Before you read any further I would encourage you to click here and go to my friend, Tony’s blog, and read this post. It is the motivator for this post.
Several years ago I read a book entitled Famine in the Land by Steven Lawson. The book is subtitled A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching. I was going through a major question of my preaching style as I wondered, after listening to some “names,” if my preaching was out-of-date. I tried really hard to be a Biblical preacher, preaching expository sermons that held truth and interest (in that order). Lawson quoted Dr. D. Martin Loyd-Jones:
The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is the greatest need in the world also.
He stated that in 1971! 39 years ago!! Do you think his message would be any different today? I don’t. In fact, it may be even more emphatic. Someone has defined expository preaching as “the man of God opening the Word of God and expounding its truths so that the voice of God may be heard, the glory of God seen, and the will of God obeyed.” I don’t reckon I can improve on that any at all. It is not preaching about the Bible but preaching the Bible. Yesterday’s post garnered some interesting responses and they have prompted me to write this post. Reading Tony’s post again convinced me I should do so also. I say this with fear in my bones and hopefully a heart that is filled with pure motives and no axe to grind toward anyone or any ministry: much of what passes for preaching today is not biblical preaching. Preaching today often focuses on social issues, human relationships, success, self-help psycho-babble, recovery from addictions and similar themes. Often time the “sermon” is nothing more than a glorified motivational pep talk. Paul said, “I preach Christ and Him crucified.” I know what some of you may be thinking: “what right does he have to say those things?” Aaahhh you’re right and I have asked myself that same question many times over, even as I am writing this and proofing it. Remember this commercial?
As a preaching pastor, I must, I am compelled to ask myself that question every week. I want people fed meat not “hamburger lite.” And if they aren’t, it is not their fault. It is mine. Then when Clara says, “I don’t think anybody’s back there” she is referring to the one who is preparing the food and delivering it.
Do you have any thoughts you would like to share? If you are a pastor, please tell me if I am wrong. If you are not a pastor, what are you looking for from your pastor every Sunday? I welcome your thoughts.
By the way: if you are a pastor or your pastor is a godly man with a heart for God’s Word, go to the book link I have provided and buy a copy. Give one away to another pastor. The price is a steal right now!
I see it that Pastors are called to preach Christ Crucified and Risen. How that is packaged can vary.
i agree Jim about what we are called to preach. I reckon I wonder if leaving that out of the message with what sometimes passes as preaching is contributing to the famine. Can You clarify yourself some?
Anytime I preach – regardless of subject matter – Jesus is brought into the message or to write it another was, I preach on a vary of topics but they all come back to Jesus and what He has done for us. I enjoy going verse by verse through the Bible (and that is what I do most of the time). I try, even when doing topical messages, to go verse by verse. This is what keeps the focus where I think it needs to be.
How that clears things up some and not muddy the waters more.
I definitely see what you are saying. I should have made myself a little clearer that many don’t focus on the cross or on Jesus for that matter but on “being nice” or “you can do it.” Glad you bring it back to Jesus in some way. Thanks for getting back and clearing things up.
If you don’t preach Christ crucified and risen, then what’s the point? I agree with Jim, I may “package” my sermon as a topical sermon, but everything comes back to Jesus and I pull out the “topic” from the Scripture itself. This month I’m doing a “It’s a Matter of….” series, using Trust (stewardship), Faith, Grace, Forgiveness, and Obedience as the topics. In the classical sense of expository preaching, I probably fail the test, that is, one book, verse by verse. But I am using different scripture portions, verse by verse (more or less) to preach each of these “topics”.
Sunday evenings, I just started our Winter Bible Study on the book of I Timothy. That will be chapter by chapter, verse by verse. But each and every scripture portion, no matter what the “topic” of those sections, will be brought back to a personal relationship with Jesus. To do any less is…. well, you can see that on TV.
A few years ago, a pastor told me that everytime I speak. I have to share truth with love. So after writing a message I ask my self, “Does this share truth with love?” Obviously the truth is Christ…but the message has to come from a “real” and “loving” heart.
Rick: great point! I especially agree with your last sentence. Expository preaching (if I understand it correctly) can include a topical sermon as long as Scripture is the basis and you always come back to it. Again, I should have clarified myself. Thanks for the comment.
Michael: good advice given. I suspect your messages are just that. Thanks again for the comment.
As Matt Chandler is want to say, “I am not against topical preaching… as long as it is done exegetically.” 🙂
I have taught in some sort of capacity for the past 5 or 6 years on biblical precepts. When I eventually responded to invitations to teach an adult Sunday School class, I was asked to sign a paper that required me to teach only from church curriculum which was supplied by Lifeway. One of the reasons that we were told this was important was because the curriculum was written to cover 15 basic tenets in a 3 year span.
What I learned in the last couple of years is that the curriculum could not hold a candle to the truths, power, and beauty found in studying the word straight from scripture. As for covering 15 basic tenets, I found that a thorough study of a singular book in the bible would raise many of those tenets and that it always pointed the path to Christ.
The people were more engaged when someone took the time to help them understand how great a pleasure it was to dig into the word instead of just being spoon fed that week’s ‘devotion’.
I agree, Bill, that there are many churches that are succumbing to a practice of meeting the wants of the people instead of feeding them what they need. I thank God for those who haven’t. The twenty-minute, topical, shotgun approach sermonette is all too prevalent in our pulpits today. When I come across the infomercials on tv, I change the channel… I won’t accept that mentality from the pulpit either.
Sorry to go on… but I have a habit of doing that. 🙂
Tony: don’t apologize for speaking truth. I appreciate what you have said…so much better than I did. It is good that you have grasped the power of the Word and teach it. Your last paragraph is saying what I wanted to say. Thanks. (I bet you got tons of visitors to your site as a result of my recommendation too). NOT!