Rediscovering Expository Preaching

[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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What Is the Use of Preaching? Its Audience

The Scriptures told us the coming King would preach the gospel to the poor. This forces us to consider three questions:

Who is this audience of poor people?

What is the gospel?

Why is preaching it an important part of the King’s identity?

To answer the questions we must understand this poverty is not primarily about economic status. The materially poor are not necessarily different than the materially rich. They are not to be treated differently in matters of justice. In either category there are movers-and-shakers who enjoy clout in the pecking order of their status, and there are those who enjoy the perceived perks of playing the lesser roles. Because we forget this, we are confounded by those who give up wealth to embrace deliberately the vagabond lifestyles or who resist efforts to move out of them.

Jesus understood this paradox. He who could multiply loaves refused to become a bread line. He sought the poor in spirit - those who recognized their entrapment.  These were people who recognized their eternal danger and longed for the authoritative words, “Your sins are forgiven;" but they longed for more. To them it was good news to know they could become citizens of God’s kingdom and live for a cause greater than creature comfort. Through their redeemed skills, they themselves could touch lives with the heart of compassion Jesus revealed through his miracles. As Jesus preached, individuals of varying social strata heard this invitation: a ranking Pharisee, a cheating Publican, a desperate Roman military official, a serial divorcee, and a repentant prostitute, to name a few.

The pulsating core of the message was finally identified in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Several weeks later, when the Holy Spirit poured that message into believers’ hearts at Pentecost, a centuries-long narrative began. A narrative of men and women of all rank and file who have preached the gospel while following the heart of their King to invade the physical needs of living in a fallen world.

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What's the Use of Preaching? Its Character.

Now, let’s turn to a point we addressed early on but left hanging. Why, in two major lists of things to look for to identify the King, do we find preaching the gospel to the poor? Some would contend that preaching is the last thing they need, if they need it at all.

Sadly, preaching has become associated with wild-eyed harangues or droning lectures, and is linked with people who live in the insulated world of the study. However, since preaching the Gospel to the poor is part of the footprint of the sovereign King, it is wise to reconsider our stereotypes. Jesus seems to model something different. 

First, other than in formal occasions at a synagogue, his preaching was not done from a pulpit. Nope, I do not mean to discount pulpits. They can carry symbolic weight in a church worship setting. However, it must be admitted that much of Jesus’ talking points were delivered on the hoof in public, or with his disciples around a table or maybe a campfire. His words were delivered in real-world surroundings.

Second, his preaching was always associated with service venues. He did not do what the disciples could do for themselves, such as gather up leftovers after a big meal; but as he spoke he modeled real-life things they would need to learn. He touched lepers, held kids on his lap, prepared lunch, and washed feet.

Third, his preaching encompassed all of the philosopher’s categories of matter.

• Wind? He brought a breath of fresh air offering life and hope.
• Water? He created a thirst for forgiveness, cleansing, and refreshment.
• Earthquake and fire? Without apology he shook up false notions of a sin-condoning party prince who could be “managed.” His return will be no donkey-ride. His messages shook the ground beneath many with the promise that there will be a fire of judgment so severe that no unbelieving rebel or pretender will be left to enter his Kingdom.

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What About Earthquakes and Fire?

Steadily Jesus’ expanded the visible perimeters of his authority. Animal life, spirit beings, physical illness, and even death responded to his command. Then, on two occasions, he demonstrated his power to command two of the four major forces of nature: wind and water. Not long after that James and John were ready to add a third when they requested permission to call down fire on a Samaritan village. Jesus rebuked them and subsequently left us to wonder: why is there no record of a summoned splitting of the earth or explosion of a lightning bolt during his mission? Some translations of Luke 9:55-56 give us what may have been the content of Jesus’ rebuke. John 3:17 gives us an undisputed text:

God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;

but that the world through him might be saved

Earthquake and fire are especially the elements of judgment; and because Jesus’ first visit to earth was not as Judge but as the seeking and saving Shepherd, it is likely that is why they are absent from his mighty works.  

As for water, while it is associated with the first world-wide condemnation, it takes on a symbolism of death, burial, and resurrection in the New Testament church; and wind, while it plays some role in Old Testament prophecies of end time judgment, is a minor player in the New Testament where its greater significance is as a picture of the various works of the Holy Spirit such as the new birth.

During Jesus’ earthly sojourn, it was in his preaching the gospel, where the fire of future judgment played its greatest role; and once the duties of Calvary were complete, the rumblings of Jesus’ future return as judge began. At his death and at his resurrection the earth shifted beneath the feet of mankind.  

  

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