Why Expositional Preaching?
Written by Josh Pool, Senior Pastor
This is a short(ish) reflection for my church family, Covenant Baptist Church.
As you’ve heard us say many times, we are a church that is built upon the rock of God’s Word; therefore, we are a church compelled toward expositional preaching.
What’s that? Expositional preaching is ‘empowered preaching that rightfully submits the shape and emphasis of the sermon to the shape and emphasis of a biblical text.’[1] That is, what the text says, the sermon should say. What the text calls for, the sermon must call for. Expositional preaching is that kind of heralding that is joyfully chained to words of Scripture. Where the Scriptures go the pastor goes.
For us, this usually, though not always, means sequential preaching through books of the Bible. Is this the only way to preach? No. Is it the only acceptable way to preach? No. But it is the best way to preach. Expositional preaching is what is best for the church— for our church. Here are four reasons why:
1. Expositional preaching teaches and demonstrates to the church that the Bible is efficacious.
That is, it goes all-in on the power of the Word. Expositional preaching makes a statement about who God is and how he works; it is by itself a theological act. David Helm says it well: preachers must believe that ‘the Word they proclaim saves and strengthens the church.’[2] When a pastor casts the seeds of biblical exposition, he is trusting that God will take those seeds and lodge them into the soil of souls in the church by the power of his Spirit. This is the pastor doubling down on ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth’ and cashing in on ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3.6; Romans 10.17). This is the pastor resting upon the promise that ‘[God’s] Word will not return to [him] empty, without accomplishing what [he] desires’ (Isaiah 55.11). When pastors preach like this, they demonstrate to the church that power rests in the Word, the sword of the Spirit.
How significant this is to our call to disciple the flock. As members ask, ‘How do our pastors approach preaching? What does their preaching communicate about their theology?’ The answer must be: my pastors believe in the power of God’s Word.
2. Expositional preaching teaches and demonstrates that the Bible is sufficient.
That is, it is a perpetual reminder that the good gift of God’s Word is enough for us. Further, it protects the pastor from being chained to his perception of church needs, and instead, it communicates a trust that the Word will meet them in God’s timing and in his ways. Expositional preaching takes the long view; it patiently makes space for the Word to address the heart over a span of a year, or a decade, or a lifetime.
Expositional preaching frees a pastor from the creativity god, leading him toward the rather uncreative discipline of textual reliance. It frees him from what would otherwise be a constant chase for relevance. Imagine a pastor who studies to find a biblical author’s main point. Then this pastor thinks, ‘This needs more. This isn’t enough. This will not speak to what my people need.’ Thus, he is tempted to add to or to take away from the Word. When a pastor gives in to this temptation, he is functionally denying the sufficiency of Scripture—even if he would affirm it on paper.
What a danger we must avoid as your pastors! The pastor who denies his people the truths of God’s Word as that Word has been revealed is not trusting God and his ordained means. To strip the church from exposition is to take your sanctification into the pastor’s hands. To strip the church in this way is like placing noise-cancelling headphones on your ears: the Word could have been heard, but it has been muted by method. One danger our church must always avoid is to grow accustomed to hearing your pastor’s voice more than God’s voice. May it never be so among us!
In contrast, the beauty of expositional preaching is that it demonstrates that God still speaks. But what sets it apart is that it also honors the method by which God still speaks. There are plenty who say God still speaks. But what expositional preaching communicates to a local church is marvelously narrow: it says, God still speaks and he does so by his Word written and proclaimed. And so, if the Bride has any hope of truly and clearly hearing him, we need to open the Book and let Him speak for himself. A pastor must prioritize expositional preaching; if he doesn’t, his congregation may go looking for God’s voice in the wrong places.
3. Expositional preaching teaches the church that the Bible is finally authoritative, not the pastor.
Not only is it intentionally uncreative, it is also intentionally restraining. Expositional preaching chastens the preacher to capitulate to the enduring authority of the Word. It demotes the man and promotes his message. It makes a mortal stand upon the rock of God’s immortal Word. The pastor’s personal authority stands upon shifting sands; when it is his voice, his idea, his topic, he has no true or lasting authority. But when his message and his ministry stand upon the Scriptures, he wields an abiding authority.
Expositional preaching is necessarily humbling. It is the pastor refusing to speak on his own terms. It is a commitment to speaking on the authority of God’s terms, his Word. It is the pastor saying, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3.30). In fact, this is the only type of authority a pastor can have: one that is given, bestowed. A pastor’s authority lives and dies upon his fidelity to preaching God’s authoritative Word. When a man no longer preaches it, he no longer has any legitimate authority in the eyes of heaven.
So then, one sees the dangers of what Helm calls ‘inebriated preaching.’[3] When a pastor uses the Bible more for support than illumination, he is (perhaps unintentionally) undermining the authority of the Word while vying for his own. For example, if topical preaching is the regular diet for a local church, that body will naturally cling to the voice of her under-shepherd more than to that of the Chief Shepherd. They will grow more accustomed to his voice, his mantras, his ideas rather than to the inscrutable ways and truths of God. When pastors don’t say what God intends for us to say, we train our sheep to follow us more than they follow him.
One very practical implication: expositional preaching also makes sense among a plurality of preachers. If it is God’s Word, and not one particular man’s word, it would be wise to have more than one man declaring it. Wisdom and gifting tell us there should be a primary preacher, but also that there can (should?) be more than one man in the pulpit. Having more than one voice trains the congregation to listen for God’s voice through multiple men’s voices. As your elders, we make this an intentional decision.
4. Expositional preaching is the primary and most effective long-term discipling model for the local church.
Simply put, our people are just better off this way. You are more well-rounded in following Christ when the Book is open and devoured week in and week out. The expositor teaches the people how to think with precision and to see with Bible-only lenses. The pastor not only must rightly handle the Word of truth, but he also, by way of patient expositional modeling, disciples others to rightly handle the Word too (2 Timothy 2.2 plus 2.15)! This is beautifully borne out in the everyday lives and spiritual disciplines of the people. Preaching this way teaches Christians how to open their Bibles and find its truth correctly. It strips us of subjective, self-seeking use of the Word, and it teaches us to know God as he intends to be known.
Exposition’s reach is immeasurable. It goes everywhere in the life of a church. It changes the way two men think together. It changes how a husband and a wife pray together. It changes how a single woman laments and a widower grieves. It changes how a sinner hears the good news of God’s grace in Christ. Expositional preaching is the tip of the spear of congregational discipling. So why would we start and stay anywhere else to mature the saints? What you believe about God’s Word—that it is efficacious, sufficient, clear, and authoritative—directly shapes how you will communicate it.