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By IFL Staff

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What does it mean to exposit a biblical text?

Well, it is not simply reading a verse and then saying whatever random thought comes to mind and then repeating that for each verse until you reach the end of your passage. For some preachers, it may seem that way, but that is not expository preaching.

In this article, we want to walk through an example of exposition from Chuck Swindoll so you can see what it means to exposit a biblical text. The example comes from his sermon called “The Cross We Proclaim,” and this article is actually part 2 of our look at this model sermon from Chuck Swindoll. Part 1 looks at the introduction to this sermon. Now, we’re going to turn to exposition.

What Exposition Is

So, first, let’s briefly define exposition. Chuck has defined and explained exposition in multiple places, so we won’t spend much time on it here—you can find more of those resources in the church leaders section of our website.

But in short, exposition simply draws out meaning from the biblical text so people can understand who God is and follow Jesus. It’s God’s Word that is authoritative and life-transforming. Not our opinions. So, as preachers, we want our hearers to receive God’s truth because His truth has the only power to meet our deepest needs, to help us follow His will and plan for us, and to enable us to live an abundant life in Christ.

Where Exposition Lives in the Sermon

Now, for this article, we want to focus on mechanics.

Not all parts of an expository sermon are expositional. The introduction of the sermon sets up the exposition of the text. That’s what we looked at in “A Model Chuck Swindoll Sermon 1A: The Introduction.” The introduction anticipates the subject and tone of the sermon and often establishes helpful biblical context to make the exposition simple and smooth. Then, the conclusion reflects on that exposition by equipping and inspiring our hearers to act on what God has taught.

But the actual meat of the exposition is located in the body of the sermon. For Chuck, that’s about 50–60 percent of his sermon. He plans for 20–25 percent in the introduction, 50–60 percent in the exposition, and 20–25 percent in the conclusion. For a 50-minute sermon, that’s 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 10 minutes. If you like to manuscript your sermon, that’s 1,000 words, 3,000 words, 1,000 words. Or, if you prefer 30-minute sermons, think 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes with the manuscript word counts being 750, 1,500, and 750.

For the meat of exposition, within the body of the sermon, you ultimately want to draw out truth about God and life. That’s theology. The goal is theology. What does this text teach me about God? The historical, grammatical, literary, cultural, and narrative components of a passage may all be fascinating, but those parts will not be your primary aim in exposition. You’ll want to draw on those elements during exposition. The aim, though, will be to get to theology—truths, principles—for your people to know, trust, and rely upon.

Three Tools: Explanation, Application, Illustration

That means the primary tool you’ll use during exposition is explanation. And that will get you to theological truth. But explanation is not all you’re going to do during exposition. You’ll lose people if you do that.

You have two other basic tools to harness during exposition. One is application, and the other is illustration.

As you explain what the passage means, you may find a good stopping point to offer a bit of application. Some people like to do a lot of application during exposition, but Chuck typically does small amounts of application during exposition, and he reserves his main application points for the conclusion of his sermon.

Third, you have illustrations. You’ll want to use illustrations for application and explanation when needed. Not every point will need an illustration, but illustrations are a great tool for making something that seems abstract and distant become relevant and visual.

Now, that’s all we’re going to say about explanation, application, and illustration. For the rest of our time together, we want you to read the way Chuck weaves these three together as he exposits Scripture with simplicity and clarity.

Chuck’s Exposition

In this model sermon, he is preaching on 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5. Before our part of the sermon, he’s already told us how the Corinthians have adopted the world’s values and implemented them within the church. So Paul in this passage is pointing them back to the cross and the way of the cross.

The excerpt below covers about 22 minutes of the sermon, and each time he moves from one tool to the next, we’ll point that out for you. To start, he transitions from his introduction to explanation:

Back to chapter 1, verse 18. What the apostle decides to do when he exposes these people in all their carnality is to point them to the cross.

Now notice, he immediately turns to application to show the relevance of this passage.

Let me tell you something, folks. When you get the cross in the right perspective, everything comes together. Everything comes together. When you get Christ in the clear focus, it is amazing how you know which one is the right goal line. It’s amazing how you know how to walk, and how to run the race set before us.

David Jackman, a British expositor, writes this:

“In the spiritual context, we must never remain content with childishness. To be so is, for Paul, synonymous with ‘worldliness,’ that is ‘the flesh.’ It is to drift back to the old way of living, to the world’s outlook and value-systems, behaving only in a human way, in other words, like a ‘natural man.’

“The indisputable evidence of this is their elevation of favorite teachers to the position of party leaders and the consequent lining up behind them as rival parties. That is behaving only in a human way, adopting the world’s lifestyle.

“Paul’s point is that this worldliness, this fleshly driven lifestyle, illustrates they have not yet come to grips with the message of the cross.”

I hope you never forget that. When you operate in the flesh as that man writes, you have not “come to grips with the message of the cross.” It’s still all about you. It’s just all about people. It’s all horizontal. It’s all so human. All about impressing. All about holding to this person over all the others, and that’s the only one you’ll listen to, that’s the only CD you’ll own. That’s the only time you’ll tune in. That’s the only one you respect. That’s a mark of adolescence, even worse, childishness. When we act like that without realizing it, we wound the body of Christ and our adversary dances with glee. Wrong Way Christians—have not come to terms with the message of the cross.

You will not drift from the truth if the cross remains your focus. By that I mean all that the cross represents, all that it symbolizes. It will reduce your pride to zilch, to nothing. And it will lift up the person of the Savior, and your whole way of life will be transformed, and you will again run in the right direction.

Truth be told, some of you are just now discovering the right way to run. You’ve never been taught it before, because religion will send you to the wrong goal line every time.

From that lengthy bit of high-level application, he turns back to explanation.

Now look, verse 18 begins a series of statements this apostle makes regarding the message of the cross which we proclaim, which he proclaimed. “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, . . .”

Stop right there. See the word “foolishness”? The Greek term is moria. Guess what word we get from it in English? To the people who are perishing, the cross is moronic. I mean, how stupid can you get? You cut off your head when you come to know this Jesus, when you start believing some cross message. How MORONIC. That’s the word of the lost person, that’s the person running in the wrong direction. In fact, Paul describes this conflicting opinion as those who see the cross as foolishness, and then he says, “. . . but to us who are being saved, why, it is the very power of God.”

Then he quotes from Isaiah 29 in the verse that follows, “. . . I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

That was hundreds of years earlier and we still haven’t learned the message. It’s thousands of years from our time and we still haven’t learned Isaiah’s warnings. “. . . I will destroy the cleverness of the clever.”

“I have no place for it among my teachers, my spokesmen and women, among those who communicate the truth.” “. . . the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever . . . .” And then he asks—look at the different desires that emerge. Verse 20: “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? . . .”

Pinpoint each of the three subjects. Let’s let the wise represent the unsaved Gentile intellectual. Where is that individual? What does he believe? “Where is the scribe?” That would be the learned Jewish scholar who is lost. “Where is the debater of this age?” The debater of this age would be the Greek philosophers, experts in debate and disputes and dialectical skills. Oh, they love to argue. Love it!

From explanation to a brief illustration.

I’ve said for years philosophers are the people who talk about things they don’t understand, making it sound like it’s your fault. That’s a pretty good definition of a philosopher. And they love to talk about questions, because questions lead to more questions, and questions need to lead to additional questions, and there’s more questions and additional questions and all of it kind of piles up and it becomes a series of questions. Questions, questions. Doubts, debates, deliberations. Their desire is to appear brilliant and impress you with things like vocabulary or way of thinking.

“Ooo, listen to that vocabulary. Wonder where he studied. Look at those letters after his name. That guy is unreal. Look at that.”

Now from that illustration back to explanation.

But read further. “. . . Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

One man writes, “It is impossible to exaggerate the almost fantastic mastery that the silver-tongued rhetorician held in Greece. Plutarch says, ‘They made their voices sweet with musical cadences and modulations of tone and echoed resonances.’ They thought not of what they were saying, but of how they were saying it.” So impressed with their own stuff, so proud. Why? God looks on that and brings them back to reality. God’s desire is to use the declaration of God’s truth to save those who believe. Simple as that.

One man wrote it this way: “It was Paul’s claim that he set before men the cross of Christ in its simplest terms. To decorate the story of the cross with rhetoric and cleverness would have been to make people think more of the language than of the facts. More of the speaker than of the message. It was Paul’s aim to set before others not himself, but Christ in all His grandeur.” I love that statement.

Look here, “Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

Don’t think preaching is foolishness; it’s just a method that seems foolish to the world’s system. Why on earth would intelligent people come and sit and listen to somebody preaching? I mean, how moronic can you get?

I like the way Eugene Peterson renders this section. Listen, “Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.”

Well then, what does the lost person want? Well, read on. Verse 22, “. . . the Jews ask for miracles . . .”

The word “signs” is the idea of miracles. “Show us a miracle. Prove it with a miracle and we’ll believe it. Do what you cannot do in natural ways, and OOO, we’ll be impressed. We’re looking for signs.”

“. . . and the Greeks search for wisdom.” We’re looking for those, oh, rhetorical comments, those eloquent words, the things that impress. But I love this. Verse 23, Paul says, “But we . . .” who, by the way, was an incredible intellectual, studied under Gamaliel. Pharisee of the Pharisees, he was the up-and-coming chief Pharisee. Brilliant Jewish mind. And then came the road to Damascus where he was converted. And as a result, he started running in the right direction. And as a result, verse 23, he preaches “Christ crucified.” We’re back to the cross. To the Jews, why, it’s a stumbling block. To the Gentiles—there’s our word again—moronic.

All of that was explanation. Now he moves to an illustration.

Now if you question that, next time you find yourself in a sophisticated group, bring up the cross. Just bring it up as a topic of conversation. “Hey, by the way, folks, I’ve noticed lately a great deal . . . I’ve been studying a great deal about Jesus and His death on the cross.” Hang on. Not a soul in the group will go, “Good for YOU. What a great study.” They’ll go, “What? What? You believe what?” That’s the whole point of this section of Scripture. But God honors the proclamation of the cross to change lives.

Roy Riegels was absolutely positive he was running in the right direction. And along came his buddy saying, “WAIT. I’m going to tackle you.” He said, “What are you thinking? Get out, this is my touchdown.” You look back, you go, Oh Roy, please, please, please, wrong direction. But to him, it was the right way to run, until he was tackled and somebody said, “Hey man, that’s their goal line.”

From illustration back to explanation.

“We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God.” Why? Because 25 says, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God stronger than men.”

Now, I love it when we get to verse 26. I have to believe that Paul had tongue-in-cheek for just a moment, just a little touch of apostolic humor here. We’re talking about sophisticates, those who are noble, blue bloods, those who are really slick. He says, “Consider your calling, brethren, . . .”

If we want to look at an opposite group, look around. “. . . there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.”

It didn’t say “any”; it said “not many.” Meaning what? Well, let’s put it this way. This congregation is not made up of the brightest and the best in the world’s eyes. I got the idea that it would be helpful for us to realize that we represent, in the world’s eyes, that which is foolish, that which is weak, that which is base, and that which is despised. Those aren’t my words; they’re all found in 27 and 28. And I thought, well, let’s look around. So why don’t you do that? Look around. Just take a look. If you haven’t noticed yet, you shook their hands but maybe you haven’t taken a real good look. Look around. Just whisper, “Are you blue blood? You got really, really great roots?”

Now he’s moving from explanation to illustration.

I also took note of some places people could come from. I just pulled down an atlas and started looking. Booger Holler, Arkansas, is one of those . . . Booger Holler, not “bogey,” Booger Holler. Lizard Lick . . . my son-in-law told me about Lizard Lick, North Carolina. And Spivey’s Corner. Now, maybe you heard of Spivey’s Corner. They have the hollering contest there. Hollering contest in Spivey’s . . . if you’re from Spivey’s Corner, don’t tell anybody. Just leave it. How about Prattsville, Arkansas? How about Peewee, West Virginia? Dime Box, Tennessee. And I’ll tell you, my favorite one for creativity: Nameless, Tennessee. “What shall we name our town?” “I don’t know, let’s go with Nameless.” “Good IDEA, let’s call it Nameless.”

From illustration to application.

Folks, in case you’ve been sitting around a room full of mirrors, in case you, like Narcissus, have been staring in the pool a little too long, focused on your image, look a little deeper and you will not see a lacy, slick little rainbow trout. What you will see is a wide-mouth, bottom-feeding catfish. If you don’t like that, that’s part of your problem, because you’ve forgotten your pit. You’ve forgotten your depravity. You see, all ground is level at the foot of the cross. There is no captain or colonel or general. There is no sergeant or corporal. There is no CEO. Remember that the next time you’re in a church where the top guy is called CEO off base. There is no president. There is no cabinet, not in the family of God. All the ground at the foot of the cross—level, level.

I love the way Jim Elliot wrote it in his journal shortly before being martyred, “We’re all a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt the Somebody.” Praise God. If you start there, you’ll run in the right direction.

From application to explanation, and here he is just reading the text.

Look at it. Twenty-seven, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise”—who would have ever thunk it?—“and the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, the base things of the world, the despised, things that are not, to nullify things that are,”

From explanation to illustration.

You know, there’s a lady in our congregation from a town that no longer exists. No longer exists. Picher, Oklahoma. Picher. “Where you from?” “Zero.” Ain’t even there anymore. Me, I’m from the great metropolis of El Campo. Great White Way, right down the road from Rosenberg, Bay City, Wharton. You go further south, Palacios. Palacios you can smell before you get there. Shrimp! Great spot. Port Lavaca. That’s me, boy. Isn’t this crazy? You know why? I’ll get there. That cross. That’s how come I’m going to get there. I got nothing else to give. I just got the cross. I just have the Savior. He does all these things, verse 29, “so that no one may boast before God.”

From illustration to application.

When you’re running the wrong direction, you’re all impressed with all the human stuff! You love, you love all that pedigree. You love all that accent. You love all that special stuff. All that smell good stuff. But when you’re impressed with the cross, you see everybody at the same level at the foot of that cross. Whether it’s the little kid in Harlem, not knowing what tomorrow will bring, or someone on Wall Street thinking about jumping from the twenty-second story, doesn’t matter; the cross levels all of us. Not many cultured, not many mighty, by that it means powerful and prestigious and impressive. Not many noble.

You run in the wrong direction when you boast. If you want to toot your own horn, blow a trumpet for God. Nobody else cares. Get off your high horse. You’re just folks. You’re just wrapped up in the cross. And when you focus on that, it is remarkable what a filter system it will give you in how to read current events, how to see life as it really is. You’ll be so unimpressed, because you don’t hang around people to be impressed. You hang around folks with the hope of communicating and living out the truth and the truth sets us free from all that other pizzazz.

From application back to explanation.

Now how about Paul? Since we’ve been going on and on about how important this is, how about Paul? Let’s ask him. Give us your testimony. All right. Verse 1, chapter 2, here’s my testimony. Here’s the honest truth coming from the man who was running in the right direction.

Why This Section Works

So you can see why we chose this sermon. That section of exposition is Chuck at his best. He’s easy to follow, interesting to hear, and powerful in his presentation of God’s truth. It doesn’t feel like an academic lecture. It’s relatable.

Two Practical Tips

So how do you do that in your own preaching? We want to offer two practical tips.

Structure All Three Components

First, structure your exposition to include each component: explanation, application, and illustration. Note them in your outline and plan how you’re going to transition from one to the other so it all flows smoothly.

Use Concrete, Visual Language

Second—and this tip applies to all three components—use concrete, visual language. For example, Chuck could have said, “In case you’re feeling proud,” but instead he said, “in case you’ve been sitting around a room full of mirrors.” Again, he could have said, “Everyone is equal before Jesus,” but instead he said, “all ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

With your mind’s eye, you can see what he’s saying. And when people can visualize what you’re saying, it makes your points more relevant and gives them more impact. So for all three components—explanation, application, illustration—work at using concrete, visual language.

If you’d like to hear Chuck’s full sermon, it’s called “The Cross We Proclaim,” from his series titled How Great Is Our God.

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach the Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your fingertips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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