Using the expository method with a biblical passage in a sermon or book means at least two things: First, this approach allows the issues unfolded in the Bible itself to dictate the topic of the book or sermon. Second, this technique insists that Scripture itself provides the message for the contemporary presentation.

A good example of taking an expository approach to an extended biblical passage is Chris Altrock’s Rebuilding Relationships—A Sermon on the Mount Floor Plan (St. Louis: Chalice, 2008). Altrock’s thirteen chapters follow the themes and messages of Jesus’ three chapter Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. Altrock’s approach is not to offer a commentary on the text, others do that. Nor does he cite the text and then go on to make his own points, many contemporary preachers do that. What he does is this: he stubbornly works his way through the entire sermon allowing the words of Jesus to raise the topic of his next chapter and insisting that the message of each chapter is dictated by Jesus’ own message.

Note these qualities of how Altrock unfolds the material in an expository way:

1—He argues that Jesus’ sermon centers on three relationships: with God, with possessions and with others. Showing that those three relationships arise out of Jesus’ sermon, rather than being imposed on the sermon, Altrock cleverly unfolds all three aspects of relationship building.

2—Altrock compares Jesus’ sermon to building a house. Altrock uses the vocation of Jesus’ early life as a carpenter as a way of communicating Jesus’ concern that we take greater  care in how we “build” our relationships. He often compares the aspects of forming relationships to various  kinds of construction. This extended metaphor allows Altrock to keep the material linked and provides ample helpful illustrative material. Thus Altrock works with three main issues: the material in Matthew 5-7, the three kinds of relationships, and the building metaphor. This triad serves him well allowing him to keep the presentation focused on the biblical material, but also unified and interesting.

3—Each chapter is abundantly illustrated. Each story reflects the topic or the message of the biblical passage. Some of the illustrations are used inductively. Altrock tells the story in such a way that before the story ends, the reader understands the point. Although he usually includes a brief deductive paragraph after each story, he proceeds to use many of his illustrations in an inductive manner.

Altrock enhances this approach by using many of the stories as envelopes or bookends. Early in the treatment of a section of the Sermon on the Mount, Altrock will introduce a story to make an inductive (or sometimes deductive) point. He then returns to the text to allow it to speak. The text points to another issue. Altrock will then return to the earlier story and tell another aspect of that illustration that links to the new point raised by the biblical passage. Inductive methods make the reader (or listener) think rather than being told what to think. Altrock is a master at this method.

4—As Altrock works his expository method on the Sermon on the Mount, he regularly recalls earlier key statements Jesus made or anticipates lines from later in the lesson. For example, in his opening chapter he cites the story of the wise and foolish builders from the end of Jesus’ lesson. Even at the conclusion of his book, Altrock is showing how the opening beatitudes play out in the rest of sermon.

There are many other fine features of Rebuilding Relationships, but certainly its expository approach is one of its most delightful qualities. Altrock helps us to see that we can allow the text to set the agenda and seek in the text the core message, and still be relevant and interesting in the process.

Harold Shank