From the sword amp trowel 2010, issue 2 by dr peter masters some benefits and common mistakes of consecutive expository preaching what exactly is expository preaching? it is preaching that draws the message from the biblical text, clearly and methodically, honouring the sense of the text, and the style of communication employed. Before looking at classic examples from sermons of c h spurgeon, here are some of the benefits and common mistakes of consecutive expository preaching. If the preacher works through a book of the bible week by week it becomes obvious to everyone that the word of god is the supreme authority for all that is taught. He begins at the beginning of a chapter, and this governs the whole course of his teaching. Everything he asserts is derived and argued from the scripture, and that is a tremendous testimony to the exclusive authority of the word in all matters. Perhaps the openness so often seen among god 39 s people to human gimmicks and ideas including the current boom in counselling techniques derived from atheists is partly due to a lack of consecutive expository preaching.

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It is an extra help, though not essential, if such preaching can be carried out in the traditional way, from a large, visible pulpit bible. This is seldom done today, which is rather a shame, because a pulpit bible certainly reinforces the realisation that god 39 s word is the sole source of the message. But with or without this, consecutive expository preaching is the greatest witness to biblical authority.

A second virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it helps the preacher to suppress his personal opinions. Because he is dominated by the scripture, and bound to follow its presentation of information and its arguments, the preacher 39 s personal style of reasoning should be helpfully subordinated to that of god rsquo s word. A third virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it obliges the preacher to present everything that is in the scripture. By nature, most preachers will tend to emphasise a certain group of subjects and to neglect others.

But by proceeding through a book they are bound to address every topic that presents itself, and so preach on a comprehensive range of vital themes. A fourth virtue of consecutive expository preaching is that it shows the people of god the plan and the purpose of a whole bible book, which would probably not happen if the preacher darted from book to book selecting individual sermon texts. Think of the immense advantage to the people of god of becoming familiar with the overall scheme of entire books of the bible.

Consecutive expository preaching also enables the preacher to bring out the themes that often run through one or more chapters. Would the so called 39 holiness movement 39 have developed if its proponents had been consecutive preachers? would they not have hesitated to preach sanctification by faith when they saw that the whole chapter or passage was speaking about justification? there are even more virtues in consecutive expository preaching, but there are pitfalls also, and the first that i would mention is that it can be conducted too slowly. Some preachers are rather proud of the inordinate length of time they take over a book of the bible. I hesitate to say this, because there have been famous and greatly used preachers of the past who have been very slow in working their way through books. If, however, you are a reader of john owen, or certain other famously long divines, you will have noticed that they varied their approach considerably.

Owen 39 s commentary on hebrews for example derived from his preaching is virtually a complete systematic theology. You could say that he did not really spend years preaching through hebrews. But repeatedly interrupted his series to digress into themes, thus mixing exposition with topical preaching. It is rather sad that preachers of lesser stature try to follow the puritan example without the digressions, grinding through books at minimal pace. Frequently the puritan preachers will feature in their sermons long sections of practical help, listing, for example, all the hindrances to cultivating a particular virtue, and then all the helps. These counsels are often brilliantly presented and sit like strings of jewels adorning the exposition.

Slow and over detailed exposition usually causes hearers to miss the wood for the trees. Many years ago a very well known preacher had completed an extremely long series of sermons on a passage focusing on the holy spirit. I remember asking a group of people who had heard these sermons what they thought about a very basic aspect of the spirit 39 s work, and they did not know how to answer. The whole topic had been dissected so minutely, and so elaborately, that obvious aspects were lost in a mass of quality observation. This can happen very easily when consecutive expository preaching is overstretched. So much material is presented that people are left floundering, and they say to themselves, 39 i would never know any of this, but for this preacher. It 39 s barely worth reading the bible for myself, because i lack this capacity for microscopic examination of the text.

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The preacher rsquo s task is not only to expound the scriptures, but to enable hearers to read them more meaningfully for themselves, and not to discourage them with exhibitions of over detailed exegetical expertise. Another disadvantage that often accompanies expository preaching whether consecutive or not is that the method of the preacher somehow steamrollers down the method of the holy spirit. The preacher comes at the text in a certain logical way, examines it, and then lays out his points, his applications, scarcely noticing what the style of the text is. He treats it as a didactic passage even if it is an historical narrative or a parable, or a graphic miracle. The preacher puts everything through his expos itory 39 mincing machine 39 regardless, and his presentation is exactly the same in every sermon. He has failed to follow or adjust to the method of communication employed by god.

Expository preaching can easily degenerate into a bullying, mechanical process, even a clinical procedure, stripping out the story form or other diversity of presentation featured in the text. A rather obvious fault with consecutive expository preaching is that it is not much good for preaching regular, persuasive, evangelistic sermons. If you have three preaching opportunities a week, two on the lord 39 s day, one of the latter should be dedicated to the persuasive pressing of the glorious tender of salvation.

I made the very obvious mistake about forty years ago of preaching evangelistic sermons consecutively through the gospel of luke. When i reached the end of the series i discovered to my horror that i had used up almost all the parables and miracles of christ in one year. For several years, it seemed, i would have to maintain an evangelistic ministry without being able to use a miracle or parable.

It is better in evangelistic preaching to 39 helicopter 39 , as they say, selecting texts from throughout the word that are redolent with soul stirring reasoning. Another common fault of consecutive expository preaching is a lack of application, or indulging in 39 add on 39 application not actually derived from the passage and often quite trivial. This is common with preachers who have been taught the modern hermeneutical scheme derived from 19th century german rationalism now taught in so many seminaries. This uses humanistic technical methods that ignore the divine authorship of the bible and its own interpretative rules. The pastoral potential of a passage is eclipsed, and an entirely inadequate process called 39 principlizing 39 tacked on to the end of the process to devise an application. Advocates of this horrific hermeneutical method in recent times include walter c kaiser. I have attempted a brief evaluation, with a description of the bible rsquo s own guidance on its interpretation, for preachers, in not like any other book.

Yet another difficulty that we hear complained of is the habit of some consecutive preachers to recapitulate too much. Every sermon must begin with a résumé, lasting at least ten minutes, of the previous week rsquo s exposition, making a rather tiresome start to the message. Some reminder of what has gone before is wise, but more than two or three sentences leads to hearer fatigue.