Upholding The Word Of Life

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Imagine being invited to a friend’s home and they offer you a bowl of hearty beef stew for lunch. No doubt you envision a hot, nourishing bowl of thick soup, with plenty of beef bits throughout and peppered with carrots, potatoes and the like. To your dismay, you are served a bowl of hot water with a few tidbits of beef and a sparse sprinkling of vegetables. The disappointment is obvious because your friend asks, “what is the matter?” She defends herself by saying that it took hours to prepare what she thought would be a satisfying and nourishing meal for them both. But the soup leaves you hungry and anxious for the real deal.

This analogy demonstrates the vast difference between expository teaching and any other type of preaching served up to hungry congregations from the pulpit by preachers today. One type of delivery leaves us dissatisfied and hungry for real food and the other nourishes and satisfies our soul – and looking forward to the next hearty meal.

Hungry people who are starving for the Word of God will have their lives transformed only as the living God speaks to them through the power of His Word. Expository teaching keeps the Word of God as the central focus of the sermon and indeed it is upheld as the primary position in the church service. Expository teaching leaves no room for God’s Word to be watered down with anecdotes, video clips, funny stories or reflections on the pastor’s own experiences.

In the vision of Ezekiel 37 we see that life comes by the Word of God.

Ezekiel 37:4-6 Again ye said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.

God calls Ezekiel to start preaching to a bunch of dry bones, and through that preaching of the Word, God brings life to them. This is just one example in Scripture where God’s words create, bring transformation and new life. God’s Word is central as an instrument in creating faith. The Word of God presents God and His promises to us and guides us in what we are to believe and how we are to live. The Word of God must be central in preaching and central in the church because God’s Holy Spirit creates His people only by His Word.

Expository preaching is not simply producing a verbal commentary on some passage of Scripture. Rather, it is preaching which takes for the point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture. The preacher is preaching in service to the Word and unfolding it to the congregation. Expository preaching is a belief that the Bible is actually God’s Word, and it presumes a commitment to hear God’s Word and submit to it.

God’s people need to have their minds increasingly shaped by Scripture. We need to hear what God says, not what the preacher knows about a particular topic with a few verses added in for good measure. Preachers are commanded to preach, but to preach the Word that brings spiritual food to hungry souls. We need to know what God intends to say through the passage. In this way, we will be challenged and shaped by the Word.

When a preacher is committed to preach a passage of Scripture in context, expositionally – that is, taking as the point of the message the point of the passage – God’s people hear from God what He wants them to hear, not what the preacher is setting as his agenda to share. In order for God’s people to grow spiritually they need to hear and know in their souls what He has said.

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

Paul told Timothy, straight and clear, to ‘preach the Word’, nothing more. This is the great imperative. And this is the great task of the preacher: to ‘hold out the word of life; to a people who need it for their souls. We don’t need another dose of entertainment to help us scratch the itch for frivolity and fun. Admittedly it may seem out-of-date in our anti-authoritarian culture to have one person stand on a pulpit talking in a monologue to others. And yet there is something good about this time-tested way of sharing Scripture with God’s people. Through expository preaching, we must submit ourselves to the one who is standing in the place of God, offering the rich food of the Word to us and we are to do nothing but open our ears and hearts to hear and heed it.

Perhaps you attend a church that doesn’t practice expository preaching. I have spent over 20 years in such a church and have slowly grown dissatisfied with entertaining topical sermons that have left me starving for the pure and unadulterated Word of God. There is thankfully, many solid expository preachers online whose podcasts are easy to access. However, there may come a time, when this is not enough and like me, you many long for a church that places God’s Word at the very center. May God’s Spirit lead us on this journey of seeking to make His Word the core foundation of our lives.

I will meditate on thy precepts,
fix my gaze upon your law,
I will delight myself in thy statutes,
I will not forget thy word.
Psalm 119:15-16