Which is better preaching—expository or topical? The question sometimes generates much heat and precious little light. One answer is that every sermon should be both. That is, every sermon should be expository—it ought to expose some Bible truth. Every sermon should be topical—it ought to be about something! But the discussion goes deeper than that.
Which sermon type is more biblical? The preparation of every sermon should begin in Scripture. The preaching of it can then begin anywhere preferably with the congregation. Having found Bible truth, the preacher may well begin the sermon by awakening the listener's interest in and need for that truth. Be ginning the sermon delivery with the Bible doesn't make a sermon biblical. Beginning the sermon preparation with the Bible does. Often expository preachers claim that they begin with Scripture and that topical preachers don't. Not necessarily so.
"Expository" defined
Simply defined, an expository sermon is a sermon that's based on the exposition of three or more verses of Scripture. If the passage discussed is shorter than that, the sermon is usually called textual. Sometimes the unit of Scripture is a paragraph, at other times a chapter, occasionally an entire book. In the expository sermon's strictest form its structure follows the order of the ideas in the passage. Presumably, expository preachers begin preparing their sermons by choosing a passage of Scripture and studying it in depth.
Strengths and weaknesses
Expository preaching has much to commend it and, if properly used, is probably the best kind of preaching for most pastors. It is usually quite biblical, inclining the preacher to study the mind of the author. It generally contains good depth and affords an inexhaustible sup ply of material. It tends to lead to balanced preaching, because the topics come from Scripture rather than out of the preacher's head. It may actually be the easiest to research, because the preacher can focus on just one passage and dig deeply enough to truly master it and feel quite confident about its meaning.
Seventeenth-century Puritan preachers gave expository sermons a bad name. Many of them wrote interminable discourses with a dozen divisions. Congregations claimed their preaching was boring and irrelevant all information and no application. Consequently, this strongly biblical and highly commend able sermon type fell somewhat into disrepute.
Effective expository preaching
Some suggestions for effective expository preaching:
1. Choose your passage wisely. Too short a passage leaves you with too little biblical authority. Too long a passage easily overloads an audience. It may say too much.
2. Avoid exhaustive exposition. Expository preachers are tempted to emphasize explanation over application. Make the exegetical part of the sermon brief. Exegesis is not the ultimate aim of the discourse. Don't spend so much time digging that you don't have time to hold up to the light the diamond you've already uncovered.
Spurgeon insisted that the sermon begins where the application begins. Spend less time on what your passage says or means and more time on what difference it makes. Don't make your congregation spend the whole morning in ancient Palestine. None of them live there during the week.
3. Focus on one lesson. Seldom does a Bible passage concentrate exclusively on a single point—or even on one subject. Too many expository preachers begin by heading north toward one point, then turn and go south toward another for a while. Finally, they throw in a little east and west and sit down with the audience still going round in circles. Avoid this by studying your passage until the Holy Spirit convicts you with the truth most obvious in the passage or most needed by your congregation. Then focus your exposition on this truth and pass over everything extraneous to it.
The best sermons drive one idea home with such specificity and power that listeners are stopped in their tracks. Give them a little of this, a bit of that, and some more of something else and they'll shrug it off and go back to their world unchanged.
If you have traditionally preached topical sermons, or some other type, I urge you to experiment with expository preaching. You can preach biblical sermons using any sermon type, but it's easiest to do so with expository sermons.
In a later column we'll take a look at topical preaching and how it too can be both biblical and effective.