Ministry of the word by William Taylor (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Lecture VII (Expository preaching).
This week's subject is expository preaching.
Firstly Taylor defines expository preaching as the method of pulpit discourse which consists in the consecutive interpretation, and practical enforcement, of a book of the sacred canon.
He then gives some advantages of expository preaching:
(i) it brings both preacher and hearers into direct and immediate contact with the mind of the Spirit;
(ii) it secures variety in the ministrations of the preacher;
(iii) the preacher will be compelled to treat many subjects from which otherwise he might have shrunk;
(iv) it will promote Biblical intelligence among our people;
(v) in the process of preparing his expository discourses, the preacher will acquire a great store of materials which he can use for other purposes.
Taylor then closes the chapter by quickly addressing the objection, 'Expository preaching is not popular'.
Taylor made a good point that expository preaching enables a preacher to stay a long time in one pulpit: 'Is it impertinent in me, brethren, to suggest that the neglect of exposition may have something to do with the brief average duration of pastorates among us, concerning which so many regrets are expressed ? The merely topical preacher will very soon wear himself out, because he is drawing simply on his own resources all through. But the expositor has the Word of God before him, and his life-time will not exhaust that. As he follows the discourses of Jesus, or the reasonings of the Apostles, or the devotional meditations of the Psalmist, the infinite variety of these utterances will keep him from running into ruts of thought, or expression, or topic, and he will be like the well-instructed scribe of whom the Master speaks, " Bringing out of his treasure-house things new and old." I have heard a venerable minister tell that Dr. John Dick, the well-known professor of theology in Scotland, went, in the early days of his ministry, to a neighboring clergy man in the deepest distress, saying to him, " What shall I do ? I have preached all I know to the people, and have nothing else to give them. I have gone through the catechism, and what have I more?" To which his friend replied, " The catechism ! Take the Bible, man. It will take you a long while to exhaust that." For variety and suggestiveness, for fullness and inexhaustibility, there is no book like the Bible. Make it, therefore, your constant theme, until the people call you as they did Luther, Doctor Biblicus, for that is the most worthy degree a minister can earn. '
Want your preaching to stay fresh? Systematically preach the Bible. Not your catechism or anyone else's.
Read Lecture VIII (On the use of illustrations in preaching).
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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