THS-11-11. Expository Sermons (Continued)

11. Expository Sermons (Continued) Exposition of Related Passages The study of related passages. This is the second suggested form of expository preaching. If is often a profitable practice to compare scripture with scripture, and thus establish or illustrate some doctrine or truth that needs emphasis. You may remember that Paul in Romans 4:24, in stressing the doctrine that justification is by faith and not by works, illustrates his point by reference to Abraham, and quotes the passage, Abraham believed God and it was "reckoned unto him for righteousness." The author of "James," however, sets out to prove that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone, and he also illustrates his point by reference to Abraham, and quotes the very same text to prove it. The apparent divergence seemed to Luther to be so great that for a while he would not admit "James" as of the same canonical value as "Romans." However, there is really no discrepancy, as you will know, or if not, you can readily discover it by consulting some good commentaries, and the study of these related passages, and of the doctrine of faith and works, would provide you with excellent material for an exposition. The Plan No. 3 for sermon construction, described in Chapter III., (p. 33), is really an exposition of related texts. When you select more extended passages which are related to one another, you will be on an expositor’s happy hunting ground. The parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 are all related, because they have all to do with the kingdom, and because they present different aspects of the kingdom they are very interesting for comparative studies.

Exposition of a Book The message of a book as a whole is another profitable subject for expository preaching. The book of Jonah--do you know the message of the book of Jonah? There are lots of people who think that "Jonah" is merely the story of a whale who swallowed a man. "This is the tragedy of the book of Jonah," one writer has said, "that a book which is made the means of one of the most sublime revelations of truth in the Old Testament, should be known to most only by its connection with a whale." The book presents a prophet of God, narrow, prejudiced, exclusive, revengeful, who is a bigger heathen than the heathen sailors on his ship--at any rate, he was the only man who had no God to pray to in an emergency. It shows a Jew--one of God’s elect race who had none of God’s love for the heathen, and would gladly have consigned them all to death.

More than any book in the Old Testament, this book reveals God’s universal love, and how inadequate were the exclusive ideas of the Jews to represent the fatherly love of God for all His creatures.

Well now, you are to preach an expository sermon on the book of Jonah. You read it, and read it again. You consult some good commentaries. You employ the threefold combination which, alone, as I have told you, can unlock the secrets of good preaching: diligent thought, a gift of imagination, and hard work, and the greatest of these is hard work. (You will not be foolish enough to suppose that by imagination I mean mere fancy which invents unrealities--it is the gift by which you reproduce the life and times of Jonah’s day, the men, the scenes and the situations described.)

You will see that the book of Jonah is a noble attempt to help Jews to see the folly and sin of their narrow exclusiveness, and the desire of God to include even the heathen in the sweep of His love. In those days a Jew did not as a rule feel that God’s grace could be extended to the Gentiles. They were fit only for punishment and extermination. Through this little book God is teaching His people that He cares for the heathen too, and that they are susceptible to the call to repentance, and are eligible for salvation. Yes, the Old Testament revelation reaches its high-water mark in this little book. It will provide you with an excellent expository sermon, one which people will listen to if you are any good at all. Tell the story first, and then set out the great lessons. And please do not tell any foolish story about Jonah and the whale, in a silly attempt to be funny. Treat the whole story with the reverence it deserves--whatever may be your particular view of that particular event--and help your people to understand this early lesson of the universal love of God.

Many of the books of the Bible will be available for expository treatment in this way. The fourth form of exposition suggested is the continuous exposition of a book in a series of sermons. I need not do more than make a few suggestions on the way of approach to this work. You will never cease to remember that in expository work especially the matter must be vital and living, the presentation vivid and interesting, demanding that the preacher prepare himself with diligence.

Continuous Exposition In presenting the message of any book, in one sermon or a series of sermons, you will need to study the personality and history of the author, the literary form of the book, the purpose of the author, and how he works it out. Necessarily you will make yourself acquainted with the contents of the book, and you will seek the most effective way of handling it.

(a) You may select the chief subjects with which the book deals, and discuss them in order, seeking to give them a living interest to your hearers. The epistle of James is a very practical one. He discusses such subjects as temptation, salvation by works, ostentation, purity, God’s providence and faith-healing. These are up-to-date enough in all conscience. He says things calculated to make rich people squirm, and to make the scandal-mongers’ "hair to stare," as Shakespeare says.

(b) A series of sermons tracing the progress of the gospel in the first days of Christianity could be made of compelling interest, on condition that you made yourself acquainted with your subject. You probably know the book of Acts already as well as any in the Bible, and that may be your peril. Read it again, and master a good outline of the book such as is found in R. B. Rackham’s commentary on the Acts of the Apostles; read through Farrar’s Early Days of Christianity, and Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Epistles of St. Paul, and you will be ready to begin the specific study in the preparation of the sermons themselves. You will find it an enriching task, and the chances are that you will have interested hearers.

(c) The books of the prophets are rich fields for the expositor’s research work. Amos, for instance, is full of stinging rebuke of a people for its national follies. Dr. James Black suggests that we expound this book by its vices. "For modern political cleansing, and the teaching of God about national righteousness, could you have a finer setting than this prophet’s mission? Take his message under the sins which he scourges, and show the remedies of a true religion-national greed and selfishness, the oppression of the poor, faithless living, the fallacy and tragedy of apparent prosperity, the penalty of luxury, the decay of public virtue, the appearance without the reality of religion. If you desire to speak to the modern man about national purity, can you have a finer platform? Under a scheme like that you may unfold the robust message of Amos and relate it clearly to our worried life and our worrying problems." (The Mystery of Preaching, p. 130.)

(d) You may find a series on the life of Christ a rewarding course of study. You will use the four Gospels as your source of information. This will seem to be a formidable bit of work, and you certainly need to study the background of the gospels as well as the books themselves. I once preached a series of forty-two sermons covering some of this ground. There were six sermons on each of the following subjects: The Wondrous Life of Jesus; Great Moments in Jesus’ Life; The Great Parables of Jesus; The Great Miracles of Jesus; The Great Messages of Jesus; The Great Themes of Jesus, and Jesus in the Life of Today. Only men in a settled ministry could attempt such a work as that. I think that the preachers most qualified to judge would say such a series is too long, and so it is, unless you are prepared to perform a herculean task to carry it through successfully. My experience has been that a regular audience is improved in numbers, sometimes very much so, by a solid series of sermons faithfully presented. The suggestion thus given may be extended in a variety of ways. Avoid sameness. You may be tempted to treat the next book as you had treated the last. Better wait until you discover a new line of approach-find a succession of problems discussed, or personalities portrayed, or events described. Your previous studies have taught you how to construct a sermon-the main principles are the same for every type of sermon. If you wish to excel in this type of work you will discipline yourself in the exercise of the principles which govern it. For Review:

1. Suggest a line of study based on related passages which unfold some doctrine or Christian duty.

2. Suggest a unified series of sermons based on Genesis I. to IX.