# Expository Preaching Videos - Preach the Word!



## C. Matthew McMahon (May 1, 2017)

In light of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and a desire to see further revival among Christians today, two topics I am highlighting at A Puritan's Mind for the whole year is a focus on Pastoral Theology and Expository Preaching. I've already posted a short series on Pastoral Theology. It is here on the board, and here at APM.

At this point, I'm going to go through a series on expository preaching. My intention, hopefully, and prayerfully, is to spark preachers to really _preach the Word_, and think through just what that means. I've read and reread the best works on the subject, and I'm going to pull sections, quotes and such from them and expound on them a bit, while highlighting key Scriptures that direct and exhort preachers to preach in a specific manner. As John Brinsley said, with _boldness, faithfulness, and plainly_. And, in good homiletics, as William Perkins, John Strickland and Peter van Mastricht said, preachers should read the text, explain the text, pull a doctrine from the text, make some arguments about that doctrine, and then apply the doctrine to the lives of the people. 

Here is the first, which is an exhortation to _preach the word; i.e. _that expository preaching is the only way to truly preach, and the best method of preaching.
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## BG (May 2, 2017)

Looking forward to this series


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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 4, 2017)

Expository preaching is the best method of preaching. Preaching may be textual, topical, hortatory, doctrinal, practical, alarming, consolatory, on a long passage or on a short text of Scripture, and yet it is ALWAYS expository. 

Peter van Mastricht wrote an excellent work called...."The Best Method of Preaching." Mastricht says that the best way to preach is the easiest and least cumbersome to his hearers. Interestingly, he makes a plea for “more is better” in preparation because the minister can more easily cut away further study from the sermon than add to it once they are in the mode of homiletics. _Preparation_ is important because the minister ties his meditations of the text on universal ideas that he can always go back to at another time for further study. Hearers can follow more easily a shaped sermon than random ideas. Such preparation orders his thoughts with the goal of _the practice of piety_ for the hearer before the face of God. But, such preaching, in its best method, is expository.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 11, 2017)

Your sermon ought not be an exegetical lecture.
Results are for the pulpit, not your journey to get there.


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## BG (May 13, 2017)




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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 15, 2017)

I'm always somewhat amazed at preachers who think the word of God _needs help_. They often shower their introductions with 2, 3, 4, 5, illustrations, anecdotes, family memories, etc., as if their illustrations, anecdotes, and family memories, can "help" the word. As if to think that all those hearers in the pews have come especially to hear something about _them, _and to be entertained by their family memories, trips to the grocery store, holiday mishaps, and the like. If the word of God is rightly explained, the use of those long, cumbersome, 5 minute illustrations and such will quickly die by the wayside. Such things _detract _from the preached word. They waste time. 

Instead, preachers should practically acknowledge that the word of God is *living and powerful, *and _sharper _than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, (Heb. 4:12). God promises to be in the midst of _his preached word. _Preach the WORD!

Reactions: Like 1


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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 18, 2017)

"Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor_* in the word and doctrine*_." (1 Tim. 5:17). Pastors are commissioned to preached the word of God ALONE.


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## Bill The Baptist (May 18, 2017)

C. Matthew McMahon said:


> I'm always somewhat amazed at preachers who think the word of God _needs help_. They often shower their introductions with 2, 3, 4, 5, illustrations, anecdotes, family memories, etc., as if their illustrations, anecdotes, and family memories, can "help" the word.



My homiletics professor told us that a sermon should have one illustration per point plus one for the introduction and one for the conclusion. I found this to be exhausting, spending more time coming up with illustrations than I did studying the passage, and so I decided to follow a more biblical approach.

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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 19, 2017)

Bill The Baptist said:


> My homiletics professor told us that a sermon should have one illustration per point plus one for the introduction and one for the conclusion. I found this to be exhausting, spending more time coming up with illustrations than I did studying the passage, and so I decided to follow a more biblical approach.



That's the way to go. Being a good expositor of the word makes illuatrations generally useless to the sermon and extraneous to the hearer.

The Puritans were masters of "proverbs". Like, preach to screw truth into men's minds. Or, preach like a dying man to dying men.

Quick, simple, wrapping up a whole section of preaching in a short quip.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 23, 2017)

Expository Preaching is an art, and an art needs to be studied and learned.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (May 30, 2017)

Preaching is not learned by osmosis. It is a studied art. Part 2.

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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 5, 2017)

I can't express enough the need to understand what is and what isn't a sermon.
A sermon is not a theological lecture.
A sermon is not a language study.
A sermon is not a musing.
A sermon is not sharing.
As sermon IS....

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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 12, 2017)

The qualities of an effective sermon are set in the context of having a definite aim, or in other words, _precision_. Every sermon should have a distinct object in view.
Vinet says that a sermon must be reducible to one unified point. And he says that if the sermon cannot be reduced to that one point, you have yet to do your job.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 13, 2017)

How long your "should" your sermon be? This is an important question to answer.
How long was Micah's sermon? How long was the sermon of Hebrews? How long was Paul's sermon when Eutychus fell out of the window? How long was Christ's sermon to his disciples?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 15, 2017)

Are your sermons interesting? How do you promote _interest _as a preacher?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 19, 2017)

Preachers must be sure to always preach sound, savory, wholesome doctrine. 
They must always avoid all unsound, rotten, or unsavory doctrine. 
They must especially _preach Christ_.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 26, 2017)

Differing subjects give different types of sermons; i.e. different expository sorts: topical, doctrinal, hortatory, and practical.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jun 30, 2017)

All sermons have argumentation, or a logical order about them to bring the hearer to a certain intellectual and practical place.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jul 5, 2017)

What elements should the sermon contain?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jul 13, 2017)

Every Sermon ought to be reducible to a single point. Unity in the sermon is key.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jul 17, 2017)

Purely intellectual speeches, are not sermons. There are times and places in which such discourses may be given. 
But theological lectures, intellectual lectures are not sermons. Sharing is not preaching. Sharing is what you do over the phone with a friend and has no place in the interpreter’s message or heralding of God’s will.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jul 25, 2017)

What are the text and the subject of the sermon? What is the difference between the text, and the expositor's comments on the text?


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## BG (Jul 26, 2017)

Excellent


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2017)

Choosing the right text is everything. And it has certain important effects....


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 7, 2017)

Preachers are to be heralds of God's word. Not story tellers. Can you imagine Jonah walking into Nineveh to say, "Let me tell you about my dog...or let me tell you what happened on my vacation?" Preachers are to preach the word. Biblical texts, then, are necessary.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 17, 2017)

How do you choose the right text when you are preparing a sermon?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Sep 1, 2017)

Preachers should understand the language of the text. Not the language as in just translating the text, but understand, overall the "language" of scripture.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Oct 4, 2017)

Further rules for choosing a text.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Oct 25, 2017)

There is a great responsibility in the text chosen for a sermon.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Oct 26, 2017)

Part 2 of the responsibility in choosing a text to preach on.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Oct 27, 2017)

Please, please, please don't bring "your study" into the sermon.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Nov 26, 2017)

What are the specific parts of the sermon?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Nov 27, 2017)

What does it mean to make a good argument in your sermon?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Nov 30, 2017)

Are you persuasive in your preaching? Why should people listen to you?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Dec 10, 2017)

How do you deal with transition in your sermons? Without good transitions, you'll instantly lose your hearer.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Dec 17, 2017)

How well do you deal with the application? People will say to me, _your sermon was too long. _I'll ask them, _what part should I cut out?_ They'll respond, _the last 15 minutes or so. _Of course.
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## C. Matthew McMahon (Dec 20, 2017)

What should the form of preaching take?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Dec 24, 2017)

How has your study of elocution impacted your preaching style?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 3, 2018)

What is your style of preaching? This doesn't mean you are not expository when you preach (all good preaching is expository). It does mean that you have a specific style. Do you know what it is?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 4, 2018)

Fundamentals of style expanded into part 2.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 8, 2018)

_Qualities of style_ expanded into part 3.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 9, 2018)

Are you simple in your sermons? Simple doesn't mean "not deep." It means understandable.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 10, 2018)

What should you consider in the style of the actual language you use in preaching?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 11, 2018)

How does one use "color" in preaching?


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 12, 2018)

One of the most critical aspects of good expository preaching is movement. The sermon ought to be MOOOOOOVING the whole way through.


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Jan 13, 2018)

The last video and the conclusion of the series.


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