"Preaching is the public exposition of Scripture by the man sent from God, in which God himself is present in judgment and in grace" -- John Calvin
At Three Rivers, we are committed to the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. Because we take the Bible seriously, we take preaching seriously. That means we are committed to expository preaching.
What is expository preaching?
Many preachers claim to be expository; few actually are. Quoting a couple of Bible verses and offering a few comments is not expository preaching.
Rather, expository preaching is preaching in which the main point of the biblical text becomes the main point of the sermon. In other words, expository preaching involves using the truths of the text to develop the main idea of the sermon, its division, points, and application. In other words, the Bible dictates the sermon, not the preacher
According to Tim Keller, "Expository preaching grounds the message in the text so that all the sermon’s points are the points in the text, and it majors in the texts’s major ideas. It aligns the interpretation of the text with the doctrinal truths of the rest of the Bible (being sensitive to systematic theology). And it always situates the passage within the Bible’s narrative, showing how Christ is the final fulfillment of the text’s theme (being sensitive to biblical theology)."
Exposistory preaching involves carefully discovering the meaning of the passage by studying its original language, syntax, grammar, the context of the passage, and its historical background. Once the meaning of the text has been understood in the way God intended the audience to understand it, it then can be applied to our lives in the way God intended.
“A sermon is the proclamation of the Word of God only if the text of the Word is accurately expounded and preached. So, in the strictest sense of the term, authentic preaching is expository preaching.” -- J.I. Packer