I am always in the hunt for books that will help me to become
a better expositor. The longer that I
preach the more convinced that I become that the best method for preaching is simple
verse by verse preaching. The matter of
going through the Bible and allowing the power of God’s Word to speak for
itself. It requires discipline,
attention, and time but the dividends that are repaid to the preacher cannot
even be added up in this life. However,
to be an effective expositor especially if you do not have a seminary training
in original languages will necessitate ways that will help you to overcome
this. I am one of those preachers who
did not have a real deep exposure to original Greek in fact I only had one year
of it and no Hebrew at all. Admittedly there
are times that I sorely wish that I would have had the necessary training in
the original languages. That is why good
books (tools) are so crucial for our preparation to preach. Good preaching is always hard work!
A book that I can heartily recommend to those who are moving
down the path of becoming an expository preacher is fairly intense but don’t be
intimidated by my assessment of it. In
fact, if you look at the Table of Contents there might be a bit of hesitation
to purchase this book. But I would
encourage you to purchase How toUnderstand and Apply the New Testament—Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology by
Andrew David Naselli. Just as a point of
reference, Naselli, was a research fellow for D. A. Carson for a number of
years and it is obvious that Carson’s impact on him was very advantageous. This book helps to establish Genre, deal with
Textual Criticism, compare Translations, work through Greek Grammar, prepare a
Diagram, build the Historical-Cultural Context, and do Word Studies.
