Stylos

“…so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

An occasional commentary by Pastor Jeff Riddle, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

Expositional Preaching

September 2002

New Testament Worship: Inspired Preaching and Singing

Nowhere does the Bible offer us an exact blueprint of what constitutes true worship. The New Testament does, however, give us evocative, albeit elusive, pictures of primitive worship among the first believers. One of the most important of these glimpses is Colossians 3:16 where Paul says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God.” This indicates that early gatherings of the church included focus on: (1) the word of Christ, and (2) spiritual singing.

What did Paul mean when he urged that the believers allow “the word of Christ” to indwell them? What is “the word of Christ”? Perhaps Paul was urging reflection on the words of Christ as recorded in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and elsewhere (cf. Acts 20:35). In Acts, Luke says that the first believers devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching” (2:42). This most certainly refers to the eyewitness accounts of the words and deeds of Jesus by the original disciples (apostles). But “the word of Christ” was likely not limited to the Gospels alone. It probably refers to all the Scriptures, since the first Christians recognized all Scripture as pointing to Christ. Paul makes this clear in Romans 15:4: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” So, “the word of Christ” is likely a reference to all of scripture.

Early Christian worship, therefore, routinely included time devoted to intense reflection on Scripture as it related to Christ. Again, in Colossians 3:16 this focus on “the word of Christ” included teaching and admonition (”as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom”). This is what we call preaching. It should involve these two elements: teaching or instruction (didache) and admonishment or exhortation (paraklesis). Teaching adds to the database of our head knowledge. Admonition adds to the database of our heart knowledge. Preaching is, then, aimed at both the mind and the will.

There are other elements in worship that should not be overlooked, like praying (James 5:13-18), the reading of scripture (1 Timothy 4:13), the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34), prophesying (1 Corinthians 14), and collection of offerings (2 Corinthians 8-9). Still, inspired preaching and singing are at the core of New Testament worship.

Many churches, ours included at times, have gotten embroiled in conflicts over musical styles. Should we sing traditional hymns or contemporary choruses or blend both together? My own personal preference in worship music is eclectic. I love the great hymns but also feel that God is continuing to inspire the creation of sacred music that edifies the Body of Christ in the present era. Whatever our musical leanings, it seems we can agree that preaching is an essential element in worship. It is not at all clear in our day, however, that all types of preaching are the same.

Expositional Preaching

I call the style of preaching that I feel called to minister in the pulpit, “Expositional Preaching.” This style of preaching is characterized by the following traits:

1. It is text centered.

That is, the Sunday message is primarily drawn from one passage in the scriptures in particular. This does not mean that other passages might be read or used to illustrate and edify the message, but, in general, only one passage will take center stage. The message of the Biblical text is central, not the illustrations or stories that may be used to support it’s communication.

The text itself sets the tone as to how the passage is to be interpreted. If it is narrative in form (as in the Gospels), then the message may have a feel of story telling as the preacher recasts or retells the story, pointing to emerging meaning. If the text is doxological (like a Psalm) then the message may itself be an expression of praise. If the text is legal and ethical instruction (as in Leviticus or the end of Paul’s letters), then the message for the day may be filled with point by point exposition of duties expected to be performed. If the text tackles a difficult theological query (e.g. Romans 9-11) then the sermon may be more explicitly doctrinal.

Whatever the text, the preacher has his eye and mind trained on it. His preaching will often be an inspired re-reading of the text. The preacher tries to place the text before the congregation. He may use all the skills of rhetoric and the force of his personality to achieve this, but he does not want to place his person between the text and the congregation. He does not want the congregation to leave thinking about him and whether his preaching was good or bad, interesting or boring, insightful or insipid. He wants them to leave fixed on the text and how it has addressed them.

2. It is contextual.

That is, the text-centered sermon occurs in conversation with its immediate scriptural context. In plain English, it is preaching and laboring through one book of the Bible, or through one extended section of a larger book, from beginning to end. Some preachers choose a passage from a different part of scripture each week. This week it is 2 Kings, and next week Romans, and the week after that, Isaiah. This gives broad exposure to the canon, but it fails to provide the congregation with a well-rounded notion of the teaching of an entire book. In our age, scriptural literacy is at an all time low. Pagans drawn to worship, let alone the people of God, need basic exposure to the general flow of the Biblical narrative. How better to know the experience of the people of Israel in bondage and their redemption than in preaching through Exodus, or to know the life of Jesus than by preaching through Luke’s Gospel?

Since expositional preaching aims at tackling large portions of scripture and not mere topics drawn from various and sundry parts of scripture from week to week, this challenges the preacher and his congregation to deal with the whole of scripture. As Paul told the Ephesian elders, the expositional preacher can tell his congregation that he has not hesitated to proclaim “the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27). The preacher does not continually choose pet passages that promote a pat theological agenda. He must deal with all of scripture. For example, the egalitarian must face, head on, passages like 1 Timothy 2:11-12 while preaching through 1 Timothy; the complementarian must face Galatians 3:28 in a series on Galatians. This ensures that the family of God is fed a healthy diet and does not become unhealthy, because of a culinary imbalance. God’s people are edified as they come to know the complete counsel of God in scripture.

3. It aims at both teaching (didache) and exhortation (paraklesis).

Expositional preaching draws out (hence the “ex-”) from the text the historical and cultural information necessary to understand the text in its original context and places it before (hence the “-posit-”) the congregation. That is, it aims at teaching the congregation factual information about the text. This part of the sermon should be of interest to even non-believers, if they have any interest in the Ancient Near Eastern world of the Hebrew Bible or the Greco-Roman world of the New Testament. This means that the preacher must be something of an expert in the field. He has placed the time and energy into study that not everyone in the congregation will be able to do. This is the didactic or teaching element in preaching.

The sermon does not, however, end here. For the preacher also tries to draw out from the text and place before the congregation that which will have a spiritual impact. This part of the sermon is aimed at the heart and the will. To those in affliction it brings comfort, and to those in complacency it brings exhortation. The preacher approaches this content not just through study but through prayer and meditation on the passage. Again, it is not the preacher’s message, but it is the message of the text of Holy Scripture itself. The power of scripture, on its own, to do this is what the author of Hebrews describes when he writes: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (4:12).

These two foci of expositional preaching (teaching and exhortation) are not merely, in Krister Stendahl’s phrasing, telling us “what the text meant” and “what the text means.” Expositional preaching recognizes that scripture still means what it meant, and it meant what it still means. Historical study does not blunt contemporary application. We might also add that expositional preaching assumes authorial intention. The writers of scripture had something to say that can and should be recovered today. In literary-critical terms, the scriptures are not dependent on the reader’s response for their meaning. This also means that a preacher can misinterpret the meaning of a passage of scripture. This calls for diligence in the preacher and imbues him with a great deal of caution and humility in his task. Even should his remarks fail to capture the author’s intent, however, he knows that God may yet use the preacher’s flawed exegesis to gain glory for Himself.

Reclaiming the Bible in Preaching

In many Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, a common lectionary provides a balanced exposure of scripture reading, if not Biblical preaching, in many churches. Evangelicals, who loudly proclaim their allegiance to the Bible, however, often fail to attend to its public reading and to its public and systematic exposition. We need to heed again Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Until I come devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Tim 4:13). Sustained, expositional preaching seems to have been the mainstay of Paul. This style of preaching was continued in the ministry of Church Fathers like John Chrysostom. It was recovered in the Reformation by men like Calvin and Luther. And it is a style of preaching that is finding a hungry audience in our own scripture starved age.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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Stylos

Expositional Preaching

September 2002

New Testament Worship: Inspired Preaching and Singing

Expositional Preaching

Reclaiming the Bible in Preaching

Jeffrey T. Riddle Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church