DEVELOPING EXPOSITORY SERMONS

C. Philip Slate

In response to my recent article about preachers’ giving their best, I have been asked to explain how to develop expository sermons. Since there is sufficient material on this subject to teach an entire semester course, as well as entire books, I must give only a small capsule.

The shape of an expository sermons should be governed significantly by the type of biblical material which one desires to preach. As one writer put it, “we need to preach sermons in the shape of Scripture.” The little book by Fee and Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All its Worth, has useful chapters on the different types of biblical material, whether narrative, parable, epistolary, and so forth. For the sake of simplicity, however, I will deal with a text that lends itself to clear divisions.

Suppose one wants to preach on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, a loaded text that should be viewed in terms of the entire epistle: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (ESV). Though translated variously, here are five Greek imperatives—not suggestions or hints. The Corinthians were to take them seriously! Further, these are continuing requirements for followers of Jesus, though our situations might be somewhat different from that of the Corinthians. Here, to explain how one can develop a single expository sermon on these five points, I will use only one of the imperatives as an example of what to do with all of them.

A Basic Pattern

Think of a little boy who has developed an interest in baseball. Were you to teach him elementary principles of batting, what would you explain to him? You would tell him how to stand and how to hold a bat. That is basic. Over time, as the boy grows taller and stronger, he will develop his variations on standing and batting, depending on his strength, whether he wants to get base hits or strive for power hitting; but he begins with basic patterns.

The same variations on fundamentals can be found in preaching. As Phillips Brooks said in his 1898 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching, “Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching.”[1] We all know preachers who are naturally given to humor, while others may be pleasant but not funny, with both types being effective. Similarly, different levels of training and maturity, different personality types will bring variations in the basic pattern explained next.

It is helpful to think of good expository preaching as consisting of three components in each segment of Scripture treated. Take one of the imperatives in 1 Corinthians 16:13-24: “Be watchful.” That sermon segment on that phrase should have the components of exposition, application, and illustration. In one’s sermon outline one might simply use those three words as heading for grouping one’s material. The headings should not be mentioned, unless one wants to move from exegesis to application by saying something like, “Now, what does this matter? How is directive applied to our lives?” I want to elaborate lightly on each of these headings.

First, if one does not explain/expound the concept in the text (here, “be watchful”), then the sermon will not be expository. One should strive to understand, and then explain, what Paul meant in the context of 1 Corinthians. Consider the conditions in that church that required one to be watchful, to be on guard against some threat. Biblical texts are not to be used as mere jumping-off places to say what one wants to say on different grounds. The authority is to be found in the text itself. True, one might desire, and even need, to use parallel texts to fix the concept in the mind of the hearers, but the primary text must first be understood correctly. Thus, good exegesis, understanding of the text, is the absolute bedrock of expository preaching. A word of caution: most congregations are wearied by a lot of details of Greek or Hebrew grammar. Give them the benefit of your study without reporting all the intricacies of the process. To borrow a metaphor from Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The patient is not entitled to all the medicine in the doctor’s little black bag.”

Second, one should strive to make application of the textual truth to the needs of at least a segment of the congregation to which the sermon is addressed. Congregations have different needs and different levels of those needs. If one explains the text but does not apply it to people then one is giving a lecture, not a sermon. Obviously, one does not need to spend a lot of time applying a truth that is not sorely needed. That is a form of “scratching people where they don’t itch.” Remember, as Fosdick said, “people are not desperately interested in what happened to the Jebusites.” Good application depends on the preacher’s sensitivity to the positions of his auditors and his interaction with those positions.

Third, following the example of Jesus, paying attention to a vast amount of research, and responding to what we know in our bones, it is important to use illustrations. That is the generic word we normally use for what we ought to call “developmental materials.” An illustration is more or less a “case in point”, an actual example of someone’s being watchful. Making one’s sermons more hearable, vital, interesting, and helpful, however, might involve various types of material. Think of using metaphors, such as Jesus’ comparative metaphor of Herod, “go tell that fox . . .”; use similes, brief stories, short poems, statistics, and other “windows” into the point you are making. Not incidentally, one may—and perhaps should—use developmental materials in the exposition as well as the application. You need to make the text clear. Thus, follow this rule: use developmental materials anywhere you need to make things clear. Using colorful opposites can be helpful. The opposite of “being watchful” could be “dropping your guard” (as in boxing) or being careless and getting bitten by a snake, stung by a bee, bitten by a dog, or getting an infection.

Improvement your Efforts

If one will be attentive to these three elements when striving to make a biblical text come alive to and be helpful for people, it will improve one’s preaching effort. Some men are good at exegesis but poor at helping people to see themselves in the text; while others have a wealth of stories and colorful metaphors but are short on understanding and explaining the text. The point is to facilitate good text-hearer interaction. One does not need to “prose on” lest people “doze on.”

Claude Parrish once told me of the time Foy E. Wallace, Jr. spoke to the congregation where Claude worked. Wallace preached a long sermon on the Septuagint or Bible translation or something of the sort. Afterward a brother was leaving the building and said to Claude, “Wow! Wasn’t that a great sermon?” Claude asked, “Well, did you understand it?” “Oh, God forbid that I should understand a brilliant man like that!” Hmmm. It might have been a good sermon, but not for that man. Sermons are to be instrumental for people’s responding to the truth of God, or God Himself. It might produce thanksgiving or repentance, deep reflection and consideration, or encouragement. Grow in your ability to do that. With all prayer, do your homework and God will bless your efforts to help others with His Word.

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[1] Brooks, Lectures on Preaching (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1898):5, as quoted in Batsell Barrett Baxter, The Heart of the Yale Lectures (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1954):3.