I have preached through many books of the Bible and it is a challenge and a blessing to present the truth of God’s word in an interesting and vibrant way.

Of course, expository preaching does involve hard work. After all, it requires study and creativity, especially creativity in sermon outlining. In fact, I am so passionate about creative sermon outlining that I wrote a twelve page article “How To Write Sermons With Ease” to encourage fellow preachers.

Enough of my preaching! I certainly appreciated your article. Thanks!

1)There should be no doubt about the responsibility of the preacher. How that responsibility is discharged is open to question. Why is it necessary to expound extended passages of scripture in order to achieve the end you hold out to us? Paul preached to the Athenians without once quoting the Bible ( not that I commend this method!) He preached ‘all the counsel of God’ to the Ephesians in considerably less than two hundred years. Spurgeon was a ‘single-text’ preacher. It would be a very foolish man who accused him of preaching anything short of or other than the whole counsel of God.

2) Preachers should certainly encourage their congregations to study the Bible, carefully, consistently, painstakingly, ‘not handling the word of God deceitfully’. Why can this not be done through ‘single-text’ preaching? It is a big step, and scarcely warranted,from saying, ‘This is how I prepare my sermons’, to ‘This is how you should read the Bible.’

3) Using a verse to leap, Lone Ranger-like, into the saddle of my hobby horse must always be discountenanced. To apply the gospel in an invalid way is possible for the ‘expository’ preacher as well as for the ‘single-text’ preacher. If this is more likely to happen with the latter than with the former, then not to apply the gospel at all is more likely with the former than with the latter, as I assume happens in Gospel Standard churches.
I am not sure that we ought to be preoccupied with whether an unbeliever recognizes that our sermons are biblical or no. After all, how many unconverted folk leave our churches saying, ‘I didn’t think much of that – it was totally unbiblical’? What matters is that the sermon IS biblical. This is a judgment that the non-christian is hardly in a position to make.
And if ‘expository’ sermons are more biblical (which I do not concede) they are usually, in my opinion, more soporific.

4) Your last sentence is applicable (I suspect unintentionally) to both kinds of preachers and, following on from my last sentence, may well be better directed at the ‘expository’ preacher. If we have ‘bored congregations’ it is extremely questionable at the very least whether we should be in a pulpit, a subject you and I have discussed before.
Surely what is important is not the question of a contest between ‘expository’ and ‘single-text’ preachers, but whether we are preachers at all, and that ‘with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven’. You hit the nail on the head when you say, ‘You can be faithful to the Word yet fail to know the Spirit’s power.’
May I make one final remark. I am a fan of expository preaching. During much of my ministry I used to preach through a book or passage in the morning, then from disparate texts in the evening. When I had finished the series I used to reverse the order. Which was more acceptable or ‘successful’ is not for me to say. I suspect that some people slumbered through both!

I do topical sermons all the time, they are expository sermons, but they address relevant topics.

I would argue that for the young minister fresh out of college that expository sermons are the easiest kind.

Without years of battle in the theological trenches (millenialism, predestination, church government, gifts) and years of service in the crush of humanity how do you develop the wisdom (and self confidence) to preach “my ideas” in an edifying way? It’s a great relief to me to know I only have to help peopel understand what God is saying here. It’s my job just to apply this living word to this generation.

That I can do.

Bring wisdom into peoples’ suffering, pain and wickedness. Very Hard to do. Preach God’s word into people’s suffering, pain and wickedness, praise God that’s doable in his grace.

God Bless,
Good to see soem more thought provoking articles arrive on the site – thanks.

Michael hutton,
Australia

Good letter. There certainly is a place for the “topical” sermon, but I do believe that by and large we are called to feed our flock from books of the Bible. As a good friend of mine put it to me: “I don’t care what you think. I don’t care what I think. I care what God thinks.”