HOW TO DEVELOP EXPOSITIONAL SERMONS
a). Definition of an Expositional Sermon - An expository sermon is one in which a portion of scripture is interpreted in relation to one theme or subject. The bulk of the material for the sermon is drawn directly from the passage and the outline consists of a series of progressive ideas centered around that main idea.
b). Distinguish a textual from an expository sermon. A textual sermon consists of main divisions that are derived from a small section of scripture, usually a single verse or two or even a part of the verse. The expository sermon encompasses an expanded section of the Bible, perhaps three to thirty verses.
c). Use description to help paint a mental picture for your people.
d). Use narration to let them hear the actual words spoken in the passage by the Biblical characters. Dramatize their words as if you were putting yourself in their positions.
e). Use various arguments that represent the various viewpoints to show how the scripture has an answer for every legitimate question. Avoid needless arguments however. (2 Tim.2:24)
f). Criticize wrong interpretations, applications, or men’s distortions of the truth of the passage.
g). Correlate what other commentaries or people have said about the passage.
h). Relate the passage to what is happening in the lives of your people.
i). Explain the words, phrases, themes, problems, context, and background of the people involved to give the people perspective to the text.
j). Use the various types of outlines given in the following sections of this book to present the scriptures with a variety of approaches.
Example of Expository Sermon
1). Topic - Fight the Good Fight
Subject - Equipment for Spiritual Warfare
Thematic Question - How Should We Equip Ourselves to Fight the Good fight of Faith?
Note: Each sermons should begin with a propositional statement where the Pastor summarizes (simply and clearly) what he wants the congregation to learn in one sentence. From the proposition, the preacher will discuss, develop, prove, explain, illustrate, amplify, encourage, exhort, and apply the truths of the scripture.
In other words, the propositional statement is the sermon in miniature. It captures the main theme of the message. It should be repeated several times insuring that everyone knows what is the main thing they are expected to gain from your message. One old wise preacher use to say, ``If people aim at nothing they tend to hit it everytime.’’
Note: Each title should be pertinent to the text. It should be short, simple, and easy to remember. An interesting title will stir the greatest response in your audience. The title should be stated in the form of an affirmation, interrogation, or exclamation. The title may be a brief quotation from scripture. i.e. ``Thy will be done’’; ``There we saw giants’’; ``Teach us to pray’’
Listen to some of the better titles given by some of the world’s greatest preachers: 1). The Great Gain of Godliness - Maclaren - I Kgs. 4:25-34; 2). The Defeat of Death - Pierson, I Cor. 15; 3). The Re-Action of Revenge - Macartney Esther 1-10; 4). Pay Day Someday - R.G. Lee John 3 5). Rest for the Restless - Spurgeon - Mt. 11:28-30; 6). The School of Sorrow - Thomas - Gen. 35:8-29; 7). Barrenness or Blessedness - Olford - Numb. 21:10-18
I. The Christians’ morale vv.10-14a.
A. It should be high. v.10
B. It should be steadfast vv. 11-14.
II. The Christian’s armor vv. 14-17.
A. It should be defensive in character.
14-17a.
B. It should be also offensive in character.
v.17b
III. The Christian’s prayer life,v.18
A. It should be persistent, v.18a
B. It should be intercessory v.18b
(Braga, p. 70, 1981)
d). Study the passage to be able to understand its meaning, theme, and context.
e). Emphasize the meanings of significant words or phrases that may form the main portion of your expository sermon.
f). Outlines may vary according to the type of theme. For instance your outline may be a problem-solution one, a deductive one, an inductive one, a pattern one, a cause to effect or an effect to cause etc. You are not frozen to the order in which the passages appear.
g). The order of importance of truth may determine the order with which you present the points in your expository sermon. Use different divisions to seek a good arrangement of your points i.e. chronological, geographical, topical, expositional, quantitative, paragraph, deductive, inductive, classifications, psychological, cultural, customary, cause to effect, effect to cause, similarity, dissimilarity, negation, process, or problem-solution.
h). Two or three extended passages may be brought together to form an expository sermon.
For instance - Rahab, A Woman Who Was Saved By Her Faith
1. Her terrible past - Josh. 2:1, Heb. 11:31, James 2:25
2. Her faith in God - Heb. 11:31
3. Her work of faith Josh. 2:1-6; James 2:25
4. Her wonderful influence - Josh. 2:18,19, 6:22-23
5. Her blessed testimony - Josh. 2:9-13
6. Her noble posterity - Mt. 1:5; Ruth 4:21-22 (Braga, p. 74, 1981)
i. Exposition may include the good and bad points of someone, for instance,
Herod - His good and bad points
1. Good points of Herod
a. He had respect for virtue - Mk 6:14-20
b. He protected John the Baptist because of his righteousness and holiness Mk 6:20
c. He enjoyed listening to John the Baptist Mk. 6:20
d. His conscience was evidently greatly affected by what he heard from John the Baptist Mk 6:20
2. Bad points of Herod
a. He did not possess justice, honesty, or purity. Mk 6:14-20
b. He did not turn his life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
c. He did not love the message which came from John the Baptist.
d. He did many things as a result of hearing John but he remained under the sway of sin. Mk. 6:21-26.
e. He slew the man of God whom he respected.
f. He ended his life by mocking the Savior of the world. Lk. 23:6-12. (Braga, p. 75. 1981)
j. In expository preaching you may approach a passage with several different methods and come up with different sermons.
1). Our Peerless Lord
a). The compassion of Jesus. Mt. 14:14
1)). Toward the interest for the multitudes.
2)). Shown in his ministry for the multitudes.
b). The gentleness of Jesus. vv. 15:18
1)). Shown in His gracious answer to the disciples. vv. 15-16
2)). Shown in His dealing with the disciples. vv. 17-18
c). The power of Jesus. vv. 19-21
1)). Manifested in the feeding of the multitude. vv. 19-21
2)). Exercised through the service of the disciples. vv 14-21
2). Relating Faith to Human Need
a). The challenge to faith vv. 14-16
1)). The reason for the challenge.
2)). The substance of the challenge
b). The work of faith. vv.17-18
1)). The first act of faith
2)). The second act of faith.
c). The reward of faith. vv. 20-21
1)). The blessedness of the reward. v. 20a (Braga, P. 76, 1981)
2)). The greatness of the reward.
k. Look deeply at the historical and cultural background of each passage.
l. The details of the text should be treated properly without over doing it.
m. The truths in the text must be related to the needs of your audience. Remember that one famous seminary teacher named Howard Hendricks has said, ``Bible preaching without application is abortion!’’
Errors to Avoid in Expositional Preaching
1. Do not become lost in the detail of expositing the passage.
2. Do not spend too much time in application forgetting the aspects of observation, interpretation, and correlation.
3. Do not wander away from the main theme of the passage onto another tangent.
4. Do not interpret the passage out of context or without proper balance.
5. Do not fail to include some variety in your expositional technique.
6. Do not fail to illustrate the truths with everyday illustrations.
7. Do not make your expository sermons excessively long, complicated, or too academic.
8. Do not take years to go through a book of the Bible or your people will become weary of it. Set a decent tempo to cover the most important points.
9. Remember that the Bible was not just written to increase our knowledge but to change our lives. Your exposition will deepen when you are applying all your know. (Jm 1:22)
10. Learn to write down what you observe, interpret, and correlate from the scriptures. Many people do not really think thoroughly through a passage until they have crystallized their thoughts in writing. This is the vital difference between one Pastor who does Bible reading and another Pastor who writes during His Bible Study!
11. Do not think that you will ever exhaust the depths of wisdom, knowledge, & insights into any verse. Psa. 119:96 says, ``To all perfection I see a limit; but Your commands are boundless!’’Solomon promises us in Prov. 2:4-5, ``If you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.’’
12. Set aside special time in the morning or evening when your mind is fully alert to study the Bible. Do not confuse your devotional time with your Bible study time. Schedule time each week when you systematically develop your sermon, your study, or your lesson plan for teaching and preaching the scriptures. Some Pastors figure that they need to spend at least one hour in preparation for every 5 minutes that they will spend preaching. Do not think that you can just study the Bible in short 10 minute interims. Bible study requires protracted time alone with God allowing Him to speak to your mind, will, emotions, and spirit!
13. Be sure that you spend time in prayer before your studying asking God for understanding. Ask God to cleanse you from all known sin. Praise Him for who He is. Acknowledge your willingness to obey what He will reveal to you. Ask God to allow His Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth! (John 16:13)
14. Learn to wisely use Bible study aids; commentaries, Bible dictionaries, concordances etc.
15. The real secret of doing thorough exposition is learning to ask a range of good questions of the text. These questions will include, what, why, how, when, where, and who type of questions. Learn to ask questions that solve people’s real problems. You will begin to gain insights that you’ve overlooked in the past. It will seem that you have acquired a new set of spiritual eyes!
I have written a book called Scriptural Solutions For Your Problems. After teaching Pastoral Counseling at Jos ECWA Seminary for eight years, I compiled a list of 263 commonly asked questions of Nigerian Pastors in counseling situations. From there I searched the scriptures to come up with the most appropriate scriptural solutions for those everyday problems. This volume may help you. You may obtain a copy from Rev. Dr. Paul J. Fritz of Jos ECWA Seminary, P.M.B. 2009, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Tools For Exposition
a. SPACEPETS-These are questions to ask yourself when you are studying a passage of scripture. They will help you gain deeper interpretive, implicational, and applicational insights into the scripture.
1. Sin to forsake or sin to confess? Do I need restitution with God in any area? For example, I need to ask God’s forgiveness for a prideful attitude toward my wife. Sometimes I mistreat her and show rudeness to her in my speech.
2. Promise to claim? Is there a universal promise or one that applies particularly to me and my ministry? For example, I Cor. 13:8 says, ``love never fails.’’ I can be confident that since God’s love for me never fails, I must be more consistent in my love toward my wife, despite our differences about money!
3. Attitude to change? Am I willing to work on certain negative, critical, or prejudicial attitudes? For example, since, I am judgmental about my wife’s cooking and her nagging, I must learn that love is patient and not easily angered! (I Cor. 13:5)
4. Command to obey? Am I willing to do it no matter how I feel? For example I Cor 14:1 says, ``Follow the way of love.’’ For too long I have been following the way that is practical, useful, and efficient. Sometimes, I speak rudely to my employees. I need to realize that love overcomes all.
5. Example to follow? Is it a positive one to follow or a negative example to avoid? For instance, Paul suggests in I Cor. 13:6 that love does not delight in evil. I must not seek revenge on those who are trying to destroy my life. Instead, as Jesus Christ chose to rejoice in the truth so must I. Christ provides my model for my thoughts, attitudes, actions, and emotions in all situations.
6. Prayer to pray? Is there anything I need to pray back to God? For example, I must pray that as God trust, protects, perseveres, and places His hope in me, so I must do so with my wife. Help me oh God to love as you loved me first. Without your will and your enablement, I am nothing! (I Cor. 13:7)
7. Error to avoid? Is there any problem that I should be alert to, or beware of? For example, I should avoid retaliating quickly when people make me angry. I Cor. 13:5 says, ``love keeps no record of wrongs.’’ I must learn that holding grudges will hurt me and those around me. I am grateful that God does not hold grudges against me! (Warren, p. 35 1981)
8. Truth to believe? What new things can I learn about God the Father, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit? For example:
OBSERVATION - I can rest assured that the most powerful force in the universe in love. I Cor. 13:13 says, ``But the greatest of these is love.’’ Rom. 12:21 says, ``Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.’’ This is a truth that I can put absolute confidence in!
INTERPRETATION - Love has the capacity to triumph over evil, despair, envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, selfishness, & pride.
CORRELATION - Christ’s love for Zacchaeus convicted him to pay back the money he had cheated people out of. It was Christ’s love, acceptance, & identifying love that brought Zacchaeus to salvation. Fancy arguments will not bring people to Christ as will simple love which expresses itself in patient acceptance of people as they are.
APPLICATION - I need to place more emphasis on loving my students than insisting on academic excellence. Many of the students will make excellent Pastors. People are more interested in being loved than being brilliant!
EVALUATIONS - I need to use the positive traits of love: patient, kind, enduring, protecting, believing, hoping, etc. to gauge how effective a friend I am to my neighbors. I need to use the negative traits to monitor my speech & actions with those around me: Avoiding rudeness, envy, jealousy, boasting, remembering evil, holding grudges, or delighting in evil.
COMMUNICATIONS - I need to write a small pamphlet for circulation among the Jos ECWA Seminary students on the cultural relevance of love during times of conflict. This will serve as an antidote for potentially poisonous criticisms, grumbling, & complaining at our school & within families!
9. Something to praise God for? Is there something here I can be thankful for? For example, I can praise God that I do not speak, think, and act like a child any longer. Instead, I have the power of the Holy Spirit to put those things away and live a life of love. I do not have to live like those in world, I can live above the world as I am now seated in the heavenly places in Christ. ( I Cor. 13:11,12)
10. Learn to emphasize different words in a verse to bring out its full meaning. For example, ``GOD so loved the world that He gave His only son.’’ Or God so LOVED the world that He gave His only son.’’ Or God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only son.’’ Or God so loved the world that he gave his ONLY son.’’
11. Try praying the verse back to God. When you pray use your self in place of the author of the text. For example instead of reading I Tim. 1:12 as Paul wrote it, try praying, ``Lord, I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that you are able keep what I have committed to you until the final day!’’
12. Try to memorize the key verses of each passage that you are studying. This will help you convince your people of the importance of hiding God’s word in their hearts so that they might not sin against God.
NOTE - Try each of the nine steps on a simple passage like Psalm 23 FOR YOURSELF to see if you can find answers for each of the above questions. It will give you wonderful material for a devotional message!
