The Substance-Structure-Spirit-Summons Model of Text-Driven Exposition

 

Text-driven expositional preaching transcends style but serves as a lightning rod for the conviction that the Holy Spirit speaks through the text. Moreover, the text of Scripture informs the sermon’s meaning through the substance, structure, spirit, and summons. Therefore, a faithful, expository preacher must represent the text—employing explanation, illustration, and application—in the same manner of persuasion as the original author and allow the text’s nature to drive the sermon’s meaning.^[1] I. A. Richards wrote, “Persuasion is only one among the aims of discourse. [Exposition] is concerned to state a view, not to persuade people to agree or to do anything more than examine it.”^[2] The text-driven model demonstrates that exposition alone cannot move the congregation toward further godliness. Instead, complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit through recreating the original declaration of the text lies at the heart of text-driven preaching’s conviction that God has spoken.^[3] The text-driven preacher must strive to recapture the text’s big idea (the substance), follow the original author’s intended support (the structure), identify the passion and feeling of the text (the spirit), and ultimately anchor the call for the congregation to respond in the text’s exhortation (the summons).

Principle One: The Substance of the Text

The substance of the text strives to identify the main idea of the text. Any expositional sermon aims to communicate the text’s central idea. Haddon Robinson stated, “Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers.”^[4] Therefore, faithful text-driven exposition necessitates the foundational work that only comes through proper exegesis. David Allen Black stated this about interpretation:

Exegesis involves looking at the text from three different angles. First, we must stand above the text, getting a bird’s-eye view of the whole. Then, we must look inside the text, standing within it and discerning its meaning using all the exegetical tools at our disposal. And finally, we must stand under the text, ready to obey it and to teach it in a way that applies its message to others.^[5]

Furthermore, Grant Osborne demonstrated how grammar, semantics, and syntax are interdependent and cannot exist apart in isolation. For example, words possess within themselves a semantic range of definitions.^[6] To narrow down the author’s intended meaning is to expand the scope from words to sentences. Still, there exists some ambiguity when evaluating sentences. The semantic range of the meaning of words calls for the fuller examination of words in their broader connection—paragraphs. Ultimately, paragraph examination leads to an understanding of the pericope of the text. The nuanced meaning of each Word finds significance within the original author’s complete thought within the text. The interconnection of the words illuminates the original author’s intended meaning. To get the substance of the text is to examine the text until the unifying meaning is understood; capturing the meaning of the text requires exegesis. Therefore, only through a foundation of proper exegesis can text-driven preaching communicate the meaning of a passage as intended by God.

Additionally, R. Kent Huges elucidated, “As we stand before God’s people to proclaim his Word, we have done our homework. We have exegeted the passage, mined the significance of its words in their context, and applied sound hermeneutical principles in interpreting the text so that we understand what its words meant to its hearers.”^[7] Hughes succinctly blends the work of exegesis with the result of exposition in his assertion that illuminates the substance—or meaning—of the text.

Principle Two: The Structure of the Text

The structure of the text suggests that meaning exists in how the author laid out his words.^[8] Words alone are insufficient to communicate meaning because single words often contain a semantic range of meanings and definitions. Therefore, analysis of the grammatical context is required to narrow the authorial intent. Words, coupled together, form sentences, and sentences connected form paragraphs. In the end, paragraphs joined together capture complete thoughts. It is important to note that no word exists in isolation within communication. In like fashion, no single verse exists in isolation. Not only is there meaning at the substance level, but there is also meaning at the structural level.^[9]

Principle Three: The Spirit of the Text

The spirit of the text is the author-intended “feel” of the text grounded in the genre.^[10] The sermon preached should reflect the genre of the text—not only in structure but in the feel of the literature as well. As exegesis gives way to the excavation of the history and the structure, the preacher should keep a watchful eye on the overall feel of the genre. Hershael W. York wrote, “At the heart of the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture lies this conviction: through the biblical authors transmitted the revelation they received from God in their vocabulary and through their own experience, the Holy Spirit enabled them to do without human error creeping in and marring the message.”^[11]

Principle Four: The Summons of the Text

The summons calls to the whole self—the mind, the emotions, and the will—to respond to the exhortation within the text.^[12] The summons should illuminate the call of salvation and sanctification to which the hearer must respond. Spurgeon argued, “I am greedy after witnesses for the glorious gospel of the blessed God. O that Christ crucified were the universal burden of men of God! Blessed is that ministry of which Christ is all.”^[13] Only when the gospel—by the power of the Holy Spirit through the medium of communication—pierces through the darkness can the soul truly be transformed.

The summons culminates in standing upon the truth in the passage and compelling the hearer to respond. A clear distinction rests on the summons’s “what” declaration and does not focus on the “how.” The “what” is the truth that the text reveals that the hearer must respond to. The “how” lies in how the hearer applies that response to their context.

Conclusion

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, his command to preach is marked with the urgency of the looming reality of Christ’s impending return. Paul’s writing is marked by sincere concern for his fellow workers in the ministry. The charge to preach the Word then comes as a first step in his conclusion of encouragement to Timothy—commit to the gospel message of Jesus Christ. From that proclamation, a whole-person transformation occurs. Preaching from a text-driven approach—the substance (exegetical analysis), the structure (linguistic and grammatical concerns), the spirit (the feel from genre sensitivity), and ultimately the summons (what truth the text is exhorting the hearers toward)—elucidates the primary imperative “preach the Word,” which culminates in “fulfill your ministry.” From the proclamation of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, transformation happens to the hearer and to the preacher. To the hearer, spiritual transformation of the whole self comes, and heresy is identified and corrected through the preaching of the Word. To the preacher, spiritual transformation comes through gospel focus, endurance, and boldness.   

---

[1] Steven W. Smith, Recapturing the Voice of God: Shaping Sermons Like Scripture (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2015), 15.

[2] I. A. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric (New York: Oxford University Press, 1936), 24.

[3] David L. Allen, “Introduction,” In Text-Driven Preaching: God’s Word at the Heart of Every Sermon, Edited by Daniel L. Akin, David L. Allen, and Ned L. Matthews (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 3.

[4] Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Sermons, third edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 5.

[5] David Allen Black, “Exegesis for the Text-Driven Sermon,” Text Driven Preaching: The Word of God at Heart of Every Sermon, Eds. Danny L. Akin, David L. Allen, and Ned L. Matthews (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 137.

[6] Grant R. Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Introduction, revised and expanded edition (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2006), 100-102.

^[7] R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: To Guard the Deposit, Preaching the Word, Edited by R. Kent Hughes (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2000), 14.

[8] Steven W. Smith, Recapturing the Voice of God, 20.

[9] Steven Smith, The Essential Elements of Text-Driven Preaching. Preaching Source, September 1, 2016. https://preachingsource.com/blog/the-essential-elements-of-text-driven-preaching.

[10] Smith, “Elements of Text Driven Preaching.”

[11] Hershael W. York, “Communication Theory and Text-Driven Preaching,” In Text-Driven Preaching: God’s Word at the Heart of Every Sermon, Edited by Daniel L. Akin, David L. Allen, and Ned L. Matthews (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 229.

[12] Smith, Preaching for a Verdict, 5.

[13] Charles H. Spurgeon, “Lecture 5: Sermons—Their Matter,” in Lectures to My Students, Vol 1–4 (Las Vegas: Dream Publishing International, 2021), 68.