Expository Preaching at Barabbas Road Church in San Diego

At Barabbas Road Church in San Diego,At Barabbas Road Church in San Diego, the type of preaching you will hear at a Sunday worship service is called expository preaching. Expository preaching gets it’s meaning from scripture; therefore, the sermon of an expository preacher comes from the context of the text. The goalof an expositional sermon is to peach God’s word to God’s people. A great example of an expositional sermon can be found in the book of Nehemiah. In chapter eight we read that Ezra the priest and the Levites, “read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8).Here you can see that the purpose of expository preaching is for the true Word of God to be read to God’s people and correctly understood.

The reason Barabbas Road Church in San Diego usesexpositional preaching is because the elders believe that there are a few things about the Word of God that make expositional preaching essential. What we have to first understand is that the scripture is God’s revelation to man. It’s important to recognize that when God gave us his word that he gave us his actual true word. For this reason it’s important to look at God’s Word more like a painting rather than a window. For example, all painters have anintended purpose for their painting. The purpose is to always tell a certain story. To view the Word of God as a painting rather than a window reminds us that God has an intended purpose.

The Bible tells us two very important things that are fundamental to understanding expository preaching. The first thing is that scripture is sufficient to create godliness in us. The second thing is that scripture is also sufficient to accomplish God’s purposes in the church. We can see this in 2ndTimothy where Paul tells us that all scripture is God breathed or breathed out by God, and it’s profitable for all things pertaining to godliness (2 Timothy 3:16). If the Pastor’s role as a preacher is to help the church mature and grow in godliness, then the preacher’s main tool to accomplish this has to be the Word of God. The Pastor must understand that what he is preaching through is the actual word of God and it is God breathed and has intended meaning and purpose within the context of the text. Knowing and understanding this is essential because it dictates the way a Pastor will preach.

The second thing we need to know is that scripture is superior to accomplish God’s purposes with God’s people. The example here would be in 2nd Peter where we see Peter describing being on a mountain top and hearing a voice from heaven (2 Peter 1:19-21). The voice Peter heard was God’s actual voice. What’s important is that Peter is saying that what he heard was important and special; however, the prophetic word, which is the word of God, is even more reliable. What we are promised in Peter is that the written word of God is superior to even God’s actual voice. What this means is that what we have in scripture is better and more beneficial than any revelation we could ever receive. This is true because we can always doubt or forget parts of a revelation; however, with the word of God it is written. It’s beneficial and reliable because we can always study the word of God and go back to it and see that what God has promised remains true.

Understanding expositional preaching takes very seriously the idea that God has given us his word, which is sufficient for his purposes and superior to accomplish them. Therefore, expositional preaching is the method that the elders of Barabbas Road Church in San Diego believe God wants the church to use in proclaiming the God’s word.