Transcript
Here’s a question every pastor should wrestle with: If you removed your passage from your sermon, would your sermon still work? If the answer is yes, then what we’re doing might not actually be exegetical preaching, and here’s what makes that a little uncomfortable. Most of us believe we preach exegetically. Most of us were trained to say that we do, but very few of us were actually clearly shown what that actually means. So we default to starting with a verse. We build a message and we’re assuming that we’re faithful to the text. But there’s a difference between preaching from a passage and preaching the passage, and that difference matters more than we think. So let’s slow this down together. What is exegetical preaching really? Before we assume we’re doing this, we need to define it very clearly. Zuck, in his basic Bible interpretation, reminds us that the word exegesis literally means to lead out.
In other words, we are drawing meaning out of the text and not placing meaning into it. That means our role as preachers are not to be creators of meaning, but discoverers of meaning. We’re asking, “What did the author intend to communicate?” “What did the original audience understand?” “What does the grammar, the structure, the context reveal?” Because Scripture already has meaning, and this is key. The meaning of Scripture is determined by the author, not the preacher. So when we come to a passage, we’re not asking “What do I think this means?” We’re asking, “What did God intend to say right here?” And then our job becomes really to explain that clearly and to apply that faithfully—not to improve it, not to reshape it, but to reveal it. And this is where, really without even realizing it, many of us can drift. There are several approaches to preaching that can look biblical, but they aren’t exactly exegetical.
For instance: verse-based preaching. We can start with a verse and then build a message around ideas that are connected to it. The verse is there, but it’s really not driving the message. Or secondly, we can do proof-text preaching, where we start with a topic—maybe it’s parenting, maybe it’s anxiety, maybe it’s leadership—and then we gather verses to support it. That can be very helpful teaching, but it’s not exegesis. Thirdly, we can do idea-driven preaching. Sometimes we start with something we want to say, and the text becomes really the launching pad. But in exegetical preaching, the text is not just a starting point; the text needs to be the source. Fourthly, we can look at application-driven preaching. And this one is especially important for us as pastors because it often comes from a really good place.
We look at our people and we think, “They need help with their anxiety. They need help growing in their marriage. They need some practical direction.” And that’s right, we should want to be practical. But if we’re not careful, we can begin shaping the message around the application instead of letting the application flow from the text. Application is essential, but in exegetical preaching, application is not the starting point. It’s just the result. So here’s the question we have to keep asking ourselves: Did this message come from the text or from me? Did I discover this, or did I bring this? There’s a difference between using a passage and being governed by a passage. So what does it actually look like when the text is driving everything? When preaching is truly exegetical, something important, very important happens here.
The passage determines the sermon. What that means is the main idea of the passage becomes the main idea of the sermon. The structure of the text shapes the structure of the message. The emphasis of the author becomes the emphasis of the sermon. We’re not imposing structure; we are discovering it. And instead of asking, “What do I want to say this week?” we ask questions like, “What is God saying in this passage?” And when that shift happens, something changes, because now the authority of the message is no longer coming from me or the preacher, it’s coming from the Word of God itself. Exegetical preaching is not about making the Bible relevant. It’s about showing that it already is. And this isn’t just about technique. This shapes our churches in ways that we don’t even realize. When pastors preach exegetically, something begins to shift—the authority in the room moves, and it moves away from the preacher, and it settles on the text of Scripture itself. People begin to see the Bible actually speaks to them, not just in general, but specifically, clearly, and authoritatively.
And over time, the culture of the church begins to change. People stop saying, “Oh, that’s a great sermon,” and they begin to say, “That’s what the Bible says. Our God is awesome,” and they worship, and something else begins to happen that is incredibly important. You are not just preaching sermons, you are discipling people in how to read their Bibles. Week after week, you are modeling how to follow a passage, how to understand the context, how to trace an argument, how to let Scripture speak for itself. And over time, your people don’t just know more Bible, they know how to handle their Bibles. Exegetical preaching doesn’t just teach truth. It trains people how to find truth. And a world where people are constantly being shaped by opinions, that kind of discipleship matters more than ever. And if you’re listening to this thinking “That sounds harder than what I’m doing,” well, you’re right. It requires us to slow down.
Exegetical preaching takes time. It requires observation. It requires thinking, wrestling with a text, and sometimes sitting in a passage longer than we’d prefer. It also takes removing our control. When you preach exegetically, you don’t always get to choose the topic—the text does. And sometimes the passage takes you places you wouldn’t naturally choose to go. And that’s great because that disciples your people, that’s hearing from Him, our God, through the Word of God. It also requires humility because now you’re not standing over the text, you are standing under it. We’re not shaping the message, we’re submitting to it. And honestly, exegetical preaching forces us to say things we wouldn’t naturally choose to say. And maybe this is where the tension really sits. For many of us, we’re ministering in a world where people need help thinking—they need clarity, they need guidance, they need real practical application.
And rightly so, we want our preaching to really help people. We want it to be clear. We want it to be useful. But here’s where we have to be careful. The pressure to be practical can quietly pull us away from being exegetical, where we can begin shaping messages around outcomes instead of letting outcomes flow from the text. And when that happens, we may be helpful, but we lose something deeper. Because the greatest help we can give our people is not telling them what to do, but showing them the awesomeness of our God, and what He said through His Word. Preaching isn’t about sounding biblical. It’s about surrendering to what God has already said and having the courage to say only that. And in a world that desperately needs clarity, real clarity doesn’t come from better ideas; it comes from faithfully explaining the Word of God. So hey, maybe next week, instead of starting with the question “What do my people need to hear?”, maybe we begin with better ones, like “What is God saying in this passage?” And then we trust that what God is saying is exactly what our people need. If your sermon still works without the passage, Hey, heads up. It probably didn’t come from the passage. God bless.
