Expositional Preaching and a Healthy Church

Healthy Food, Healthy Churches

Healthy food creates a healthy body.

I love junk food. Ate all I wanted. Gained weight. My cholesterol numbers said that I was very unhealthy.

It didn’t matter whether I wanted to be healthy or not. It didn’t matter that my motives were pure. If I continued eating unhealthy food, I was going to be an unhealthy person. No person is an exception to this no matter how badly they want to be.

The Church is very similar. Our goal over the next few days is to talk about what it takes to have a healthy church. We’re going to talk about 9 Marks of a Healthy Church.

And, most simply, I want you to realize that healthy churches eat healthy food, and unhealthy churches eat unhealthy food. Spiritually speaking, of course.

The Preacher is the single greatest influence over the diet of the church, and that means that the Preacher is the single greatest influence toward a healthy church or an unhealthy one. The preacher teaches the church what they should eat. What you preach will largely influence whether your congregation eats junk food that tears it down or wholesome food that builds it up.

You’ll remember that just after he had been resurrected that the Lord Jesus commanded Peter three times: “Feed my sheep.” Jesus wanted his lasting impression on his most influential teacher to be: “Teach them the meat of God’s word so that my church will be healthy.”

So, we’re going to start our conference on healthy churches by looking at preaching. More clearly, we’re going to look at a particular kind of preaching that offers to the congregation every, single week the meat and vegetables of God’s word so that she can be healthy and satisfied. We will call this expositional preaching.

Expositional preaching is allowing the main point of the text to be the main point of the sermon.

Expositional preaching is saying what the text says the way the text says it for the effect the text intends.

“Expositional preaching is empowered preaching that rightfully submits the shape and emphasis of the sermon to the shape and emphasis of the text.” David Helm

Junk Food Preaching

First, I want you to see three types of junk food preaching that are not expositional preaching and that cannot, do not, and will not build a healthy church (from David Helm):

Impressionist Preaching.

The Impressionists sought to express their perceptions of nature, rather than create exact representations.

One of the most common types of preaching is that which is most concerned with exciting a crowd rather than communicating reality.

Their only concern when they approach the text is: How can I use this to make an impression on the crowd? It’s focus is on what people want to hear and what will make the church grow. It’s scratching “itching ears.”

Church growth > Knowing God

So, like junk food, it cares only about taste and flavor, and nothing about health. Church growth is more important and presenting God as people want Him to be in more important than knowing God as He actually is.

He comes to the text and asks: “What do my people want/need to hear?” Not, “What has God said?”

Let’s use Matthew 4:1-11 as a sample text. What would an impressionist sermon from this passage sound like?

One of the advantages to junk food preaching is you can do it quickly, and people will still like it. Like cooking in a microwave.

From Mat 4:1-11 an impressionist might start by thinking of how badly all of his people want to lead victorious lives over their temptations and difficulties. They want to know how they can be victorious in their marriage and parenting and with their money. So, he knows that and he aims to use this passage to make an effect to that end.

Without even trying hard, he can title his sermon: 3 Keys to Living in Victory

Know the Bible. Jesus shows the Bible teaches the pathway to victory. (3-4)

Trust the Lord. Jesus who shows the Lord will give us victory. (5-7)

Love God. Jesus shows us loving God leads to victory. (8-10)

Then, you just follow it up with some emotional stories and clear steps, and everybody loves it. And, your church will grow —- in numbers, not health.

Inebriated Preaching.

Drunks use a light post for their own purpose, not for the purpose it was designed. They lean against it; rather, than stand under it.

A lot of preachers today are using their Bibles the same way. Like a drunk leaning against a light post, they use their Bibles for their own purposes. They use it to say what they want to say rather than concerning themselves with what God intends to say.

Preachers opinions and Needs > God’s intention and purpose

He comes to the text and asks: “What do I have/need to say? not, “What did God intend to say when He wrote this?”

Let’s look at how an inebriated preacher might approach Matthew 4:1-11.

He knows this is about Jesus’ temptation, and he knows that people in his church have been tempted toward sexual unfaithfulness or toward changing churches. So, he decides he’ll use this opportunity to address it.

Sermon Title: How to Resist Temptation Like Jesus:

Do what God says, not what you want. (3-4)

Don’t jump into sin and test the Lord. (5-7)

Yell at Satan, and wait for God. (8-10)

Inspired Preaching

People eat junk food because it looks good and feels good. It gives them the type of taste and feeling that they want. They don’t eat it because it’s healthy. That’s how inspired preaching happens. It’s based on feeling.

Seems spiritual. I’ll read a passage until something jumps out at me and give me the feeling I’m looking for. If I feel good, if I get goosebumps, if it makes me emotional, we convince ourselves that God must be speaking.

The inspired preacher asks of the text: “What am I excited to say?”

My spirit > God’s Spirit; My Experience > God’s intent

From Matthew 4:1-11.

The preacher might be reading it, quiet and focused. He’s waiting for something to give him that feeling that lets him know it’s God talking. And then, it jumps out to him when Jesus rebukes the devil to his face in verse 10. “Be gone, Satan!”

Sermon title: Talking Back to the Devil

Tell him you’re full and don’t want him.

Tell him you’re safe and not afraid of him.

Tell him you’re committed and he needs to leave.

Oh man, you can get them fired up with this one! Everybody will be cursing the devil! But, is that what God intends for this passage to say?

These are all junk food preaching they can’t build healthy churches. Healthy churches need to be led by preachers who ask not, “What do they want me to day?” or “What do I want to say?” or “What am I excited to say,” BUT, “What has God already said, and what does that mean for us today?”

A Pathway to Expositional Preaching:

Expositional preaching is allowing the main point of the text to be the main point of the sermon.

Expositional preaching is saying what the text says the way the text says it for the effect the text intends.

“Expositional preaching is empowered preaching that rightfully submits the shape and emphasis of the sermon to the shape and emphasis of the text.” David Helm

What did God say?

(Show sample of my meditation printed out)

Read the passage/verse until we know it well and the book that it’s from.

Read over and over. Read different translations.

Read the whole book it’s in, especially noting what’s happening in the chapters just before and just after. I’m looking for themes and movements. Are there particular movements and cycles that the author expects his readers to pick up? (I don’t want to miss the forest for the trees.)

Meditate on the passage. I want to be saturated in the text. I want to have thought about every syllable. You will never out preach your ability to meditate on a passage. “Think yourself empty.” (Alistair Begg)

Are there words repeated throughout?

What questions do I have?

Does this remind me of other passages? Are any other passages referenced or quoted?

What do I think is being said?

Are there different scenes?

Who are the characters?

What is the setting?

What do I think is the main point at first glance?

Matthew 4:1-11 (walk them through the sample)

What did God mean?

“Every text without context is a pretext for a proof text.” DA Carson

Without caring about the context, you can make any Bible verse say whatever you want it to say.

Is that how you like for people to take your word? How do you think God feels about it?

James 3:1 “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

Context: How does this passage fit?

Literary context:

What is happening just before this and just after this, and how does this fit?

What was the author’s purpose for the book, and how does this fit?

What type of literature is this, and how does that affect my reading?

Matthew 4:1-11: (walk them through)

Original Audience: Before we can know how to apply it to today’s audience, we need to know how it applied to the original audience.

What we want to know: “I (Matthew), have told you _________ (fill in details of passage) because ___________.

Who was this originally written for, and what was the occasion? (Jewish Christians to explain the Jewish Messiah)

What is happening historically?

What is the pastoral purpose of this passage?

Matthew 4:1-11.

See yourself as Adam and Israel, and see that your hope is in Jesus’ fulfillment alone.

Where am I tempted to distrust God’s goodness, trustworthiness, and worth like Adam and Israel?

Jesus has come to take us into the Promised Land that we could never reach alone.

Develop ETS: Essence of the Text in a sentence.

Matthew 4:1-11. In all of the ways that God’s people have failed and fallen short of the Law, Jesus has succeeded and fulfilled the Law that they might be saved.

Where is the gospel/Jesus/cross?

How does this passage address our fallen condition?

How does this passage call for Jesus?

How does this passage find hope in the resurrection?

How does this passage relate to the New Covenant?

How does this passage long for Jesus’ return and the New Creation?

Matthew 4:1-11

CROSS Statement: A summary of how this passage finds hope in the gospel.

My sinfulness hopelessly traps me in the Wilderness. Jesus came that He might be faithful where I have been unfaithful so that He could credit me with his righteousness and bring me into the Promised Land with him.

Why does it matter today?

Taking all of this information and constructing a simple, gospel-centered sermon to feed your people.

ESS: Essence of the Sermon in a Sentence

Sin has put us in the wilderness, but Jesus has come so that we can understand why we’re there, what we should do while we’re there, and how we can get home.

Structural (exegetical) outline —-> Sermon (homiletical) Outline (Say what the text says in a way that makes sense with people and connects with them.

Three Questions in the Wilderness:

How did we get here? (temptations) (True and better Adam)

Is God really good? (1-3)

Is God really trustworthy? (5-6)

Is God really worth it? (8-9)

What do we do here? (responses) (True and better Israel)

Discover true life. (4) (Deut 8:3)

Express true faith. (7) (Deut 6:16)

Love true glory. (10) (Deut 6:13)

How do we get home from here? (True and better Joshua) (v. 11)

Now, we have a sermon that people can relate to. We have a sermon that is Gospel-centered and calls for action, but it isn’t moralism that causes them to find strength within. They’re looking at Jesus.

Meteorite illustration

Supernatural, otherworldly truths

Fix their gaze so that their eyes widen and mouths open in awe.

Bring them crashing into earth.

Not just earth, Swaziland. Not just Swaziland, but Manzini. Not just Manzini, but to the dining table of Pastor Tsela.

This is the healthy food that builds healthy churches.