What Is Expository Preaching?
Preaching at Covenant Baptist is expositional, meaning that it seeks to declare the point of a particular Biblical passage. All preaching is gospel-driven.
We believe that the Scripture alone is the authoritative and sufficient basis for all of faith and life, and therefore we give the exposition and application of God’s Word the central place in our worship.
Preaching first of all must be biblical and doctrinal. The preacher is not a man who preaches his own opinions, but preaches the Word of God. He is a spokesman for God. As God’s spokesmen, we are calling our audience to biblical repentance unto biblical faith in Christ.
The preachers authority is in the Word of God alone. A faithful preacher must preach the Word of God and only the Word.
Like the prophet Ezekiel who spoke the words God gave him to speak, and when he was finished God closed his mouth, so goes the faithful preacher (cf. Ezekiel 3:26-27). Preaching is the primary means God uses to save sinners. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God . . . and how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:17,14)
Much preaching today is focused on man and not Christ. “Needs-based” preaching has become the norm. We believe preaching must be Christ-centered. Christ-centered preaching is the preaching of the New Testament.
The teaching and emphasis of the Bible is not on man nor about man, but about God and His redemption of His people. Since Christ, the Mediator between God and man, is the theme of all the Scriptures, Christ must remain the focus.
When man and his needs are elevated above God and His purposes, we have missed the focus of the Bible. Man’s needs are relatively small compared to the greatness of God. Therefore, if preaching is merely man-centered (or “needs-based”) we miss truly how our needs are met in Christ.
The role of preaching is to preach Christ in all His glory so that the people can, by faith, see Him in His glory. When the people behold Christ, they are transformed into His likeness.
Preaching to “felt-needs” of people is not God’s ordained means to change them into His likeness, but preaching that reveals Christ in all His glory.
“The primary task of the Church and of the Christian minister is the preaching of the Word of God.”
“Preaching is more than teaching. It is exultation in the Word. ‘Preach the Word’, means ‘exult in the Word’. That is, announce it and revel in it. Speak it as amazing news. Speak it from a heart that is moved by it.”