Expository Preaching
Expository preaching means the passage sets the agenda. The main point of the text becomes the main point of the sermon, the shape of the text shapes the outline, and the application comes out of what the author was actually doing rather than what you wanted to say this week. Most guides stop at that definition and hand you a list of steps. The harder problem, the one that decides whether you get out of the pulpit on time, is that almost every passage worth preaching contains more than you can responsibly say in thirty minutes. That is the part this page spends its time on.
What Expository Preaching Is, and What It Is Not
Expository preaching is not a style of delivery and it is not the same as verse-by-verse commentary. It is a question of authority. In an expository sermon the theme, the structure, and the application all come out of the passage, and the preacher's job is to make the text's own point land on the people in front of him. If you removed the passage, the sermon would collapse. That is the test.
The contrast helps. A topical sermon starts with a subject, anxiety or money or forgiveness, and gathers passages that speak to it. A textual sermon takes a short text as a launch point and develops ideas that radiate out from it. Neither is dishonest, and both have their place. The difference is direction of travel. Topical and textual preaching bring a question to scripture. Expository preaching lets the passage ask the question.
It is also worth naming what expository preaching is often mistaken for. It is not a running commentary that walks through every clause explaining grammar. That produces a lecture with a prayer at each end. A commentary explains the passage. A sermon does that and then does something with it. If your people leave better informed and unmoved, you wrote the wrong thing.
The Work That Happens Before Any Outline
Start by reading the passage repeatedly, in more than one translation, before you open a single commentary. Read it out loud at least once. You are listening for the flow of thought: where the argument turns, where a word repeats, where the writer slows down and where he moves fast. Most of the sermon's structure is already sitting in that flow, and the reason so many outlines feel bolted on is that the preacher went to the commentaries before he knew what the passage was doing.
Then settle the boundaries. A preaching unit is a complete thought, and chapter and verse divisions were added long after the fact, so they are a rough guide rather than a rule. If your passage ends mid-argument you will end up preaching half an idea and reaching for the rest of it anyway.
Next, write one sentence that states what the author is saying and doing. Not a topic, a sentence. Not 'prayer' but something closer to 'Paul tells a worried church to pray about the thing they are worried about, and promises a peace that will not make sense to them.' If you cannot write that sentence, you are not ready to outline, and no amount of structure will hide it. This is the single step most sermons skip and the one that most reliably separates a sermon that lands from one that wanders.
Commentaries come after that, and they come to check you, not to feed you. Read them to catch what you missed and to find out where you have wandered off. If a commentary changes your governing sentence, good, that is the process working.
Building the Outline From the Text
The outline should be discovered rather than imposed. If the passage moves in three movements, the sermon has three movements. If it makes one point and then answers two objections to it, that is the shape, and forcing it into a tidy three-point alliterated frame will fight the text the whole way.
Each main point should be a statement, not a label. 'The Problem of Fear' tells the congregation nothing. 'Fear tells you a story about the future that God has not confirmed' is a claim they can follow, agree with, or argue with. Points that are complete sentences also keep you honest, because a vague point is much harder to write when it has to have a verb.
Explanation, illustration, and application belong under each point rather than stacked at the end. A sermon that explains for twenty minutes and applies for five leaves the congregation carrying an unopened box. Say what it meant, show what it looks like, then say what it asks of them, and do it point by point so the weight is distributed.
Write the conclusion before you write the introduction. The conclusion is where the governing idea has to land, and once you know exactly where you are going, the introduction becomes easy, because its only job is to make them want to go there.
The Thirty Minute Problem
This is where most expository sermons actually fail, and almost no guide addresses it. Ordinary speaking pace runs somewhere around 120 to 130 words a minute. A thirty minute sermon is therefore in the neighborhood of 3,600 to 3,900 spoken words. That is roughly seven pages of double-spaced manuscript, and it is far less room than a good passage deserves.
So you will have more material than time on nearly every text worth preaching. The question is never whether to cut. It is what to cut, and the answer is not to shave a little off everything. A sermon trimmed evenly across four points becomes four thin points. A sermon that drops one point entirely and gives the room to the rest becomes a sermon.
Cut in this order. First, background material that is interesting but not load-bearing. If the sermon still stands without the historical detail about first century household codes, it goes, however much it cost you to learn. Second, the second and third illustrations of a point that already landed with the first. Third, any secondary application that is not the one thing you actually want them to do on Monday. What survives is the explanation the point cannot stand without, one illustration that makes it visible, and the application you are prepared to be held to.
One practical check before Sunday. Read the manuscript aloud with a timer, at pulpit pace and not at reading pace, because almost everyone reads faster in a chair than they preach standing up. If it runs long at the desk it will run longer in the room, since you will add things in the moment. Preachers who consistently finish on time are not faster talkers. They cut earlier.
The Failure Modes Worth Knowing
The commentary sermon walks the passage clause by clause, explaining everything and asking nothing. It is the most common failure among preachers who love study, and the tell is that it has no governing sentence, just a sequence of true observations.
The smuggled topical sermon looks expository and is not. The preacher decided what to say on Tuesday and found a passage that would tolerate it. The tell is that the sermon's main point sits in one verse and the rest of the passage is scenery.
The everything sermon happens when nothing was cut. Four points, three illustrations each, and a conclusion delivered at speed because the clock ran out. The congregation remembers none of it, not because they were inattentive but because nothing was given enough room to stick.
And the harmless sermon explains the passage accurately, applies it generally, and asks nothing of anyone in particular. Application that could be addressed to any congregation on any Sunday is not application. Name who it is for and what it changes this week.
Key Principles
- ✓One passage, one governing idea, and the sermon says that idea in the text's own order
- ✓Find what the author was DOING, not just what the text says, before you outline anything
- ✓The outline should be discovered in the passage, not imposed on it from a template
- ✓Thirty minutes is roughly 3,600 spoken words, which is far less material than you think
- ✓Cutting is the actual skill: the sermon that says one thing well beats the one that says four things partly
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Start FreeFrequently Asked Questions
What is expository preaching?
Expository preaching is preaching in which the passage determines the sermon. The main point of the text becomes the main point of the message, the structure of the sermon follows the flow of the passage, and the application comes out of what the biblical author was doing rather than a subject the preacher brought with him. The practical test is whether the sermon would collapse if you removed the passage. If it would survive intact, it was not expository.
How long should an expository sermon be?
There is no rule, and the honest answer is that it depends on your congregation and your tradition, with most falling somewhere between twenty and forty minutes. The number that matters more is how much material fits. At an ordinary speaking pace of roughly 120 to 130 words a minute, thirty minutes is about 3,600 to 3,900 spoken words, which is less than most preachers estimate. Plan the content against that figure rather than against the clock alone.
What is the difference between expository and topical preaching?
The difference is which one sets the agenda. Topical preaching begins with a subject and gathers passages that address it. Expository preaching begins with a passage and lets its point become the sermon's point. Both can be faithful and both can be abused. A topical sermon goes wrong when the passages are pressed into a shape they do not hold, and an expository sermon goes wrong when it explains the text thoroughly and never asks anything of the people hearing it.
How many points should an expository sermon have?
As many as the passage has movements, which is usually two or three and occasionally one. The three point sermon is a convention rather than a requirement, and forcing a passage that makes a single sustained argument into three parallel headings works against the text. A better question than how many points is whether each point is a complete statement the congregation could agree or disagree with, rather than a one word label.
Do I need Greek and Hebrew to preach expository sermons?
No. Original languages help and they are worth learning if you have the time, but a preacher working carefully in two or three good English translations, reading the passage repeatedly before opening a commentary, and checking his conclusions against solid scholarship can preach faithfully from the text. The more common failure is not a lack of Greek. It is going to the commentaries before spending real time with the passage, so that the sermon ends up assembled from other people's observations.
How do I decide what to cut when the sermon runs long?
Cut whole things rather than trimming everything evenly, because a sermon shaved across four points becomes four thin points. Drop background material that is interesting but not load bearing, then any second or third illustration of a point that already landed, then any secondary application that is not the one thing you want them to act on. What should survive is the explanation each point cannot stand without, one illustration that makes it visible, and a single clear application.