We practice expositional preaching in Karis Church. Tony Merida, in his book, Faithful Preaching, defines it this way: "In short, expository preaching may be called Word-centered, Word-driven, or Word-saturated preaching. More descriptively, expository preaching is the exegetical and Spirit-driven process of explaining and applying the meaning of a particular text or texts for the purpose of transforming people into the image of Christ" (Merida, Faithful Preaching, ch. 1).
More simply, we could define expositional preaching as Mark Dever does: the points of the sermon come from the points of the text.
However, why do we do this? Here are 9 reasons that Merida gives in his helpful book:
- Exposition calls for attention to be given to biblical doctrine. - Exposition, done well, is good for both audiences: believers and non-believers. - Exposition gives authority to the message. - Exposition magnifies Scripture. - Exposition is God-centered not man-centered. - Exposition provides a wealth of material for preaching. - Exposition grows the person delivering the Word. - Exposition ensures the highest level of biblical knowledge for the congregation. - Exposition teaches people how to study the Bible on their own.