What Is the Big Deal about Expository Preaching?

We are committed to expository preaching as the norm at Antioch. It doesn’t mean we can never share a sermon that is more topical, but probably 45 weeks of the year, we are working our way through a book in the Bible, verse by verse. Why is that helpful? Because we are getting the milk and the meat of Scripture. Try this experiment if you will, and your kids will LOVE it. Go for a month just eating doughnuts for every meal. Or ice cream if you’re not a doughnut family. Sounds like fun! But it would make you sick. And weak. Topical preaching runs heavily toward milk and cookies. We need the meat and vegetables (and milk!) that the Bible offers in every book in order to be spiritually healthy. Working through a book also gives us an understanding of the context from which each verse comes, the reason the author wrote the book, his intended audience, and how it fits into the whole of Scripture. Can you imagine a Chemistry professor teaching a textbook on chemistry by picking out parts of sentences at random and using them for his lectures, with no context, no understanding of how one thing relates to the other? Working through a book also forces us to deal with the difficult issues. You can’t preach through James without talking about prejudice, the rich exploiting the poor, quarrels and fights in the church, how we use our tongues to hurt, or elders’ prayer for the sick. Sometimes the Bible confronts us and sometimes it upsets us. Tim Keller said this: “Only if your God can say things that upset you will you know you have a real God and not just a creation of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible (the point of contradiction) is not the enemy of a personal love relationship with God (the point of contact). It is the precondition.” 

What is expository preaching? Here are two definitions I like. John Stott: Exposition refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The expositor opens what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted, and unfolds what is tightly packed. (Between Two Worlds) Alistair Begg: Unfolding the text of Scripture in such a way that makes contact with the listeners’ world while exalting Christ and confronting them with the need for action. (Preaching for God’s Glory)

Why teach through books of the Bible instead of interesting topics? I mean, won’t we be able to draw a bigger crowd if we teach interesting topics? Probably! But is that the purpose of a pastor or a church? To stack people on top of each other and hope that maybe they will grow? Paul said the church leaders’ job is “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry…building up the body of Christ.” We teach through books of the Bible simply because the Bible, and only the Bible, is the Word of God. And because we believe what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Profitable for truth, for exposing error, for correcting wrong behavior and for training good behavior. But even more, Paul said, that we may be complete men and women of God and that we may be equipped for every good work! That’s a lot of good works. Good works in the home, good works in the church, good works in the place of business, good works in the community. So, it must beg the question: Why don’t we see much expository preaching in churches anymore? Alistair Begg said, “The absence of expository preaching is directly related to an erosion of confidence in the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.” If we lose confidence in the Bible, then we replace a period in the Bible with a comma. One “comma” prevalent in many churches today is to reject clear biblical truth that God created two genders, male and female, and that God created and ordained marriage as between one man and one woman. Period. 

Paul spent three years in Ephesus, preaching and teaching. Remember when Paul met with the Ephesian elders a few years later, as he was on his way to Jerusalem? He said, “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” I believe the whole counsel of God can best be declared through expository preaching. Tim Keller said it this way: “Expository preaching should provide the main diet of preaching for a Christian community. . . . (It) is the best method for displaying and conveying your conviction that the whole Bible is true. This approach testifies that you believe every part of the Bible to be God’s Word, not just particular themes and not just the parts you feel comfortable agreeing with.”