17 February 2007
Expository Preaching, Part 3
This will be my final installment on the subject. It’s really too simple to devote much more time to.
As promised, I want to respond to the bullet points from yesterday’s blog. Here they are again in case you missed them (though a simple scroll down to yesterday’s blog would reveal them as well :).
- Expository preaching is best because it nether adds nor takes away from scripture. - Expository preaching is best because it is more systematic and orderly. - Expository preaching is best because it is the favored method of preaching of stellar preachers over the last several centuries, men like, Charles Spurgeon, Ironside, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc. - Expository preaching is best because it starts with God’s Word rather than man’s felt needs, - Expository preaching is best because my pastor said so First, the deal where people believe it neither adds nor takes away. Um, question…when the great expositors made their own commentary on the text, what do we think that is? It’s adding, adding opinion. I have commentaries from nearly all of them and I treasure their work, but I never lose sight of the fact that it is merely THEIR WORK, not GOD’S. By the way, it’s not bad, just be honest about it! They were. Second, if by, ‘more systematic and orderly’ we mean, going in order according to book, chapter and verse, than yes, it’s more orderly and systematic. It’s also, however, completely OUT OF ORDER. That’s right, the Bible as we have it today is not in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. For example, Job is one of the oldest books of the Bible, but you don’t see it come along for the casual reader until long about book number 18! But Job lived before King David, so why are I and II Samuel placed before Job? Because the Bible is not in chronological order, that’s why. For a better understanding of this you can purchase the NIV Chronological Bible, but it really doesn’t make that big of a difference. Third, the favored method of preaching of the great preachers of old. Well, if by old you mean the last 500 years or so, you may have a half point (although you still find great preachers who were careful to bring out the application as well as mere commentary). However, if you by old you actually mean, really, really old, like the disciples and Christ Himself than, well, they didn’t do it. Jesus’ favorite method of teaching, for example, was storytelling. Fourth, starting with God’s Word verses starting with man’s felt needs. Hmm…I want you to try something. Try reading more than 1 chapter of the Bible without it addressing the needs and condition of man. I’ll bet you find it pretty tough. The fact is, if you go through the Bible verse by verse, you’ll run into felt need after felt need after felt need. The only difference is that the ‘verse by verse only’ crowd will almost never find the felt needs they are addressing intersecting with the felt needs of the community they are supposedly ministering to at the time that community needs it most. If the 2 (felt need and verse by verse schedule) ever do meet it will be purely random. Case in point: On September 11th, here in Charlotte (as well as all around the world) people were scared and confused. Most churches stopped what they were doing and taught about what God’s Word has to say about fear, security and comfort and eternity, etc. The pastor of one large church in the area, however, refused to be thrown off his verse by verse schedule and instead talked about something completely unrelated and unhelpful. He brought no comfort to the hurting, provided no answers to the confused and lost, and completely alienated the hundreds who came to church THAT ONE DAY hoping to find some answers. He did, however, manage to convey some information (albeit completely irrelevant to his audience that day) rather orderly and systematically AND verse by verse. Enough said. Finally, the whole, ‘because my pastor said so’ deal. What is this? I hope there aren’t too many people running around saying things from here at SCC with no greater support than, “pastor Rob said so.” AAAaaaggghhhh!! Don’t do that. Be like the N.T. group called, “The Bereans.” These people might have had great men of God like the apostle Paul teaching them, but that didn’t stop them from checking everything Paul said against scripture. We need to do the same. It sounds authoritative to say, Andy Stanley said so, or Chuck Swindoll said it was true, but that doesn’t make it so. Check for yourself. Look at the Bible. What does God’s Word have to say about the subject? Ok, are we through here? I hope so. I’ve got an expository sermon to finish up.
Huh?
