Monday, August 10, 2015

The Mandate For Expository Preaching

Photo Credit: Lukas Van Dyke (Shepherd's Conference)
A.          Expository Preaching Mandated (Lecture notes from dr. Steve Lawson)

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; or He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29).

These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you (Titus 2:15).

·               This truth led John Calvin to say: Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the Word of God, of which they are constituted administrators. Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word. Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan’s reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose, thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God. [1]

·               This understanding of the preacher’s role produced a pro found sense of humility in Calvin as he rose to preach. He saw himself as standing under the authority of the Word. As Hughes Oliphant Old explains:

“Calvin’s sermons . . . [reveal] a high sense of the authority of Scripture. The preacher himself believed he was preaching the Word of God. He saw himself to be the servant of the Word.”[2]

·               T. H. L. Parker agrees about Calvin and his understanding of the authority of Scripture:

“For Calvin the message of Scripture is sovereign, sovereign over the congregation and sovereign over the preacher. His humility is shown by his submitting to this authority.”[3]



·               Calvin wrote: The office of teaching is committed to pastors for no other purpose than that God alone may be heard there.”[4]

·               Charles Spurgeon addressed the authority of Scripture when he spoke:  The Holy Ghost revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would give earnest heed; but when men cite the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection, no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenaeus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, Wesley, or Gill—we will listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect which they deserve as men, but having done so, we deny that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the church of God, for there nothing has any authority, but “Thus saith the Lord of hosts.” Yea, if you shall bring us the concurrent consent of all tradition—if you shall quote precedents venerable with fifteen, sixteen, or seven- teen centuries of antiquity, we burn the whole as so much worthless lumber, unless you put your finger upon the passage of Holy Writ which warrants the matter to be of God. [5]

‘Thus saith the Lord’—this is the motto of our standard . . . the only authority in God’s Church.” [6]

Oh, Book of books! And wast thou written by my God? Then will I bow before Thee. Thou Book of vast authority! Thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of heaven; far be it from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee.” [7]  
·               Martin Luther writes of the highest authority of Scripture, which must be preached. It is by the word that God exercise rule in the church:

The pulpit is the throne for the Word of God.”


[1] Calvin, as quoted in Pierre Marcel, The Relevance of Preaching (New York, NY, and Seoul, South Korea: Westminster Publishing House, 2000), 59.
[2] Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 4: The Age of the Reformation (Grand 
Rapids, MI, and Cambridge, England: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 131.
[3] Parker, Calvin’s Preaching (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 
1992), 39.
[4] Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Vol. 1, trans. William 
Pringle (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1979 reprint), 95.
[5] Charles H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. X (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1976), 535.
[6] Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. X, 535-536.
[7] Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. I, 111.