Expositional Preaching

Weekly Update – August 4th, 2022

In the apostle Paul’s final days, right before his own death, in 2 Timothy 4:1-5, he gives the call to Timothy to preach the word. In light of false teachers, perhaps decreased attendance, controversies in the church, and a pagan culture, the encouragement given to Timothy is not to get creative, to do something funny or to be more entertaining. No, again, preach the word. Our day is not too much different than this. The church of 2022 continues to deal with false teachers, decreased attendance, controversies and a pagan culture. The solution by many in our day is to say that the sermon should only be between 10 to 15 minutes long, or that there should be more entertainment or music and less scripture.  Others might say that in our fast paced society of facebook, twitter, and sound bite information, we can’t really expect anyone to have the patience for a serious exposition of an ancient text?  But as Martin Lloyd Jones says, “The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.”  Therefore, in light of the call given to Timothy that we saw last week, let me explain why today, in 2022, we need faithful, expositional preaching.

Let us first begin by considering what the point of life is.  I know that sounds like a deep matter, but think if you will about the question, “why was I created?”  Well, we know that there is an all powerful God who created man in his image.  From this simple truth we would have to conclude that along with creation that our purpose is to worship God.  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.”  Likewise Revelation 5:13 says, at the end of time every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth will proclaim, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessings and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”  I could go on, but if you read the Bible straight through you will see the point being made about God’s purposes for redeeming not only humanity but the entire earth, is for his glory, praise and most importantly his worship. 

So now here is how worship connects to preaching.  As John Piper says, “God exists to be worshipped—to be admired and treasured and desired and praised. Therefore, the Word of God is written primarily to produce worship. This means that if that Word is handled like a hot-dish recipe or a repair manual, it is mishandled. And the people will suffer.”  In other words if we use the Word of God for any other purpose than to produce worship we are misusing it.  More so, if we neglect the Word of God, we run the risk of returning to the days of the prophet Samuel when there was a famine across the land and people rarely heard from the Lord (1 Sam. 3:1).  

Expositional preaching is giving attention to the Scripture by expounding upon a particular passage, explaining it, and then applying it to those who listen.  Topical messages on occasion are helpful, but a steady diet of them will only take the church as far as what the preacher already knows.  The church will slowly become conformed to the pastor’s mind rather than to God’s mind.  On the other hand with expositional preaching, where the point of the passage is the point of the message, we hear from God things we did not initially intend to hear.  The Scriptures determine what we take away from the message and God directs us through his word in responding in worship to him. 

Therefore as people who were separated from God at the fall of Adam, faith in Christ must be central in our lives if we are to worship God properly.  For faith to be central in our lives, the Word of God must be central as it is God’s word that creates people through the work of the Holy Spirit.  As Mark Dever says, “the people of God, the church of God, can only be created around the Word of God.” In order to be a people who fulfill our mission to speak out and live out the gospel, we must place a priority upon expositional preaching that is set in the Word of God.   

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson