Expositional Preaching (1 of 10 non-negotiable elements of a healthy church)

The Need for Healthy Churches and the Two Extreme Families

I'm gonna do something this morning that I very very rarely do if ever around here. I'm gonna start off by telling a story. I'm not sure I've ever done this this feels awkward. I'm usually saying open your copy of God's Word too, and then we jump right in don't we but this morning I want to share a story with you.

It's the story of of two families and and and this this is no particular family. This is an amalgamation of families that I've Evaluated and seen over the years. The first family we obviously we have a husband a wife and let's say they have three kids ranging from teenager to children and the husband.

This is a person that has somehow someway been exposed to some theology. He's watched some YouTube videos. And now he has he's read a few books and he now is an expert in his mind of what the church is supposed to be and What his family finds is that he is causing them to jump from church to church.

They're always looking for a new church. They spend their life where they land somewhere and the kids get excited and the wife thinks well. Maybe this will be the one and he thinks even this may be the one until finally the the pastor maybe says something he doesn't like or Doesn't say something that he thinks he should say or or the fact that they have a youth group or the fact that their youth Group does something wrong.

There's a reason and he's he's nitpicky about it. And so what does he do? He uproots his family and he goes and he finds another church and we see this all the time this this family constantly jumping from church to church and and What I've seen the consequences of such actions are numerous but one of them that is always evident in every single circumstance is that the children of that family grow up to be hypercritical and They don't have some of the convictions that old dad had and so They leave the church altogether.

They think well, there's no perfect church. It's just a bunch of hypocrites and nobody ever does it, right? So nothing must be right. So that's our first family and we have a second family very similar husband wife three kids roughly the same ages and this family Knows that they want to be a part of a church.

And so what they do is they pick the church in the community. That's the best fit for them. They think They've got teenagers. So man, this church has a great youth group. My kids have a ton of friends from school.

They've got a great children's program. So we picked this church. This is a great church. The music is excellent here. This is a wonderful place for us to be. We love our small group. But the husband knows Instinctively somewhere some way this isn't everything that it should be.

He kind of knows that this is not a healthy church for them and so he's left with two Possible choices for his life and with his family. He knows that the pastor is a mile wide in an inch deep he never really preaches anything of any great value.

Maybe he doesn't say a lot of heresy. But he he skips a lot of things and and and the the youth the youth leader. He you know, it's it's a easy believism. He kind of knows that he's not really teaching my kids anything.

But he makes excuses of staying there because I didn't want to rock the boat. Now he's left with these two choices.

One.

He ignores it and goes, okay. So the pastor doesn't say some things and then occasionally says something that's theologically wrong. I Supplement by watching my youtube videos or or reading my John Calvin commentaries.

And so I fill in the voids and he doesn't mention it to his wife or his kids and he lets them Continue to grow in a church. There's a mile wide an inch deep that is unhealthy. And so they are being indoctrinated in that type of mindset in church while he thinks he's okay.

But he has a he has a second choice he can deal with it. He can then every single time the pastor says something wrong. He can address it. So when they go to Cracker Barrel on Sunday after church. He can set with his wife and kids and he can say listen the pastor said this but that's wrong.

The Bible teaches this or the pastor didn't say this he left this out because this is a hard truth. But this is what the Bible says or your youth pastor your youth leader and that lesson was wrong. He's not really teaching exactly the right thing.

And he then what happens he does the same thing that the other dad did. Is he builds children and a family that grow to be hypercritical and they have no respect for their church leadership. They have no respect for authority.

They always assume that somebody's wrong. I've seen it over and over again with these two families. So which one of these families did the right thing which one chose the right thing. Neither one right?

Neither of these two extreme families chose the right thing now the good thing about both of these Examples is that both families do know that they need the church. At least that much is true. The dad knows that they need the church and that they must be must be an active participating member of one.

I mean after all you you cannot Claim hear me. You cannot claim to be a Christian at all. If you are not a participating member of a local church. It's a hard statement, isn't it? But at least they have some general idea of this now.

I say that with a caveat. There may be a season where you're in between churches. Okay, don't hear me wrong. Sometimes you've moved geographically somewhere and you've not landed your you're evaluating or you know.

Something unbiblical happened at your church and you've had to leave and you're in between. But a saved person a redeemed Saint will not go long without being a active member of the church. They won't go long.

Because a true Christian longs to be obedient to the Lord, right? True Christian longs to be obedient to the Lord and obedience to the Lord requires that you bring your gifts and Resources and place yourself under the authority of a local church.

That's what God's Word requires so at least these two families understand this at some level. The problem with most people like this is that they never they've never truly been discipled within the context of a healthy church.

Never been discipled within the context of a healthy church. Hence much of their Perceived much of those those dads or even the mothers. Maybe they're involved in this but their perceived biblical knowledge is Distorted and out of balance in some way.

They think they understand scripture really well because they've they've listened to a lot of bode back them. But somehow somewhere there's a disconnect. Because it's distorted. It's not done within the context of community it's not done within the context of Accountability.

For example, the first family that jumps from church to church may have a Accurate and I use that loosely but an accurate view of ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is just a fancy word for the structure of the church how the church should be run.

How what kind of what's the leadership look like in the church? They may have an accurate view of what that church should be. But they also have a rebellious spirit that cannot submit to the authority of scripture.

See the imbalance it shows through the rebellious spirit towards imperfect churches imperfect church structures. But in the second family the one that stays Within the context of an unhealthy church. They may have some biblical understanding of Submission they may have some biblical understanding of unity unity within the brotherhood.

But but even those things are being misapplied and they're being misapplied to the detriment of their own family you see there's an inconsistency here looking for perfection or settling so for the sake of these two families and I and I use these two extreme examples because I'm hoping for the sake of everyone in between also.

For most people land somewhere between these two extremes for the sake of all of us. We have decided to take the next ten weeks as we start this new series and look at ten Non-negotiable elements of a healthy church you see again the first family's looking for perfection.

And they're not gonna find it. Are they? That first family as they jump from church to church to church to church. They're never gonna find a perfect church. Because the perfect church doesn't exist on this side of glory as my dad used to say.

He's like if they did find a perfect church, they better not go to it because then they'll ruin it. Because churches are full of imperfect people. So you're not gonna find perfection and this list of ten non-negotiables is not a list of ten perfections.

Keep that in mind. It's not a list of ten perfections. Some of these ten may be practiced better than others Within a church, but a healthy church will have them present. These will be present within the context of a healthy church.

Now the second family the example they're settling, right? They're not sure what a healthy church looks like. And so in their minds why rock the boat? Why rock the boat? I don't know what I'm looking for.

And so you settle for the imperfections that you know. He's already learned the things that his pastor's not gonna say and gonna say. So why go to another church to try and figure out What that pastor is gonna say and not say that's wrong or right?

In their minds, they're a little jaded. They don't know what they're looking for all the while their family suffers from it. But this list of ten non-negotiables is that very thing?

Non.

Negotiable you do not have a church without them. You do not have a church without them. You you may a place may have a building. They may have a bunch of actual Christians that are gathered together in that building and have some Structure and organization of a service.

They may do all of the same very similar things that we're doing this morning. They may go through the whole process. They may have leadership all of the things that you would think that a church should need.

However without these ten elements if any one of them is void from that church. All you have is a denominational country club. Certainly not a church all ten must be present again. Not perfectly, but they must be present in some way.

Now before I jump into this I want to give you some resources if you're interested in and Studying this with us over the next ten weeks and you want to know more about a particular topic. There's a couple of resources the first one is The nine marks of a healthy church if you notice I added one Turns out in the fourth edition of this book by Mark Dever.

He added the tenth one that we added. I just recently got this one and found that he did but he still named the nine marks of a healthy church by Mark Dever. If you want to jot that down. Tremendous resource for seeing all of the things that we're talking about in greater detail.

And then if you want to even dive in a little bit more. There is a series by nine marks through these tiny books and it is their church Series and they have a book for every single one of these categories and then some so if you want to look at the things That were preaching through over the next ten weeks and you want to dive in to a little bit more depth.

I encourage you both of these resources are excellent. And if you need information on those at the end of the service come to me or Pastor Jeremiah. We can get you whatever you need for those resources.

Defining Expositional Preaching

So today we start the first of these ten. The first of these ten is what is referred to as expositional preaching. Now some of you know what that is. And so, you know that I have had a very difficult time this week preparing an expositional sermon on the topic of Expositional preaching, but prayerfully we've landed where we need to be.

Okay. But the first one is expositional preaching and the reason we start here. The reason we start with this one of the ten is that this if this isn't right. None of the other nine elements can be properly applied.

If this is not done, well, none of the others will be applied. But when this is done, right when this is followed through properly all the other elements fall into place naturally. So this is a natural place to start.

So what is expositional preaching some of you may ask? Everyone in here is probably familiar with Preaching right? I mean, that's what you look at me. You're like, well, this is what that guy's doing.

He's he's proclaiming something. He's up there talking to us and giving us a lesson. That's preaching. However, some of you if not, most of you may not be familiar with this phrase expositional. So I want to give you some definitions here.

Webster's Dictionary defines this as a setting forth of the meaning or purpose as of a writing. In other words, it is an explanation of the true meaning of a text. And there's a key word there the true meaning of a text.

Okay, I want you to remember that. Now expositional preaching is often Contrasted with what's referred to as topical preaching which I think most of us In here probably growing up have been a part of that's what our pastors did was more of a topical preaching.

That all that means is they pick a topic. Like today and then they go to scripture to back up that topic and that's topical preaching. But I would like to argue that if done properly topical preaching can be expositional.

It can be expositional hence. We're seeking to do that today with and over the next few weeks so if Topical preaching can be expositional. What exactly do we mean when we say a healthy church has regular expositional preaching.

Implying that that's in contrast to non expositional preaching. What do we mean by that? Well in order to expose Non-expositional preaching I would like for us to see four things about true Expositional preaching.

Four things that I want to see so that when any of these four are not present, you know, it's a counterfeit. When any of these four are not present in a sermon, you know something's not right and Then, you know, that is probably not a healthy church.

God's Word as Life-Giving and Christ as the Head of the Church

So, let's look at the first one. First one is true expositional preaching. Illustrates God's words as life-giving. Illustrates God's words as life-giving. See the entirety of scripture points us To this this great truth.

So let's do a brief inventory of that fact. Bear with me. I'm gonna break all my preaching rules today. I'm gonna have you turn into a ton of passages and hopefully that's not distracting but I want us to see The entirety of scripture to really understand this.

So turn with me to Genesis. Genesis chapter 1 the very first book of the Bible right at the very beginning Genesis Chapter 1 we see there that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But in verse 3 we see a phrase here it says and God said Let there be light and.

There was light God.

Spoke everything into existence. His words. His very word his words have the power to make something to make anything out of nothing. We see this right here. There was no light and God's words spoke light into existence.

Right here at the beginning of scripture all through these first two chapters of Genesis God creates the universe. Because his words bring life. He speaks it into existence including us. He creates man in his own image.

He speaks it into existence, but here's the thing by chapter 3 our actions bring death don't they? By chapter 3 our actions bring death, but here again God's words bring life. Look at chapter 3. Look at verse 9 and.

Here in Genesis chapter 3 verse 9 Adam and Eve have sinned against God. They've eaten the fruit and it says in verse 9 of chapter 3, but the Lord God Called to the man and said to him.

Where are you?

God's.

Words. Called the man back to him. Adam and Eve. Sinned realized that they were naked they were ashamed and so they hide from God. They hide from the presence of God and God comes into the garden. He knows good and well where they are.

He knows good and well where they've been. But he speaks into it. His words, where are you? Where are you is a simply simply God calling come to me? Come out from hiding. I'm calling you out from hiding.

And he goes on to speak his plan of redemption here in chapter 3. His plan to defeat the death that they brought into the world and bring back life. And that's why he says there in verse 15 with the consequences to the serpent.

He says I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head. Foretelling of God's perfect plan that he is speaking life into. Flip over to chapter 12 of Genesis.

Chapter 1. Chapter 12. Chapter 1.

Chapter 12 verse 1. I mean right there at the beginning of this chapter.

It says now the Lord said to Abraham. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. You see a pattern here. God's words called a people to himself. He used Abraham and called Abraham out in faith in faith.

He called a people set apart and then over in Exodus. This is the next book over Exodus chapter 20. Flip over there with me. Genesis Exodus just the next book in Exodus chapter 20 verse 1 it says. And God spoke All these words.

You seeing it. Now not only is he called a people set them apart now. He gives those people his law by his word. He's spoken it. He didn't leave those people to themselves. He showed them who he was through his law speaking life.

Speaking life into death with his own words. But he doesn't stop there if you can flip over to numbers for me with that. Genesis Exodus Leviticus. All right, four books over Numbers chapter 21. I told you I'm breaking all my rules this morning.

Bear with me. I want us to see this through Scripture. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 8 says and the Lord said To Moses there it is again and the Lord said he's speaking truth. He says make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live.

What's that referring to? What is what is God giving them a picture of? It's a foreshadowing, isn't it of the life that he's going to be bringing through his own words providing this great truth. And we know this is a foreshadowing of Christ because Christ himself confirmed it later on in John chapter 3.

Didn't he says and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up. So that everyone who looks upon him will live. Just like God's words had given to the people of Israel back in numbers.

And then we see time and time again where God speaks to his prophets all through the Old Testament. We see how he spoke to Jeremiah says now the word of the Lord came to me saying he speaks to Ezekiel.

He says now the word of the Lord came to me. He speaks to Zechariah says then the word of the Lord came to me saying. Over and over again, and these are just a few examples the word of the Lord coming to his people.

Now turn with me actually I want you to see something in Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 37. If you're not familiar. Where that is kind of look at where my Bible lands and you'll get an idea you can flip there right.

Not quite in the center a little right to center. Ezekiel chapter 37. You see the people of Israel have have lost their land at this point. They are no more they have ceased to be a people. But in chapter 36 of Ezekiel God tells him that he is to prophesy of their restoration and return.

And you got to understand from Ezekiel's perspective. We are no longer we don't have our land anymore. We are no longer even a nation like we don't exist anymore. We're dead. Israel is dead and in his mind.

This is an impossibility. But then we get to chapter 37 here. This is a big chunk. I want us to read through it. I want to see the words of the Lord here. Says then the hand of the Lord was upon me. And he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and sat me down in the middle of the valley it was full of bones and He led me up around among them and behold there were very many on the surface of the valley and behold They were very dry.

And he said to me There his words God speaking. And he said to me son of man can these bones live. And I answered Oh Lord God, you know. Then he said to me prophesy over these bones and say to them Oh dry bones hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God to these bones behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live and I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and Cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord so I prophesied as I was commanded.

And as I prophesied There was a sound and behold a rattling. And the bones came together. Bone to its bone and I looked and behold there was sinews on them. The flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me words of God prophesied of the breath prophesied son of man and Say to the breath thus says the Lord God come from the four winds. Oh breath and breathe on these slain that they may live so I prophesied as he commanded me and The breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet and exceedingly great army the words.

Of the Lord had the power.

To take.

Bones not death. Not not a just died yesterday corpse bones a Corpse where the the flesh and the life is completely void. The animals and and the elements have decimated every other aspect of life and left bones and God merely.

Speaks.

Life into them and he uses a Prophet to do so. He comes to the prophet. He says these are my words now proclaim my words to the bones and those bones will rise up as an army. Do you see the power of the words of God?

God's.

God's words and Expositional preaching. Proclamation of the very words of God illustrates God's words as life-giving. Because that's precisely what they are. This is obviously but a picture of the life-giving power of these very words.

But then let's keep moving along. Then the Messiah finally comes right? The one that has been prophesied the one that we've been pointing to the one that he he told about there in Genesis 3. But mind you the same one that was there in Genesis 1 1 with him in creation.

Finally gets there and John the Baptist is is baptizing Jesus to begin his earthly ministry. There in Matthew chapter 17 and verse 5 and it says. And and he was speaking still speaking This is John the Baptist.

And behold a great cloud overshadowed them and the voice from the clouds said This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him hear his words. I'm speaking through him. Talk about life-giving words.

As the Messiah comes in and God confirms I can only imagine standing there in the baptism. You're like, oh another guy's getting baptized. Cool. This is Jesus of Nazareth. This is awesome. I'm so glad he's becoming a disciple of John the Baptist.

Boom. God comes out and says this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. I'm not speaking anymore. He is. These are my words. To see that I want you to turn with me over to Hebrews chapter 1.

Told you we're everywhere today guys. Bear with me. This is in the New Testament Hebrews chapter 1. It's right after the pastoral epistles. Their first second Timothy Titus and then Philemon and then you get to Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 1. I want to look at the first two verses here. The writer of Hebrews says long ago. At many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. That's what we've literally just been kind of flying through isn't it?

That's how God spoke. God's words came from the prophets. There came to the prophets and the prophets then spoke the word to the people. Verse 2. But In these last days he has spoken to us. By his son.

He spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things. Through whom also he created the world. Remember back in Genesis 1 1. I Can't help but think of the way John introduces his epistle or not his business.

His gospel account in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. See God goes on to tell us that that all scripture is breathed out. By him in 2nd Timothy 2 15 right all scripture everything we see in the word of God is breathed out by God.

So you see the words of God are life-giving and the totality of scripture is his word. This is how he speaks. We have to remember this. This is very important. He no longer speaks through the prophets.

He no longer speaks through men if somebody comes to you and says I have a fresh word from the Lord. Turn around and run. Because lightning might strike them. They don't have a fresh word from the Lord.

They may be repeating a word that the Lord has already said to remind you of it. But they don't have a fresh word because God no longer speaks through men. God has stopped speaking. Why has God stopped speaking through men and audibly because he's spoken everything.

He's spoken everything in his son. That's what he was aiming to everything that he spoke when he spoke the world into existence and then when we brought death into the world and he spoke that the glimmer of light that he was looking towards and as he spoke a people to himself as he spoke the law as he spoke of the coming Messiah and Then as he spoke at the baptism of Jesus confirming now listen to him speaking through your son.

He's saying I've said it all we've arrived. This is what this is the information that I want to give to you. No more no less. This is my word, I don't need a new revelation. We don't need the input of man and why do we not need it?

And how do we know we don't need it?

Well.

The passage I just read there in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Get your eyes on it. Just flip a few a few pages back into 2nd Timothy there 2nd Timothy 3 16 and 17 right near the end of chapter 3 the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy young Timothy who is a Essentially a pastor.

He's establishing churches. He's setting elders. He's he's proclaiming the truth to God's people and he says that phrase that we mentioned a moment ago that all scriptures breathed out by God and What is it once it's breathed out by God?

What is it it's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness that? The man of God may be. Sufficiently adequate that what it says. No, it says so that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work every single work.

God's words give us what we need. We don't need a new word from God. We don't need Something that is not here in the word and he's not left us Wanting for anything because everything is done. It's said it's Closed and he has spoken through his son.

Because not only are his lot his words life-giving in the sense of eternal life, which they are praise God. They're life-giving in that we are equipped to do the will of God now, right? We're equipped to do the will of God and doing the will of God is life giving.

It's like light in a dark room. It's like air and lungs. You know that feeling when you come up out of the swimming pool and you're underneath and maybe you've gone too deep as a kid. You're like, oh no, and you push off the ground.

You're trying to get to the top and you see the light and then you finally break free and then the air Goes into your lungs. That's a beautiful feeling, isn't it? Feels like life-giving. And that's what obeying the law of God is doing the will of the Father is.

Because we were created to obey him, weren't we and here's the thing true. Expositional preaching it illustrates those words as life-giving it points to those words. Second thing I want us to see about expositional preaching is that it illustrates Christ as the head of the church.

It illustrates Christ as the head of the church and we only know this because of his words telling us right those life-giving words. Colossians 1 1 18 the Apostle Paul says and he speaking of Christ is the head of the body.

The church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent he essentially Affirms the same thing in Ephesians 1 22 and 23. He says and he Christ put all things under his feet.

And he will God put all things under his feet Christ's feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. Which is his body fullness of him who fills all in all. Christ is the head of the church.

And you see non expositional preaching seeks to establish authority. But not in its proper order. I'm gonna say that again non expositional preaching seeks to establish authority, but not in its proper order.

There are many preachers out there. I want to be seen as the authority. Listen to my words. Listen to my opinion. Listen to what I have to say.

This is.

This is me. I've got my life together. You should aspire to be like me. You guys are looking at my life. You're like I'm gonna learn to be that guy. Thank goodness because I'm not trying to put on that facade.

I'm a broken sheep just like the rest of you. Right, but there are many pastors. They want that they have that aura of or of.

Authoritativeness.

And when these types of pastors when they take God's words They slightly twist them usually. It always is a twist to fit their agenda a slight twist to fit their opinion and what are they doing? They're essentially seeking to dethrone Christ.

And place themselves as the head of the church. Place themselves as the head of that body. And King. But Paul told Timothy Back in 2nd Timothy and in chapter 2 verse 15. He says do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a Worker who has no need to be ashamed.

Here's here's the phrase. I want you to want you to hear rightly handling the Word of Truth. Rightly handling the word what does he mean by that? What is what is Paul telling Timothy here? Well, here's the thing any author That writes something and then has ten different people read those writings a Lot of times those people could go on and express ten different interpretations of that writing can't they?

They see it through the lens of their worldview. They see it through the lens of their experience. They see it through the lens of of a preconceived idea. And so they read that writing of of an author and and they can walk away and man I got something totally different out of his writing than you did.

Like how did you get that like I got this. But here's the thing. It doesn't change the fact that the author had one true meaning one true meaning in that writing. Sometimes the only way to arrive at that meaning is to go to the source.

The only way to arrive at that meaning is to go to the author himself. And you see this is essentially what true Bible exposition is. It's going to the source and it requires a couple of things. First and foremost it requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to illuminate that truth to us, right?

Because the words of God are speaking something Heavenly and we are earthly minded and we need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit comes Only through Christ's propitiation for us, right?

We're in Christ. Christ has paid the penalty for us. He has bought us with a price. We're not his and now he he seals us with the Holy Spirit, right? But true expositional preaching going to the source is using his words to interpret his words.

You ever heard the phrase scripture interprets scripture. That's going to the source. That's rightly handling the word of truth that's not just coming up with what you think and and and taking a passage of scripture and reading it in your particular Context and worldview and then you know building an entire thought process or doctrine around it.

That's why we see so many heresies because there's so many men that do this very thing. No true expositional preaching is only confirmed by Scripture itself and here's the thing if if you were to use any other source if I came to you and said hey I want to confirm this thing about scripture.