In context, this passage teaches us that the overall framework of 4:10-23 is not superhuman ability, but rather spiritual satisfaction — contentment — regardless of circumstances! The careful expositor notes the context, specifically Paul’s repeated emphasis on having “learned” contentment — clearly, this was no instantaneous “name it and claim it” mentality, but the process of mature discipleship.

Scrutinize the Contents of Your Text

Once the survey work is complete, it is time to dig into the text with the zoom lens of exegetical research. This is where the “spade work” of grammatical analysis, word studies and interpretation takes place. We are breaking the text down into its smallest segments, studying phrase by phrase and word by word.

This phase is also where we are using original language tools and exegetical commentaries to help us better understand what the text is saying. Make textual observations, ask questions of the text and note any significant details that might help you to better understand your text and more effectively communicate your text.

Scan the Structure of Your Text

For expository preaching, the text does not merely serve to suggest the subject or topic of our sermons. The structure of the text determines the structure of the sermon. We must scan the text, looking for its divisions and subdivisions, identifying major clauses, dependent clauses and literary features such as chiastic structure so that our sermons reflect the flow, the argument and the style of the writer.

As careful expositors, we want to say what the text writer said, but we also want to say it how the text writer said it. To say that the text’s structure does not matter is to say that the Spirit haphazardly put Scripture together! For example, Matt. 28:19-20, the Great Commission, contains one imperative command and three participles that are aspects of fulfilling the command. A sermon with four main points misses the structure of the text — better to have one main point based on the imperative, with three subpoints of the one main point in order to be more faithful to the structure of the text.

Stick to the Authorial Intent of Your Text

This could very well be the step in expository preaching that creates the most controversy and confusion. I explain it to my students this way as they preach through Philippians: After you finish preaching on your passage, imagine that you are sitting down beside the Apostle Paul. He puts his arm on your shoulder, leans over, and whispers one of two things in your ear: 1) “You said exactly what I meant to say in my letter — you nailed it!” or 2) “What you just said had nothing to do with what I wrote to the church at Philippi — what in the world were you thinking?” For example, a sermon on the true nature of worship from John 4 on the woman at the well completely ignores authorial intent, which John gives us in 20:31: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” In John 4, John is showing us Jesus as the Living Water who completely satisfies the deepest thirst of the human soul. In fact, a careful study of the flow of chapter 4 reveals that the subject of worship is a diversion, a smokescreen!

Remember, a text cannot have more than one intended meaning, although it may have many applications. The exchange of worship may yield some contemporary applications for a discussion on modern worship, yet to say John wrote chapter 4 to teach us about worship is unfaithful to authorial intent. Hence, stick to authorial intent!

State the Central Proposition of Your Sermon While Sticking to the Authorial Intent of Your Text

Based upon the exegetical phases presented above, in one clear sentence state: 1.) what the author is talking about; and 2.) what the author is saying about what he is talking about.

For example, in Eph. 2:1-10, Paul writes about our salvation and describes it in three ways: what we used to be, what we are now and what we will be (past, present, future). We now need to contemporize the statement and make it present tense: “We are going to look at our glorious salvation by examining who we were before Christ, who we are presently in Christ, and who we will one day be when we are with Christ.” For expository preaching to be “expository,” the central proposition of the sermon must match the central proposition of the text!

Support the Central Proposition of Your Sermon through Explanation and Illustration