Avoid These Expository Imposters

More than once, I’ve sat under preaching that claimed to be expositional but was only a weak impersonation.

Expository preaching makes the point of the text the point of the sermon, nothing more and nothing less. This definition doesn’t preclude additional points of emphasis, application, or creative illustrations. But if the sermon doesn’t make the text’s main point its main point, it’s less than expositional.

I highlighted this reality on a recent Facebook post, and the response from both pastors and church members was resounding: “We don’t want an impostor. We want the real thing.” But how do we know an imposter when we see one? Here are four common examples.

1. Sequential Sermons

Sequential sermons walk line by line through the text. This certainly isn’t wrong, and it’s preferable by a mile to shallow, anecdote-based preaching. But it isn’t necessarily synonymous with expository preaching. It’s possible to walk line by line through a text and never make its meaning clear.

Sequential sermons can be expositional. But such sermons can also turn into an hour of running commentary. Some biblical genres lend themselves more easily to line-by-line exposition (e.g., the Epistles), while others (e.g., narrative) make this preaching more difficult and perhaps less helpful. When preaching through the book of Romans, I found it easy to follow Paul’s flow of thought in a linear fashion. Paul’s frequent use of “therefore” almost forced my exposition to be sequential.

But narratives, wisdom literature, and poetry don’t lend themselves to a sequential structure. More often, the preacher must find the text’s main point and then use his sermon outline to show how the dots of the passage’s theme or plot connect.

Preachers shouldn’t be overly committed to one style of exposition. Rather, we should consider each text in its own right and ask, Which homiletical structure, that is, which way of arranging my sermon, will best communicate this text’s central message to my people?

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2. ‘Good and True Things’ Sermons

Such sermons use the text as a jumping-off point for the preacher to say whatever he wants to say. This exposition imposter rarely arises from a preacher’s nefarious motive. Instead, such sermons are preached by those who are excited about preaching expositionally but are ill-equipped and undertrained.

Church members can walk away from these sermons edified. Why? Because they heard a lot of good and true things. They received food for the soul. But the problem is that the truth isn’t drawn from the text. The preacher must remember he’s merely a megaphone for God’s voice. His job is to take God’s Word, read it, and clearly explain the meaning (Neh. 8:8).

When a preacher doesn’t let the text drive his message, he only preaches what he already knows and practices. But when a pastor’s sermons (and his life) are shaped and stretched by the whole counsel of God, his church is stretched and transformed as well.

3. ‘Dig into the Details’ Sermons

Some preachers spend more time in their commentaries than they do on their homiletical outlines. These preachers love to highlight lexical, historical, archeological, and linguistic insights. This can be edifying. But when a congregation hears more about a hillside in Judea than about the God-man who stood on that hill, you’ve missed the point.

I praise God for pastors who are eager to study the Bible deeply and draw out its riches. But what God’s people need most is his gospel. So pastors should only bring as much extrabiblical information into their sermons as will serve the purpose of illuminating, explaining, and applying the text.

4. Exposi-Topical Sermon

This type of expositional impersonation occurs when a pastor moves so slowly through the text that he takes a single word, phrase, or concept and preaches an entire sermon on it. For example, a pastor preaching on Ephesians 1:3 could devote a sermon to the concept of “blessing” without explaining what it means to be blessed “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

It’s sometimes necessary to slow down and explain concepts at length. Predestination is one such concept, and I can easily imagine a pastor saying, “We need to make sure we understand this doctrine before digging into the point of the passage.” But more often, exposi-topical sermons result when a preacher doesn’t know how to identify a pericope (one single thought unit) and explain its meaning coherently.

Those who value expositional preaching and believe that it most clearly and consistently communicates the Bible’s meaning to their people must guard against these expository impostors. If you feel a pinch of conviction, let me encourage you. The Lord loves to bless faithful men who do their best to give his gospel to his people. His blessing isn’t limited by the exactness of your expositional method. So preach on, brother pastor, trusting that the Lord who called you is faithful and is working to grow us all in the ministry of preaching.

Sean DeMars is husband to Amber, dad to Patience and Isabella, and pastor at 6th Ave Church in Decatur, Alabama.