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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Tony Merida
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January 1 - January 15, 2020
John MacArthur: “Expository preaching involves presenting a passage entirely and exactly as God intended.”28
In short, expository preaching is Word-centered, Word-driven, or Word-saturated preaching. It involves explaining what God has said in his Word, declaring what God has done in his Son, and applying this message to the hearts of people. Word-driven expositors are committed to the careful explanation and application of the biblical text.
Expository preaching is an approach that is founded on certain theological beliefs, such as the role of the preacher according to Scripture, the nature of the Scriptures, and the work of the Spirit.
First, exposition calls for attention to biblical doctrine.
Second, exposition, done well, is good for both audiences: believers and unbelievers.
When you preach Christ-centered sermons, you are able to “evangelize as you edify and edify as you evangelize.”37
Third, exposition gives authority to the message.
Fourth, exposition magnifies Scripture.
Fifth, exposition is God centered, not man centered.
Sixth, exposition provides a wealth of material for preaching.
Seventh, exposition edifies the person delivering the Word.
Finally, exposition teaches people how to study the Bible on their own.
Expository preaching will produce expository preachers and expository students.
The goal of exposition is not information but personal transformation.
Every expositor should try to identify where the selected passage is located in redemptive history.
D. A. Carson says, “The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago.”38
No Jewish rabbi should be able to sit comfortably under our preaching from the Old Testament.
Faithful preaching involves saying what God has said in his Word, declaring what God has done in his Son, and applying this message to the hearts of people.
Effective expositors usher the people through the text passionately and authentically, pointing them to the Savior.
Our characters must be more persuasive than our speech.”40
and to always remember that Jesus is better than sin (1:13–2:3).
When one minimizes the holiness of God, he minimizes the sinfulness of sin, and this leads to them being unmoved by the glorious gospel of grace and the kindness of God that leads sinners to repentance.
First, we must distinguish between positional holiness and personal holiness (or practical holiness). Positional holiness means that we are made perfectly righteous through faith in Christ. We stand accepted, loved, and totally justified before God. Personal holiness means that we are now becoming in practice what God has already declared us to be in position. We must not confuse the order.
Personal holiness means that we are separated from sin but not isolated from people.
God calls us to be holy in “all our conduct” (1 Pet 1:15), which includes not only our relationship to God but also holiness in all other relationships: within the church (2:1; 4:8–12), with unbelievers (2:9–12; 3:13–17; 4:12–19), with the government (2:13–17), within marriage (3:1–7), and between elders and the church (5:1–5). Let us give the utmost attention to this highest of callings.
This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. In fact, we labor and strive for this, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, especially of those who believe.
The word for “trained” is better translated as “nourished.” Timothy’s spiritual diet was to consist of high quantities of good teaching.
So behind the public ministry of the Word is the private study of the Word.
nourishment. John Stott challenges busy pastors to use their time wisely for personal study: “But the minimum [time for study] would amount to this: every day at least one hour; every week one morning, afternoon or evening; every month a full day; every year a week. Set out like this, it sounds very little. Indeed it is too little. Yet everybody who tries it is surprised to discover how much reading can be done within such a disciplined framework.
The call to exposition is a call to study.
Remember, leaders are readers. Nourish your soul. Godliness begins with a healthy diet. Stay away from junk food.
Paul tells the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (3:16 ESV). This is what is needed. Whatever you need to do for the Word to dwell in you richly, do it. I call this “meditation.”
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”43
But the fact is that we make time for things that are important to us.
The sad reality is that lack of time is a cover-up for “I am too lazy.”
We are talking about grace enabled, Spirit-empowered discipline that flows from a heart that loves God and is satisfied in Christ above all things.
About nine years ago Kathy and I were contemplating the fact that we had largely failed to pray together over the years. Then Kathy exhorted me like this. “What if our doctor told us that we had a serious heart condition that in the past was always fatal. However, now there was a pill which, if we took it every night, would keep us alive for years and years. But you could never miss a single night, or you would die. If our doctor told us this and we believed it, we would never miss. We would never say, ‘oh I didn’t get to it.’ We would do it. Right? Well, if we don’t pray together every night,
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Sanctification is a community project.
Paul Tripp states, “Perhaps there is no more powerful, seductive, and deceitful temptation in ministry than self-glory. Perhaps in ministry there is no more potent intoxicant than the praise of men, and there is no more dangerous form of drunkenness than to be drunk with your own glory. It has the power to reduce you to shocking self-righteousness and inapproachability.”50
Self-glory will cause you to parade in public what should be kept in private. Self-glory will cause you to be way too self-referencing. Self-glory will cause you to talk when you should be quiet. Self-glory will cause you to be quiet when you should speak. Self-glory will cause you to care too much about what people think about you. Self-glory will cause you to care too little about what people think about you. Self-glory will cause you to resist facing and admitting your sins, weaknesses, and failures. Self-glory will cause you to struggle with the blessings of others. Self-glory will cause
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But it does not matter how gifted you are; if you do not have godliness, you do not have a ministry.
Not only is godliness essential for faithfulness to God; it also makes up for our own deficiencies in ministry.54
Watching our life and our doctrine are two priorities for one disciplined soldier. Avoid the mistake of thinking that you only need doctrine or that you only need spiritual discipline.
A high view of Scripture should lead to a high view of biblical preaching and teaching. Paul’s words about the divine nature of Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:14–17 are followed immediately by the charge to “preach the word” (4:1–2 ESV).
Ehrman points out the inconsistency of this practice, saying, “I understand why you would want to read this popular author, but if you really believe God wrote a book, wouldn’t you want to read it?”58
When someone on the street hears the word inspiration, one may think he means that the Bible is inspired, such as an artist or a playwright. But we actually mean that the Bible is expired. The word translated as “inspired” (theopneustos) means “breathed-out” by God (2 Tim 3:16). In other words, the Scriptures have their origin in God’s revelation.
The witness of Old Testament writers and prophets validates this divine/human process. The phrase “Thus says the Lord” appears hundreds of times.
Jesus also affirmed the authority of the Old Testament by his use of it, and he taught that he was the fulfillment of it: “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, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).
This means that Peter and the early church considered Paul’s words to be in the same category as the Old Testament writings.62
Paul’s self-awareness of the inspiration process also led him to write, “What I write to you is the Lord’s command” (1 Cor 14:37).
