At Harvest Fellowship Church, we are committed to regular expository preaching and teaching of the Bible. This means that the majority of our teaching and preaching is focused on sequential exposition through either chapters of or books of the Bible in entirety. In this approach: we read the text, we explain the text, and we give practical application from the text. Each time we gather, we pick up where we left off. Because all of the Bible is valuable and worthy of our attention, we examine each verse closely, not skipping over verses or sections of Scripture.
In expository preaching/teaching, the text of Scripture is what drives the main thrust of the message. The text is carefully examined to understand what it says, what it warns of, what it promises, and what it offers. The expositor is simply God’s mouthpiece declaring what God’s Word says. As the expositor expounds the text, he is digging into the passage to give the sense of it from the perspectives of language, grammar, history, geography, doctrine, and context. Furthermore, he must explain how the text fits within the whole of Scripture.
Special attention is given in expository preaching/teaching to precision in theology. The clarity of the doctrine within the text is critically important to communicate, no matter how challenging that doctrine may be. As the expositor moves through the text, he will need to demonstrate that the Word of God does not contradict itself as he explains the text with detailed precision in accordance with the whole of Scripture. He must carefully explain exactly what the text does say and what it does not say.
The text of Scripture is the foundation for the message as the chief focus is the glory of God. God’s Word is just that – His words to us, and expository preaching/teaching is meant to consistently draw our eyes to the author of the Word, God Himself. Since the whole of Scripture reveals God’s plan of redemption, the expositor will regularly preach Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:28, “Him (Christ) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” As we preach/teach through Scripture (from Genesis to Revelation), the person and work of Jesus Christ will be proclaimed recurrently.
Finally, we believe that expository preaching/teaching is far more than just an academic lecture, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) Therefore, the expositor does more than simply provide information. Rather, he pleads with, he urges, he exhorts, he challenges, and he even commands the listener to respond to the living Word of God.
While there are appropriate times to preach/teach on various topics and themes within Scripture, we are committed to reserving the majority of our gathering together for faithful expository preaching/teaching. As Paul charged Timothy, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2), so too do we seek to follow this charge by preaching and teaching the Word of God in its entirety for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.
