Andrew W. Blackwood gives excellent guidance for expository preaching in chapters dealing with biographical sermons, paragraph sermons, a sermon series through a book of the Bible, chapter sermons, and Bible book sermons.⁸

          Harry C. Mark suggests and illustrates many possibilities for topical, textual, and expository sermons. Within the expository mode, he suggests sermons of the telescopic period or age, book, chapter, section, historical, and word variety.⁹

          Perry and Whitesell give five variations within the expository method, based upon the length of the passage discussed: single verses, paragraphs, chapters, thematic sections, and whole Bible books.¹⁰

           Charles E. Faw’s A Guide to Biblical Preaching¹¹ is an able discussion of preaching in a single sermon on the whole Bible, or one of its major divisions, or a Bible book, a part of a book, a paragraph, a sentence or a Biblical atom.

          Since the Bible ranges over a vast area of subject matter, the expository preacher need not devote too long to any one type. If he wishes to skip around in the Bible, he can vary his individual sermons from an historical base to a legal one, from legal to dramatic, from dramatic to devotional, from devotional to wisdom, from wisdom to apocalyptic, from apocalyptic to poetic, from poetic to epistolary.

           If the preacher enjoys preaching sermon series, he might have a series on the Ten Commandments, followed by one on the seven churches of Asia Minor, then on conversions in the Book of Acts. The number of varied sermon series possible is limited only by the resource-fulness of the preacher.

           The expositor can further diversify his preaching by selecting different aims for his individual sermons. His pastoral calling, counseling, and meditation will reveal to him the needs of his congregation. As he preaches to these needs he may take such general aims as the evangelistic, the doctrinal, the devotional, the inspirational, the corrective, or the consolatory. But within each of these general aims, he may wish to adopt more narrow and specific aims. Under the evangelistic aim, he may wish to unveil the nature of sin in one sermon, and to indicate the way of salvation in another. If the sermon is doctrinal, he may wish to preach from an expository passage on the work of the Holy Spirit in one sermon, and on obedience to the leading of the Spirit in another. The aim of the sermon will determine what Scripture passage to use and how to handle it. On the other hand, after the preacher has selected and studied a Bible passage, he may adopt a sermonic aim in line with what appears to him to be the aim of the passage. "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work " (II Timothy 3:16, RSV).

           As we study the sermons of great expository preachers we learn that each one developed his own methods and techniques. No two are exactly alike. All of them have purposed to unfold, illuminate, and apply the Scriptures, but they go about it in a variety of ways. Not all their procedures can be commended, but if we can discover their distinguishing techniques, emphases, or approaches, we can decide whether or not we wish to adopt anything from them. Other homileticians may not agree with all of our findings at this point, but we hope our review will prove thought-provoking: and the students of expository preaching will learn some helpful methods.

           The disciplined approach—Alexander Maclaren. We use this term because he so thoroughly dedicated himself to an expository ministry, and so doggedly disciplined himself in it. Each day throughout his life he read one Bible chapter in Hebrew and another in Greek. He shut himself in his study every day of the week and devoted many exacting hours to the preparation of each sermon. He did very little pastoral calling and administrative work, nor did he travel around the world preaching in other places. He believed that if people wanted to hear him, they would come to Union Chapel in Manchester, England, where he was pastor for forty-five years, and occasional preacher for six more years.

           Maclaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture attains the highest level of expository excellence and homiletical finish. E. C. Dargan wrote of him: "No critical or descriptive account can do justice to the excellence and power of Maclaren’s preaching…. In contents and form these sermons are models of modern preaching. The exegesis of Scripture…is thorough and accurate. The analysis, while not obtrusive, is always complete, satisfying, clear…. Maclaren’s style has all the rhetorical qualities of force, clearness, and beauty…Maclaren’s sermons…are so complete as expositions of the Bible, so lofty in tone, so free from that which is merely temporary and catchy, both in thought and style, that they can not but appeal to the minds of men long after the living voice has ceased to impress them upon living hearts."¹²

           He has been called the prince of expositors and the king of preachers. W. Robertson Nicoll, editor of The Expositor’s Bible and The Expositor’s Greek Testament, wrote: "It is difficult to believe that Dr. Maclaren’s Expositions will ever be superseded. Will there ever again be such a combination of spiritual insight, of scholarship, of passion, of style, of keen intellectual power?"¹³

           Maclaren’s exegesis is always sound and thorough, his outlines clear but seldom striking, his illustrations few and short, his applications strong but rather impersonal. His best expository work is claimed to be that on Colossians in The Expositor’s Bible. There he devotes twenty-six sermons to Colossians, but in his Expositions of Holy Scripture, covering the whole Bible, there are only nine sermons on this same epistle, five of them on the first chapter.

           Andrew W. Blackwood believes that Maclaren’s preaching was mostly textual until he passed middle life, and that the shift to regular expository work came in his fifty-seventh year.¹⁴ Most of Maclaren’s sermons in Expositions of Holy Scripture seem to be textual at first glance, but closer examination shows that he always uses his text in the light of the larger context and his handling is really expository.

           The contextual principle—G. Campbell Morgan. He never handled any text, large or small, without closely relating it to its total context. By doing so he was often able to develop fresh and convincing interpretations of familiar passages. Many people considered Morgan the greatest of modern expository preachers. Wilbur M. Smith wrote: "For 40 years, beginning at the first decade of our century, the entire Christian world acknowledged that the greatest Biblical expositor known in the pulpits of both England and America was Dr. G. Campbell Morgan."¹⁵

           Morgan’s expository sermons are best represented in the ten volumes of The Westminster Pulpit. Here are nearly 300 of his expository sermons. Most of them are based on a single text of one, two or three verses of Scripture, but before Morgan has finished his sermon he has thoroughly explored his text grammatically, contextually, and theologically. They are expository sermons.

           Don M. Wagner wrote a small book on Morgan’s expository method. His conclusion is: "Dr. G. Campbell Morgan’s expository method is the application of the context principle of Bible study. A definition of the context principle indicates that the hypothesis contains a great deal more than that which appears on the surface. Context principle is the interpretation of a given passage in the light of the text which surrounds it, diminishing in importance as one proceeds from the near to the far context. Two fundamental principles are involved in putting this context principle to work; they are analysis and synthesis. Analysis takes apart and classifies or describes each part; synthesis assembles the parts in a logical order."¹⁶

           Before preaching from a book of the Bible, Morgan would read it through from forty to fifty times. He would survey, condense, expand and dissect it.

          Morgan taught and preached the Bible from almost every angle. His books on Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, I and II Corinthians, Hosea and Jeremiah are not fully sermonic but are pure expositions. His Great Chapters of the Bible contains the substance of sermons on forty-nine chapters of the Bible. In his Living Messages of the Books of the Bible there is a sermonic study on every book of the Bible. The Great Physician sermonizes on the soul-winning and healing miracles of Jesus. Searchlights From the Word takes one text from each chapter of the Bible and explains the chapter around that verse.

           In his little book on Preaching Morgan affirmed that truth, clarity and passion were the essentials of a sermon. He claimed that getting the outline was the most important part of the homiletical process. Like Maclaren, Morgan dedicated himself to lifelong Bible study. Who was the greater expositor, Maclaren or Morgan? Opinions differ. Both disciplined themselves to highest achievement in Biblical exposition.

           The balanced approach—Frederick W. Robertson. Although Robertson died when he was thirty-seven years old, A. W. Blackwood thinks of him "as the most influential preacher thus far in the English-speaking world."¹⁷ In six years of expository work he covered only I and II Samuel, Acts, Genesis, and I and II Corinthians. He died practically unknown outside his parish at Brighton, England, but his stature has continued to increase through his printed sermons. His greatness is hard to explain. His sermons grip one with their plaintive sadness, rugged honesty, Scriptural discernment, forward movement, and utter simplicity. E. C. Dargan says of his sermonic method: "He made a careful expository study of the Scripture, usually taking full notes. The division is nearly always twofold. He was fond of thinking in pairs and antithesis."¹⁸

           And James R. Blackwood wrote: "In choosing his text and in outlining the message, Robertson laid stress on the principle of balance. Partly for this reason he excelled in writing a sermon with only two main parts."¹⁹

           And again, James R. Blackwood writes about the tested sermonizing formula of Robertson: "He took one clear thought and let it dominate the sermon; he developed it positively, not negatively; suggestively, not dogmatically; from the inward to the outward; and with frequent use of balance and contrast."²⁰

           E. C. Dargan would add this further word: "In spite of their condensed and imperfect form, the sermons (as printed) have great literary charm. The style is pure, glowing, clear, attractive. The homiletical excellence of these sermons is beyond dispute. Careful interpretation of Scripture, simple twofold division, and clearly marked subdivisions, give a unity of structure and a completeness of treatment notwithstanding the condensed form."²¹

           One of Robertson’s expository talents, according to F. R. Webber, was this: "Where many preachers begin with a doctrine, and then search for proof-texts, Robertson began with a text, probed for its meaning, and drew doctrine out of it."²²

           Robertson has a famous sermon on "The Loneliness of Christ," based on John 16:31-32. He divides it into two main points: we meditate on the loneliness of Christ; on the temper of His solitude.

           The imaginative approach—Joseph Parker. Author of many volumes of sermons, he is known especially for his Parker’s People’s Bible, twenty-seven volumes covering most of the Bible. He was unique, eccentric, individualistic but popular, eloquent, energetic, oratorical, imaginative, versatile, intense in feelings and strongly evangelical. He said: "Of all the kinds of preaching, I love expository the most. You will understand this from the fact that during the last seven years I have expounded most of the first two books of the Pentateuch, the whole book of Nehemiah, the whole of Ecclesiastes, and nearly half of the Gospel of Matthew."²³

           Parker’s sermons resemble the running commentary, Biblical homilies with fair evidence of an outline. He does not go into close exegesis and careful interpretation, but his material is rich, original, colorful, vivid, and exciting. He let his imagination soar but kept it under the control of reality.

           Alexander Gammie wrote of Parker: "And there was always the element of the unexpected in what he said and how he said it. Ye there was something more, very much more, than all that. He was a supreme interpreter of the Scriptures. His People’s Bible is a mine for preachers, because of its freshness and originality and insight. Often by a flash of intuition, inspiration, or genius—call it what you will—he made texts sparkle with a new meaning."²⁴

           Though not classified as expository preachers, Alexander Whyte and T. DeWitt Talmage both are highly imaginative. This quality is developed further in our chapter on imagination.

           The pivot text method—F. B. Meyer. Meyer was a popular, devotional-type, expository preacher. When he was still a young man, his friend, Charles Birrell, said to him: "I advise you to do as I have done for the last 30 years—become an expositor of Scripture. You will always retain your freshness and will build a strong and healthy church."²⁵

           He took the advice and majored in expository preaching. Meyer specialized in expository preaching on Bible personalities, and his published volumes included the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Paul and Peter. His method of preparing to preach through a book of the Bible was to study that book intensely for two or three months, reading it repeatedly until its central lesson became clear to him. Next he divided the book into sections and subsections, each containing a well-developed thought. Then he sought out the pivot text in each section, a verse which was terse, crisp, bright and short, one that could be easily remembered and quoted. He developed his exposition around that pivot text relating to it all the main elements of the surrounding text.

           Meyer gave a certain graphic or pictorial quality to Scripture interpretation, put glowing color into it, and invested truth with the radiant freshness of new truth. Having heard him preach, Alexander Gammie had this impression: "Quietly, persuasively, serenely, and in silver tones he proclaimed his message. The phrasing was simple, with the simplicity of the art which conceals art, the imagery peaceful and pastoral ‘like an English valley washed with sunlight.’ …Everything was intimate, tender and appealing."

          ²⁶ Robert G. Lee wrote of Meyer’s books: "…his books have been a source of stimulation for my mind, of comfort for my heart, of encouragement in times when the roads were rough, the hills high, the valleys deep and dark. I believe every preacher who does not have and does not read the books of Dr. Meyer cheats himself, impoverishes his spiritual life, and makes less valiant his faith…. I urge you to purchase, to read, to search, to study all of Dr. Meyer’s books. If you obey my insistent urging, you will thank me."²⁷

           The inverted pyramid method—Donald Grey Barnhouse. He affirmed: "I believe that the only way to understand any given passage in the Word of God is to take the whole Bible and place the point of it, like an inverted pyramid, on that passage, so that the weight of the entire Word rests upon a single verse, or indeed a single word."²⁸

           Barnhouse went into great detail. His expository series on Romans took three and one half years of Sunday morning preaching. He says that his method of preparation was to read thirty or forty leading commentaries on Romans; use some twenty translations in English, French, and German; plus grammatical research in Strong’s Concordance, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, and the Englishman’s Greek Concordance. He sometimes has two sermons on the same text. On Romans 5:2 he has six, and on 5:5 he has seven. On Romans, chapter 1, he has twenty-seven sermons, and on Romans, chapter 5, twenty-seven. Inevitably some of these sermons seem to be more topical than expository, but the expository aspect is in the careful, detailed, and painstaking verse-by-verse unfolding and application of the book of Romans in the light of the rest of the Bible.

           The author-centered approach—Paul S. Rees. In his expository series of Philippians, entitled The Adequate Man, he believes that this epistle is a remarkable self-portrait of its author, so he expounds the epistle in five sermons setting forth differing characteristics of the Apostle Paul: "The Art of the Heart," "The Affectionate Man," "The Alert Man," "The Aspiring Man," and "The Adequate Man."²⁹ This author-centered approach can be used with many parts of the Bible. Men like F. B. Meyer, William M. Taylor and Clovis G. Chappell have followed it in their biographical-expository volumes.

           The single-subject expository handling—Roy L. Laurin. This method was used by Laurin in a number of his expositions of New Testament books. He selected the idea of "Life" as being a wedge to open these books. He expounds Romans under the theme, Where Life Begins, II Corinthians under Where Life Endures, I Corinthians under Where Life Matures, Philippians under Where Life Advances, Colossians under Where Life is Established, and I John under Life At Its Best. On the whole, his sermons are true to expository ideals and well worth reading.

           As an example, in his book on II Corinthians, Where Life Endures,³⁰ he includes thirteen sermons covering the epistle. The first seven are under the general title, "The Endurance of the Christian," and the specific subtitles are: "The Life That Endures Adversity," "The Life That Endures Discipline," "The Life That Endures Experience," "The Life That Endures Service," "The Life That Endures Dying," "The Life That Endures Living," and "The Life That Endures Chastening." The danger of this method, in less able hands, might be to force the Scriptures into artificial molds.

           The backgrounds emphasis—George Adam Smith and Harris E. Kirk. An Old Testament scholar from Scotland, Smith was rather liberal in his view of the Scriptures, but he was widely recognized as a great expositor. He contributed the volumes on Isaiah and on the minor prophets to The Expositor’s Bible. As author of the famous Historical Geography of the Holy Land, Smith put great emphasis upon the historical and geographical situation in back of any Scripture passage. Even though his work is somewhat outdated by recent research, one has to admit that he makes the Scriptures come alive as he puts them into their proper setting.

           Edgar DeWitt Jones wrote of him: "As a preacher Dr. Smith was Biblical, expository, and exegetical. There was clarity and simplicity in his discourses, the illustrative material was choice, and he was equally at home in a rural church or on a university occasion."³¹

           He gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures on preaching at Yale in 1899 under the title, "Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament."

           Harris E. Kirk, for over forty years pastor of the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, also went in heavily for proper background material. As the author listened to him in July, 1946, at the Princeton Summer Conference for Ministers, he was deeply impressed by Kirk’s extensive knowledge and use of background material. He told us: "Get into the great trends and movements of Biblical history, the great tidal forces and rhythms. Learn to float on the fluid element of God’s grace in history and providence. Get the relationship of the Bible to the land itself, and the relationship of the land to ancient civilizations."

           The running commentary method has many users. One of the best known of modern times was Harry A. Ironside. He published sermonic commentaries on nearly all of the Bible. As pastor of the Moody Church, Chicago, for eighteen and one half years, he was one of the most popular Bible-teaching preachers in America. Usually he went from verse to verse, or from section to section of a passage, and he regularly preached straight through books of the Bible. What he lacked in structural strength he made up for in powerful explanation, illustration, application, and exhortation. His sermons are racy reading, full of spiritual truth and interesting illustrations.

           William R. Newell, who gave us expositions of Romans, Hebrews, and Revelation, was a running commentary preacher who sought to dig deeply into the Word by verse-to-verse comments.

           John Chrysostom, called "the golden-mouthed," was a great expository preacher who covered most of the Bible in running commentary sermons, as did Martin Luther.

           John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, the Protestant reformers, used the running commentary method to cover the books of the Bible. Regardless of the defects of this method in structure and unity, it has a noble history. If a preacher gives it thorough preparation and powerful presentation, it will still have popular appeal. But we think there is a better way available, and we shall set it forth fully in the chapters to follow.

           The lessons method—William M. Taylor and J. C. Ryle. Taylor twice gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures on preaching at Yale: first in 1876, on "The Ministry of the Word," and again in 1886, on "The Scottish Pulpit." He published popular and useful volumes on The Miracles of Our Saviour and The Parables of Our Saviour, as well as several on Bible characters. His expository method was to present a thorough discussion of his Scripture passage in explanation and interpretation, then point out the practical lessons and drive them home.

           In his sermon on "The Healing of the Gadarene Demoniac," he gives twelve pages of exposition and uses four and one half pages to set forth four lessons and apply them.

           J. C. Ryle was bishop of Liverpool. His four-volume set, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, takes the reader through the four gospels. Ryle takes a passage of several verses and plunges into a discussion of it, drawing from it three, four, or five practical applications. His treatments are shorter than sermons, running only about four pages each, but at the end of each he appends two or three pages of explanatory notes. His points are sometimes more suggestive and inferential than those directly taught by the passage, but they always strike one with force and appeal. Ryle majors on application rather than explanation, argument, or illustration. His method is popular and helpful but it has to be used with restraint.

           The analytical method—W. H. Griffith Thomas. He was a Bible-teaching preacher par excellence, strong on structural outlines. He believed that Alexander Maclaren’s expositions were the finest models of all expository preaching. Thomas insisted that three features were needed in any expository presentation:

• (1) it should concern only the salient features;
• (2) mainly it should concern the spiritual meaning;
• (3) it should always have a searching message.³²

Thomas’ commentaries on Genesis, Romans, Acts, and Colossians, and his books on the lives and writings of Peter and John will furnish abundant outlines and much fine commentary material for the expository preacher or Sunday school teacher.

           W. Graham Scroggie is also an outstanding analyst of the Bible. His works on various parts of the Bible are less sermonic than analytical.

          The exegetical method—A. T. Robertson and William Barclay. Robertson was the outstanding Greek scholar of America in his day. He could go into the Greek words of the New Testament and expound them with practical applications more easily than the average preacher can do it in English. His homely but pointed comments held the attention of crowds. He has left us exegetical-sermonic commentaries on Mark’s Gospel, James, Philippians, and Colossians. He also wrote on the lives of John the Baptist, Mark, Paul, Peter and John, as well as other more technical New Testament studies. His set on Word Pictures in the New Testament should be used by every expository preacher. In 1934 he published a volume of sermons entitled Passing On the Torch and Other Sermons. Many of these have good outlines and are more homiletical than most of his other works. Robertson’s writings are rich source material for expository preachers.

           William Barclay of Scotland has produced a splendid series of small commentaries on the different parts and books of the New Testament. They are written in a popular and interesting style, and are exegetical and semi-sermonic. It is not hard to believe that Barclay used most of this material in expository preaching. Every expository preacher should obtain the Barclay commentaries and use them.

           The exegetical method involves the danger of becoming too technical and too dry for popular use, but in the hands of Robertson or Barclay it does not.

           The stylistic emphasis—John Henry Jowett. One of the world’s most renowned preachers, he possessed all the features of homiletical perfection, but he put major emphasis on style. His hobby was the study of words and he would write, rewrite, correct, and rewrite in order to perfect his style. Most of his sermons seem to be textual but when one studies them, one finds the exegesis so careful, the contextual relations so recognized, and the rhetorical elements so balanced, that the sermons fit the expository category. Jowett published a large number of books and hundreds of sermons in Christian periodicals and magazines. His expository genius is best illustrated in The High Calling, an exposition of Philippians; The Epistles of St. Peter; and The Whole Armor of God, expounding a part of Ephesians 6.

           The evangelistic method—William B. Riley and George W. Truett. Both men were Baptist pastors in their respective pulpits for nearly fifty years, and both were intensely evangelistic. They turned the Scriptures to evangelistic ends.

           Riley was more truly an expository preacher. He was the author of many books and pam-phlets but his supreme contribution to expository preaching is his forty-volume set, The Bible of the Expositor and Evangelist. The whole Bible has been covered in this set, though not every passage by any means. The sermons are well outlined and ably illustrated. Most of them throb with evangelistic passion and appeal. Truett was a greater pulpiteer than Riley. In fact, many considered him the greatest preacher in America in his time. His soul and sermons fairly flamed with evangelistic power. If one heard him preach at the zenith of his power, one could never forget it. Many of his sermons have been printed or reprinted in recent years. They are usually textual but he always paid careful attention to his text, and sometimes he became expository.

           Charles H. Spurgeon belongs in the evangelistic category too. Most of his sermons were textual, but now and then he became expository, and in every case he used his text for more than a starting point.

           With these suggestions for diversification, we believe that any expositor should be able to stay out of the rut of monotony and be able to use the power of variety yet still remain expository.

Chapter 3: Power Through EXPLANATION
The expository preacher seeks to find the true and exact meaning of the Scriptures and to set that meaning against life today