My formal training in homiletics (“the art of preparing and delivering sermons”) has revolved around yet another $10 word: “expository” preaching. Expository preaching is almost universally contrasted with “topical” preaching; and to such a degree that one is commonly viewed as superior to the other. Allow me to elaborate…
Expository preaching is taking a given passage of Scripture and preaching the text as it is. This is widely accepted as the best form of preaching for multiple reasons:
- It’s honest. It doesn’t risk distorting God’s Word by misquoting verses of Scripture out of their context.
- It starts with the Bible. Instead of starting with people or culture (which are unstable sources, at best), expository preaching begins and stays focused on what Scripture says.
- It’s easier. Strong advocates of expository preaching are often reluctant to admit this, but good topical preaching requires far more skill, and is substantially more time-consuming.
Examples of expository preaching would be spending 2 years to go through a particular book of the Bible, verse by verse. A less extreme and more common example, would be preaching a single sermon on one passage or story from Scripture.
“Topical” preaching on the other hand, is much what it sounds like. A preacher decides on a topic, usually based on a perceived need in his church/community, and then turns to God’s Word to address that topic. Verses of Scripture are typically hand-picked to meet the needs of the points the preacher is attempting to make. This form of preaching has it’s advocates for a few reasons also:
- It addresses real needs. Not just an arbitrary commitment to continue through a passage because “that’s what’s next.”
- Rightly dividing God’s Word. Topical preaching is about bringing Scripture to application in different contexts.
- Still Biblical. Advocates of topical preaching point out that, with possibly one exception, Jesus was a topical preacher. It sounds reasonable to follow His example.
Examples of a topical message would be a sermon on money that has no central passage of Scripture, but rather quotes from Genesis, Proverbs, Malachi, John, Acts, and 1 Corinthians.
From the perspective of many expository preachers, topical preaching is compromised and “watered-down” preaching. I wonder then, what they make of Jesus, since it was His favorite way to preach… but I digress.
If you’ve ever heard me preach you’ve probably realized that I usually (but not always) preach expository sermons… well sort of.
My favorite way of preaching is to use topical series of sermons, which consist predominantly of expository messages. And because I have the attention span of my 3 year-old son, if I can’t preach a series in 3-8 weeks, it’s repackaged into multiple series and separated by other needed topics. I have some series that I put together 3 years ago that I’m still waiting to preach.
Preaching topical series with expository messages gives me the advantages of both forms of preaching while minimizing the weaknesses of each. I could fill up a book unpacking this concept and why for me, it has become my staple preaching strategy. But you’re reading a blog, not a book. So I’ll give you one brief example straight from this past weekend…
I’m finishing a series for LifeCity Church called “Seasons” – a topical series dealing with difficult seasons in life. This past weekend I had planned on preaching a message on “Managing your Grief,” and that I wanted to preach from John 11 (the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead) to teach on how we can manage our grief. At first, I approached the text with a pure expository preaching perspective. I came up with the following four points:
- God is never late. (v. 17)
- Life in Christ lasts forever. (v. 23-26)
- God is with us in our grief. (v. 33-36)
- God receives glory even in our grief. (v. 43-45)
Not a bad message. But as I took a step back to look at this outline, and my title “Managing your Grief,” I realized that I had a message that talked about grief, and even about God’s faithfulness in our grief. But I did not have a message about managing grief. And I have a lot of people going through a season of grief. So I had to re-do the entire outline to fit the message I knew God wanted my to preach.
I took a pen and a pad of paper and went through the passage yet again, but with fresh eyes. As I saw details in the text that spoke to what we could do to manage grief, I wrote them down. The result was the message that I ended up preaching yesterday:
- Call to Jesus for help. (v. 3-6)
- Be honest with God about your grief. (v. 20-22)
- See His love for you. (v. 33-36)
- Trust in His will. (v. 4, 43-45)
I preached this message because it actually gave grieving people a way to process their grief – not just information, but application. Both of these outlines were expository messages. But one of them started strictly with the text. The other started with real people having real needs, and turned to the text for answers. Both are clearly Biblical and grounded in the truths of Scripture. Yet having a topic to approach the text with gave our people exactly what they needed from the passage.
I don’t know if this helps anyone, but if you’re a brother or sister in ministry out there entrusted with connecting people to God’s Word, I hope there are tools here for your benefit as you lift up Jesus. If nothing else, help yourself to one of the outlines I gave…
Blessings,
Pastor John
I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I’ve been thinking about this recently, but from a different angle. The thought isn’t my own, but one I heard from Tom Wright: We can read the scriptures to see what questions of its day it is answering and how it can answer the questions of our day; both are important and applicable.
And, I think, it’s important to know the difference, and to consciously approach reading (or preaching) from each angle.
I completely agree with all of the above. “What does it say? What does it mean? How do I live it NOW?” I would even say that is what Paul meant when he told Timmothy to “Study to show yourself approved unto God – a worker that is not ashamed, but rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”