On Expository Preaching | David Helm

3 days ago 22

What is expository preaching, and is it still relevant in today’s changing world?

In this episode of Logos Live, Kirk E. Miller sits down with Pastor David Helm who defines and makes the case for expository preaching as God’s design for his church. Discover what it truly means to submit your sermon to the biblical text.

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What you’ll find

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Episode guest: David Helm

David Helm is senior pastor of Christ Church Chicago. He also chairs the board of the Charles Simeon Trust, an organization committed to equip others to teach the Bible. His writings include:

The Big Picture Story Bible
One to One Bible Reading
A Conversation with Jesus… (Series)
Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God’s Word Today
How Can I Begin to Teach the Bible?

Episode synopsis

What is expository preaching?

In Dave Helm’s book, Expository Preaching (Crossway, 2014), he defines expository preaching this way:

Expositional preaching is empowered preaching that rightfully submits the shape and emphasis of the sermon to the shape and emphasis of a biblical text.¹

Two terms are of particular importance in this definition:

Emphasis: The primary claims or burden of the passage that the Spirit-inspired author intends to communicate.
Shape: The text’s divinely intended form—its structure, movement, and comprehensive literary strategy (e.g., linear argument, comparison/contrast, narrative plot, poetic stanzas).

Expositional preaching occurs when the sermon’s content and intent align with the God-given content and intent of the passage.

Kirk introduces the following categories: Every passage makes a claim (its stated or implied message) and has an aim (its intended response or transformative intent). In other words, expositional preachers should always ask themselves as they prepare, “What is God seeking to get done in this particular text?” Expositional preaching seeks to get done in the sermon what God seeks to get done through this particular passage.

What expository preaching isn’t

Expositional preaching, then, is not merely preaching true things from a biblical passage, but preaching the actual message of a biblical passage. The sermon’s message is the passage’s message. Put differently, the passage’s message becomes the sermon’s.

Furthermore, expositional preaching is not a running “verbal commentary” on a passage. It, of course, involves clearly and accurately explaining a passage. But since Scripture aims to do more than relay information but to provoke transformation, preaching that matches the intent of Scripture (expositional preaching) must move beyond mere explanation to exhortation, addressing minds, consciences, and wills.

How is expositional preaching different from topical preaching?

Every sermon, even expositional ones, ought to have a topic. But in topical preaching (as usually understood), a topic serves as the organizing principle of a sermon. Although topical preaching often makes use of multiple passages, topical preaching can also be done from a singular text. The preacher begins with a topic (e.g., stewardship, parenting), then assembles a number of texts, or just one text, to serve that topic.

Now, topical messages may—and should—be exegetical. They should say true things from the text. But they differ from expositional sermons in that they preach a topic from the text as opposed to preaching the very message of the text. In this way, the preacher serves as a bit of the architect of the sermon, providing its agenda and structure instead of deriving these things from a given passage.

Kirk adds a clarifying comment: Lectio continua, preaching sequentially, passage-by-passage, through a book of the Bible, is often associated with expository preaching. Those who exposit often do so via lectio cotinua. But, as Kirk suggests, the two are distinct.

For instance, one could (intentionally or unintentionally) preach a series of topical messages while working passage-by-passage through a book of the Bible. In other words, just because you preach passage-by-passage through a book doesn’t necessarily mean your sermons are expositional.
Conversely, one could preach a sermon series working through a collection of passages that address a common theme (a thematic sermon series). Yet the individual sermons on each of those passage might be expositional.

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What role does a text’s structure play in sermon development?

Whether a Pauline argument, narrative plot, poetic stanzas, or a chiastic pattern, a passage’s structure reveals its emphasis. A passage’s structure is the skeleton on which the meat of a passage (its content) hangs. The way an author organizes a passage—the way it’s arranged—becomes the vehicle for communicating its argument.

As such, in expositional preaching, one’s sermon (or homiletical) outline ought to be controlled by the passage’s structure. This doesn’t mean one’s sermon outline necessarily regurgitates the outline of a passage, replicating its exact sequence. In fact, the two will often differ. Nonetheless, because expositional preaching aims to preach the argument of the text, it will necessarily be informed by and take its cues from that argument’s structure.

This also helps the congregation follow the logic of the passage itself.

Relatedly, some texts lend themselves better to a deductive exposition (state the main point, then prove it); others to an inductive approach (lead hearers through the passage toward the conclusion). In either case though, the homiletical decision and execution should be governed by the way the text itself develops its argument (i.e., its structure).

What should be included in—or left out of—a sermon?

Identifying a passage’s argument—and how it makes its argument—goes a long way in helping a preacher decide what to include and what to leave out of a sermon. The key question of exegesis is, “How is this passage’s argument developed within the text?” A key question for the sermon then becomes, “What are the most important exegetical insights for showing and communicating this argument to my congregation?”

A sermon is not a “show and tell” of all your exegetical homework from the past week. Preachers must grow to distinguish the interesting from the important.

Not every exegetical insight needs—or ought—to be included in a sermon. A sermon is not a “show and tell” of all your exegetical homework from the past week. Rather, preachers must grow to distinguish the interesting from the important, learning to leave the former in their study and bring the latter into the pulpit. Like butchers who leave scraps on the cutting room floor, faithful preachers must be willing to discard even good material that doesn’t serve the sermon’s central purpose.

Does Christ-centered preaching violate expositional preaching?

Kirk raises a commonly felt tension: If expositional preaching is about preaching the message of a passage, does preaching Christ from all of Scripture contradict exposition, especially when Jesus isn’t explicitly mentioned in a text?

According to Dave, the Old Testament is the “pre-proclamation” of the gospel concerning the person and work of Christ (see Luke 24:44–47; Rom 1:1–4). As such, Jesus serves as the organizing interpretive principle of the Bible. Therefore, Christian preaching should responsibly and organically relate every text to Christ, reflecting the Bible’s own testimony that the Scriptures speak of Christ.

The words “responsibly” and “organically” are key here, though. Faithful Christ-centered exposition will not impose connections to Christ divorced from, or that run roughshod over, the passage’s original authorial intent. Connection to Christ should arise from the meaning and message of the text itself.

Like a film whose main character is not in every scene yet remains central to the story, so too Christ is the through line of all of Scripture even when not explicitly named. Done well, Christ-centered preaching is not an add-on to exposition but part of exposition that grasps the unity of Scripture as centered in Christ.

What are the benefits of expositional preaching for pastors & congregations?

God speaks and acts through his Word. From as early as Genesis 1, where God creates through his Word, to the prophets, to the revelation of his Son, to the apostles, God accomplishes his redemptive activity through his Word. To expound Scripture, then, is to bring people into an encounter with God’s own voice. When God’s Word is expounded, the church hears the Spirit speak (see Heb 3:7). If we want to hear God’s voice, we must go to where he has preserved it: his Word.

Kirk also notes how exposition liberates pastors from the pressure of needing to invent novel, clever messages each week. Exposition relieves the preacher from having to devise an original idea each week, and instead puts him in the position of steward of God’s message.

Finally, exposition protects the conscience of the members of the congregation. By rooting sermons in God’s Word, who alone is Lord of the conscience (Rom 14:4), it guards again the whims, opinions, or personal judgements of a pastor.