Exell - Biblical Illustrator - 2 Thessalonians

What if Charles Spurgeon helped you prepare next Sundays sermon?

Or what if you could talk over your preaching with Joseph Parker, Richard Baxter, Henry Ward Beecher and H. P. Liddon. Do you think it would make a difference to get the input of some of the greatest preachers who ever lived?

Thats precisely what Joseph Exell had in mind when he put together the massive series of volumes called The Biblical Illustrator. In what can only be called a Herculean feat, he spent years gathering preaching notes and sermon outlines from the very best preachers of his day (in the late 1800s and early 1900s), and he did it covering every book of the Bible.

Following the tradition of the time, he gave the series a flowery subtitle, describing it as anecdotes, similes, emblems, illustrations, expository, scientific, geographic, historical and homiletic, gathered from a wide range of home and foreign literature, on the verses of the Bible. He means that in these volumes you have everything you need in order to preach a sermon, teach a Bible class, or study a text on your own.

And it is amazingly comprehensive. Exell approached his task by taking every verse in the Bible and seeking to discover how it has been preached in the past. Though there is plenty of exegetical material here, this is not primarily a commentary.

This series is for preachers, teachers and Bible students.

Besides obviously being an omnivorous reader, he had a gift for amazing diligence. The Biblical Illustrator was published in 66 volumes. To give you a sense of how comprehensive it is, volume 49 contains 588 pages on Galatians. And the type in the original version was very small, with narrow margins so you almost had to have a magnifying glass to read it. But Joseph Exell had something in mind other than publishing a stylish book. He wanted to give preachers a book so complete that you could give it to someone and say, Go preach Galatians, and they could do it.

No one could ever use all the sermon outlines in the Biblical Illustrator. But thats not the point. We all agree that the best preacher starts with your study of the biblical text. But at some point you need to know what others have seen in the same text you are studying.

What did Spurgeon see?
What did Parker see?
What did Alexander MacLaren see?

Maybe you will see the same thing they did. Probably you will see something similar. But its entirely possible that Spurgeon (who has a flair for memorable phrasing) captured the thought of the text in a way that never occurred to you.

And there are times when the preacher needs some help in priming the pump. We all know what its like to be stuck in some passage of the Bible. You know what it says, you have studied the words, you have read a few commentaries, but somehow the message isnt jelling in your mind. Thats where the Biblical Illustrator is likely to be most helpful to you. If you are preaching on, say, Hebrews 10:19-25, you can find real help in the Biblical Illustrator. There is an expanded sermon outline by J. Colwell that almost anyone could expand into a profitable message. There is a lengthy and intricate outline by the Puritan pastor Thomas Boston and a moving exposition of Christ our high priest by Adolph Saphir.

Thats just one tiny example of one text. And Joseph Exell does that for every text in the Bible.

Its a phenomenal piece of work, and one that stands up very well more than a century later. I know of no comparable collection that has been done since then. I doubt if anyone would have the time or energy to attempt such a massive project today.

I bought my first copy of the Biblical Illustrator almost 20 years. Back then it came in six or seven massive volumes, printed on oversized pages with type so tiny I could hardly read it. About 10 years ago I purchased a CD with the Biblical Illustrator in PDF format. That was a huge improvement. But with the advent of ebook technology, we at last have the Biblical Illustrator in its most useful format. Because it is indexed to each section of the book, you can quickly find the passage you are looking for. And you can enlarge the text as much as you like.

As you can tell, Im big fan of the Biblical Illustrator because it preserves the wisdom of an earlier age. I would fully agree that you must start with your own study of the text, and we definitely need the fruit of recent biblical commentaries. But alongside your own study and the reading of current commentaries, there is a large place for reading the Biblical Illustrator.

Joseph Exell wanted to help preachers, teachers, and everyday Bible students. He succeeded admirably in his task. The fruit of his labors is now available for the first time in ebook format, making it more usable today than when it was first published.

For those who want to study the Bible and then teach it to others, the Biblical Illustrator will help you on every single text in the Bible. For over a century preachers and teachers have turned to it and found what they needed. I gladly say that it has often helped me, and I am glad to commend this series to you.

Dr. Ray Pritchard

President, Keep Believing Ministries

April 2012

Dallas, TX

The apostle remained in Corinth for a year and six months (Acts 18:11), and it was undoubtedly during the latter part of this time that he wrote this Epistle. Silas and Timothy were still in his company (2 Thessalonians 1:1); the former for the last time, as we may conclude from the silence of the history. Communications would naturally have passed meanwhile between himself and the Thessalonians. He would have heard, concerning his former Epistle, how far it had produced its effect, where it had been misconstrued and where it had failed. The effect of such tidings is very apparent in this letter. It was plainly written with a twofold intent:

1. T he anticipation of the Lord's Second Advent, aroused by the teaching and former letter of the apostle, had been stimulated to an unhealthy activity by fanatical or designing teachers, who had even forged a letter in the name of St. Paul, and had filled the Church with anxiety and alarm. This state of feeling has indeed been supposed by many critics to have been occasioned simply by the misunderstanding of the former letter. Not to speak, however, of the unlikelihood that the calm prophetic words in which he had enjoined "the patience of hope" in reference to the great event should so have been perverted, his own language (2 Thessalonians 2:2) seems to show decisively that he referred to a supposititious letter. "Spirit" refers to a pretended prophecy; "word" to a pretended saying on inspired authority; "letter," therefore, would similarly mean a pretended epistle. Moreover the word as, in the phrase "as by us," would scarcely have been used by the writer, had he intended to indicate his own letter. We therefore conclude that an imposture had been practised on the Thessalonians, advantage, no doubt, having been taken of what the apostle had actually said and written. To prevent such imposition for the future, he now expressly states that his own signature and "salutation" would henceforth authenticate all his Epistles (2 Thessalonians 3:17).

2. T he other circumstance was the disregard of one most important injunction of the former Epistle there laid down briefly, almost with an apology, as though a hint in a matter so obvious would be sufficient (1 Thessalonians 4:11). But this gentle suggestion of Christian duty had proved inadequate. In the Church there were some who, influenced, perhaps, by the anticipation of an immediate catastrophe in the world's affairs, neglected the ordinary duties of life "working at no business, but being busybodies." Thus early did religious fanaticism produce its natural fruit in selfish indolence; and the loftiest hopes of the Church were perverted into a plea for the most ignoble mendicancy. For such offences the fitting remedy, sharp and stem, was excommunication; while yet, as if to acknowledge the nobleness of the truth which had been so misread and degraded, the offender is to be dealt with tenderly, in the hope that he might learn to apprehend it aright. (S. G . Green, D. D.)