Some extracts from Chapter 1 of Expository Preaching: Principles and Practice, by Haddon Robinson (1st ed., 1980).  (The headings are my own)

Is preaching past its sell-by date?

‘The word is out in some circles that preaching should be abandoned. The moving finger has passed it by and now points to other methods and ministries that are more “effective” and in tune with the times.’

Preaching takes place in a context of communication over-load

‘Preaching takes place in an overcommunicated society. Mass media bombard us with a hundred thousand “messages ” a day. Television and radio feature pitchmen delivering a “word from the sponsor” with all the sincerity of an evangelist. Within that context the preacher may sound like another huckster who, in John Ruskin’s words, “plays stage tricks with the doctrines of life and death.”‘

The medium must not be allowed to mask the message

‘Undoubtedly , modern techniques can enhance communication, but on the other hand, they can substitute for the message—the startling and unusual may mask a vacuum.’

In preaching, God speaks

‘Preaching in Paul’s mind did not consist of a man discussing religion. Instead God Himself spoke through the personality and message of a preacher to confront men and women and bring them to Himself.’

Expository preaching is often given a bad name

‘The type of preaching that best carries the force of divine authority is expository preaching. It would be fatuous, however, to assume that everyone agrees with that statement. A poll of churchgoers who have squirmed for hours under preaching labeled as expository—but dry as corn flakes without milk —could not be expected to agree.’

There is no ‘gold standard’ for the expository message

‘Regrettably the Bureau of Weights and Measures does not have a standard expository sermon encased in glass against which to compare other messages. Any manufacturer may paste the label “expository” on whatever sermon he pleases.’

Definition is a perilous business…

‘Defining becomes sticky business because what we define we sometimes destroy. The small boy dissected a frog to find out what made it jump, but in learning something about the parts he destroyed its life. Preaching is a living process involving God, the preacher, and the congregation, and no definition can pretend to capture that dynamic.’

…but here goes

‘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 him to his hearers.’

The text is often left far behind

‘In many sermons the biblical passage read to the congregation resembles the national anthem played at a football game—it gets things started but is not heard again during the afternoon.’

Our attitude to the Bible: both simple and sophisticated

Submission to the authority of Scripture ‘demands both simplicity and sophistication. On the one hand an expositor approaches his Bible with a childlike attitude to hear again the story. He does not come to argue, to prove a point, or even to find a sermon. He reads to understand and to experience what he understands. At the same time he knows he lives not as a child but as an adult locked into presuppositions and a world view that makes understanding difficult. The Bible is not a child’s storybook, but great literature that requires thoughtful response. All its diamonds do not lie exposed on the surface to be picked like flowers. Its richness is mined only through hard intellectual and spiritual spadework.’

Words are not ends in themselves

‘Although a preacher examines words in the text and sometimes deals with particular words in preaching, words and phrases should never become ends in themselves. Words are stupid things until linked with other words to convey meaning. In our approach to the Bible, therefore, we are primarily concerned not with what individual words mean, but with what the biblical writer means through his use of words.’

The expositor as communicator

‘Communication means “a meeting of meanings,” and for communication to occur across an auditorium or across the centuries, those involved must share things in common—language, culture, a world view, communication forms. An expositor pulls up his chair to where the biblical authors sat. He attempts to work his way back into the world of the Scriptures to understand the message.’

You cannot divorce the message from the messenger

‘The man affects his message. He may be mouthing a scriptural idea yet remain as impersonal as a telephone recording, as superficial as a radio commercial, or as manipulative as a “con” man.’

Two ways of studying the Bible that are, actually, one

‘Distinctions made between “studying the Bible to get a sermon and studying the Bible to feed your own soul,” are misleading and false.’

Wanted: creative applications

‘Dull expository preaching usually lacks creative applications. Boring sermons evoke two major complaints. First, listeners grumble, “It’s always the same old thing.” The preacher gives all passages the same application, or worse, no application at all. “May the Holy Spirit apply this truth to our lives,” incants a speaker who does not have a ghost of a guess himself as to how his content changes people. A second negative reaction reflects that the sermon does not relate to the world directly enough to be of practical use: “It’s true enough, I guess, but so what? What difference does it make?”‘

Get in touch with people’s actual needs and concerns

‘On the outside, people lose jobs, worry about their children, and find crabgrass invading their lawns. Seldom do normal people lose sleep over the Jebusites, the Canaanites, or the Perizzites, or even about what Abraham, Moses, or Paul has said or done. They lie awake wondering about grocery prices, crop failures, quarrels with a girlfriend, diagnosis of a malignancy, a frustrating sex life, the rat race where only rats seem to win. If the sermon does not make much difference in that world, they wonder if it makes any difference at all.’

Know your people

‘A congregation convenes as a jury not to convict Judas, Peter, or Solomon, but to judge themselves. The expositor must know his people as well as his message, and to acquire that knowledge he exegetes both the Scripture and the congregation.’

Paul addressed real people and their specific problems

‘Imagine that Paul’s letters to the Corinthians had gotten lost in the mails and instead had been delivered to the Christians at Philippi.’

Doctrine and practice

‘Going from exegesis to application, a man makes a hard trip through life-related and sometimes-perplexing questions. In addition to grammatical relationships, he also explores personal and psychological relationships. How do the characters in the text relate to one another? How are they related to God? What values lie behind the choices they make? What went on in the minds of those who were involved? These questions are not directed to the “there and then,” as though God dealt with men and women only back in the “once upon a time.” The same questions can be asked in the “here and now.” How do we relate to one another today? How does God confront us with these same issues? In what way does the modern world compare or contrast with the biblical world? Are the questions dealt with in Scripture the questions men ask today? Are they put forth in the same way or in different forms? These probings become the raw material of ethics and theology. Application tacked on to an expository sermon in an attempt to make it relevant skirts these questions and ignores the maxim of our Protestant forebears: “Doctrines must be preached practically, and duties doctrinally.”‘

How Jesus applied Scripture

‘In refuting the devil, Jesus did not debate the grammar of the Hebrew text. Instead he attacked the application of Psalm 91 to temple-jumping. Another passage of Scripture better fit that situation, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”‘