Ep 20: Why I'd Teach You Exposition Before Anything Else

Here's a conviction I hold with everything in me: if you're a developing preacher, learn to let the text speak before you learn to do anything else.

In this episode, I make the case for mastering textual, expository preaching first — before topical, before thematic, before the clever series. I walk through why the text is enough on its own, how depending on the original author's intent becomes a guardrail that protects your whole ministry, and why starting here doesn't limit you… it equips you for everything else.

I'll also be honest about the other side. Topical preaching has its place, and I'll tell you where. But first things first.

I close with one practical challenge you can put to work on your very next sermon.

If you want your next sermon to be your best sermon, this one's for you. I'm pulling for you.

Transcript

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I'm about to say something that a few preachers I love and respect probably will disagree with, and that's that's okay. I believe this down in my bones. If you are young in the craft and you're still developing as a preacher, you need to learn to let the text before you learn to do any other kind preaching. Not because the other ways are wrong, but because this one discipline will shape every sermon you preach for the rest of your life. So stick with me. I want to make the case over the next few minutes. Well, welcome back to the Clear Preaching Podcast. I'm Jonathan McClintock, and this is the show where we talk about the craft and the calling of preaching God's word clearly. So if that's you, if you're a preacher who wants your next sermon to be better than your last, you're in the right place. Before we get into our topic for today, I want to tell you about the Clear Preaching Academy. It's a place for preachers who are serious about their calling and want to make sure that the next message they preach is their best. It's a community first platform. Connections, cohorts, forums, iron sharpening iron, and other resources are there like courses and other things to help you grow in your craft and calling as a preacher. So visit ClearPreaching.com to check it out today. Now, here's my conviction. I'll state it plainly today. Developing preachers should learn to master textual and expository preaching before they branch out into anything else. Before topical, before thematic, before the clever series with the clever title. And I want to be honest with you right up front, this is a personal thing. And I don't expect every preacher to agree with me, and I know some won't. That's all right. I've got friends who are gifted topical preachers, and God uses them powerfully. So hear me, I'm not handing you a law or a hard fast rule. I'm just handing you a starting point, a foundation to build a whole preaching life on. But it's a conviction I hold strongly, and here's why it matters. Let me tell you where this comes from. When I was learning to preach, I did it backwards. I'd get an idea that I was excited about, something I was feeling inside, a theme, a burden, something stirring in me. And then I would go hunting through scripture for verses to back it up. And you know what? Some of those sermons landed. Some of them went over really well. People were very kind to me. But if I'm honest with you, the sermon was mine. The Bible was just decoration. I was building many of those messages, building them on my own thoughts and borrowing the authority of the text to prop them up. And it took me years and some humbling feedback to learn to flip it, to start with the text and let the text tell me what to say. And the day that finally clicked, it changed everything about my preaching forever. So that's why I care so much about this for you. And I want to save you some of the years it took me. So let me draw the line as clearly as I can. In every sermon, something is driving it. Something is the engine pulling the whole thing forward. And the question is, what is that thing that's driving it? Now, in topical or thematic preaching, the topic's driving it. You start with an idea, maybe a good one and a true one. Hopefully it is a true one. Like I preach on anxiety or preach on generosity. And then you go gather verses from all over the Bible that speak to that theme. The topic is the engine. The verses, they become passengers. Now, in textual or expository preaching, the text is driving. You start with a passage. You sit with that passage. You ask, what does the original author mean? What do they mean? What were they trying to say to the original audience? And then you let that meaning, not what you want, but that idea, become the engine of the sermon. You're not bringing an idea to the text, you're drawing an idea out of the text. Now, both of these can preach, but they form very different types of preachers and preaching habits. And the order you learn them in, I believe, matters more than you think. Here's the first reason that I want you, the developing preacher, the one that doesn't have decades upon decades under your belt, I want you to start with the text. I want you to learn really deep, down inside, where it changes how you work. I want you to learn that the text is enough. I've said that before on previous podcasts. We've talked along these lines before, but I really believe that when you're young in preaching, and I'm not talking about age, but experience, you can be middle-aged and still be young and preachy. You could be older and still be young and preachy. It's not about the age, it's about the experience. When you're young and preaching, there's this quiet fear, this fear that the passage in front of you isn't interesting enough. You hear all these camp and conference speakers who blow people's minds with clever twists of phrases that they see in scripture, and the way they're able to frame it with their language is masterful. And then those of us young in preaching, we go to the text to be to prepare a sermon, and we have this fear that if I just preach the text, it's not going to be interesting, it's going to be boring. It isn't relevant enough, it won't hold their attention. And so you reach. So you bring in the illustration that has nothing to do with the text, but it's a good illustration. You lean on your personality. I remember leaning on my personality when I first began preaching. All my life I had modeled before me very energetic and passion-filled preaching that would raise the voice and many times scream and yell. And again, I'm not screaming against screaming and yelling. I think there can be a time and a place for it. And it's it's style, it is preference. And I think we got to be wise on when we do and and and what situations. You're not going to go to a nursing home and scream at the top of your lungs. But I remember as a young preacher feeling like the text wasn't enough. And probably I felt that way because I hadn't studied the text like I wanted to, or like I needed to. Because the topic and the twist I was putting on the topic, that was the interesting part to me. It was the idea, it was what I was really feeling inside. That was the interesting part. And but I'd find out as I was preaching, there were many times as I was preaching and tried to relay this thought, this idea, I would get to talking fast and get to talking loudly to honestly make up for what was a lack of depth. I think that happens with young preachers. I don't think I'm the only one that has done that or has done that before. I think there are preachers that are young in the preaching craft who will try to make up. Now we weren't gonna, we don't want to admit this. This takes, this has taken some years of really looking back and reflecting on how I used to preach and the way I would deliver and when I was young and developing in the preaching craft and calling, that I would tend to dress it up with that illustration that didn't really fit the idea, but it was good and it related in some way, but it wasn't the perfect one. Or I would get to preaching and I would raise my voice, not necessarily for emphasis, because I would raise it and I would stay on this level up here the entire time. And it wasn't, I didn't use it for emphasis, I used it as a crutch. Now I'm not saying everybody that raises their voice uses it as a crutch. I that's not, please, that's not what I'm saying at all. I still raise my voice, I still get excited. But I have understood that the depth of the text, the text is strong enough to carry the message. When you learn to preach the text itself, when you slow down and let a single passage say what God inspired it to say, you discover something that the text is enough. God doesn't need my help to be powerful. God's word doesn't need my help to be life-changing. The text just needs our faithfulness to be heard. And a preacher who believes the text is enough preaches with a confidence that you simply cannot fake. The second reason. The second reason I believe learning to preach more top more textually and expositorily when you're young in preaching. Second reason is starting with the text teaches you to depend on the original author's intent, the original reason it was written. And that's a guardrail that will protect you throughout your entire ministry. You see, when the topic drives the sermon, it is so easy, and I mean easy, to make a verse say what you've already decided you wanted it to say. You've got your point, and so you go find a verse that sounds like it agrees. And before you know it, you're not preaching the Bible, you're using the Bible to preach yourself. See, textual preaching disciplines that out of us. It forces the preacher to ask every single time, what did God actually mean here? Not what can I make this mean? That question, what did the author intend, becomes a reflex as you practice it. And once it's a reflex, it will then guard everything else you ever preach in your ministry. Thirdly, the third reason, and this is the one that some can miss. Learning the text first doesn't limit you. In fact, it equips you for everything else. And here's what I mean: a preacher who has mastered expository work, textual work, can go do good topical preaching later. Because the preacher knows how to handle each individual text with care, even when he's weaving several together, because now he's earned it, because he knows how to do the deep textual work. But a preacher who has only ever learned topical preaching, who never has built that muscle, will struggle to preach a single passage deeply. Because they haven't learned to do the deep textual work. They haven't learned to really dig in and recognize that the need to spend a couple hours just studying the text is of utmost importance. Instead, they've learned to look at a passage, even just a verse, pull out a phrase, and run with it. I guess what really worries me the most is what I see happen with many young preachers. And again, I'm going on 17 years of teaching preaching, and I have watched young preachers, I have watched them step up to a pulpit in a in a service, um, and they're going to deliver a message, and they will go through the tradition of reading their text, and it might be one verse, it might be three, it might be seven verses. They will read that text and then they will launch into an introduction, which looks like it's going somewhere. And eventually, as time passes and they make their way through their preaching notes, you forget what the text was. In fact, I can't tell you how many times I've listened, waiting to hear what the text is saying. And the reading of the text at the beginning was the last time I heard the text. It was like a bouquet of flowers that they sat down on the table and said, Here, look at these flowers. I've got red ones and white ones and yellow ones. And you expect them to now tell us about where they were picked and what the purpose of them were and why they're sitting here, but instead they remain on the table, never to be talked about again. Perhaps they will return to the text at the very end in the close of the sermon, but just to give it a nod. Remember, I showed you the flowers. Here's why I picked the yellow ones. Because my girlfriend likes yellow. And then that's all you hear. Never, this is where that came from, and this is this is why I even chose this for the message that I'm preaching today. And here's what we can learn from the scriptures about what I'm preaching today. They were left on the table to be watched, but never visited. I know that's purely metaphor, but that's how I have seen those early on in their preaching treat the text. And the worry is, is they may never learn the importance that the text, the word is what gives the message power. And it is the word that that breeds faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And so I worry that there are some that will never learn to let the text lead, always needing the topic to carry them. So you're not choosing the text over other kinds of preaching. I'm not saying expository preaching or textual preaching is the only way to preach. But when you learn to do it, you build a foundation that makes every other kind of preaching stronger. Master the text first, and you can go anywhere. And can I get underneath the technique for just a second? Because this isn't only strategy for me. I believe it's spiritual. Because when you learn to sit with a text, to depend on it, to meditate on it, to draw from it, to trust it, you're not just becoming a better preacher, you're becoming a better disciple. You're learning to let the word master you before you ever try to master it. And for us, that word is never abstract. Every text handled rightly is pointing us to Jesus, leading us to Jesus Christ. So when you let the text lead, you're letting it lead your people directly to Him. That's the whole thing. Not impressive sermons, but we want people to meet the Lord through His word. Now, let me be fair to the other side because I promised I would. Is there a place for topical preaching? Absolutely. I can't remember the message that was preached when I came to the Lord. I repented of my sins. I can't remember the message that was preached the night I was baptized in the name of Jesus. I can't remember the message that was preached the night the night I came down to the altar as a 10-year-old boy and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I can't, but I I can probably with pretty good certainty tell you it was probably a topical sermon because that's just the tradition I've grown up in. So is there a place for topical preaching? Absolutely. There are there's always a good time for a topical sermon. There's specific moments like a funeral or a crisis in the culture or specific need in the body of Christ or something that you, something doctrinal you you need to make sure you revisit and preach. Where you will go gather the whole council of scripture around a theme, and it's exactly the right thing to do. So, yes, absolutely. Some of the most helpful sermons I've ever heard were topical. Even Paul could stand on Mars Hill and reason thematically with all the philosophers. So I'm not against topical preaching. Hear me clearly on that. I love good topical preaching. What I'm against is a developing preacher building their whole foundation on it before they ever learn to let a single text lead. That's the concern. It was never either or or forever. It's just, I believe, first things first. Learn to let the text lead. So what do you do with all this? Let me let me get practical. Because I don't want to leave you with a conviction and no path. And I don't want you to misunderstand anything I've said, but here's your challenge this week. If you are a developing preacher, if you're not old in your preaching craft, and that again, that's had nothing to do with age. It's everything to do with experience and growth. Here's what I challenge you. This next time you get ready to preach, take time, look at your devotional reading you've been reading these last several weeks or months. Find a passage. Don't worry about a topic, don't worry about a theme. Find a passage that grabs you. Find a passage that speaks to you. Just a passage. A paragraph of scripture. Not a topic, a passage. And before you look at a single commentary, before you write a single point, before you start outlining, I know this is what I'm going to preach, before you do any of that, sit with it. Read it. Read it ten times. Read it over and over and over. Meditate on it. Pray over it. God, what are you saying in this text? What were you saying through the author of this text to the original people? What were you saying? Ask the questions. What the author's saying? Who's he saying it to? What's the one idea holding this thing together? Study the text. Pull out the books then. Start studying the text. What's the text saying? What does it mean? What does it require of us? Find the text idea first. Find what the text is saying first. Then build your sermon on that. Not on what you want the text to say, but on what the text is actually saying. Watch what happens. Watch how much more solid the whole thing feels when the text is the one doing the driving. Then do it next time you preach. Do it several times. Make it your default. And here's what'll happen. You'll slowly become the kind of preacher who doesn't need a clever topic to preach a powerful sermon. Because you learned early that the text is enough. And when that becomes your default, when that becomes your foundation, you're going to learn how to then take a text and faithfully preach it, but preach it topically, preach it narratively, preach it in a way that allows you to pull the whole council of scripture in and not just plant yourself in the text the entire time, but pull other things in. But you need to learn to let the text speak first. So let me land the plane for this podcast episode. Because I know there's some of you that disagreed with me at the beginning and now maybe you're seeing it, okay, that makes sense. And there's some of you that are still disagreeing with me. It's all right. I respect that completely. But if you're just starting out, if you're still developing into the kind of preacher you're going to be, which, if we're honest, that should be most of us, if not all of us. I'm asking you to do the hard, unglamorous, foundational work first. Learn the text, trust the text, and then let the text lead. Because here's the truth the preachers who last, the ones still standing decades in, still feeding their people, still fresh, they're the ones who learn to depend on the word instead of their own cleverness. In fact, there's a couple incredible topical preachers that I know and have heard them all my life. What sets them apart is they know how to do the textual work. Their sermon, their sermons are not just surface fluff, topical one-liner stuff that decorates a sermon because there's no depth. They might preach topically, but there is such a depth that they will take someone through when they preach that message. That's what I want for you. So master the text first. Everything else builds on it. I'll see you next time. Hey, thank you for listening to the Clear Preaching Podcast today. I hope this helped you. If it did, do me a favor. Like, subscribe to this podcast, share with another preacher who needs it, and subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. Also, visit clearpreaching.com. Check out the Clear Preaching Academy. Love to have you a part of it. Until then, keep preaching clearly. I'll see you next week.