Expository Preaching
Preach the word. Expository preaching draws the meaning out of a text and makes that meaning the message, so that God speaks through His Word. This series walks from the preacher's preparation through the process of building a sermon to preaching it in the power of the Spirit.
Recommended Order
Study in any order. This path builds each topic on the one before it.
Expository preaching draws the meaning out of a passage of Scripture and makes that meaning the message, so that the text sets the sermon's subject, shape, and application, and God speaks through His Word.
We preach the Word because it is God-breathed and sufficient, because God speaks when it is rightly explained, because the Spirit works through it rather than through human eloquence, and because faith comes by hearing it.
God prepares the preacher before the preacher prepares the sermon: a man called and qualified for the office, watching his own life and doctrine, given to prayer and the Word, who seeks the truth, does it, and then teaches it.
Before a preacher decides what to say, he chooses a complete unit of Scripture and studies it closely: what it says, where it sits, how its sentences are built, what its key words mean, and the world it was written in, turning to the commentaries last.
Every passage has one central idea that holds it together, and the preacher's task is to find that idea, state it in one clear sentence, and make it the main statement his whole sermon explains, proves, and applies.
An expository outline grows out of the passage's own flow, so that each main point is drawn from the text, develops its central idea, and is stated clearly enough to help the listener follow the Word rather than admire the preacher.
Each point drawn from the text matures into preaching as it is explained so the hearer understands it, illustrated faithfully with Scripture first, and applied specifically and personally, with application always flowing from the meaning of the text.
A finished sermon frames its body with an introduction that leads into the text, transitions that carry the hearer, a conclusion that drives the main idea home, an honest title, and a public invitation that calls every hearer to respond to Christ.
Because a sermon is heard rather than read, the preacher puts the meaning of the text into plain words, short sentences, and concrete language, and carries it into the pulpit by manuscript, notes, or neither, in whatever way best serves clarity, so that the Word and not the speaker holds the hearers.
God gave His Word as story, law, song, proverb, prophecy, Gospel, parable, letter, and vision, and the faithful expositor lets each kind of text set the size of the passage, reveal its main idea, and shape the sermon.
A preacher connects with his listeners by knowing them, answering their real needs from the text, and speaking plainly, directly, and with love, so that his delivery carries God's message to the conscience and never replaces it.
The preacher does all his work in dependence on the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word and empowers its preaching, so he prays, speaks with boldness and urgency, and preaches Christ, trusting God alone for the fruit.
A worked example that carries Romans 12:1–2 through every step of sermon preparation, from analyzing the text and finding its main idea to the outline, the introduction and conclusion, and the invitation.