Getting Your Sermon Ready

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Matt Smethurst
There is a large swath of pastors to whom the wisdom we would most command is be more in the text. Do the exegesis know the main idea? Make sure that the main idea of your message reflects the main idea of the passage. But here’s the reality. You on, welcome to the everyday pastor. A podcast on the nuts and bolts of ministry from the gospel coalition. If you’re tuning in on YouTube and I look tired, it’s because we have newborn twins at home. Ligon wants to baptize them. I’m not convinced. Speaking of Ligon, hi!

Ligon Duncan
Hi, I’m Lig Duncan.

Matt Smethurst
Yeah, we’re here to pick up our conversation and think now about the the huge topic of sermon prep. Sermon preparation. This is, this is something every, every preaching pastor has to think through always wanting to become more efficient, while understanding that there is no ultimate hack. It’s hard work and it’s a spiritual grind, but it’s also an immense joy. You have a ton more preaching experience than I do. I’m curious to know, especially in your years at first pres in Jackson, what were your rhythms of sermon prep? Did those change over the years? Talk a little bit about that.

Ligon Duncan
Well, I my sermon preparation has definitely changed over the years, and I think everybody should expect it to. And I think that, let me say, I see a lot of differing trends in sermon preparation today that were around when, when I was coming out of the seminary, I see guys doing team preparation now for sermons. That was not happening in the 1970s and 80s. I assure you, there was no team sermon preparation going on. I see that happening more and more like that sounds like a luxury. Well, I mean to me, you know, there is certainly an interactive element to sermon preparation, especially if you have close colleagues in the ministry, and you can, you can bounce things off of them and ask them questions. But I’m very, very possessive about my time. I want to be thinking about that. I’ve got to, I need to be able to make an argument to people that I understand and that’s hopefully coherent, and I don’t think I’d be able to do that together. I think there are all sorts of reasons for why that’s happening, but the main thing I wanted to say to you, Matt, is my preparation definitely changed over time, and I think most people need to expect your sermon preparation to change over time, it will fit the needs of your own experience. Because when, when, when I was, you know, I went to seminary, I worked with youth, and so I didn’t do a lot of preaching. I did a lot of teaching, but I didn’t do a lot of preaching while I was in seminary. And then when I was in Scotland doing my doctoral work. I preached at a lot of different churches in England and Scotland especially, but it’s occasional preaching, you know, you’re not preaching sermon series. So then I come back to teach seminary, and I’m teaching a lot of classes, and I’m working as an assistant pastor at a church, and I’m not preaching sermon series. So when I got to first press Jackson, I had no sermon series in my bag. I had everything had to be created from from scratch, and I I was averaging five sermon preps a week, which you know, Sunday morning, we had a distinctive Sunday evening service. I had a message to preach on Wednesday night as well. And then I almost always had a wedding and a funeral every week and so and I would prepare a brief a briefer message for the wedding and a briefer message for the funeral. But so, you know, I soon I realized I’m going to kill myself if I don’t have some preaching help. And that’s when Derek Thomas came. And Derek started taking that preaching load, helping me with that preaching load, because my my congregation, had high expectations for expositional preaching, and so I couldn’t just sort of slough in there and give them hamburger it. They were expecting something substantial, and so having Derek was a real help. But so that meant my sermon prep changed a lot over the course of time, and I will say that everything that I ever did in the classroom at the seminary helped me prepare for preaching, and I will also say everything that I’ve ever done for preaching has helped me in the classroom. I have often looked back Matt at the students that I taught in my first six years at RTS, and thought I owe them their money back, because there’s no question that I have been a better teacher in. Mary having served in a local church for 17 years than I was beforehand. So my sermon prep changes a lot over time, and I don’t start preaching Bible books until I get to first pres in 1996 so I’ve been licensed to preach for 11 years before I get to first prayers. I’ve been ordained to preach for six years before I get to first press, but I’m writing sermon series through Bible books for the first time when I get to first prayers. So my, my, you know, the way I go about doing sermon prep definitely changes over that.

Matt Smethurst
Do you know off the top of your head, how much of the Bible you’ve preached through?

Ligon Duncan
You know, it’s all of it’s online, and so I could go back and calculate it. I did have a plan for preaching through the Bible. When I got to first prayers, I couldn’t tell you, I got through almost all of the New Testament and a good bit of the ultimate life. For instance, I’ve never preached from Deuteronomy. Oh, that kills me. I would love to preach through Deuteronomy. I’ve only realized now how important that book is for the whole I mean, it tells you everything that’s going to happen in the rest of the Old Testament before it happens, and it’s right there in Deuteronomy. But I have preached Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, and that has been a big deal for me. So I preached through the book of Hebrews four times. And really it was, it was only the fourth time going through Hebrews I started, you know, I’m beginning to understand this book. And interestingly, it was after I had preached through Leviticus. And I I came back to Hebrews and I thought, Okay, this is the New Testament exposition of Leviticus, and so it changed the way that I preach. So So preaching the Bible will change the way that you preach the Bible. So my word to younger pastors listening to be patient with yourself. You can’t, you can’t preach like a 60 year old guy when you’re 30. Be patient with yourself. Study as hard as you can give your people the best you can of God’s word, but be patient with yourself. You’re gonna grow life experience having twins is gonna change how you preach growing old. You know, Ann and I, we think, Oh, the things that we said to people before we had children, oh, I can’t believe I said that. You know it life experience is going to enrich your preaching, but you got to be patient with.

Matt Smethurst
Well, that is a good word for younger ministers like me, and also the reality you don’t have to say everything in one circle. That’s a temptation of mine, because I was so used to before I became a lead pastor for many years, having the occasional one off, you know. And you want to give it all, you know, you get it all. And so I, you know, but I’m trying to take the 30 year view, and, yeah, when I, when I think about, I mean, man, I’m in the midst of this. Okay, so, so you’re, you’re able to reflect and draw from experience. In fact, what you’re saying about your experience of just preaching so many times a week that that reminds me of Tim Keller, who, when he pastored his first church in in Hopewell, Virginia, just 30 minutes from me in Richmond, he he prepared a different Bible exposition for Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night For nearly 10 years. So by the time he was 33 he had preached 1400 messages, which I’m on pace to reach when I’m about 70. So that just puts into perspective how much kind of iceberg there was beneath the surface of the water in terms of experience, when it comes to rhythms or disciplines for sermon prep, one of the things I’m learning is that it is far more difficult to say less than it is to say more. I think Winston Churchill once quipped some society asked him to deliver a message, and he said, Well, if if it’s how long does it need to be? If, if you need me to speak for an hour, I can do it right now. If you need me to speak for 15 minutes, give me two weeks. And so let’s say I’m preparing a message that I want to be about 40 minutes. It’s not that on Wednesday, I have 20 minutes of content. Thursday, I have 30. Friday, I have 40, and I’m ready to go? No, it’s Wednesday, I have 60. Yeah, Thursday, I have 50. Friday, I have 40. It’s about what we leave on the cutting room floor. That can be so difficult, but that’s true. Is is important, but let’s that we’re zooming in a little bit. Let me just ask you, this is the process of sermon prep, rigorous study is that quenching the Spirit, because you, you do hear from time to time, people say that spending a huge chunk of your time throughout the week studying God’s word, preparing everything you’re going to say that that is really not giving the spirit room. Move on Sunday.

Ligon Duncan
Well, the Scripture says that the scripture is the word of the Spirit. So when you are studying the Word, you are studying the Spirit’s Word. To us, the spirit is the is breathed out the word, the spirit is credited with the word. The New Testament credits the spirit for the words given to us in the Old Testament. So there is nothing more spiritual than you can do than to be in the Word. And what I need is all of us. We talked at one of our previous conversations about how our day and age shapes us well, it is we are in a saturation information environment where our phones are giving us more information than our parents ever got from television or radio. And it’s it’s giving it to us constantly, so that very often, the first thing that happens when we wake up in the morning is we are aware of things happening all around the world that we’re not a part of, that we really can’t influence, that are overwhelming. And what we need to be overwhelmed by are the thoughts of God and what God thinks is important, and how God sees things, and so being a pastor getting saturated in the word so that it’s not the noise of the world that’s occupying the space of our hearts and souls, but it’s the word of God. It’s how He sees things. It’s about the things that he thinks that that’s important for me, and I’m sure it’s important for you. You’ve been preaching at River City for three, two and a half years. Two and a half years. Okay, so what are you doing in your weekly rhythms in preparation to make sure that it you that your people are hearing the voice of God and not you’re just sort of passing on all the noise from the world to them, you know, and doing a little dab of Christianity on top of it, what are what are you doing for your preparation to.

Matt Smethurst
Well, it’s a balance between being aware, appropriately aware of and sensitive to headlines, things going on in the world, but not letting head the headlines dictate what we do on Sunday. Because in many ways, like I said in a previous episode, that time of kind of sustained, profound silence at the beginning of our service, before the call to worship, feels immensely counter cultural, because it’s silence which we don’t get a lot of. I also think there is something really refreshing about coming with the people of God on Sunday, and not a kind of quietistic, you know, putting our heads in the sand we don’t care about what’s going on outside the world, but reminding ourselves that the most important headlines in the universe will not show up on Fox News or MSNBC. The most important headlines in the universe are what God is accomplishing through his people around the world, and we are coming before his presence with his people to hear from him and by His grace, to put those things into practice. And so I just try to remind myself that in some ways, my job description is narrower and more more limited than you know. I’m not, I’m not a pundit, I’m not a pontificator. I don’t have to be the world’s expert on everything, right, but I do need to be a man of study, a man of the word, a man of prayer. Which reminds me of a passage I wanted to mention, Acts chapter six. I think that’s really important. To think about as we, as we try to situate sermon prep in terms of where, how, how large it should loom in a pastor’s week. So Acts chapter six. First, four verses. Now, in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word. I’ve written a whole book on Deacon. So what this is not saying is that serving tables doesn’t matter. Actually, far from it, the apostles actually think that, rather than imposing a swift, superficial solution to just kind of get these angsty Hellenists out of their hair, they go on to establish a permanent, ongoing church office. That’s how important it is to them. Yeah, but there is a priority here. Yeah. So here’s my question to you, is you. In addition to being a man of character growing in holiness, Robert Murray McCain famously said, the greatest gift I can give to my people is my own personal holiness, in addition to growing in holiness and being a man of prayer. Would you say that sermon prep is the most important thing a pastor does in a given week.

Ligon Duncan
Yeah, because you are a servant of the Word of God. Fundamentally, ministers, Protestant evangelical ministers. We are not priests. We are not mediators. We are facilitators of a word mediated encounter between God’s people and the living God. And so the most important thing we can do is make sure that we are actually preaching to them God’s word. And so the the process of sermon preparation is is what is going to make sure that my mind and heart is saturated with the message that God wants to give to his people. You remember that in the Old Testament, the difference between true prophets and false prophets is that false prophets speak according to the imaginations of their hearts, and true prophets speak what the word that God has put in their mouth. And so your sermon preparation is God putting His Word in your mouth in your heart, so that you can speak that word to his people and so and look, think how that sanctifies you. You know, if we’re sanctified by the word of God, if we’re sanctified by the truth, God is actually in the process of sanctifying his ministers through preparation. You talk about Tim preaching three sermons a week for X number of years in Hopewell, think of the sanctifying effect of that his people did need his sanctification. What better way to facilitate his sanctification than make him preach the Word of God three times a week? So I, and I can bear witness to the sanctifying effect that that had on me. In fact, when, when I left the church to go to the seminary, I somewhat feared that new environment. Even though I was going to be teaching the Word of God every week in the seminary, I loved the rhythm of having to prepare for the Lord’s Day. And even though I still get to do that three or four Sundays out of the month, it’s with a different congregation all the time. It is a different thing. It was so good for my soul to be in one place, have a rhythm of preparation. So for me, Matt, the big thing that I needed to do in sermon preparation is I had to be confident that I actually understood the passage that I was about to preach, and I was not ready to preach it until I could tell you you could say big what is that passage about? If I could not tell you succinctly what that passage was about, I was not ready to preach that passage, and so much of what I did the whole week long was just to make sure I understood the passage and could articulate it in an intelligible and hopefully compelling and interesting way to the congregation. But I needed to understand that passage. And it’s true, application is hard, that that takes work. Illustration is super I’m not naturally a good illustrator. I had a pastor ask me once you didn’t use many illustrations that sermon, I said, I can’t illustrate myself out of a paper bag. I’m not naturally good. I really have to work, have to work hard at illustrations, and that’s something I’ve grown in over time, knowing that life experience is a big deal there. Yeah, that helps a lot with that. But fundamentally, for me, it’s I’ve got to understand what the Bible means, right?

Matt Smethurst
I almost hesitate to say this, because it’s hard to know exactly what kinds of pastors are tuning in, because there is a large swath of pastors to whom the wisdom we would most commend is be more in the text. Do the exegesis know the main idea? Make sure that the main idea of your message reflects the main idea of the passage, that’s right. But here’s the reality for those of us who are who are Bible guys and love the word the way I can tell that a preacher has under prepared. In fact, if someone listens to my sermons, if you wanted to know that I’ve under prepared, it’s not if the exegesis is off. It’s if the application is thin and if the illustrations are lacking. Wow, thick, deep, heart searching application and vivid illustration is really what takes for me a lot of the time in sermon prep to get from that accurate, faithful exposition to Lord, by Your grace, would you pierce people’s hearts and fire their imaginations with your truth? Yeah, I’m reminded of a couple quotes that I wrote down here, just because they, they, they morbidly, kind of encourage me. So da Carson, we’ve referenced Tim Keller. The other quote. Co founder of TGC, he Carson, has said effectiveness in teaching the Bible is purchased at the price of much study, some of it lonely, all of it tiring. Yeah, that’s just very straightforward. But the fact that he would say that often encourages me, because frankly, again, sermon prep is war, right? It is not easy. It’s not a walk in the park. I And part of that, I think, is the dynamic, the very real dynamic of the satanic powers hate the fact that God’s ministers have their nose in His Word and their knees on the ground praying for His people. And don’t just, don’t just prepare sermons with your Bible open, prepare sermons, as it were, with your membership directory. Open, because that that helps me think concretely about application for specific categories of people. And then the other quote I wanted to share, HB, Charles has said, and this, this one really will convict me a passion to preach without a burden to study is a desire to perform. A passion to preach without a burden to study is a desire to perform. It’s good, and that convicts me often. So, so one thing I’d want to commend to pastors is just don’t feel like if, if it seems like you’re running against the wind, and things are difficult, and it’s a slog that that means you’re terrible or not cut out for it. Welcome to pastoral ministry. Welcome to a fallen world with angels and demons and and all the rest.

Ligon Duncan
But it’s like anything else in life. I mean, Steph Curry is still out there shooting baskets that the man is one of the greatest shooters in the history of basketball, and he’s still out there before games shooting baskets all you know, just all of us have to do if we’re going to do a good job of something, we have to stay at it. We have to work at it. And so preaching is no different from that. I loved, I loved your point about the way that application reveals the depth of your study. And I think part for me, it’s that when as I come to understand what the passage means, I understand what that passage means for me. And the best, the best application I do for my congregation is when it’s hit home to me. I mean, I tell them, I’m learning this along with you, so I’m being convicted, or I’m being encouraged, or I’m being directed or guided or exhorted or whatever, by the same passage that I’m I’m sharing with you today. And so the experience of that in the course of study is one of my favorite parts of sermon preparation. It’s not just an intellectual exercise or an outlining exercise, it’s Whoa. I I needed. I needed to learn that, and that’s actually going to help me, not that every issue that I have is every issue that my congregation has, but is going to help me apply the word to my congregation, right? Jim Packer has a definition of a sermon that I love that picks this up. He says a sermon is an applicatory declaration delivered based upon some portion of the Word of God in which the Word of God delivers through the preacher a message about God and godliness. And I love that because notice, it’s not the preacher delivering a message through the word of God. It’s the word of God delivering through the preacher a message. So it’s God speaking through the preacher. We’re just the tool. We’re just the instrument. It’s the Word. The Word of God is the thing. It’s living and active and sharper than to its sort. It’s we’re it’s using us to deliver a word to God’s people. And so you do have to be, you know, that’s, that’s where your application is going to come from. You’ve the Word of God has gripped you, and now you’re going to apply that word of God, because the word of you’re just the tool of the Word of God, delivering it to your people.

Matt Smethurst
Yeah, it’s the our preaching is not the reason the word works. The word is the reason that preaching works. And what you said reminds me of Ephesians. Two, someone pointed out. Pointed this out to me within the last two years, I never noticed this. Ephesians. Two, the second half of Ephesians, two, dividing wall of hostility torn down. There’s that little phrase in Ephesians. It’s verse 17, and he, in context, it speaking of Christ, and he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. Now, I’ve taught this passage before, and I’ve kind of jumped to the second half of that verse, those who are far off, Gentiles, those who are near. But think about the beginning of that verse, And Christ came and preached peace to you in ancient Ephesus, modern day Turkey, you heard a sermon on a. Sunday, and Paul is saying, who preached it to you? Yeah, Christ came to you. He preached through the mouth of the messenger. Yeah, in terms of application. You know, the Puritans were so good with with vivid word pictures and Spurgeon as well. You know, they would talk about exposition and application almost being like chewing and then swallowing. Imagine just chewing food and it staying in your mouth. That’s not very comfortable. You can’t be nourished and you can’t be digested unless you actually swallow. Thomas Manton, the Puritan, said that exposition is like the pulling back of the bow string. Application is hitting the mark, and so I Yeah, again, I’m a relatively new preacher, but one thing I’m just really trying to grow in is not just understanding the passage, but knowing how to illustrate it vividly, but also apply it by God’s grace incisively to people’s hearts. How did you think through application? Because, you know, listeners may hear this and think, Okay, great. Well, how do I grow in this?

Ligon Duncan
You know, honestly, I think early on in my ministry, I had to learn both application and illustration vicariously. I often needed help and guidance from other preachers and commentators to help me know what angle to go. Application wise, again, I think it’s one of those areas, the more life you live, the more fuel for application and illustration that you are provided, and you can’t go from age 30 to age 60 in a day. It’s a long road to get there. And when you’re 60, there’s a lot more life experience that’s suddenly you’re reading a passage and and you’re thinking, why didn’t I understand this when I was 22 well, because there there’s 38 years between when you were 60 and when you were 22 and there’s a lot of life and now what is really obvious wasn’t obvious then. So that’s part of my message. Be patient with yourself. I could sometimes read a passage and think, Okay, I understand that, and I generically understand how that applies to me, but it would be very often listening to an older godly Minister like an Eric Alexander or or a Sinclair Ferguson or a John Piper, or somebody who had more life experience than me, and, oh, that’s how they that’s how they applied that. Wow, yeah, that that came home to me again. Now I know the direction that I need to go in applying the passage I have not had to rely on other helpers to help me in application as I’ve gotten older, the way I had to do when I was younger, and a lot of was just life experience. You know, I could, I could say true things, but I think, I think there were, probably been people in my congregation that would have thought, yeah, he’s young, you know, that application, yeah, he’s young based Okay, or thinking it’s okay these days, you can be young. And I, let me just say, just pause and thank the people of God, the people that listened to me when I was in my 20s and 30s, they did not pat me on the head and send me off and say, You don’t know anything, young man. And they could have, they received the word of God kindly from me and were encouraging to me. And I look back and I think, Oh, I wish I could have given them. So, yeah, I was giving them then. So the people of God have been really good to listen to me and let me grow. I mean, the people at first pres, they let me grow in that pulpit. And I’m profoundly thankful for they. Again, I just told you, Matt, I never preached sermon series before I got to first prayers. And so they let me preach through Colossians, and they let me preach through Matthew and Romans and Genesis and and I grew over time. And they were kind to do that with me and for me. And you’ll apply better and illustrate better and preach better, you know, God willing, when you’re 60 than you are when you’re 30.

Matt Smethurst
The more you have to draw from. I’m so glad you said that, and it frankly reminds me of my own church members. They are so easily edified, right? That the mark, you know, it’s been said, the mark of a mature Christian is that you’re easily edified. Yeah, the musical production may not be perfect, but you’re edified because of the truth you’re saying. It may not be the greatest sermon you’ve ever heard, but if the word is faithfully proclaimed, you leave edified. My people, and I encourage them to do this. Resolve to come hungry and leave full. I know this is a this is a podcast for pastors. May. But tell your people that resolve to come hungry and leave full, because a lot of that is actually up to you. We all say. We always say, Pray for your pastor, pray for your pastor, pray for your pastor. And all pastors would say, Amen, pray for us, but also pray for yourself. Encourage your people to pray for themselves, that they would come with hearts that are hungry and easy, easily edified.

Ligon Duncan
That’s a good word, Matt, and I do think it’s appropriate for a podcast that’s aimed at pastors to think about this, because though I and we’re talking about, you know, preparation for sermons, and that’s a good thing for us to think about, and it’s a good thing for pastors to think about reading books, about preparing sermons and listening to other preachers, you know, help you prepare for sermons. But one thing that we don’t do as much as the Puritans did is the Puritans spent a lot of time teaching their people how to listen to sermons, and I think that’s actually a good way for pastors to get better at preaching is to teach your people how to listen to sermons. And so Puritans wrote little pamphlets to their people about how to listen. Richard Baxter, in the Christian directory, has an entire section on how to listen to a sermon. J i packer, in his book truth and power, which is about preaching, has a chapter where he sort of riffs on Richard Baxter’s sermon, how to listen to a sermon, right and other people. Jay Adams wrote a book on how to listen to sermons. I collect these things. Think Joel Beeke has written something on how to listen to sermons. I think if we would tell our people a little bit more about how to listen to a sermon. It would, it would help them be edified when we’re not on our a game. You know, a lot of times I’m just sitting there, Throw me a bone, pastor. I mean, just throw me one bone and I’ll be edified even though you, I can tell you don’t feel like you’re on your your A game. Just throw me one bone and I’ll be able to chew on it and be edified by that particular teaching. So I do think one way that can help us prepare to preach and preach better is to teach our people how to listen. I did a lecture for the Alliance of confessing Evan Joel’s 20 something years ago, called how to listen to a bad sermon, and I said, I’m an expert in preaching bad sermons. Let me tell you how to be edified listening to a bad sermon. And that was really good for me to have to do the lecture, because it made me think about what I’m doing in a sermon, but it also made me think about what would be helpful to God’s people when they’re not listening to an A plus sermon, they’re listening to a B minus or a C plus sermon. How can they be edified by that?

Matt Smethurst
Yeah, if I was a better podcast host, I would have started with this, but I think we’ve been assuming it, and that is that the regular diet of a church should be expositional or expository preaching. This is not to say there’s not a time and place for topical sermons, but expositional sermons, you know, the way I think of that is just that root word expose. We’re exposing the Word of God to the people of God and the people of God to the Word of God. It’s like we’re holding a microphone up to the mouth of God and letting him speak and trying to get out of the way. And that is so helpful for me as a preacher, because it keeps me from having to outdo myself every Sunday with creativity, coming up with some other way to entertain the people I just typically am going sequentially through God’s word, letting him set the agenda for what the church is going to hear. And it also guards the church from just kind of getting the greatest hits of what Matt Smithers thinks, which is actually a pretty small album. That’s a pretty limited album, what they need is to hear what God thinks on a range of issues, some of which I don’t yet know what I think. So as I preached through the Gospel according to Mark and I came to mark 13, the Olivet Discourse, you better believe I had to figure out what I thought about that right to do a lot of study in order to be prepared to bring it to people. So I just want that to be clear, that expositional preaching is is something we would commend to all pastors.

Ligon Duncan
I absolutely agree. And I will say that I think that that the substance of preaching. And what is the dominant form or substance of preaching? There it goes through cycles, and it probably in the 50s and 60s, in a lot of evangelical congregations, Anglican Presbyterian, Baptist, non denominational, uh, independent, etc, you would have had a lot of textual preaching that was not part of an expository sequence. That would have been much more common. Then there has been a happy revival of expositional preaching in our time, it’s much more widespread. Not. Now than it was when I was a a teenager in the 1970s expositional preaching became a, I mean, a big deal in the in the early days of the president reformation, when Zwingli preached through the Gospel of Matthew in in the cathedral in Zurich, it was a that was a big deal like Whoa, he’s gonna preach through Matthew Wow, because that’s not how preaching was tip. And then, of course, picked up where Calvin also does the same thing in Geneva. So you have times where things are done in our day and age. There are some people now where the shine is off expository preaching and they’re looking for something else in the face of that, I want to affirm again, no, no, I’m really glad for this revival of expositional preaching, and we should not give up on it, because people, people are looking to hear the Bible preached. I promise you, they are. People are looking to hear the Bible preached, and if we’re doing something other than exposition, it is not going to serve them well. And one of the things that I want to commend we were just talking about Tim Keller, and he’s preaching Tim. A lot of people will pay attention to Tim because of cultural apologetics, but when you listened to a Tim Keller sermon. You heard a really good exposition of a text. Now, he may have been very good with cultural apologetic application. He was an evangelist at heart. You and I were talking about that the other day, but I remember hearing Tim preach one Sunday night. I could have preached the sermon for the next three months. It was so clear. It was so rooted in the text. It was very evangelistic. And it was really good, from the standpoint of how he sort of started off on a cultural apologetic angle and hit a particular issue that resonated with his audience. But in terms it was exposition. It was meaty exposition of the word. And I think there are a lot of guys that try to copy the cultural apologetics without the exposition, and it’s not gonna work. You got to be expounding the word, right?

Matt Smethurst
This is not a podcast about Tim. I’ll just, I’ll just agree and say, if you, if you think about a kind of, you know, try perspectival, normative, situational, existential. The word is, is what’s normative? You could say the word is, say the keen biblical insight. The situational would be the cultural analysis. The existential would be the searching heart application, yeah, people focus on the situational, but actually I think the magic was in the normative and the existential. And most great preachers are good at two of those, but not all three. I once heard him say that he read every article ever published in the ccef Journal of biblical counseling, and he was so immersed in the Puritans that that’s why you get the cert. He feels like he’s climbing into your your heart and your conscience and working his way back out because, well, yeah, okay, good man, we need to land the plane on this. I just want to say one more thing. We have commended expositional preaching. But what we don’t mean by that is dry, boring, necessarily, verse by verse. Preaching. Now I do typically do verse by verse, but the way I would define expositional preaching is that the main thrust or main idea of the passage becomes the main thruster, main idea of the message, yeah, and I try to discipline myself at the beginning of a sermon to actually say that, and that’s another thing that my congregation has helped me with. At first, I didn’t, I felt like it was kind of giving away the punch line before the you know, but they said, No, this, this actually helps train us to read our Bible. Well, you said earlier. You know, if your wife wakes you up in the middle of the night and says, What’s your sermon about tomorrow, you should be able to just say, we’ll say it. And stating the main idea up front can be a helpful discipline in that regard. And so we can preach small texts of Scripture. We can preach multiple chapters at a time, and it still be expositional, as long as we’re reflecting the mood, the structure, the intent of the passage, and even this might be controversial, but I think it’s good to vary the pace, to vary the size of chunks that you preach through, because if you only give your people a diet of slow, painstaking verse by verse, there is a chance they’ll become very familiar with the trees and miss the forest. Take the book of Ephesians, for example. When is the first imperative, the first command in the book of Ephesians, it’s not till chapter four. So if you take three years to go through Ephesians, one to three, there aren’t any. Any imperatives your people are going to hear arising from that text. Likewise, if you take three years to go through Ephesians four through six, you have to be really deliberate about reminding them of the imperatives. So there’s more to be said there. But pastors, we hope this has been encouraging as you engage in the weekly war of sermon prep with the Spirit’s help. If this has been encouraging or helpful to you, please like and subscribe if you’re on YouTube or share this with a friend. We hope you find fresh joy in the work of ministry.