Core Value: Text Driven

Introduction

I was asked if I was a good preacher “I said I give my all to be faithful to the text” this was not the answer he wanted.

This doesn’t only have a bearing in my life.

David Dipboye between “everything will be okay” and the “world depends on this”. That’s about right.

Here’s the heart of it from John Stott, and it is what I mean by exposition:

It is my contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching. Of course, if by an “expository” sermon is meant a verse- by-verse explanation of a lengthy passage of Scripture, then indeed it is only one possible way of preaching, but this would be a misuse of the word. Properly speaking, “exposition” has a much broader meaning. It refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The expositor pries open what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted and unfolds what is tightly packed. The opposite of exposition is “imposition,” which is to impose on the text what is not there. But the “text” in question could be a verse, or a sentence, or even a single word. It could equally be a paragraph, or a chapter, or a whole book. The size of the text is immaterial, so long as it is biblical. What matters is what we do with it. Whether it is long or short, our responsibility as expositors is to open it up in such a way that it speaks its message clearly, plainly, accurately, relevantly, without addition, subtraction or falsification.

Example outlined in Nehemiah

Nehemiah 8:1–8 KJV 1900

1 And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. 2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. 8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Don’t Just Explain What the Text Means—Tell Us How You Got There

1. So that your listeners can learn to read and teach the Bible themselves.

2. So that they will trust you.

3. So that they can test you.

4. So that what is preached lands with authority.

5. So that they can better respond to your attempts to shape their doctrinal thinking.

[1] Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 3rd ed. (Baker, 2018), 148.

It is soundly biblical to not only help give the sense of the passage but to help people apply the teaching to their life.

Do you realize that God gave us the Ten Commandments in seventeen verses, but it took three books-the rest of the Pentateuch-to unpack them?

In Titus 2, Paul exhorts Titus to “speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” Teach them the theology and the nuances; nail the substance and structure; and then show them how it fits their life. The Apostle Paul started the next sections telling older men, older women, younger women and younger men to do specific things. Is it not beneath the exegetical dignities of Paul to deal with these practical matters? Not according to Paul. He taught them the theology, and he did not sit down until he told them what to do.

How integral speaking the truth in love is to our growth.

Ephesians 4:11–16 (KJV 1900)

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.