Christ-centered & Expository Preaching

This post is the next in our series looking at the Seven Foundations at Christ the King. you can also read about our new Mission and Vision statements. 

Today, we will consider our second foundation: Christ-centered and Expository Preaching

What Even Is Preaching?

Before we discuss the content and shape of our preaching, we need to define preaching itself. What even is preaching? And why does it matter so much in our Sunday worship service?

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul charged his young protégé to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). The Greek word translated ‘preach’ has a basic meaning of making a proclamation or an announcement about something or someone. We receive announcements like this all the time. The US Press Secretary makes announcements about presidential actions. Social media is full of announcements and advertisements for all sorts of groups, businesses, and social programs. But none of these are preaching.

What turns a generic proclamation into preaching is the content. Paul tells Timothy to preach the Word. Preaching, therefore, has a specific message. It must be Word-focused and proclaim the message of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. 

Unfortunately, much of what is said from pulpits in many churches today cannot be accurately described as preaching. Too often the ‘sermons’ are simply self-help Ted-talks. A verse or two might be mentioned in passing, but the content of the talk is anything but biblical.

At Christ the King, we care a lot about preaching. That is why our second foundation describes both the content and the shape that our preaching takes. In other words, there is a proper message and method of preaching—Christ-centered and expository.

The Message of Preaching: Christ-centered

First, the message of preaching must be Christ-centered. If preaching is about proclaiming the good news, then if we aren’t preaching Christ, we aren’t preaching!

Paul makes this point over and over again in his letters. Writing to the Corinthians, he lamented the fact that so many divisions were taking place. The church members were making rival claims of allegiance to different apostles (see 1 Cor. 1:11-13). But Paul had to remind them that the whole point of their ministry was not to build followings for themselves but to lead people to Christ.

Paul reminds them, “When I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1-2).

The person of Christ and his work on the cross was the only message that Paul proclaimed to the Corinthians. His preaching was Christ-centered from beginning to end. He didn’t try to spice things up, or add or take away from the message in any way. Rather, he let the good news of Jesus speak for itself, “so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5). 

Our message is the same today. And lest we think this applies only to sermons from the New Testament, we are called to preach Christ from the Old Testament as well.

After the resurrection, Jesus was walking with two disciples who did not yet recognize him. They asked Jesus if he had heard the news of what had just happened in Jerusalem. And in that conversation, Jesus began to preach to them. Luke tells us “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).

Later, he reiterates the same point and says to the disciples “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

Jesus uses the three-fold structure of the Old Testament (Law-Prophets-Psalms) to demonstrate that all of it, all 39 books in our Old Testament, ultimately point to him. The Old Testament points forward to Christ, the gospels record the life and work of Christ, and the rest of the New Testament points back to Christ. All of it is about Christ. 

The Method of Preaching: Expository

If that’s true, then it follows that we should preach all of Scripture. Paul helps us again here when tells Timothy that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

If all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable to us, and if all Scripture points ultimately to Christ, then all preaching should be Christ-centered exposition from the Bible. So, what do we mean by exposition and expository preaching?

To expose something is to uncover or reveal it. Relatedly, an exposition is a thorough and comprehensive description of some topic or matter. The person expositing is taking the subject matter and explaining it in such a way as to expose (reveal, uncover) it to his audience. It is the same with expository preaching. In this method of preaching, the pastor’s one goal is to present the truth of Scripture from any given passage and apply it to his audience.

In other words, in expository preaching the Bible governs the message, not the preacher. The preacher is only saying what the Bible is saying. The main idea of the sermon should be the main idea of the text of Scripture. And further, all sermons should be preached in context with the whole of Scripture, particularly within the specific book that is being preached. That is, expository preaching goes hand in hand with verse-by-verse preaching through books of the Bible.

Now, our insistence on expository preaching does not mean that it is never appropriate to preach a stand-alone sermon on a specific topic, only so long as every sermon has a Bible text and that the text is driving the sermon, never the other way around.

But there are many benefits to expository preaching. It keeps the focus on the main thing: Christ! Expository preaching keeps the preacher grounded in the only infallible and inerrant authority, God’s inspired word. It also helps prevent the pastor from preaching only his favorite hobby horses as he is continually going back to the text.

It also gives the people in the pews confidence that they are not listening to mere opinions but to the very Word of God for them. And it helps us all to become better students of the Word as we engage verse-by-verse in a particular book of the Bible week after week.

Much more could be said about expository preaching that is Christ-centered. But I hope that this gives you an idea about the kind of preaching you can expect at Christ the King. As the great Puritan preacher, William Perkins, put it, we are called to “Preach one Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ.” May God keep us faithful to do just that.