In his helpful little book the Priority of Preaching Christopher Ash provides 7 blessings of having consecutive expository preaching as the staple diet on the menu for the people of God.
1) Consecutive Expository Preaching Safeguards God's Agenda Against Being Hijacked by Ours.
In biblical ministry I want to exorcise three demons. "They are called Relevance, Entertainment, and Immediacy" (p. 111).
"To preach expositorily through a Bible book is to trust that the agenda of God is the right, the deepest, and the best agenda" (p. 112).
"That is not to say that we cultivate dreary preaching; it is to say that the content of our preaching is set not by the demands of entertainment, but by the agenda God has set in the books of the Bible."
2) Consecutive Expository Preaching Makes It Harder For Us to Abuse the Bible by Reading It Out of Context.
We often say that a text without a context is a pretext. You cannot just make the bible say whatever it is you want it to say and yet that is what many preachers do when they (often inadvertently) miss the point of the passage Sunday after Sunday.
"Consecutive Bible exposition helps us understand the Bible in its context and therefore understand it correctly, and not to abuse the Word of God by twisting it to mean something other than what God has made it mean" (p. 116). 2 Timothy 2:15.
3) Consecutive Expository Preaching Dilutes the Selectivity of the Preacher
This does not mean the pastor should never address a particular need within his unique ministerial context. One need not be slavishly committed to the lectio continua method of preaching. Point three simply acknowledges that God's agenda is more important than man's. We need to give God the microphone and trust that 2 Timothy 3:15-17 is really not a typo. If all Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable then our people need to hear the full counsel and will of God.
4) Consecutive Expository Preaching Keeps the Context of the Sermon Fresh and Surprising
5) Consecutive Expository Preaching Makes For Variety in the Style of the Sermon
Variety is the spice of life. Fresh content and style are properly achieved when the man of God rightly handles the Word of God in its Scriptural dress. "Our preaching ought to take not just its content but also its tone and style from the passage" (p. 120).
6) Consecutive Expository Preaching Models Good Nourishing Bible Reading For the Ordinary Christian
"A topical sermon models for the ordinary Christian a reading of the Bible that consists of dipping in and picking out plums. It seems to be a form of lucky (or unlucky) dip."
"Good topical preaching may give a Christian a fish, but good expository ministry will teach him how to fish" (p. 121).
7) Consecutive Expository Preaching Helps us Preach the Whole Christ From the Whole of Scripture
"I hope these 7 blessings of consecutive expository ministry will encourage us to 'give God the microphone'. Let us trust his agenda, not listening to so-called 'relevance', 'entertainment', or the idol of 'immediacy'. Let us allow the disciplines of biblical exposition to guard us agianst reading out of context. Let us be glad that our selectivity is diluted by the disciplines of consecutive exposition. May we and our hearers enjoy a week-by-week freshness of content and style. let us model for them the kind of nourishing Bible reading by which they themselves can grow. And so let us set before them all of Christ in all of Scripture, that we may present them mature in Christ at the end" (p. 122).
