Expositional impostors

Mark Dever aptly describes expository preaching as «preaching that takes as its central idea the essence of a particular passage of Scripture.».

However, I have heard (and preached!) sermons that attempt to be expository but fall short in some ways. Here are a dozen pitfalls:

• Five of them do not make the main theme of the passage the main theme of the sermon, thereby misusing the text.
• Five do not establish a connection between the text and the listeners, but
• Two fail to recognize that preaching is ultimately God's work.

None of these observations are original to me. Many of them I saw at Eden Church in Cambridge in the mid-1990s. Others I picked up on my journey in ministry.

«"Expositors" WHO CANNOT SEE THE TEXT

1. «Unfounded sermon»: the text is misunderstood

In this case, the preacher is saying things that may be true but in no way stem from a correct interpretation of the passage. He may be careless either about the content of the text (e.g., a sermon on the subject of «creation, stimulation, and motivation» from Thessalonians 1:3, even though none of these words have a parallel in the Greek text) or about the context (e.g., a sermon on David and Goliath that asks, «Who is your Goliath, and what five smooth stones do you need to prepare to fight him?»).

If a preacher does not deeply examine the truth of God's Word to determine the message of his sermons, it is likely that they are guided by his own ideas, not God's.

2. «Springboard Sermon»: The Essence of the Text is Ignored

Closely related to the previous one, this is a sermon in which the preacher is interested in something that is a secondary idea of the text, but is not the main idea. Imagine the sermon on the wedding at Cana in the Gospel of John, chapter 2, which focuses mainly on the legality of Christian drinking and says nothing about the manifestation of the New Testament glory of Christ through the sign of the water turning into wine.

One of the great advantages of consistent expository preaching is that it forces the preacher to speak on subjects he would rather avoid and to give due weight to subjects he may be inclined to overestimate. The preacher of «unsubstantiated» or «springboard» sermons may unwittingly reject both of these advantages, and God’s program will be ignored or sidelined.

3. «Doctrinal Sermon»: The Richness of the Text is Ignored

God deliberately speaks to us «in many ways» (Heb. 1:1). Too many sermons ignore the literary genre of the passage and preach narrative, poetry, letters, and apocalyptic alike as a series of general truths. While all sermons should convey general truths, they should not be reduced to that alone.

The literary context of the passages should mean that a sermon on the Song of Songs sounds different from a sermon on Ephesians 5. The diversity of Scripture should not be glossed over in a sermon, but rather appreciated and conveyed in a manner that is sensitive to the literary genre. Narrative should help us empathize, poetry should heighten our emotional response, and apocalyptic and prophetic should leave us captivated.

4. «Short Sermon»: The biblical text is hardly mentioned

This is the opposite of exegetical preaching, where no exegetical «work» is done. Although the Lord has established order through His Word, only the preacher is fully aware of this fact. The listeners may eventually say, «What a wonderful sermon,» not, «What a wonderful passage of Scripture.».

Let's continue to encourage our church to hear God's voice, not just ours, by frequently bringing them back to the text: "look what God says in verse five" more than "listen carefully to what I'm saying now.".

5. «Preaching without Christ»: The sermon stops before the Savior

Jesus condemned the Pharisees:

«Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. But you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life» (John 5:39-40).

How sad that even we who have come to Jesus can lead an entire church to study a Bible passage and yet refuse to show them what that passage says about Christ. Instead, we turn Old Testament texts into moralistic sermons, and sometimes we preach without Christ, without the Gospel, straight from the Gospels. Imagine a terrible sermon on the Garden of Gethsemane that focuses on lessons about how we can deal with stress in our lives.

If God's Word is like a great wheel, then Christ is the center and the gospel is the axle. We cannot claim to be preaching any passage of Scripture faithfully until we have worked our way down the spokes to the center and explained what that passage says about Christ and how it relates to the gospel.

«"Expositors" WHO DO NOT SEE THE CHURCH

6. «Exegetical Sermon»: The Text Remains Unapplied

If an «unreasoned sermon» ignores the text at all, an «exegetic sermon» ignores the church (the people). Some sermons that claim to be expository are perceived as boring and irrelevant… and rightly so! It would be easy to read from an exegetical commentary. Everything that is said is true to the passage, but it is not really a sermon; it is just a lecture.

A true expository sermon will certainly first inform the mind, but it will also warm the heart and stir the will to action.

A constant menu of exclusively exegetical sermons can give listeners the impression that only topical sermons can be truly relevant. This practice unwittingly models individual Bible reading as something formal and safe—as if one can read God’s Word faithfully and yet not be moved or changed.

7. «Irrelevant Sermon»: The text is applied to another church

Too many sermons promote pride in the church, throwing stones over the wall toward «the other garden.» Either the point of the passage applies only to unbelievers, suggesting that the Word has nothing to say to the church, or it applies to problems that are rarely seen in the church being addressed.

Thus the congregation becomes complacent and, like the Pharisee in Jesus« parable, ends up thanking themselves that they are not like others. The response is not repentance and faith, but »If only Mrs. Brown had heard that sermon!« or »The local Methodist church really needs to hear that sermon!”

Such preaching will promote self-righteousness among church members, not their piety.

8. "Private sermon": the text applies only to the preacher

It is easy for a preacher to think only of how a passage applies to him and then preach to the church as if everyone in that church were in the same situation as him. For me, for example, it is most comfortable to see a passage from the Bible as applying to a white British man in his forties, who has a wife and six children and is a pastor at a small church in West London.

What does the text mean to a teenager and a single mother? To a woman in her forties who wants to get married, and to an immigrant? To the unemployed, the atheist visitor, or the Muslim? The preacher must see himself as just one of many types of people in the community.

Private preaching can lead the congregation to believe that the Bible is only relevant to the «professional» Christian and that the only proper way to use one’s life is to work full-time in the church. This can cause the congregation to idolize their pastor and live their Christian lives through him.

9. "Hypocrite Sermon": The text applies to everyone except the preacher

The opposite error of «private preaching» is that where the preacher is perceived as a teacher of the Word but does not demonstrate what it means to be subject to the Word. Sometimes the preacher should address himself as «you» rather than «we.» However, the preacher who always says «you» and never says «we» does not show that he is only a subordinate shepherd, primarily one of the sheep who must also hear the voice of his Great Shepherd.

Such a preacher may mistakenly place himself above the church, instead of living as a disciple under God's Word. This will lead him to view his discipleship only through the lens of his ministry, remaining detached from submission to the Word.

10. «Inappropriate Sermon»: The point of the passage is misapplied to the modern church

Sometimes the hermeneutical difference between the original passage and the modern church can be misunderstood, so that the application to the original context is incorrectly transferred directly to the modern context.

• If a preacher does not have a sound biblical theology of worship, Old Testament temple passages can be misapplied to the New Testament church building, instead of being fulfilled in Christ and his people.
• Prosperity preachers may argue that the promises of physical blessings given to faithful Old Testament Israel can be directly applied to God's New Covenant people.

«"Expositors" WHO DO NOT SEE THE LORD

Preaching courses often mention two horizons of preaching: the text and the church. But the Christian preacher must realize that behind both stands the Lord, who inspired the text and who is at work in the church.

11. «Dispassionate Sermon»: the essence of the passage is spoken, but not preached

There may be a preacher who understands a passage perfectly and speaks to the audience about its meaning in a way that is effective and even profound. Yet the preacher delivers the sermon as if he were reading a telephone directory. There is no sense that when the preacher speaks the Word of God, God Himself is communicating with His people.

When a preacher does not realize that it is God through His Word who calls, encourages, rebukes, teaches, shapes, and perfects His people through the work of the Holy Spirit, there is often a lack of passion, reverence, solemnity, obvious joy, a sense of sadness—only words remain.

12. «Powerless Sermon»: The essence of the passage is preached without prayer

So much time is spent researching a passage and shaping a sermon that there is little time for prayer—both for the proper understanding of the text and for its proper application to the life of the church. The preacher who works hard but prays little relies more on himself than on the Lord.

This is perhaps one of the greatest temptations for the exegete. What significance the preacher's prayer has for the impact of his sermon will be understood only by the Lord. For the preacher, the horizons of the Lord and eternity should be of paramount importance; in fact, he should be concerned not only with the horizons of the text and the church, but also with the invisible horizons of the Lord and eternity, which are of infinite importance.

Conclusion

Exegetical preaching is extremely important to the health of the church because it allows the whole will of God to be applied to the whole church of God. May the Lord empower preachers with His Word so that His voice will be heard and obeyed.