Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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.