Preaching

How do you prepare to preach an expositional sermon? What steps are involved?

9Marks

Different preachers will develop slightly different ways of preparing sermons, which is fine. Do what works for you. That said, here are some steps that should be involved in the preparation of any expositional sermon.

How do you do expositional preaching poorly?

9Marks
Do no application. Expositional preaching is preaching that takes the main point of a scriptural text, makes it the main point of the sermon, and applies it to life today. Good expositional preaching will apply the text specifically: to different kinds of people in different spiritual states and different situations in life.

Why is expositional preaching particularly relevant for people in postmodern times?

9Marks

Some people today claim that expositional preaching is irrelevant for postmodern people. “People today need narrative and conversation and dialogue and drama! They don’t need expositional preaching.”

In fact, expositional preaching is particularly relevant for postmodern people:

Isn’t expositional preaching too monological and one-sided? Don’t people better learn through dialogue?

9Marks
Some people resent expositional preaching’s monological mode. One man stands up for many minutes and preaches while everyone else listens. Isn’t this unfair or even oppressive? What about conversation? Certainly, there should be plenty of venues in the life of the church for conversation, whether through inductive Bible studies, follow-up sermon studies in small groups, or other contexts. 

Is expositional preaching the only kind of preaching a pastor should do?

9Marks

No, expostional preaching is not the only kind of preaching a pastor should do. But…

Do we see examples of expositional preaching in the Bible?

9Marks

Yes. Some of these are more distant historical precedents and some of these are clear examples of expositional preaching—preaching that explains and applies the main point of a biblical text.

Why should a pastor preach expositionally?

9Marks

A pastor should preach expositionally because God works through God’s word. God speaking is God acting.*

Why should expositional preaching include biblical theology?

9Marks
Bibilical theology is necessary in order to understand the text. We can truly understand a text of Scripture only by situating it within the overall narrative of redemptive history.

Why should expositional preaching include systematic theology?

9Marks

Is there a contradiction between systematic theology and faithful preaching of the text? Can we faithfully do both?

9Marks
Recently, some people have begun to argue that systematic theology inherently distorts the meaning of scriptural texts. They argue that any “system” imposes foreign thought-structures onto biblical texts, necessarily tampering with their meaning.

What should a pastor do whose people don’t like expositional preaching?

9Marks
Spend more time preparing excellent sermons. Spend more time studying the text, meditating on it, praying over it, making sure you understand it. Spend more time praying for the members of your congregation by name, asking God how the text might apply to them. Sacrifice other items in your weekly calendar so that you can prayerfully prepare excellent sermons.

Why don’t people like expositional preaching?

9Marks
They have no appetite for it. Non-Christians typically have little desire to hear God’s authoritative Word. Yet we who are Christians can have weak spiritual appetites, like children who want only junk food, when the meat and vegetables of expositional preaching will do us far more spiritual good. We may not like expositional preaching because we’ve never been trained on solid foods.  

Should expositional sermons be evangelistic?

9Marks

Absolutely! Why?

Why doesn’t expositional preaching require a verse-by-verse approach?

9Marks

Some people associate expositional preaching exclusively with an approach that plods through books of the Bible one verse at a time. While this is certainly one way to preach expositionally, it is by no means the only way.

How does expositional preaching differ from other kinds of preaching?

9Marks
Topical Preaching: Topical preaching is preaching in which the preacher picks a topic he wants to address and then finds biblical material to fit that topic. Topical preaching is driven by the preacher’s agenda—what he wants to talk about. Expositional preaching, on the other hand, begins with the Bible. A preacher does not decide what to preach and then look at Scripture; rather, he looks at a text of Scripture and allows Scripture to determine what he preaches.
Share