For the next few weeks, I’m going to be reflecting on some of the unique aspects of our ministry at Blue Valley Baptist Church as a way to reinforce for us why we do what we do.  I thought I’d start out with the subject that is closest to me: preaching.  If you take the time to read our bulletin on Sunday morning, you’ll find this statement regarding our approach to preaching:

We are a church committed to the practice of expository preaching.  Simply put, expository preaching is the practice of preaching the message of a selected text of scripture and applying that message to everyday life.  So at BVBC, we will preach chapter by chapter, verse by verse, through a book of the bible or through an extended section of a biblical book.  On occasion, we may take a more topical approach in a particular message.  But the vast majority of the messages delivered from our pulpit will be firmly rooted in a specific biblical passage.

Let me share with you how this came about.  Three years ago this month I met with the Pastor Search Committee of this church.  After the usual beginning of meeting pleasantries, they let it be known that the reason they had sought me out was my commitment to preach expository sermons.  They strongly believed that this approach to preaching was the best approach and was what God wanted for BVBC.  So why were their convictions so strong when it came expository preaching?  They may not have said it in so many words, but they believed that expository preaching was the most theologically and practically valid approach to proclaiming God’s Word.

For me, any discussion on the theological and practical justifications for expository preaching should begin with a reflection on the powerful event recorded in Nehemiah 8.  There we are told that the people who had rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem gathered for an assembly in which the “Book of the Law of God” was read, which most take to be the book of Deuteronomy.  What happens when the Law is read is a clear expression of expository preaching:

“(The Levites) read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” (Neh. 8:8 ESV)

The goal of the Levites was to take God’s Word and make it clear and understandable to the hearers so they could benefit from its message.  That, my friends, is expository preaching in a nutshell.  Now, note the effect that teaching God’s word in this way had on those listening:

“And all the people went their way…to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” (Neh. 8:12 ESV)

The people were changed!  Why did this effect take place?  It occurred because God spoke authoritatively through His Word; his ONLY means of speaking authoritatively, as men shared its contents clearly and simply.  But can that same effect be realized in a topical approach to preaching that uses the Bible as support for the main idea?  That’s a great question.

My belief is that that a topical approach to preaching has some inherent weaknesses, even dangers, that expository preaching avoids.  For instance, scripture runs the risk of becoming “second fiddle” to the sermon idea and (dare I say it) the preacher in topical sermons.  I recently watched video of a sermon where scripture wasn’t even referenced until more than sixteen minutes into the sermon.  It was very clear that the authority for the message was the speaker, not scripture.  When the authority rests in the sermon idea and its presenter and not the transcendence of the Word, the result is that the sermon becomes one of the countless opinions that exist in the world today.  Thus, there is no compelling reason to accept what the speaker is saying as any better than the other ideas “out there.”  The sermon loses its authoritative voice because it has lost its authoritative foundation in the Word.

But of greater concern is that topical preaching tends to be moralistic and incomplete.  Topical sermons tend to be moralistic because they address a problem common to humanity and encourage the hearer to use scripture/God to resolve that difficulty without ever confronting the hearer with their greatest need in the Jesus Christ.  Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote that the moralistic and topical preaching of his day had made the church guilty of “trying to preach morality and ethics without the Gospel as a basis, it has been preaching morality without godliness; and it simply does not work” (Preaching and Preachers, 35).  Without a confrontation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching is woefully incomplete.

Expository preaching avoids these pitfalls because it keeps the Word, not the preacher or his sermon idea, as central to the message.  This has obvious benefits.  One is that it infuses the message with divine power.  The Supremacy of God in Preaching, one of my favorite preaching books, helped me see this.  In it, John Piper eloquently writes, “In preaching, the one who sets the agenda and gives the power gets the glory” (The Supremacy of God in Preaching, 39).  If I, as a preacher, am setting the agenda then I am the one required to supply the power for the message.  But if God is setting the agenda, he is providing the power.  The clearest way for that agenda to be set is to let the Word, as it was inspired and compiled, to BE the agenda.  When it is a power is present that isn’t otherwise and God, not the preacher, gets the glory.

But there are other, more significant, benefits for making the Word the center of preaching.  W.A. Criswell, a well respected Southern Baptist expositor of a previous generation, vigorously advocated expository preaching because of the “marvelous effect” the Word has on those on those who hear it due to the fact that it contains the gospel “which is the power of God unto salvation.” (Why I Preach the Bible as Literally True, 20)   John R. W. Stott writes that pastors who preach expository messages should expect evangelistic results when they enter the pulpit “with a Word in our hands, heart, and mouth which has power” (Between Two Worlds, 108).   Spurgeon wrote, “…those sermons which expound the exact words of the Holy Spirit are the most useful and the most agreeable to the major part of our congregations” (Lectures to My Students, 73).   You get the idea.  Expository messages provide the means for God to cut through the cultural haze that has people asking wrong questions and seeking wrong answers and reorder their lives with the Gospel. 

People are hungry for something greater than opinion.  They want something transcendent.  So to those who constantly cry out for the church to be “relevant” let me say that if the church is to have any relevance in the 21^st century, its preachers had better have something to say that transcends the preacher and the culture.  Expository preaching provides that opportunity.  If it is as Piper said that the “one who sets the agenda gets the power,” then for the church to have God’s power, we must remain grounded in the expository preaching of the Word.