What is an Expository Bible Teacher?

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:1-2

There is a lot of confusion in the church today about biblical preaching. I’m convinced that when the apostle Paul commanded his protégé, Timothy, to “preach the word,” he meant expository preaching.

Expository preaching is preaching the Word of God in its context and original meaning without adding or taking away from it.

In other words, preaching from the text, the meaning of the text.

All scripture has one primary meaning, and the goal of the expositor is to get to that primary meaning and teach it to his congregation. Therefore, the authority is always the scripture, not the preacher. And it’s the preacher’s job to get out of the way and let the text speak.

“God continues to speak through what He has spoken.” — John R.W. Stott.

I believe when a Pastor preaches God’s Word, the Bible, God speaks through him. That means reading the text, explaining the text, and applying the text for God’s people. Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s a Pastor’s job to hold the text as master. The focus should always be on helping you dive deep into the text, unpack it, and pull out what it means.

God’s Word should never be an afterthought or pretext for a preacher’s ideas in a sermon. A good preacher doesn’t create his own message; he shares the message God has supplied in the Bible. God gives us the Word, and we dispense it.

Why Expository Bible Teaching?

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

I believe that the greatest need in the church today is biblical preaching.

It is evident today that the church is a drifting away from sound doctrine. In the name of pragmatism, we have shifted the focus from what the Bible says toward the desire to grow big, popular churches.

Pastors have too often made sermons more palatable in order to tickle a congregation’s ear, not test their conscience. Some will tell them what they want to hear, at the expense of biblical truth and sound doctrine. As a result, many preachers are little more than motivational speakers.

An expository Bible teacher’s goal isn’t to entertain the congregation but systematically teach the truth of the Word of God. Even at the expense of popularity. We believe it’s not only the need in front of us but the call behind us that decides what we will preach.

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. 1 Corinthians 4:1-3

I sincerely hope is to see a revival of pastors, preachers, and teachers returning to the Bible and simply preaching the Word. It’s a great need today. There is no substitute.

For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and it’s a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

The more I see the church drift away from preaching the Word of God, the more excited I get to preach the Word of God. It is not man’s ideas that will build the church; God and His Word will build it. The focus is God, who gives the increase.