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Book Review: Expository Preaching ::
Not the most scintillating name for a book, but “you can’t judge a book by it’s title” says Steve Marquet.
Source: Perspective Vo1 No2 © Perspective 1999
Author: Haddon Robinson
Published: see text
Reviewer: Steve Marquet
Someone once defined a “preacher” as “somebody who talks in other people’s sleep.” Which would be quite funny, except that it’s usually true.
Well, I’d like to say that once you’ve read Haddon Robinson’s Expository Preaching, nobody will ever doze off in your church again – nor count the bricks in the wall, or try to memorise all the names on the “Honour Roll”.
I’d also like to say that if you follow Robinson’s ten-step method, your sermons will be used by God to spark a long awaited revival! Your listeners will be riveted to every word you utter – lives will be radically changed, and the Kingdom of God will be ushered in unexpectedly early.
That’s what I’d LIKE to say about Robinson’s book. But the fact is, I can’t. Even so, recommending the book strongly is precisely what I intend to do.
Robinson defines “expository” preaching in Chapter 1, then proceeds to take the reader step by step through the process of preparing and preaching expository messages. It’s the clear and practical method, the “mechanics”, which Robinson provides, which makes the book so valuable.
Robinson defines expository preaching as “the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical-grammatical and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, and then through him to his hearers.”
The beauty of this unwieldy definition is that it moves us from the hard but necessary spade-work of exegesis – the beginning of the process – to the applied nature of the preaching at the end.
The genius of the book, however, and its power to revolutionise our preaching lies in the opening six words of the definition. Under the title “What’s the Big Idea?”, Robinson argues that a sermon should be “a bullet and not buckshot”. Put simply the “biblical concept” is the central and dominant theme of the passage being expounded. J. H. Jowett puts it magnificently; “I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal… I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon.”
Having this goal in mind can make all the difference to our exegetical labours. Stage 3 of Robin-son’s method states: “As you study the passage, relate the parts to each other to determine the exegetical idea and its development. If after hours of study I cannot do this, what hope is there for my hearers?”
For my money, working to crystallise the idea of the passage in a single sentence combining a subject (what the passage is about) and a complement (what it says about what it’s about), then outlining the development of that idea from the passage, has been a vital ingredient in improving my own preaching.
The next stages move the expositor from the text to the sermon, and involve bringing the passage of Scripture into contact with the lives of our hearers. “Submit the exegetical idea to three developmental questions,” says Robinson in Stage 4. “These three questions are crucial, because they force the preacher to think about where the listeners are at, and to consider how to communicate the Bible’s truth to them. Those questions are: “What does this mean?”, “Is it true?”, and “What difference does it make” These are key questions if we want our sermons to connect with our hearers.
Two other chapters are worthy of mention in recommending Robinson’s book. As part of the “honing” process of preparing a sermon, Robinson argues in stage 6 that we should “Determine the Purpose for this Sermon”. Of course, God may use the sermon in any way he chooses, but from the preacher’s perspective, we should be able to help our hearers apply the truth we’ve been teaching them. Defining the purpose in clear, behavioural terms is part of the “bullet” (rather than “buckshot) approach the book has been advocating all along.
Stage 10 in Chapter 8 helpfully deals with the preparation of introduction and conclusions – “Start with a Bang and Quit All Over” is its suggestive title. Here again, Robinson forces us to think hard about our audience: “If the preacher doesn’t capture attention in the first thirty seconds, he may never gain it at all.” For that reason, Robinson argues, the introduction should command attention, bring needs to the surface, and orient us to “the Big Idea.”
I continue to use the book with profit. While I am far from achieving its goals, it has certainly given me something to aim for, and even a weekly timetable for preparation in connection with its 10 stages. The book is also the basis of a monthly preaching group in our church which is designed to train and prepare people to communicate expository messages. Robinson’s Expository Preaching is not the last word on preaching, but it certainly improved mine maybe it could help yours too!
Expository Preaching by Haddon W. Robinson is also published by Baker Press under the title Biblical Preaching. Available from Koorong Books.