What is the difference between exegesis and exposition?

Haddon Robinson put it this way, “Exposition is drawing from your exegesis to give your people what they need to understand the passage.”

This implies that the preacher will have a lot more material after the exegesis than they are able to present in the sermon.

Here are three implications for us to ponder:

1. Passage study before message formation

When you move too quickly from studying a passage to preparing the message you will not have much left over from the exegesis phase.

This will result in preaching that lacks authority, that is biblically thin, and that is more an imposition of your ideas onto a passage than the message God intended from that passage.

2. Sermon preparation takes time

If you start the sermon preparation on the Saturday, then Sunday is already looming and you are already looking for the sermon. You have to work your schedule so that the pressure of preaching is not squeezing out time for exegesis and meditation.

It takes hours to prepare a message, over many days, built on top of many years. The years of biblical soaking feed into the times of biblical study that bubble up into sermons worth preaching.

3. You have to know better than you preach

When you are grasping for a sermon you will be preaching a passage that you have not grasped and that has not grasped you.

Aim to know a passage so well that an informed listener can engage you in an extended conversation about the nuances of the passage after they’ve heard your sermon.

You may or may not choose to create a venue for that further exegetical presentation, but being able to do that means you are preaching within your range of study, not beyond it.

Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. This article first appeared on his blog Biblical Preaching.