PREACHING THROUGH A BOOK OF THE BIBLE
One of our vary greatest privileges and responsibilities as ministers of God is to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2) – to feed our sheep (John 21:15-17). In both teaching and preaching, a good message takes work. Like a good cook, a lot of planning and work go into a meal that will nourish and strengthen those who partake. It needs fresh, healthy ingredients or all the work put into the preparation will be for nothing. The main ingredient we feed our people is God’s Word.
Simple as that sounds, many pastors do not do a good job of it. They may start with a passage but then just talk without teaching the passage. Or they may keep going over the same passages and truths time after time. They may not know what to preach about and put off preparation until the last minute. The best way to avoid this is to pick a book of the Bible and preach through it verse by verse. This is called expository preaching and is a great way to communicate Scripture as well as build up the Body of Christ (Acts 20:20, 27; 2 Timothy 3:16-4:4). Some Bible books are so long that it would take years to go through them so a small section can be taken from them and preached verse by verse.
This will take extra planning and work, but then you and your people will learn new truths from the Bible as you cover all of God’s Word in a systematic way. It will be a challenge to study new, unfamiliar passages but there is great reward and blessing in doing so. Try alternating New Testament and Old Testament passages so you don’t focus on one and avoid the other. This way new subjects will be covered. Familiar topics will be seen in new and greater light. It should increase the interest of the speaker as well as those coming to listen. Most Christians who come to church do not know the Bible well but this can help increase their interest as well as their knowledge.
Expository preaching is not just teaching a passage verse after verse. That is all right in Bible College or Seminary, but it is not a good way to feed people in a sermon. In a sermon the passage is clearly applied to the lives of the listeners so they know how to use it in their daily life.
The speaker must first study and learn the passage verse by verse, but he doesn’t stop there. He must find the big idea of the passage, the main point the writer is trying to communicate. If you were listening to the passage you are going to preach on being read in your church shortly after Paul wrote it, what would it be saying to you? If you asked Paul to tell you what he was trying to get across, what would he say? This will help you determine the main focus of the passage. This is what your whole sermon focuses on.
Preaching a sermon is like shooting an arrow at a target. You are the archer, the target is the needs of your audience and the arrow is your message. It must be straight to get from your bow to the target, not bent or curvy. So must your message. It must focus on the main idea of the passage. Everything must relate back to it. People can’t follow if you throw in various subjects and jump around instead of systematically developing the one main truth being taught in the passage.
Because the contents of the Bible are the direct result of the Holy Spirit, expository preaching is the most effective way to allow the Spirit to speak to us. The systematic preaching of all verses in a given passage creates an opportunity for people to hear all of the Spirit’s message, not just part. When we preach the main point of a given section of Scripture as the main point of the sermon, then we are letting the Spirit dictate the content of our sermon.
This will discipline the speaker to not get off on another subject, which the people may have heard before. We don’t always know the needs of our people, but God’s Spirit does and He will take the passage and apply it to the hearts and needs of the listeners.
So, as you teach through the passage, you relate everything back to the main idea, what the writer was trying to communicate to his audience when he wrote it. Your teaching becomes preaching when you apply the main points the writer was making to your audience today. There is only one meaning for a passage – what the writer intended to say. But there are many ways of applying that truth or principle to your listeners today. This turns your teaching into preaching and is what feeds your people.
As you do this, you are also developing in your people an appetite to read the Bible themselves during the week. As they see how you work your way through a passage, they will learn how to read and understand the Bible by the way you teach/preach it to them.
Knowing all of God’s Word also protects them against false teaching. By knowing the whole Bible, they can discern error when they hear something that doesn’t sound right. They can look up the passage in the Bible and read through it as they’ve learned from listening to your sermons so they can find the truth for themselves.
A diet of good exposition builds a healthy church by letting the Spirit speak through the Word of God, teaching people the content of the Bible, exposing people to the breadth of topics in God’s Word and equipping the saints to better understand and apply Scripture. Sure, it takes more work, but doesn’t anything worthwhile?
1 Timothy 4:13, “Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.”
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
John 21:15-17 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
Do you faithfully exposit the Bible when you preach? How has that benefitted you and your people?
If you aren’t teaching and applying the Bible in this way, what advantages do you see in it?
I have written 2 books to help pastors with this. Write and I’ll send you a free PDF of “Studying the Bible” and “Preaching and Teaching God’s Word” or you can find them at https://christiantrainingonline.org/our-ministries/india/books or email me and I’ll send a PDF copy of them to you.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India, Africa & Spanish Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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