Anointed Expository Preaching

Stephen Olford, David Olford

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781433670046
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

What is "expository preaching?" In this brilliant new book, Dr. Stephen F. Olford and Dr. David L. Olford, both widely respected preachers in their own right define "expository preaching" ("exposing Scripture instead of imposing upon it"), teach its technique, and express its significance ("all true preaching is expository").

This book equips and encourages preachers of all kinds to respect their calling and minister God's inerrant Word by the Olford's marvelous methods.

PART ONE

THE WALK TO PURSUE

CHAPTER ONE

THE PREACHER AND THE CALL OF GOD

It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.

—Galatians 1:15–16a

Study Text: Galatians 1:1–17

All Christians are “called ones.” This basic “call” is to Christ as Lord and Savior (Eph. 1:18; 4:1; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 3:1; 2 Pet. 1:10). But God also calls with a view to “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10 NIV). Included in the “good works” is the call to preach. The call of Moses (Exod. 3:4–22), of Samuel (1 Sam. 3:4), of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4–10), and in the New Testament, the call of the disciples (Mark 3:13–19), of Paul (Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:15), and of Barnabas (Acts 13:2) are all good examples.

The call to preach must not be confused with the desire to serve as an elder or deacon (see 1 Tim. 3:1), even though the very desire (if noble) is “inspired by God's Spirit.”¹ The call to preach must not be conditioned by the need for the gospel, even though we are commanded to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “This goes against the grain of much modern thinking. But in our Lord's day none of the twelve volunteered to follow Christ. They made no application, they completed no forms. On the contrary, it was the magnetic authority of the Lord which compelled them. … For the disciples, the call was the verbal command of the Lord.”² The call to preach must not be controlled by the church, even though the elders of a local church are expected to confirm the call (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6). In the final analysis, the call to preach is the sovereign initiative of God in the life and experience of the one who is predestinated to fulfill that role.

When Paul writes of his conversion experience, he refers to it “as a pattern [a prototype] to those who are going to believe on [Jesus Christ] for everlasting life” (1 Tim. 1:16). Two important points are expressed in this “public display of [God's] grace to a notable sinner.”³ The first is the mercy of God shown to Paul. The word mercy is in the verbal form. Literally it reads, “I was mercied.” The second is the call of God. Paul states categorically: “[God] considered me faithful, appointing me to his service” (1 Tim. 1:12 NIV). A quote from Augustine is appropriate here: “God does not choose a person who is worthy, but by the act of choosing him he makes him worthy [translation mine].”⁴

In his Galatian epistle, Paul amplifies the story of his conversion experience to include his call to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. We do well, therefore, to examine the apostle's testimony and lift from his words the universal principles that define and delineate the call of God.

Looking back upon his initial encounter with Jesus Christ he could say, “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (vv. 15–16). Three important aspects of Paul's testimony call for attention: the nature, the knowledge, and the purpose of God's call to preach.

THE NATURE OF GOD'S CALL TO PREACH

“It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace” (v. 15). The verb separated means “to mark off by bounds.” In this context, the word denotes “the divine action in setting man apart for the work of the gospel” (W. E. Vine). In the preceding verses, Paul has been recounting his past life. With heavy heart he has confessed his fanaticism for the Law. In fact, it was because of his unenlightened zeal for the Law that he had become such an archpersecutor of the church. He had destroyed the local assemblies. But in spite of all this, it pleased God to call him into the service of the gospel. Paul could never get over this. It was such unmerited favor and unspeakable grace! Paul could put forth only two explanations for this divine activity.

God's Eternal Call of Grace

“It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb” (v. 15). To the apostle, the call of God was no unpremeditated event. Before time was determined, Paul was in the mind of God. This is the significance of the phrase “separated … from my mother's womb.” Before Paul could think, speak, or act, God had marked him out as a chosen vessel to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (see John 15:16).

Centuries before, God “separated” Jeremiah to be a preacher. “The word of the Lord came to [Jeremiah], saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; … I ordained you a prophet to the nations’” (Jer. 1:4–5). This was the eternal call of grace to Jeremiah. Warren W. Wiersbe sums it up this way: addressing His prophet, God said, “‘You will be what I want you to be, go where I want you to go, and say what I want you to say. I supervised your conception, I consecrated you, and now I am ordaining you.’” Then Wiersbe adds: “If God calls you, believe what He says and obey Him. You may not feel up to it, but your adequacy comes from God, not from yourself”⁵ (see Jer. 1:6–9). The call of Jeremiah refutes the idea that the work of God's servants was always provincial (cf. Jer. 25:15–29; 46–51). God is the Lord of the nations, and when He calls, our answer must be: “Anywhere, anytime, any place, I am ready, Lord; send me.”

A. J. Gossip tells how Alexander Whyte faced his ordination in his first church. In his message to his people, Whyte declared that “all through time and eternity God had been preparing [him] for this congregation, and this congregation for [him] and, prompt to the minute, He had brought them together.”⁶ This is a mindboggling concept––one that we need to recall every time we are tempted to speak glibly about the call of God!

God's Effectual Call of Grace

“God … called me through His grace” (v. 15). What was eternal became effectual in Paul's experience when he initially encountered the living Christ. Three times in the Acts of the Apostles (9:4; 22:7; 26:14) Luke describes in vivid detail the nature of this spiritual crisis and call. In chapter 9 he tells us that it all started when Paul saw a face—”As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven” (Acts 9:3). Later Paul interpreted this light as “the heavenly vision” in which “He was seen by me” (Acts 26:19; 1 Cor. 15:8). That appearance was none other than the face of the risen Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

Then Saul heard a voice—”Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). What a shock these words must have been to Saul! How could he be persecuting the One who was in heaven? And yet, in that moment of destiny, he learned one of the greatest truths of the New Testament: that the Church is the Body, of which Christ is the Head. Later he could write: “Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body” (Eph. 5:23). The revelation of the saviorhood of Christ broke in upon Saul's soul as he knelt in the dust of that Damascan road.

Following this Saul made a choice. He pleaded, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6). He owned Jesus as Lord and surrendered spirit, soul and body to the sovereignty of Christ. With that response Saul of Tarsus was converted and called by the grace of God. The eternal call had now become the effectual call. From then on Saul knew himself to be a chosen vessel. He did not consider himself chosen for honor, but for service; not for ease, but for battle; not for life, but for death, in the cause of worldwide evangelization (see Acts 26:16–18).

This is what God has been doing throughout the centuries. Have you heard the call? If so, do not be “disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). When Jeremiah tried to refrain from preaching, he tells us, “I was weary of holding it back, and I could not” (Jer. 20:9). That should be the experience of every true preacher. “Such an one will have ‘a divine commission behind him, a divine summons before him, and a divine conviction within him,’ and what more can anyone have or need?”⁷

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S CALL TO PREACH

The second thing that Paul tells us in this amazing testimony concerns the knowledge of God's call to preach. “God … called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15,16). Now we come to the heart of things. Those words “His Son in me” are dynamite! They correspond to “Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) and “God … sent … the Spirit of His Son into [our] hearts” (Gal. 4:6).

The Revelation of the Indwelling Son

“His Son in me” (v. 16). The conscious knowledge of the indwelling Son of God is the indispensable “inner witness” of God's call to preach. It is true, of course, that every Christian can say, “Christ lives in me,” and that the outliving of the indwelling Christ is the normal Christian life. But for the preacher, those words “His Son in Me” have far-reaching implications. Preaching is essentially incarnational. If we would be followers of the Prince of Preachers, then all our preaching should be a “fleshing out” of the pattern that Jesus left for us. John records this pattern in the prologue to his gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… . No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared [exegeted] Him” (John 1:14, 18). Jesus was an incarnational Exegete of the Father. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He revealed the God “no one has seen at any time,” in terms that “common people” could see and hear.

In a similar way, we must preach the gospel. All the fullness of the gospel is totalized in Jesus, and Jesus lives in us. As we exegete the Word, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ must come through with “grace and truth.” This is exactly what Paul says in our text, “His Son in me, that I might preach Him” (v. 16, emphasis ours). He could have written “that I might preach the gospel”; but for Paul the gospel was Christ. So the knowledge of the call of God is inextricably related to the mystery and ministry of the indwelling Son of God.⁸

The Revelation of the Impelling Son

“His Son in me” (v. 16). As Richard N. Longenecker observes: “The Christological title ‘Son of God,’ ‘his [God's] Son,’ or simply ‘the Son’ appears in Paul's writings fifteen times (‘Son of God’: Rom. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:19; Gal. 2:20; ‘his Son’ or ‘the Son’: Rom. 1:3, 9; 5:10; 8:3, 29, 32; 1 Cor. 1:9; 15:28; Gal. 1:16; 4:4, 6; 1 Thess. 1:10).”⁹ As we study each reference in context, it becomes clear that the title conveys the ideas of power and action. Writing to the church at Rome, Paul refers to “Jesus Christ our Lord … declared to be the Son of God with power” (Rom. 1:3, 4). It was as the Son of God, authenticated by the resurrection, that He could say to His disciples: “As the Father has sent Me [the Son], I also send you” (John 20:21). Throughout His life the Lord Jesus had a strong sense of being commissioned and sent. It is a study in and of itself to count the number of times the two main verbs send or sent are found in the Gospel of John alone.¹⁰ The mission of God was an inescapable imperative to Him. He was forever using the word must. This impersonal verb signifies necessity, obligation, and commitment. It is found most frequently in the Gospels, the Acts, and the Book of Revelation. As the Son, the Lord Jesus could say, “I must be about My Father's business” (Luke 2:49); as the Savior, He could say, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14); as the Servant, He declared, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). Finally, at the end of His life He could exclaim, “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). In the light of such a life of dedicated service, He could charge, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). This power and action of the Son of God were inwardly revealed to the apostle Paul. He was a man indwelt and impelled by the Son of God. That is why he could make such statements as “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also… . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (Rom. 1:14–15; 1 Cor. 9:16). When we read words like these we are bound to ask ourselves whether we know the power of the impelling Son of ...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Walk to Pursue
• Part 2: The Work to Perform
• Part 3: The Word to Proclaim
• Conclusion
• Appendix A The Preacher and Worship
• Appendix B The Preacher and Music
• Appendix C The Preacher and Evangelism
• Appendix D The Preacher and Romans
• Notes
• Selective Bibliography
• Biographical Sketches