Define exposition6/15/2023 ![]() An exposition must be centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of an exposition should be faithful to Scripture and obvious from it, but it should also bring that message to bear on daily life in clear and compelling way.Ĥ. They have no teeth, no clarity, and no compelling impact on the people of God. And too many “expositions” are nothing more than descriptions of a biblical passage that are disconnected from the people who are listening. There is a difference between describing a text and proclaiming it. But it’s central to the very nature of what makes a sermon a sermon. This may seem obvious, and it may not seem like a unique mark of expositional preaching. An exposition should connect God’s Word to the life of his people. Our congregations should be able to follow the example of the Bereans in Acts 17:11: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”ģ. The message should be obvious from the biblical text. They should be able to see it for themselves in our preaching. As heralds, our ability and responsibility to say ‘Thus says the Lord,’ is contingent upon our faithfulness to the supremely authoritative Word of God.Īnd so people should not have to take our word that this is what the Bible says. Preachers don’t speak out of our own authority. Again, it’s God’s Word they need not mine. Not only must a preacher be faithful to God’s Word, but the biblical basis of his sermon should be readily observable as worshipers listen with Bibles in hand. An exposition should be obvious from the biblical text. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”Ģ. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:2, “we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. And so my foremost goal and responsibility as a preacher is to be faithful to what the biblical text is saying, and hence what God is saying. The preacher is a herald who speaks on behalf of God. It is God’s Word that his people need to hear, not the preacher’s. ![]() ![]() An exposition must be faithful to the biblical text. And I think there are five key marks of an exposition.ġ. So to exposit the Bible is to preach in such a way that the message and aim of your sermon are controlled by the message and aim of the biblical text being preached. What will be the expression on his face? Will it say, ‘That’s not at all what I was getting at with that passage.’ Or will it say, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I intended.’” 1 Pastor Mike Bullmore describes it like this: “The preacher says what the passage says, and he intends for his sermon to accomplish in his listeners exactly what God is seeking to accomplish through the chosen passage of his Word.” He continues, “Imagine God sitting in the congregation as you preach. An exposition is the kind of sermon where the message and aim of the sermon are controlled by the message and aim of the biblical passage being preached. My goal here is not to survey those, but rather to clarify what we see as the essence of an exposition. There are no shortage of books on biblical exposition, and a rather wide variety of definitions among them. We’ll start here with the first one: what is biblical exposition? So what is biblical exposition? And why is it so central to our gathered worship? These are the questions we’ll explore in this series of posts. In fact, it’s very intentional, and it reflects our commitment to what is often called biblical exposition. It’s not an exaggeration to say the preaching of God’s Word is the center of our gathered worship.Īll of this is not without reason. And each sermon reflects somewhere between 15 and 20 hours of the pastor’s study during the week. Even the pulpit sits in the center of the platform up front. It occupies the central location in our order of service. The songs we sing and prayers we pray emphasize the same message as the sermon. The sermon receives the most time during our service. If you’re part of Westgate Church, or have visited us on a Sunday morning, it’s probably pretty obvious that the preaching of God’s Word is an important part of our gathered worship.
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