The Priority of Preaching: Why We Do What We Do

 

“The preacher’s task is to declare what God has said, explain the meaning, and establish the implications so that no one will mistake its relevance.” Alistair Begg 

Once after the famous French preacher, Jean Baptiste Massillon had preached, a listener exclaimed, “What an eloquent sermon! How gloriously he preached!” When that comment was reported to Massillon, he replied, “Then he did not understand me. Another sermon has been thrown away!” 

  God has not called preachers to entertain or be eloquent. He’s called us to something so much higher and so much greater. We are to “preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2). That’s our commitment at Grace Church. We are not attempting to please people but a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s His Book and we want to honor Him. 

  Humanly speaking, particularly in our media saturated culture, preaching doesn’t make sense. It never has. It’s why 1 Corinthians 1:21 refers to “the foolishness of preaching.” The pulpit and preaching are not to be a bully pulpit or a place for our opinions. It must be the message from God’s Word that the Holy Spirit anoints and applies to our lives. 

  After I’m done preaching, my heart’s desire is that you can look at your Bible and understand what Scripture is saying and how it applies to your life. One day we will all stand before our Sovereign, Jesus Christ the Judge of the living and the dead. In view of that solemn day, it’s essential preachers preach God’s Word. It’s essential that you listen to the preaching of God’s Word with a view to obedience. It’s frightening when someone is goofing off, whispering or scanning their phone during a sermon. Some day they will give account for ignoring the Word of God. On that great coming day when we stand before Christ, we want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Preaching and hearing the Word are of utmost importance in view of eternity. Then, how do we accomplish this? 

  We must preach God’s Word. Our preaching must be resolutely Biblical. The task of the preacher is to expound or bring out of the biblical text what is already there. The preacher’s responsibility is to open up the passage in such a way the message is communicated clearly, accurately, relevantly, without addition, subtraction, or falsification. Preaching is not a dull lecture. God’s Word is alive and powerful. Nothing is boring about His Word. It’s a sin to be boring with Scripture. We enter the pulpit with confidence that God has spoken, that He’s caused what He has spoken to be written and we have this inspired text in our hands. It’s astounding that we have God’s Word in our hands and on our lips. It’s God’s grace. Understanding what God has written is hard and serious work. 

  We must preach to our contemporary world. God’s Word is relevant. It intersects with cultural and social issues: racism, civil liberties, morality, poverty, government, ethics, marriage, family…to name a few. As Scripture speaks to these issues, the preacher must not be silent or he has failed the Lord and his God-given mandate. Wise preachers are to equip the congregation with biblical convictions through expository preaching. It’s our responsibility to open up scriptural principles which relate to the problems of our culture in such a way as to help everybody to develop a biblical worldview. The pulpit must help listeners develop Christian thinking so they can penetrate their segment of the community more deeply for Christ. We’re not to sacrifice truth to relevance or relevance to truth, yet resolve to be faithful to Scripture and pertinent to today. 

  We must listen before we preach.  How do we learn to build bridges from the ancient biblical text to our contemporary world? The wise preacher listens carefully both to the ancient Word and the modern world to be able to relate the one to the other with faithfulness to the Word and sensitivity.  We must listen to the voice of God in the Scriptures above all. It’s the first and most important act of listening. Yet, God has called us to share His message with real people so we must listen to the voices of those in the world around us. It means listening, knowing and caring about both those in the congregation and those outside the church. Faithful preachers need to ask questions and listen to the answers. It means listening to those from varied generations, ethnic and economic groups. 

  We must practice what we preach. It’s not enough to preach well, we must live well. The message that breaks the heart of the listeners must first break the preacher’s heart. I don’t know what other preachers do, yet I find that I’m often broken and humbled before the light of God’s Word as I work through the text. Wise is the preacher who is cognizant that his actions before and after speaking will speak louder than his words. A preacher must be a person of deep convictions and commitment. He must live to serve and please King Jesus and to bring glory to His name. 

  Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones pastored Westminster Chapel in London during World War II. London suffered, with tens of thousands killed or injured. One Sunday, a bomb fell a short distance away while Lloyd-Jones prayed during a service. The sound was tremendous. Windows rattled. Plaster fell. Lloyd-Jones paused for a moment and then continued to pray. 

  The man who gave announcements came up when the prayer was over. After he’d completed his task, he dusted Lloyd-Jones off, and then Lloyd-Jones started preaching. Why would he do this? Because D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones knew that preaching was the main thing. 

  Wise are D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones words: “I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.” 

  With bombs falling, and the future of England in question, Lloyd-Jones kept preaching. Our world desperately needs the message from God. We need that focus today. God’s preachers dare not abandon their post! 

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Peanuts, Popcorn...NOT for the Pulpit!

“May I beg you carefully to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not by his elocutionary powers, not by his status in society, not by the respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his church, but by this – does he preach the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?”   C.H. Spurgeon

  Sadly, for the most part, the contemporary Church is spiritually emaciated. You often sense it as you walk in the door. There’s a lack of seriousness, fervency, or even a heart for God. May that not be true of us!

  There are many reasons for this sad situation. A primary one is that we’ve jettisoned what Scripture teaches is to be a priority – the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Recently, I was told that we use the Bible too much at Grace to be a successful church. The typical church measures success by numbers of attendees and size of the budget. Churches are constantly looking for that next “thing” that will bring in crowds and cash. The end result is that we’re pragmatically driven, rather than biblically motivated. But having a big crowd doesn’t mean we’re making disciples or are successful in God’s eyes.

  From a human perspective, one of the dumbest things we do is put a man behind a pulpit and have him deliver a monologue. Adding to the tedium, he uses an ancient book written two millennia ago in an ancient language as his primary resource. Could anything be more passé? Yet, amazingly, the Bible commands us to “preach” God’s Word and even warns us that preaching will be considered stupid, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe… but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles…For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:21-25). But because we’re this world success driven, we use cheap substitutes for preaching like…

  Entertainment. In many churches, you’re not sure if you’re in a worship service or a circus. The music, light show, drama, video and dance routine drive the service. Preaching is a sidebar. Church gurus tell us we need these things so we don’t bore people. While there are boring preachers, the Bible is anything but boring. Martin Lloyd Jones said, “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit and should never be allowed to enter one.” God’s eternal Word needs to grip the heart of the preacher and the congregation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

  Sharing. A pastor will say something like, “There are some things I just want to share with you today…” Since when is the man of God some Dr. Phil and Oprah combo? God called the preacher to preach His message. Because it reveals the human heart, because we’re naked before a Holy God, it’s often uncomfortable…even offensive. We dare not remove the offense from the Gospel: I’m a mess, you’re a mess, this world’s a mess and there is no cure except Jesus Christ and His cross. Either you run to Christ as Savior or you’ll face Him as Judge. There is no in between.

  Sermonettes. Anyone want a discount open heart surgery? Half the price, half the time. When we preach God’s Word, we’re doing soul surgery. You can’t do that in 20 minutes. It takes time. Truth must be explained clearly. It needs personal application. We also naturally resist it, so resistance must be broken down. It’s impossible to do meaningful life change in a hurry.

  How can I listen to a sermon so that I get as much as I can out of it? Even those of us who believe God’s plan and command is the preaching of His Word have often given little thought on how to listen to a sermon. Yet, shouldn’t we be highly motivated to learn how to develop the spiritual discipline of listening to a sermon? If for nothing else, just the practical, utilitarian reason of not wasting time. If you’re an adult who’s been in church for several years, you’ve spent hundreds of hours sitting through sermons. Just the sheer amount of time we spend listening to sermons should spark some curiosity in us on how to listen to a sermon effectively.

  And there’s a far greater motivation for a believer to want to listen to a sermon well: Scripture teaches that preaching is God’s design and His great gift to us (1 Cor. 1:20-25, Eph. 4:7-16 & 2 Tim. 4:1-5). In our ADHD world, listening to a sermon is a learned discipline that can be developed. If we know preaching is God’s plan and we’re going to spend lots of hours doing it, shouldn’t we want to get good at it? Learning to listen well to a sermon will change your life and maximize the effect of the preaching of God’s Word upon your life. Here are some basic pointers:

  It’s requires effort. With our growing increase of technology, we’re probably the most distracted generation in history. That means you’re going to struggle to concentrate to listen to a monologue for forty minutes. That doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. Yet, like anything worthwhile, it’s going to demand that you put forth some real effort.

  It means pre-planning. It’s the same advice your parents gave you when you were a child. Go to bed early. Have your clothes and other items ready before you go to bed. Get up at a decent time so you don’t have to rush. Leave home with enough time so you can relax. Plan for the rest of the day beforehand. If you have to think about Sunday afternoon – What you’re going to eat? Who you’re spending time with? What time is the game on? – You’ll have difficulty focusing during the preaching.  

  It demands thinking. Since at Grace, we preach through books of the Bible, most Sundays, you know in advance what passage is going to be preached on. Why not take a few moments during the week to read the text, familiarize yourself with it, and begin thinking through it so you aren’t starting from scratch when the sermon starts? Perhaps do a little research and work through some background information on the passage.

  Please pray. Pray in advance for the sermon time. Preaching is a very spiritual phenomenon: God revealed through Christ revealed through the Scriptures revealing a particular message through His appointed, earthly messenger to a particular audience on a particular Sunday. If you fail to approach it spiritually, you won’t experience its full impact on your life. Pray for the Holy Spirit to give the preacher His message and to help him deliver it. Pray for our church family and yourself to hear and understand it. That all requires the work of the Spirit working in us.

  It means knowing how you’re wired. Know your learning style and prepare for the sermon time accordingly. If you’re easily distracted by people around you, sit in the front and center of the room. Take extra notes. Engage the material, asking questions. Taking notes usually forces us to concentrate more and keeps our minds focused on the message. 
  God’s Word is a priceless treasure. Let’s determine to value the time invested listening to Scripture being taught!

Looking for quality used Christian books and other types of books at prices lower than even Amazon. Check out our family's online used bookstore at resurrectedreads.com.

Walking through the Bible like a tourist...

 

“The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.”  Max Lerner

  Being a tourist has never held a lot of appeal to me. While I like to travel, and I want to see the major sites, historical places and attractions – that’s just not enough. It’s just not satisfying for me. For that, I feel like I could almost watch a TV travelogue or even look at someone else’s snapshots.

  What I really enjoy doing when I visit a new area is to really get to know the area, to find out the unusual stuff, that only the locals know about. And what I really enjoy doing is getting to know the people and the culture.

  This past summer Jane and I stayed at a place called Muddy Pond in Tennessee. We wanted to really get to know the area, so we scouted out the attractions and scenic sites that only locals would typically know. We tend to skip the chain restaurants and look for places that the locals know about and recommend.

  Have you ever thought about this? The Bible is a lot like that. Most Christians know the “big attractions” like Psalm 23, John 3:16 or Romans 8:28, but they fail to take the time to really get to know the neighborhood, and the neighbors are fantastic. You almost feel sorry for certain passages of Scripture. Aren’t the neighbors of Psalm 23 – Psalm 22 and 24 important? You better believe it. How about John 3:17 or Romans 8:29? Great verses, yet the popularity of their next door neighbors has resulted in them being virtually ignored. That’s because too many of us walk through the Bible like a tourist. We fail to invest the time to really get to know the neighborhood. When you do that, you miss so much.

  Whenever we have the time when we are in the Chicago area, we stop at a restaurant that’s famous for its gyros and baklava. In a million years we’d never have found Hubs but Jane’s Uncle and Aunt who lived in Evanston at the time, took us there. It made such an impression on us that we go there at least once a year and have introduced several friends to Hubs. But it’s only because we were with someone who actually knew the neighborhood. And I can’t tell you how many times over the years we’ve made great discoveries because we took some time to explore the neighborhood. The Bible is like that, too.

  God wants us to know that ALL of His Word. Every verse is important. There’s no fluff or filler in God’s Word. That’s what the Bible tells us about itself, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Periodically, I’ll read a book and feel that the author crammed a 100 page book into 200 pages. There’s just a lot of fluff, but that’s not the case with the Bible.

  To be sure, there are verses, sections and books of the Bible that more easily hold our attention than others. Some passages are certainly easier to understand and digest than others. That, though, doesn’t infer that some parts are more important or better than others. God doesn’t have any filler in His Word. Every verse is vital and essential but you’re not going to know that…unless you read it.

  We’re beginning a new year. Please determine to faithfully read God’s Word in 2014. Maybe you want to read the whole Bible through. Perhaps you want to take your time and work through a book at a time. The important thing is to determine to be in God’s Word consistently.

  And even more important than being in God’s Word is to have God’s Word in you. Although the Bible reveals God’s truth to us; it’s primary purpose is not merely to educate us. God did not give us His Word to fill our minds with information. The purpose of God’s Word and the reason that we need to read it and study it is for transformation. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

  Even though our Bibles are printed with ink on pages, the author of Hebrews says that somehow God’s Word is living and active. There’s a dynamic energy at work whenever a person reads the Bible. Somehow the living God is actively working in and through the words of Scripture to impact the reader’s life. This makes the Bible unique from any other book.

  The Bible is described as a sharp double edged sword, which focuses on its ability to penetrate into our lives. The Bible has no blunt edge, every part of it is sharp enough to pierce into our lives with its message. Soul and spirit, joints and marrow, focuses on the Bible ability to penetrate our defenses into the very core of our personality, where our true self is. There, at the core of our personality, the Bible evaluates and discerns our inner thoughts and motives, sifting through our intentions and ideas. God works in our lives through His Word, that’s why the Bible is essential for our spiritual growth and transformation.

  Christianity isn’t some set of ideas. Being a Christian is not about spouting off doctrines or reciting creeds. Being a Christian is foremost about a personal love relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. This love relationship is a life transforming one. You can’t have an encounter with Jesus Christ without being radically changed. Being a Christian isn’t merely accepting certain facts about God or about the Bible. It’s about becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, a devoted disciple in eery part of our lives, as we seek to live lives of passionate devotion to Christ. The Bible is God’s love letter to us and it’s God’s primary means of transforming us. But the Bible will never revolutionize your life as God intended it to do…unless  you faithfully read it and apply it to your life.