While there are many nuances to one’s definition of preaching, the common agreement seems to be that expository preaching is preaching that is governed by the text of Scripture. Bryan Chapell simply maintains that expository preaching “attempts to present and apply the truths of a specific biblical passage.”

Some theorists argue that expository preaching simply involves presenting and applying the truths of a particular biblical passage. Other theorists add that expository preaching involves preaching a specific length of passage or a specific type of sermon series. Both perspectives, however, emphasize the centrality of the Bible in expository preaching. The sermon should be driven by the text of Scripture.

Understanding the nature of Scripture seems to be an essential requirement for preachers who wish to expound what the biblical text says. Many homileticians assert that the primary emphasis of the Bible is upon redemptive history, which culminates in Christ’s person and work. If the Bible focuses upon Christ’s redemptive work, then this should have practical implications for expositors who wish to proclaim the Bible accurately. Those who wish to challenge the unity of the Bible and its Christocentric emphasis must give an answer to several biblical texts that seem to demonstrate this idea. For example, one should consider the following texts:

• [Jesus said,] “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39, emphasis added).
• [Jesus said,] “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46, emphasis added).
• “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the
• Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, emphasis added).
• “Then he [Jesus] said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” (Luke 24:44-45, emphasis added).

While preachers should not jump to unwarranted connections to Jesus, they should not overlook or ignore what seemed to be very clear Jesus either — that the Old Testament writers were pointing to the Messiah. We must look at Jesus in the light of the history of the Old Testament, but Jesus also sheds light backwards on it. Christopher J. H. Wright says, “The Old Testament tells the story which Jesus completes.” Simply put, the person and work of Christ is the main message of the Bible. Recent homileticians have looked to Paul as a model for the necessity of preaching Christ. Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix referred to the early church saying, “Paul, too, centered on Jesus, claiming to the Corinthians that he had ‘determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2).”

Even though the need to preach Christ may be an obvious concern for evangelicals, there seems to be a missing element; namely, the need to preach Christ through careful exposition. According to some authors, such preaching is possible because the Bible is a unified book of redemptive history, and to treat one particular text means that one should consider how the selected text fits into the whole redemptive story. The preacher should emphasize the uniqueness of particular texts but also emphasize the unity of the cannon as well.

The implication for preaching, then, is for the expositor to look at the immediate context as well as the canonical context. D.A. Carson calls the process of explaining the whole Bible “inner-cannonical preaching.” The Bible is a witness to the saving activity of God in Jesus Christ, the meaning of whose life, death, and resurrection controls the meaning of every passage. This process is often called “theological exegesis.” Christ-centered preaching happens by relating the biblical-theological connections within Scripture.

Preaching must be Christ-centered! While it is true that unbelievers need to be confronted with the gospel, believers also need to be reminded of the gospel for perspective and pointed to the gospel for power. I’ll expound on this in my next post.

Baptists through the years have emphasized the need for Christian preachers to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. John Broadus summarized his approach saying, “The subject of preaching is divine truth, centrally the gospel as revealed and offered in Jesus Christ.” While many would say “amen!” to these affirmations on the importance of the gospel, others would also want to emphasize the primacy of expository preaching.

Essentially, expository preaching attempts to explain and apply the biblical text in its context. This poses an interesting dilemma for Christian preachers. How is one to preach Christ where he may not seem to be present in the text?  In asking this question, two assumptions are being made:

• Expositors should be faithful to the context of a passage.
• Christian preachers should desire to proclaim the glories of Christ.

How does one deal with the text with integrity and preach Christ from a text like Nehemiah? After all, many Old Testament instructors declare that “you should not look for Jesus under every rock!” Students are taught to respect and consider the “original” hearers. Thus, the question remains as to whether the preacher can accomplish these two goals (exposition and Christ-centeredness) without arbitrarily inserting Jesus into the text or simply “leapfrogging to Jesus” at the end of the sermon.

Bryan Chapell argues that one of the solutions to this dilemma is for the expositor to see the Bible as a unified book of redemptive history which culminates in the person and work of Christ. Chapell argues that preachers cannot properly explain a portion of biblical revelation, even if they say many true things about it, unless they relate it to the redeeming work of God that all Scripture ultimately purposes to disclose. In this sense, the entire Bible is Christ-centered because his redemptive work in all of its incarnational, atoning, rising, interceding, and reigning dimensions is the capstone of all of God’s revelation of his dealings with his people. Thus, no aspect of revelation can be thoroughly understood or explained in isolation of Christ’s redeeming work.

Therefore, the goal for Christ-centered expositors is not to “look for Jesus under every rock,” but rather to find out how a particular text fits into the whole redemptive story that culminates in Christ. Ultimately, the particular book is within the wider biblical context. In other words, it is a short story within the meta-narrative of Scripture. The discipline that deals with the unfolding of God’s redemptive work in history is often called biblical theology.

Chapell provides a helpful analogy to describe this process. He says that preachers should use both a “microscope” and a “theological fish-eye lens” when examining a text, in order to see the forest (the larger redemptive story) and the trees (the immediate text and its details). It seems that expositional theory often focuses upon the trees to the neglect of the forest, missing an important dimension of the text and a degree of its glory and grace. Good exposition will expose the trees and the forest, giving respect for the original author and respect for the redemptive story and its hero: Jesus.

Listen

One of those videos, the one on orphan care, is now online in the Ministry Grid’s free training section. If you’re not familiar with Ministry Grid, take the time to visit their site. The service launches is May but some content is already live. This will be an invaluable resource to pastors and ministry leaders when it comes online this summer. For now, here is my video on orphan care:

The Pastor and His Time

October 30, 2008
Whether working alone or on a team, most pastors know going into the week that there will be more legitimate needs around them than they have the capacity to meet. What priorities should be reflected in the pastor’s schedule, and how can he effectively communicate those priorities to the church? (Running time: 46:32)

Download the interview 

The Pastor and His Joy

July 8, 2008
God-glorifying ministry is about more than just a pastor’s faithfulness. In order to glorify God and represent him accurately, a pastor must also take care that his ministry is marked with joy. So how can a pastor cultivate and prioritize joy? (Running time: 51:47)

Download the interview

The Pastor and His Soul

March 18, 2008
Pastors are obviously called to care for the souls of others, but how does a pastor make sure that he is caring for his own soul? What does it look like for a man to pursue his own personal relationship with God and make sure he is growing spiritually? (Running time: 1:08:27)

Download the interview

The Pastor and His Reading

February 20, 2008
C.J. Mahaney, Jeff Purswell, and Joshua Harris discuss the priority, discipline, and benefits of reading in the life of the leader. (Running time: 1:11:52)

Download the interview

(via Sovereign Grace)

How do we train them? Well, we need to do many things. One of them of course, is to put resources in their hands. For this reason, I’m excited to see Orphanology now in Russian! While this is just one small step in the process, I’m delighted to see it. Big thanks to the translators, Rick Morton (my good friend and co-author), and the publishers at New Hope.

In addition to the Russian version, we also have an Italian version in the works. Pray that it will also have a lasting impact.

The double blessing of getting these books in these languages is that Orphanology not only speaks about orphan care in practical ways, but it also teaches the life-changing gospel. Pray that the gospel will be made known as the doctrine of adoption is taught, and that individuals will embrace Christ as Savior, and call God “Abba.”

His particular belief in the imago dei (the name of our church and title of our current series) drove much of the civil rights movement, as noted by Richard Willis’ book Martin Luther King Jr. and the Image of God.

Dr. King believed that every person was created by God, and worthy of dignity, love, basic human rights, and fair and just treatment. He fought for equality and called out those who discriminated against races. He said of the imago dei:

“You see the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the imago dei … is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him uniqueness…. There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. This is why we must fight segregation with all of our non-violent might.” (sermon, 1965, Ebenezer Baptist Church)

He called out the church for not living out this belief, and for not worshiping together. At the National Cathedral, during his last sermon before he was assassinated, he said, “We must face the sad fact that at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning when we stand to sing ‘In Christ there is no East or West,’ we stand in the most segregated hour of America.”

He also reflected on the irony that a particular white Baptist church spent thousands of dollars to evangelize Africans, yet fired its pastor for allowing a black man to sing in its choir (Lischer, 19). Evil.

I’m also moved by King’s concern for the poor. He was moved to tears as he observed the intense poverty in Quitman, MS, specifically as he watched a school teacher feed her students their lunch, consisting of only a slice of an apple and some crackers. He grieved over the poor in Harlem, and defended poor sanitation workers in Memphis.

The ideas of God as creator, and God’s compassion for the poor appear in Psalm 146.

The Psalmist points us to nature of the LORD in this psalm. It is so relevant because our view of God determines everything.

Tozer said, “Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘What comes into your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man… The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God”

Therefore, when we have a high view (or biblical view) of God, we will praise him continually, trust him supremely, and imitate him faithfully.