I have been preaching on a weekly basis for nearly a decade and have noticed several changes in my habits as an expositor. Looking back I can say this for certain: My methods may have grown, hopefully in a more productive sense, and my underlying commitment to preach expositional sermons is stronger than ever.
Some may ask, what do you mean by expository sermons? Many have defined exposition. Here are a few that have greatly benefitted me:
Haddon Robinson: The communication of a biblical concept derived from and transmitted through a historical-grammatical and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher then through him to hearers. (Biblical Preaching)
Haddon Robinson, who just recently died, was the first to define what I had been exposed to all my life through the ministries of every pastor that I sat under. From Clois Watson at Mills Chapel Baptist to Danny Wilson at Unity Baptist, to Charles Stanley at First Baptist Atlanta, all I have ever known is the faithful exposition of the biblical text. I first began to wrap my mind around expository preaching at Truett-McConnell College (now University) under my first preaching professor, Dr. Larry McDonald. From college to seminary, my exposition was greatly sharpened. The many definitions that follow are the fruit of my exposure in preaching classes at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
John Stott: Exposition refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The expositor opens what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted, and unfolds what is tightly packed. (Between Two Worlds)
Bryan Chappell: The main idea of an expository sermon the topic, the divisions of that idea, main points, and the development of those divisions, all come from truths the text itself contains. No significant portions of the text is ignored. In other words, expositors willingly stay within the boundaries of the text and do not leave until they have surveyed its entirety with its hearers. (Christ-Centered Preaching)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire and that the chief end of preaching is to give men and women a sense of God and his presence. (Preaching and Preachers)
Alistair Begg: Unfolding the text of Scripture in such a way that makes contact with the listeners world while exalting Christ and confronting them with the need for action. (Preaching for God’s Glory)
I remember feeling the pressure of the weekly preaching event while pastoring my first church while in seminary. Between Greek and Theology, I had to plan and prepare a message to preach. The distance from Monday to Sunday seemed to shorten. On many occasions during my first year, I remember wrestling with God on Saturday nights asking him what I had been asking him all week, for clarity on the upcoming sermon. Some occasions I had no certain text that was "laid upon my heart", and so I strained for inspiration into the early hours of the morning. Then, through the exposure of chapel speakers at Southeastern, God directed me to forgo the Sunday night special methodology and adopt the verse by verse, book by book method that had beenefited so many preachers and congregations through the ages.
I remember the day that Dr. Alan Mosely, who was then the dean, a man that I greatly respect, spoke in chapel and candidly let the audience in on his method. He said something like, "I was praying through what to preach and then realized that it didn't particularly matter what I preached as long as I preach the Bible. Every page, every passage is inspired, so for my inspiration, I will go to what is already inspired." That moment for me was like a lightning rod in my heart. God began to expose my confidence and reveal that I had not yet come to the point of confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture. Sure, I was a dedicated expositor; I was dedicated to allowing the meaning of the text to guide the message of the sermon, but I had not yet allowed the word to exposit me. I was not under the authority of the Word, I was trying to use it instead of letting it use me. That moment settled my struggle. I began to preach verse by verse, line by line. My first series was in 1 Corinthians and then on to Genesis. I grew more through those experiences than I ever did wrestling with God the night before!
Always seeking to grow, I now wrestle with the opposite extreme – planning my preaching. I have tried to plan out my preaching calendar in great detail and have found myself frustrated. I know many of my contemporaries who plan their preaching, many of whom I aspire to be like, but in my practice, it just never quite worked out the way that I had hoped. Right now, at Oxford, we are going through Matthew, verse by verse, line by line. I didn't intend to preach 25 messages from Chapter 5, but it just happened as I exposited each line. (You can listen to the fruit of my study here.) Amazingly, probably because of the market-driven world that we live in, I almost feel the need to apologize for taking so long. I sometimes wish that I could plan out the preaching in a more systematic way, but every time I try, I feel unfree and unfair to the Word of God.
I recently came upon the words of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his second volume of his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Lloyd-Jones says, "It has never been my custom to divide up a portion of Scripture into a number of parts and then to issue a syllabus announcing what will be done each week. That seems to me to limit the freedom of the act of preaching, quite apart from the fact that in actual practice I sometimes find that I succeed in doing only about half of what I had planned and purposed. In other words, expository preaching must always be preaching and not merely mechanical exposition." (vii) What a relief! Lloyd-Jones words sum up the way I have been feeling as I have tried to plan my preaching. With Lloyd-Jones I feel that I and my congregation are in good conpany.
Though there are many ways to prepare and present, this current method of loose planning is where I find myself. My methodology will probably ebb and flow again, but one thing is certain: I plan on preaching expository sermons the rest of my life. I may not know what I am going to preach in 3 weeks, but I know that I will be preaching some verse in some chapter in some book of the Bible to the glory of God. And prayerfully, I will be more faithful then than I am now.