What role should preaching have in the regular meetings of the church? This may not seem like a difficult or controversial question to you, but different congregations often have different priorities in worship. More liturgical churches emphasize the ordinances, believing that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the best way to present the gospel. Some free churches focus on evangelism, making everything point toward the invitation to receive Christ as Savior. Among many evangelical churches music has become the central focus with a high priority on professionalism. The COVID-19 pandemic led many more churches to engage in live streaming services on various social media platforms with ever-increasing production values as a result.
It is one thing to note the prevalence of trends among Christian churches. It is another to assess which of those trends reflects the priorities of Scripture. This is the theme of an article by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. entitled “Expository Preaching: Center of Christian Worship” in Give Praise to God, a book honoring the ministry of James Montgomery Boice. From the title alone, it should be evident how Mohler believes we should answer the question. His thesis is simple: “But music is not the central act of Christian worship, nor is evangelism, nor even the ordinances. The heart of Christian worship is the authentic preaching of the word of God.”1
What Does God’s Word Say?
Does the Bible actually place this kind of emphasis on preaching? Mohler points to Ezra the scribe in Nehemiah 8 as a prime example. He and his colleagues gathered the Israelites together and read to them from the book of the law, carefully explaining the text to the congregation. Rather than stage an event or put on a show, Ezra proclaimed God’s word to God’s people. And this was no five-minute recitation. The Bible says he read and explained the text for half a day while the people stood in rapt attention. When he blessed the Lord, the people responded with shouts of “Amen, Amen!” This isn’t exactly an example of a NT church meeting on Sunday morning to listen to a sermon. Still, it does reveal that God’s people have a real hunger for God’s word.
How Badly Do You Want to Hear from God?
To Mohler, this raises an important question: “Where is this desire evident among today’s evangelicals?” (110). He complains that in many churches there is precious little Scripture being either read or expounded. “When the pulpit ministry lacks substance,” Mohler warns, “the church is severed from the word of God, and its health and faithfulness are immediately diminished.” The answer, as Mohler sees it, is a return to genuine expository preaching. By this he means preaching “that takes as its central purpose the presentation and application of the text of the Bible” (112). This occurs when the preacher “begins with the text and works from the text and it’s revealed truth to the application of that truth to the lives of believers.” He must avoid the tendency to allow his own concerns or even those of his congregation to guide him in preparing to preach. These concerns may be good and legitimate, but the expositor’s commitment must be to the message of the Bible as God’s word and his responsibility to “bring the congregation into a direct confrontation with the biblical text” (113).
God’s people have a real hunger for God’s word.
Expository preaching is not just declaring the bare meaning of the text, it includes the application of that meaning to the hearts of those who hear the message. Since the preacher is merely human, he can only do this externally and must rely on God’s Holy Spirit to apply the text to his hearers’ hearts. Understanding this avoids two errors: attempting to manipulate the heart or failing to offer any application of the text. The former occurs when the preacher’s goal is to achieve spiritual change at virtually any cost. Instead of relying on the Holy Spirit, some preachers use emotion to leverage “decisions.” The other error occurs when we fail to take into account that the Spirit works through means, namely the external word of Scripture in the mouth of the human preacher. It may sound pious to say that all applications belong to the Spirit, but this, too, is wrong. As Mohler explains, “the faithful preacher understands the difference between the external application of the text to life and the spirits internal application of the word to the heart” (114).
RESTORING THE AUTHORITY, REVERENCE, AND CENTRALITY OF PREACHING
Authority is one of those topics that does not play well to a 21st century Western audience. We have an almost allergic reaction to any assertion of authority, and we celebrate rebellion as a mark of true authenticity and rite of passage. It is no surprise then that we have diminished any sense of the authority of the pulpit or of the preacher. When clergy abuse scandals and news of moral failure among pastors rock the world of social media almost daily, who can speak of the authority of preaching? Yet, because expository preaching seeks to declare the word of God rather than the imaginations of men, it reasserts biblical authority and with it the authority of the preaching office. As Mohler notes, “the ultimate authority for preaching is the authority of the Bible as the word of God. Without this authority, the preacher stands naked and silent before the congregation and the watching world” (117).
By renewing our commitment to expository preaching, we call God’s people back to a right understanding of the authority of the preacher of God’s word. This is no blanket authority in every realm nor the unchecked authority of the man who holds the office of pastor. A preacher is not necessarily an expert on world affairs, investing and the economy, or medical issues. He may or may not have something true or wise to say about these things, but his authority extends only as far as he is declaring God’s word. This is why it is important to begin with the text and have that text and its message form the shape of his sermon and control his application. Without the authority of the Bible as his foundation, the preacher can at best only offer religious advice. “The absence of authority in much contemporary preaching,” Mohler concludes, “is directly attributable to the absence of confidence in the authority of the Bible…. But when the Bible’s authority is recognized and honored, the pulpit stands as a summons to hear and obey the word of God” (118).
A preacher is not necessarily an expert on world affairs, investing and the economy, or medical issues.
If this is true, then we gather not to be entertained or to experience some form of spiritual enlightenment but to hear, receive, and obey God’s word. It is only by submitting to the authority of Scripture that we can rightly be said to have worshiped the Lord. If this is indeed our focus, then we will approach the worship gathering very differently. Instead of asking “What did you get out of that?” or “Did you enjoy Sunday worship?”, we are faced with a different set of questions. “Will I obey the word of God? How must my thinking be realigned by scripture? How must I change my behavior to be fully obedient to the word? These questions reveal submission to the authority of God and reverence for the Bible as his word” (119).
The trend among churches may be to make the music experience central to worship. Or we may be tempted to substitute acts of service or even evangelism as the focal point of our gatherings. But Mohler says we need to recommit ourselves to expository preaching. This, he says, was the driving purpose of the Protestant Reformation, and it is the same reformation that we need in America today. “In the end,” Mohler concludes, “The church will not be judged by its Lord for the quality of its music but for the faithfulness of its preaching” (120). As preachers we will be judged for the reverence we show as we handle God’s word. It is our duty to carefully prepare and faithfully preach expository sermons. As congregants we will be judged for our reverence in hearing and obeying that word. It is our duty to demand expository preaching from our preachers and to obey the word when it is preached.
1 R. Albert Mohler, Jr., “Expository Preaching: Center of Christian Worship,” in Give Praise to God : A Vision for Reforming Worship : Celebrating the Legacy of James Montgomery Boice, ed. Philip Graham Ryken, Derek Thomas, and J Ligon Duncan (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub., 2011), 109.
