Expository Preaching & Teaching: Session 1

Hebrews 5:12–14 ESV

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

My Story

SBTS Preaching Conference 2013

After a semester at Golden Gate Seminary

Right after open heart surgery

Struggling to know my ministry purpose

“Worship God through Proclamation”

Enrolled in classes at SEBTS

Obsessed with preaching; took every class I could, read every book I could, went to every conference I could, ADHD

Transferred back to Golden Gate Seminary

Graduated in 2018 with an MTS and the Gateway Award in Preaching

I’ve developed in my understanding of preaching. I’m not as rigid as I once was.

Preaching is still very important to me.

Resources

The Christ-Centered Expositor

Tony Merida

Encountering God through Expository Preaching

Ryan Fullerton, Jim Orrick, Brian Payne

Preaching

Tim Keller

Power in the Pulpit

Jim Shaddix and Jerry Vines 

Christ Centered Preaching

Bryan Chapell

Logos Bible Software

Introduction

Hermeneutics v.s. Homiletics

Hermeneutics: The science and art of Bible interpretation

Homiletics: The science and art of sermon delivery (preaching)

Basic Hermeneutics

Eisegesis: putting something into the text

Exegesis: pulling something out of the text

We at WBC hold to an exegetical philosophy where we seek the Holy Spirit powered ability to expose the intended meaning(s) to people as part of their discipleship journey.

Expository: exposing what is in the text by the guidance of the Holy Spirit

What are we talking about?

Expository Discipleship

What is the vision?

To see WSM function as a self sustaining ministry built upon the foundation of scripture truth with every generation participating in expository discipleship

What is the purpose?

Equipping every generation for Expository Discipleship

What will you learn?

How to prepare, process, and present an expository message

What is an expository message?

A message that derives its worldview, theme, and applications directly from a bible text.

Stages

Prepare

Process

Present

Prepare

Heart and Hands

Content

Transformational Responses

Complementary Items

Process

Message within your heart

Message within your memory

Message worked out through words

Present

Let the Bible Speak: Public reading of scripture

Using a manuscript?

Using an Outline

Presenting from memory - tips for the trade

Letting the scripture’s flow direct the message

Easy to remember points

Emotionally Engaging your listeners

Prepare

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon Classical Distinctions

In classical rhetoric, three elements compose every persuasive message:

Bryan Chapell

Three elements that compose every persuasive message:

Logos

Pathos

Ethos

We are starting with Ethos.

There are some very interesting, and seemingly contradictory, truths at play around preaching, teaching, and discipleship.

Truths at play

Preaching and teaching the Bible can either be spiritual fruit or flesh fruit.

Luke 6:45 s

“Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life.” E.M. Bounds

Preaching and teaching the bible’s effectiveness depends on the faithfulness of God doing what he’s promised to do with His word.

Isaiah 55:11

Power through Prayer 1 Men of Prayer Needed

The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction

We must desire that our hearts bear spiritual fruit to go along side His faithfulness. We must seek to make our lives something worth preaching.

First Stage of Preparation

Heart & Hands

Open our hearts to the text

Questions to work through

Do I believe what the Bible says about itself?

Do I desire to be changed by the text?

Am I willing to humble myself under God’s mighty hand?

These are all questions to determine our heart posture.

Some people want to teach and preach because of the authority it gives them and the popularity it might provide them. These will all be things that preachers and teachers of God’s Word will be tempted with. But, we must *DAILY* combat them by examining ourselves.

1 Timothy 4:16 ESV

16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Most preachers and teachers in the conservative evangelical world over focus on “the teaching” without truly examining themselves.

Sadly, the 2010’s and 2020’s have been years of exposure.

Daily Prayers

“Give me the faith I need to believe your Word is authoritative.”

“Give me the desire to want the text to change me.”

“I surrender to your authority and will for me.”

Pray through the text

Philippians 2:1–3 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Listen to the text

Bible app

Essentially meditating

Know your hearers

Pray for your hearers