Topical Preaching v. Verse-By-Verse Teaching

Lol, my experience is that verse by verse preaching will almost always morph into or include some sort of topical preaching.

 

The problem with topical is that one must be extra vigilant to preserve and stay within context.

 

The Bible is a topical book. It deals with forgiveness, anger, bitterness, sin, temptation, holiness, salvation, heaven, hell, sanctification, separation, evangelism, stewardship, joy, peace, sorrow, friendship, marriage, child-rearing, et al.

Preaching expository messages will always lend itself to covering these topics. Plus, dealing with less popular topics naturally fall into the rotation of the messages.

For example, preaching through the Corinthians will deal with many issues in the church without anyone thinking the pastor is picking on anyone specifically. This is just naturally where the text has brought us.

 

Both are perfectly acceptable. It may be due to the style of the preacher and certain passages may lend themselves to one or the other.

 

I really enjoy verse by verse, but feel that topical can be just as edifying as long as the pastor sticks to biblical examples and doesn't rely overmuch on contemporary examples.

 

I think a good approach is to have one service that is a different passage week to week and the other services are split between old and new testament books.

I want all preaching and teaching to be exegetical. What does the text say? Teaching something good with a text that does not support what you are teaching is a weak sermon.

 

Our pastor goes through a book of the Bible verse-by-verse but sometimes has breaks where he preaches topically. In the past several years we've been through Matthew, Colossians, Philippians, Ecclesiastes, Nehemiah. In between these books he will have a topical theme for a month or so and then start another book and go through it verse-by-verse. Recently he had a sermon topic, "Joseph", and went through that portion of Genesis verse-by verse. Kind of the best of both worlds.

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The pastor of a non-denom church I attended many years ago always did a mixture of verse-by-verse and topical sermons. One time, he started a 40 straight week series of verse-by-verse sermons from the book of John. While my wife and I thought it was a good series, some other couples we knew were getting tired, for lack of a better word, of the series about 2/3 of the way through.

Looking back, I wonder if it would have been better for the pastor to break it up into, let's say, three separate blocks of messages, with a few topical sermons tossed in there in between.

 

A Pastor with a regular ministry should preach systematically, as random topics may be difficult to get on the preacher's wavelength. But too much verse by verse may make very slow going. I like sermons to be complete in themselves, presenting the message of the passage with direct Gospel application.

Occasional preaching calls for preaching on a topic or specific passage, whereas regular preaching may be best on a passage basis rather than a verse basis, otherwise the context can be lost.

 

We preach verse by verse--through books of the bible. Most generally, a pericope (a section of Scripture) tends to have a "Big idea" which may in turn seem like "the topic". But good expository preaching, IMO, stays within a specific passage and brings to bear the intended meaning in which the Holy Spirit had for the text.

Topical sermons can be expositional and verse by verse. For example--I broke away last week to preach on the topic of "Humble Service." I Preached Christ washing the disciples feet--verse by verse--to expound on the picture of Christ modeling humble service that is done in love.

 

Topical can still be exegetical. If I want that to preach on the resurrection, I can go to 1 Corinthians 15 and exegete the text.

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Scripture is scriptures, and God said that he would honor His word being preached and taught...

 

Well I like all types of preaching and all types of preachers... As long as they get my attention I'm all ears... Over my years listening to them I've heard some choice comments from the congregation as the preacher was preaching... After hearing many sermons on the Sovereign Grace of All Mighty God one preacher among our brethren started preaching on what is your Christian duty or what is consider among our people as duty preaching... One old brother said Now preacher you gone to from preaching to meddling... Brother Glen

 

I prefer verse by verse preaching but my wife likes topical.

 

I think expository preaching does better expressing the theme the original writer wanted to be expressed to those he addressed it to. I think it better expresses the word to the congregation.

 

I prefer and usually preach expository where topical is always used as illustration.

Expository keeps the congregation turning pages in the BOOK which means they are listening


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