Nine Marks of a Healthy Church - Expository Preaching

Expository Preaching

2 Timothy 4:1–6 ESV

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

The last words of Paul

Opening Up 2 Timothy (Chapter 9: A Solemn Charge (4:1–8))

In this fourth chapter we have possibly the last words of Paul to the church. He is shortly to be executed, as he reminds us in verse 6: ‘For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.’ For thirty years or more, he had laboured in the work of the gospel, and now his life is to be poured out as a final offering to his Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 4:6 ESV

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

Expositional Preaching

The first mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching. It is not only the first mark; it is far and away the most important of them all, because if you get this one right, all of the others should follow.

This chapter will help you to understand what pastors are to give themselves to, and what congregations are to demand of them. My main role, and the main role of any pastor, is expositional preaching.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (pp. 50-51). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Topical Preaching- begins with a particular matter or subject that the preacher wants to preach about.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 51). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

The topical sermon is not built around one text of Scripture but around this one chosen theme or idea.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 51). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Expositional preaching - is preaching in service to the Word.

It presumes a belief in the authority of Scripture—that the Bible is actually God’s Word; but it is something much more than that.

A commitment to expositional preaching is a commitment to hear God’s Word—not just to affirm that it is God’s Word but to actually submit to it.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

The Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles were given not a personal commission to go and speak, but a particular message to deliver.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Pastors are called to preach the Word

A preacher should have his mind increasingly shaped by Scripture. He shouldn’t use Scripture as an excuse for what he already knows he wants to say.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 53). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

I want to discover new things through His Word. I cannot do so if I only preach on what I already knew or decided.

We need the Word to be central

The Word makes and shapes believers.

Pg. 53-55 of the book

God’s people have never created God’s Word.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 55). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Word of God is central as an instrument in creating faith

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 57). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Ezekiel 37:1–10 (ESV)

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.

2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.

3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Ezekiel 37:11–14 ESV

11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:3–4 ESV

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Words are important

The Word of God is even more important

Because we have separated ourselves from God by our sin, God must speak if we are to know him. God will not be known if he does not speak, and we cannot know him if he has not spoken a word that we can rely on. God must reveal himself. That’s the point of the Bible. Because of our own sins, we could never know God otherwise. Either he speaks, or we are forever lost in the darkness of our own speculations.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 61). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We want the Word to be central

It can be most central when we practice expository preaching

What preaching will most edify the church? The answer must certainly be teaching that exposes God’s Word to God’s people.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 63). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

We see that it is good to preach the truth; it is even better to preach in such a way that people can see where they can get the truth.

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 66). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Ephesians 5:25–26 ESV

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei. “The church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God.”

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (p. 67). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Matthew 4:4 ESV

4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

What benefits do you see of expositional preaching?

What challenges do you see to expositional preaching?