Expository Preaching

The Expositor’s Conference just wrapped up.

Here is an excerpt from one of the lectures:

“Preaching without exposition is hot air. It is loud but there is no life. Preaching without exposition is just shallow and superficial and surface. Preaching without exposition exemplifies what one pastor wrote in his notes: “weak point, yell here.” Its all style, but no substance. Preaching without exposition is all theatrics but no theology. Preaching without exposition tries to fill the building without filling the pulpit. All preaching, and no exposition, trivializes the Scriptures. It abuses the pulpit. It manipulates people and it results in a church of unconverted, unregenerate people who show up for Supper Club on Sunday morning. Its dangerous.”

[…]

“John Calvin preached sequentially through books in the bible. 46 sermons through I & II Thesselonians. 186 consecutive sermons through I & II Corinthians. 86 sermons through the pastoral epistles. 43 through Galatians. 48 through Ephesians. 159 consecutive sermons through Job. 200 consecutive sermons through the book of Deuteronomy.

Calvin would preach in the morning and in the afternoon from the New Testament. Every morning of the week he preached the New Testament, every other week. 6 o’clock St. Peter’s Cathedral in Geneva was packed. Job. Deuteronomy. 353 consecutive sermons from Isaiah. 123 through Genesis.

After he was two years in the pastorate there (1536-1538) he was put out of his pulpit, went to Strausburg. They begged him to come back finally. He refused. He said I’d rather die a thousand deaths than go back to Geneva. They begged. He finally relented. Only as a step of lordship. And when he went back to Geneva, after being gone for 3 years, he picked up his exposition at the next verse. That’s how committed he was to sequential expository preaching. Where are men like this?

As Calvin preached he had no outline. As Calvin preached he had no sermon notes. As Calvin preached he preached out of a Hebrew Bible or a Greek Bible. It took us 200 years to figure out which translation he was using because we couldn’t find a translation that matched up with Calvin’s translation. We finally realized in the 19th century, he had been translating this as he went through the books.”

“What is Expository Preacing”
http://www.christfellowship.cc/site/cpage.asp?sec_id=377&cpage_id=421&secure=&dlyear=0&dlcat=Expositors+Conference

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