[A Saturday Feature of the First Road Blog]
Dr.
John MacArthur’s compendium, Rediscovering Expository Preaching, is an excellent resource as a challenge to study
Scripture well, to preach Scripture movingly, and to accumulate tools for the
task. It is especially helpful in
overcoming the notion that expository preaching is limited to or even primarily
defined as a verse-by-verse commentary on a text.
Perhaps
one of the best of many encouraging sections is, Seven “Be’s” of Expository Preaching, tucked in at the end of
Chapter Sixteen: Moving from Exegesis to
Exposition.
The
nature of the book does not suggest itself as a read-through project. However, I
found it very encouraging to do so. The benefits of reading it cover to cover
would be: first, exposure to different methodologies for exegesis and
exposition. And, second, exposure to the efforts of several contributors to
help the reader sort out theory from performance.
There
is a continuum between being able to use tools and being able to read and
diagram Greek and Hebrew. Some can embrace the years of study necessary to be
able to do so. Some cannot; and some would crash if they tried. The book
recognizes this continuum. However, the
reader who does not catch that fact may slog through some chapters and become
discouraged or, worse, antagonistic. Perhaps
the best summary of the intention of the compendium could be found in the
question-and-answer section at the back. In response to the question, “Do you
find it easier now to develop a sermon from a passage?” MacArthur replies, “I never
study to make a sermon. I study to understand the text.”
I
wonder if, in a future reprint, it might be helpful to include a section on how
a preacher can do the recommended study detail in an environment where he has full responsibility for church programs and no secretarial or pastoral staff.
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