Topical vs. Expository Preaching

 

I’ll start by explaining exactly what I mean by topical and expository preaching because I realize not everyone who will ever read this is a pastor or preacher. That being said, I don’t think this blog is only for those who preach. I think all of us can benefit from understanding the different styles of preaching. I’ll also note quickly that this is primarily directed at pastors who preach regularly in “series,” even though it also applies to singular sermons as well.

So when I say topical and expository, what I’m referring to is the method by which a preacher plans, writes, and delivers his sermons (and yes, I say his, but that’s a different blog for a different day). When a pastor is planning his sermons, the most general thing he is thinking about is “Where are we going.” At least, that’s what should be on his mind. It’s very rare anymore for preachers to do “one-off” sermons. The most common is some sort of series-style preaching with multiple parts in multiple sermons. So, when approaching a series of sermons, the pastor should ask, “Where are we going?” This will help him plan out each sermon to take the church where it needs to go.

In doing that planning, the pastor has two options for preparing the series. Do I preach sermons on specific topics, or do I preach sermons from the text and adapt my topics? Here’s what I mean by that. A pastor may want to preach a series on evangelism. What he will do is plan and write his sermons based on the topic of evangelism, finding Scripture references, commentaries, books, etc. to support the idea of evangelism and what the Bible says about it. There’s nothing wrong with planning and writing sermons this way, as long as they remain faithful to the Scriptures in their delivery. The danger with topical preaching is that it can easily become biased based on the pastor's opinions and he can begin to twist Scripture to make his point instead of making God’s point from Scripture. This is why expository preaching is a more sound method of sermon planning and delivery in my opinion.

Expository preaching is taken from the word “exposition,” which is a Middle English word derived from the Latin verb exponere, which literally means “to expose, publish, or explain.” Here’s the idea of expository preaching: we read the Bible and then explain what it means. It’s that simple. No fanciful writing or creativity has to go into the planning, we simply answer the three preaching questions I always seek to answer in every sermon I preach: 1. What does the Bible say? 2. What does the passage mean? 3. How do we respond to it? With expository preaching, the planning is simply to open God’s Word and see what He has to say to us and then how we should respond. Now, there is still planning involved, because the passage has to be outlined and studied properly. But there is little “writing” involved because God has already written the Scripture and we are only trying to “expose,” or bring out, the meaning to guide our lives as we seek to honor God and bring Him glory.

Regardless of how your pastor (or you, if you are the pastor) prepares and delivers his sermons, the most important thing is this: that he is true to the text. As long as the sermon is focused on Scripture and preaching the message of the Bible and presenting the Gospel, it ultimately doesn’t matter how it was prepared. We always want to keep Christ-centered and in front of our preaching, don’t forget that!