I always tell my students that their next sermon will be their best one. We never stop learning to preach. Every time I deliver a sermon, I step down from the pulpit with a dozen things I could have done better, differently, more effectively. But that’s a good thing! I am blessed to see God use sinners like me to teach his Word, and I’m grateful for a vocation where I can continuously improve.
But as with any calling, we must constantly return to the core principles of what constitutes excellence in our craft. The library, the Internet, the world, and the preacher down the street might offer any number of tips and tricks to improve our preaching, from enunciation and posture to AI prompts. These might be all well and good, in their proper place, but for faithful preaching, we must continuously return to the principles of substance, structure, and spirit.
What is Text-Driven Preaching?
I’m often asked what the difference is between “text-driven preaching” and expository preaching. The honest answer is, there isn’t any difference. But, I prefer to use the term “text-driven” because I believe it highlights the very essence of expository preaching at its best.
Historically, the term “expository preaching” has been used to describe the process of performing a historical/grammatical survey of the biblical text, then preaching a sermon which intentionally reflects the core meaning of that text. In recent years, though, we’ve begun to call “expository” any sermon that remotely mentions a biblical text. A sermon which gathers together a handful of verses on a topic from Genesis to Revelation might be a good sermon, but it isn’t an expository one. A truly expository sermon will be text-driven, meaning the message of the sermon will be the message of a particular passage of Scripture. A text-driven preacher allows the biblical text to drive the content, arrangement, and style of his sermons.
Substance
In a text-driven sermon, the substance of the sermon is the substance of the text. We want to say what God is saying in his Word. We don’t preach on Ephesians so much as we preach Ephesians. This demands we look at the history, the context, and the grammar of the text.
First, we identify the passage we’re seeking to interpret. The Bible is a big book, after all—an anthology, you might say—so we must draw out a single unit of thought (or pericope, if you want to sound like a seminarian) from the biblical text. This might be a single story, such as the fifty-eight verses of 1 Samuel 17, which comprise the story of David and Goliath. Or it might be a shorter unit of thought, such as Romans 12:1-2, where Paul urges his readers not to be conformed to this world, but to instead be confirmed to Christ’s image. Each of these pericopes are inextricably woven into the full tapestry of God’s Word, but each can also stand alone as singular units of thought, whose message we can preach.
Second, consider the historical background of your passage. The Bible was written by particular people, to particular people, in times and cultures not our own. Their message and meaning stretch to all time, but will be rooted in their original context. If you’re preaching on Jonah, for instance, you need to take into account that Jonah is preaching in Israel before the fall of the northern kingdom to the hands of the Assyrians. Indeed, he’s preaching to the very Assyrians who will soon destroy and scatter his nation, and this background informs the meaning of the text and the message of your sermon.
Third, study the context, by which I mean the content that immediately precedes and follows your passage. For instance, if we return to Romans 12, we’ll notice that the preceding three chapters consist of Paul celebrating God’s plan of salvation for Jews and Gentiles. When Romans 12 opens with a reference to “the mercies of God,” Paul is speaking of the specific mercies of salvation, and this context influences what follows.
And fourth, grammar. Study the grammatical structure of your passage, and study as closely to the original language as you can get. Again, these passages were not only written by particular people and to particular people—they were written in a particular language, and that linguistic structure influences their meaning. For instance, the Greek word for “present” in “present your bodies” (Rom. 12:1) is the same word used in Luke 2:22, when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord. Our linguistic and cultural understanding of this practice of “offering to the Lord” will influence how we interpret this passage to our congregation. But don’t fret if you’ve not taken seminary Greek or Hebrew (yet!). You can still use free online tools such as Bible Hub to gain an understanding of the original grammar.
Structure
The structure of the text should dictate the structure of the sermon. This is God’s inerrant and inspired Word, after all, and that inspiration includes not only the words but also the manner in which they are arranged and presented. So, handle the text in the order in which it presents itself, in the order dictated by the linguistic structure of the passage. Don’t take a point that is plainly subordinate or minor in the biblical text and elevate it to major status, to the neglect of what the text is really highlighting.
A helpful way to do this is to observe and be guided by the verb forms of a passage. Verbs have been called the “load-bearing walls” of meaning, the main carriers of what a particular phrase is meant to say. Let’s return again to Romans 12. Verse two contains key imperative (command) verbs: “stop being conformed” to this age and “be transformed” by the renewing of your mind. So, the core message of this verse hinges on these verbs, and any sermon on this passage will lean heavily on these commands and what they mean for the shaping of our character.
Spirit
Never become so enamored with the letters of the text that you neglect the spirit of the Word. Emote that spirit as you preach. No, we are not actors playing a part, but we do have a responsibility to preach with an emotional posture which matches the message of the text. Psalm 51, for example, was written by King David as his confession to God of his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. He’s betrayed his own spouse, violated a defenseless woman, murdered her husband, and then been publicly exposed for his crimes. This psalm is a message of brokenness, contrition, and deep, deep sorrow. It should be preached as such. This is not a lighthearted psalm, and we must adopt that emotional posture in order to communicate the emotions of the Word clearly and accurately.
Preaching the spirit of the text also requires us to consider what’s known as genre sensitivity. The Bible is a multi-genre anthology, containing such diverse literary genres as poetry (Psalms), history (Exodus), biography (the Gospels), wisdom literature (Ecclesiastes), and so forth. Any pericope you choose will be embedded in a larger literary work, and every one of those works contains certain genre expectations and will, therefore, require different approaches to drawing out the core message.
Romans, for example, is an epistle (a letter) whose main message is a theological treatise. Paul is making a logical argument that proceeds systematically from one point to the next, drawing eventually to his conclusion. The story of David and Goliath, on the other hand, is just that: a story. The author is not, like Paul in Romans, making an argument, he’s telling a tale. If we approach the text looking for the author’s thesis and supporting points, we’ll be disappointed.
Finally, never neglect to pray as you prep. Sermon writing is an exercise in intellect, in wisdom, and even in charisma, but it is also a spiritual exercise, one which can and should shape your own soul as much as the souls of your congregation. Allow God’s Spirit to touch and change your own heart as you engage his Word in order to preach to his people.
Remember: the next sermon you preach will be your best. Never stop pursuing excellence in your preaching, and trust that your skill will grow as your character increasingly conforms to the likeness of Christ.
