We would love to think we come to the Bible as we would come to a blank sheet, that we come with our minds completely open and without any impressions. But of course that's totally impossible. We each have a framework of beliefs about the Bible, and the more time we spend as Christians, the more our framework is developed. That's not a bad thing. Having a framework is as important as it is inevitable. We simply need to recognize that it exists and ensure that our framework be as biblical as possible.

Once we recognize that our framework exists, we need to ask the following question before we study a passage for the purposes of expository preaching: how does my framework connect to the text? The most common answer—and this happens without us cognitively recognizing it—is that my framework will pour its ideas into the text.

Approaching the text with my framework is like wearing a pair of eyeglasses. If I am wearing glasses, everything I see through them is influenced by them. Similarly, as I approach the Bible, I see everything in the text through my framework-glasses. It's inevitable. For me, they will be the glasses of a 21st century man who lives in the West, who has the traditions I have, and who's had the upbringing and instruction I've had. So each of us will have a different framework, but none of us can escape having one.

The next question is: how do I stop my framework from dictating my understanding of the text? This usually happens when you've had a hard week, and the congregation can tell because you will preach your framework rather than the text.

For example, suppose this week you have to make three emergency room visits, and extra things like funerals pop up. You get to Friday or Saturday, and you won't have done the work on the text you wanted to. As you read, something in the text triggers ideas in your framework. Through those ideas you remember a Yancey illustration, a cross reference you found last month, and something you've said before—and quickly you have a sermon!

Now, God is gracious and good, and may use that on the basis of it being an emergency, but it is not a philosophy on which to build an expository ministry because we don't want to be pouring our framework into the text. We want the text to be impacting our framework.

I stop my framework from dictating my understanding of the text by allowing the text to ask questions about my framework. In other words, by being a careful listener instead of cool analyst. The cool analyst will say: I've got the framework for this. I've got the grid. It's this bit of my systematic theology. Plunk, they'll drop it on the text, and that is what will dictate the sermon. That kind of preaching may be theologically accurate, and it may be perfectly orthodox, but it's not preaching the text in its context for all its worth.

Careful listeners, on the other hand, will approach biblical exposition by allowing the Bible to do the talking. Yes, the framework will still inform their interpretations—nobody can help that—but we allow the text to keep asking questions.

One of the keys to interesting preaching is the surprises preachers find. If you're not being surprised by the text, don't expect any eye-opening moments for your congregation. Now, we don't have to manufacture those surprises. If we read the text carefully, there will always be fresh things that come up.

We then have to sort out whether they're important or not. Sometimes I'm surprised by an insignificant detail at the end of a text—but you don't build sermons on insignificant details. You've got to go for the main thing the passage is teaching, and so you might ignore that surprise. Sometimes you can have so many surprises that the congregation would be in a state of shock if you put them all into the sermon. So you've got to feed people the real thrust of that particular passage.

You should constantly be surprised by the way the Bible speaks to you freshly. When you get down to the work, the text asks all sorts of questions, and of course that means your framework develops. In fact, it's a sad situation if your framework is the same now as when you came out of seminary. I'm not trying to turn the reader into a heterodox heretic, but we ought to be growing in our understanding and appreciation of the Bible. Don't get stuck in concrete. Let the text constantly challenge your thinking so your thinking becomes more biblical.

I remember when Proclamation Trust founder Dick Lucas came as a guest preacher for me when I was a young pastor in Southampton. Before taking the pulpit he said to me, "Oh, brother, do pray for me. I've got this all completely wrong." That was an enormous encouragement to me because I often feel like that. Of course, he hadn't gotten anything wrong, and he preached a most wonderful sermon, but I think what he meant was, I'm always asking questions. He was always searching. He was always asking, have I really got this right? That is the sort of inquiring mind that is important for an effective expository ministry.

David Jackman served as president of the Proclamation Trust and is the founder of the Cornhill Training Course. He is a visiting lecturer at Oak Hill Theological College in London, and author of Opening Up the Bible (Scripture Union Publishing).