I have a friend who has recently left Roman Catholicism and entered the world of Protestant Christianity. Because of his former tradition, he had never really heard expository preaching. The thought that the preacher would stand in the pulpit and explain the Word of God to the people is a novelty to him, but one that was instrumental in his leaving the Catholic Church. It is so encouraging and refreshing to hear him talk about how much he actually enjoys hearing the Scriptures proclaimed with clarity.
He made a comment the other day that I cannot get out of my head. He had been listening to a certain preacher, and he was extremely fascinated by the way this preacher unpacked the text he was preaching. He was trying to find the words to describe it to me when he finally said, "He's...he's a surgeon in the pulpit. He dissects the passage and lays it all out there for people to see, but before he's done he puts everything back together again!"
I'm not sure he could have paid a higher compliment to that preacher. Is that not what true, expository preaching is - dissecting a passage of Scripture, laying it bare before God's people so that they see it in all its parts, and then sewing it back up in a healthy, whole, and unified way?
May the Lord give us more surgeons in the pulpit!
