christ (“according to my gospel”). Yes, of course, we say! But there is more. Disciples are established…
2) through the gospel of Jesus Christ preached (“my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ”). But there is still more…
3) through the gospel of Jesus Christ preached from the Bible (“according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations”).
It would be wrong to conclude that this is the only thing Paul has to say about establishing disciples in their faith. Surely there are other components, like one-on-one or small group kinds of things (to use our jargon). But it would be equally wrong to conclude that anything else he said about establishing disciples of Jesus (i.e., “to bring about the obedience of faith”) would exclude the need to preach the gospel of Jesus and its implications to the already-saved from the Bible as a part of their steady diet of discipleship.
Then, too, consider Paul’s instruction to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13-16: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
Just a few observations here…
“the public reading of Scripture” – more literally, “the reading” – refers to the Jewish custom of reading the Scriptures aloud in the synagogue (cf. the only other usages in the NT: Acts 13:15; 2 Cor 3:14). Paul views the public, corporate reading of Scripture as an indispensable part of the local church’s experience of worship and discipleship together.
“to exhortation” – Joseph Thayer indicates that in this context it denotes an official “hortatory discourse.” [1] This was a corporate experience of the local church, as the context makes clear. It is what we would call preaching.
“to teaching” – The corporate “hortatory discourse” was not to be merely moral exhortation, but to include instruction as well. Gospel imperatives are based on gospel indicatives; gospel commands rest on gospel grace, and that grace needs to be expounded so that God’s commands can be rightly embraced.
Paul charged Timothy, “devote yourself” to this. The present tense imperative demands this become the continual, ongoing, and habitual preoccupation of Timothy.
Paul does not leave this as an option; it must become the continuing, habitual, regular practice as Timothy leads the church in Ephesus.
“Practice these things”
“immerse yourself in them”
“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.”
“Persist in this”
So this demonstrates that Paul was assuming the replication of the Jewish practice of regular, corporate reading of God’s Word followed by an unfolding of what that passage means and how it ought to apply to our lives (Ps 119:130a). Perhaps we do not have many examples of this recorded for us in the NT because Paul was assuming its presence and necessity and thus felt it unnecessary to provide them. He did not feel it necessary to repeat what had already become the fixed belief of God’s people.
With that in mind, we ought to permit ourselves to broaden our view from the NT and include the OT. It is widely recognized that the synagogue movement and its practices began during the exile. So does the Scripture provide us any view of what this looked like?
Indeed, it does. “Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra was something of a prototype of what synagogue leaders were to become. The synagogue practice (in terms of Scripture reading and exposition) was assumed and perpetuated in the Christian churches Paul planted.
Do we have an example of the kind of teaching Ezra undertook? We do, in Nehemiah 8. How do we know this example is to be normative for God’s people today? It might be argued, it was a situational thing—not a regular synagogue meeting, but a somewhat spontaneous revival, a unique moving of God’s Spirit. To which I would simply respond, “Isn’t that what we want when our local churches gather?” Some of the details ought not to be pressed (the building of a platform, etc.), but surely the gist of this stands as something God affirms to us as a desirable practice.
I’ll point to just one more passage: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2. The chapter division here often blinds us to the continuity of Paul’s intent. He demands that Timothy “preach the word” (4:2; aorist imperative – undertake the action immediately and with urgency).
To this Paul adds four statements that develop just what he meant by “preach”: “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” Paul is not speaking randomly about what he wants preaching to be. He is laying out what preaching is because he has just laid out why Scripture itself was given (3:16-17). The Scriptures control the preaching.
Scripture was giving for … (3:16-17)
“teaching”
“reproof”
“correction”
“training”
The pastor is to … (4:1-2)
“preach”
“reprove”
“rebuke”
“exhort”
It appears obvious that the latter (preaching) grows out of the former (Scripture). Or, to put it another way, the logical outflow of the nature of Scripture itself, and the reason for God giving it to us, is that it ought to be taken up and “preached” to achieve those purposes among God’s gathered people. God’s purposes for the Scriptures (3:16-17) and for preaching (4:1-2) are one and the same. Preaching should allow the Word of God to dominate and arrive at its intended purpose. A sermon must be more than Scripture-based, it must be shaped and controlled by Scripture. We must allow our bibliology to inform and control our homiletics.
Before closing, I would like to ask a couple of questions that go to the implications of our theology and the logic of the concerns.
First, the theological. Our doctrinal statement says we believe: “The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.”
My question is, if we believe this to be true, when do we as “a people” functionally and regularly come together to submit ourselves to God’s Word as our final authority, to listen to his voice, to respond to him?
We are not just persons (who do indeed need to learn to feed ourselves on the Word of God), but we are a people. We have a corporate identity, experience, and responsibility. We do need to teach each one (as a person) to feed on God’s Word, but as “a people,” we regularly need the collective experience of feeding together on God’s Word through its teaching/preaching and our affirmation of it through our response to the voice of God that comes through it.
Where do we corporately affirm our submission to the Word of God? If not in the regular, worshipful discipline of preaching, where?
Secondly, the logical. You’ve mentioned that if we train people to feed themselves on God’s Word, expository preaching might be unnecessary. But this is a false dichotomy. The one does not necessarily exclude the other (i.e., if you emphasize expository preaching, this doesn’t mean you thereby neglect training people to feed themselves on the Word of God). While expository preaching may not necessarily drive people to their Bibles to feed themselves, it is hard to imagine a people truly equipped to feed themselves on the Word of God who did not desire the corporate experience of doing that very thing together as a people. It is kind of like saying, “I trained my teenager to cook so that he would be independent and live on his own. For that reason, we no longer eat family meals together.” The one doesn’t lead to the other. In fact, our family has found it does quite the opposite – we enjoy our times of eating together even more now that our kids have grown and learned to fend for themselves in the kitchen. But then, maybe that’s just because of our last name.
So, ________, thanks again for your email. Sorry that this has gone on this long, but I’ve tried to respond to what I heard you asking in as succinct and yet thorough a way as I know how.
Richest blessings on you, my brother!
John
John Kitchen - International Church - Middle East
[1] Joseph H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendriksen Publishers, Inc., reprinted 2003 from the 4th edition originally published by T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1896), 483.