What Is Expository Preaching?
Here at Grace Bible Church NYC, we hold to what is called “Expository Preaching.”
What Is Expository Preaching
Expository preaching is simply the reading, explanation, and application of the Bible, with the sole intent of communicating the original meaning of the text.
When preaching expositionally, the preacher is normally working through a specific book of the Bible, and is going in order through that book, verse by verse. With this approach, the preaching schedule is really going to be dictated by the specific book that he’s preaching through.
This also means that there will be more time spent in a specific book of the Bible, taking the necessary time to understand the Word of God. Although there is a time and place for biographical sermons, book-overview sermons, topical sermons, etc., this should not be the steady diet of a church.
Why We’re Committed to Expository Preaching
The motivation behind expository preaching really goes back to Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). It’s the same picture we see all the way back in Nehemiah 8:8 where:
“They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”
When the expositor recognizes that his only job is to accurately understand, explain, and apply the text before him, it provides certain guidelines in his exegetical, or study process. He is to simply preach the Word.
Going through a book of the Bible expositionally, verse-by-verse, really allows the preacher to stick with the main point of the text in his studies as well as in the sermon itself. This also means that any topical sermon or series ends up being a combination of “mini-expositions” of texts that are rightly understood to be supporting the specific topic.
This means that the preacher is not trying to import his own ideas of what he wants the text to mean, but is striving to draw out of the text what it is that God intended this text to say. The preacher goes about doing this by understanding what the original author of the text intended to say to the original audience. This truly moves the preacher out of the way of the text and allows God’s Word to go forward unobstructed. The reality is that the preacher can bring about no change in the lives of those listening by any power of his own. That authority and power rests in Scripture alone (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and thankfully, when we humbly sit under that authority, God fulfills the promise to transform us into the image of Christ.
The Sad Reality
But the truth is, sound, expository preaching will only truly matter in settings where the church has a high view of the written word of God. If a church does not have a high view of the word of God, then what God has communicated to us through His written word really doesn’t matter to them.
So, in those settings where there is not a high view of Scripture, there is more acceptance of a man going up behind the pulpit and instead of expositing the text, he brings what he may call a “fresh word from the Lord”, or he brings his own ideas or his own opinions and uses God’s word to try to back that up. This is not faithful preaching. This does not equip the church to live with a greater understanding, love, and obedience of Jesus Christ her savior. And sadly, in those settings, those in the pews are getting exactly what they’ve come for.
In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Paul warned of this to Timothy, saying:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths”
Both the preacher and those listening are culpable for such a diversion from the truth. Committing to expository preaching is one way the church can protect against this apostasy.
So, what is “Expository Preaching”? Simply put, we believe that expository preaching is faithful preaching of the word of God, and should be the normal, steady diet of a church.