One problem unique to expository preaching is that most of our textbooks focus on the biblical  text in order to be considered “expository.” As a result, most homiletics textbooks simply teach the mechanics of preaching and pay very little attention to the dynamics of preaching.  This can lead the student of preaching to believe that if the text is simply handled “correctly,” expository preaching takes place.  Ramesh Richard explains this phenomenon by pointing out the emphasis of his own book, Preparing Expository Sermons: A Seven Step Method For Biblical Preaching:

By intention, the Scripture Sculpture sermon-preparation process is focused on the mechanics of expository preaching.  Yet the best-prepared and best-preached sermon would turn into mere noise-making if the dynamics of the preaching process were not in place.  The critical link between the mechanics and dynamics of the preaching process is the preacher’s spiritual life. We ought to pursue an increasingly vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit through faith in God’s Word. (Richard, 2001, 96).

The strength of a Spirit-driven methodology of expository preaching is due to the fact that it is intentionally centered on the theological and spiritual dynamics of preaching.  Although sound mechanics are critical to opening up a text of scripture and must be taught, learned, and practiced, the preached message finds its true source of power when the Spirit and the Word combine in powerful Christological witness!  In other words, the spiritual dynamics taking place under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the preacher’s life are the source and substance of preaching that becomes a “demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (I Cor. 2:4).  A careful reading of I Corinthians 2 reveals Paul’s inner condition (weakness, fear, and trembling) precedes the Spirit’s power in preaching.  Paul’s inner spiritual condition was the soil out of which his Spirit-empowered preaching grew.  In other words, the Spirit’s dynamics add the heat and passion to the sermon’s mechanics.

TOWARD A SPIRIT-DRIVEN DEFINITION

Although definitions themselves are no guarantee of success, they do lay the foundation and direction for the course of action to be followed.  I think that the best definition of expository preaching will incorporate into its terminology the ministry and dynamic of the Holy Spirit as the explicit driving force behind the methodology.

In a Spirit-driven methodology of expository preaching, the inspired text is just one of many Spirit-contributed aspects to the discipline of preaching.  A Spirit-driven methodology of expository preaching finds definition in the powerful dynamic of the Word and Spirit integrated together.  There are some good definitions of expository preaching that do partially capture the theological dynamic of Word and Spirit and also incorporate some aspect of the Holy Spirit into their respective wordings.  Among modern definitions, one of the earliest references to the Holy Spirit comes from the work of Don Miller in his 1957 book The Way to Biblical Preaching.  He writes: