It is my contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching
John Stott writes in Between Two Worlds:
It is my contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching. Of course, if by an “expository” sermon is meant a verse-by-verse explanation of a lengthy passage of Scripture, then indeed it is only on possible way of preaching, but this would be a misuse of the word.
Properly speaking, “exposition” has a much broader meaning. It refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The expositor pries open what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted and unfolds what is tightly packed. The opposite of exposition is “imposition”, which is to impose on the text what is not there. But the “text” in question could be a verse, or a sentence, or even a single word. It could equally be a paragraph, or a chapter, or a whole book. The size of the text is immaterial, so long as it is biblical. What matters is what we do with it. Whether it is long or short, our responsibility as expositors is to open it up in such a way that it speaks its message clearly, plainly, accurately, relevantly. . . .
(John Stott, Between Two Worlds, pp. 125-26)
Quoted by John Piper in “How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry,” under the heading “16 Foundational Convictions that Shape How I Preach,” point 13: Therefore preaching is always more but never less than the exposition of Scripture. (Feb. 26, 2008 at the National Resurgence Conference.) [See notes | audio | video ]
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