New Testament Exposition by Walter L. Liefeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
For several years I had the privilege of working with a team that led training workshops for staff in our organization on the practice of expository preaching–that is giving a message that exposes or explains the meaning of a biblical text such that those who listen can understand and apply what they’ve heard to their lives. Several of our team members were Trinity Evangelical Divinity School graduates and reading this book, I understand now where much of the framework we used came from.
This is not a new work, first published in 1984. But it is a helpful guide to the step by step process of preparing biblical expositions. Like any good professor, Liefeld begins by defining what we mean by exposition and gives helpful clarifying examples of what is and is not exposition and what characterizes good expository preaching.
Part II focuses on preparing the text, the work of exegesis, noticing compositional and narrative factors, attending to semantic patterns and even matters of emotional tone in the text.
Part III, titled “Applying the text” focuses on preparing a message based on good exegetical work. Some of his most helpful comments for me were found in chapter 7 on determining the application and the essential and challenging work of discerning the main applicative thrust of the passage in its original setting and then considering the situation of those one is speaking to and addressing the hearts and minds of those who listen. He also provides good instruction on structuring sermons and shows various ways a sermon from the same text can be structured that are faithful to the text. He also addresses how to handle difficult New Testament texts and concludes with a sample of how he would prepare a message based on the text of Romans 6:1-14.
What I missed (and perhaps was assumed) was much discussion of the spirituality of preaching, of what is involved in listening to the text so that one hears and is personally addressed by the word of God. What I also missed was any thoughtful discussion on the role of engaging the imagination in preaching. This all seemed very “workman-like”. It is true that the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:15 encourages Timothy with the words, “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (ESV). Anyone who cares deeply about living up to this exhortation will find Liefeld’s book an indispensible aid. My only encouragement would be to complement these books with ones like John Stott’s Between Two Worlds or D Martyn Lloyd-Jones Preaching and Preachers. Both of these writers were gifted expository preachers and their books fill out the elements of preaching not found in this slim volume.