Method Rests on Conviction
How a man preaches shows what he believes about the Bible. If Scripture is only a helpful resource, a preacher may use it as a springboard for his own ideas. If it is the very Word of God, true in every part and sufficient for every need, then his whole task is to make it plain and press it home. Expository preaching is not a matter of taste. It is what the doctrine of Scripture requires.
Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix do not begin Power in the Pulpit with technique. Before they teach a single step of sermon preparation, they lay a theological foundation for exposition in the Word of God, the call of God, the Spirit of God, and the Gospel of God. This study follows the same path. It looks at the Word (its inspiration and sufficiency), at God speaking through it, at the Spirit's power, and at the Gospel that creates faith. The call of God is taken up in The Preacher Behind the Pulpit.
If God has spoken in His Word, what business does a preacher have saying anything else?
The answer to that question shapes everything that follows in this series. Analyzing the text, finding its main idea, building an outline from its flow, and applying it faithfully are not academic exercises. They are the ways a preacher takes God's Word seriously because God gave it.
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For Deeper Study
- Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository SermonsAmazon Jerry Vines and Jim ShaddixIts second chapter lays the theological foundation for exposition in the Word, the call, the Spirit, and the Gospel of God; the authors are Southern Baptists.
- Preaching and PreachersAmazon D. Martyn Lloyd-JonesA passionate case that preaching is the church's primary task; Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, Reformed in theology.
- Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth CenturyAmazon John StottOpens with strong theological foundations for preaching; Stott was an Anglican.
- Spirit-Led Preaching: The Holy Spirit's Role in Sermon Preparation and DeliveryAmazon Greg HeislerHow the Spirit works through the Word in both the study and the pulpit (B&H, 2007; revised 2018).
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is Expository Preaching?
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.
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