One Reason Preaching Matters
God Speaks through Preaching
To many people, preaching seems strangely out of place in the modern world. Why would anyone choose to go to a church building, week by week, to hear a preacher (often the same person) deliver a monologue for twenty or thirty minutes (sometimes even longer) about an ancient book with characters who lived, at best, two thousand years ago? This doesn’t happen in any other context. Educational methods are increasingly interactive. Learning by discovery is the watchword. Preaching seems to be just another example of the church being out of touch, out of date, and out of steam.
Of course, it’s not difficult to find examples of preaching that are sadly boring or irrelevant. Nor is it hard to hear arguments put forward to claim that preaching has had its day: we live in a visual learning culture, listeners have sound-bite levels of concentration, study groups or one-to-one mentoring is more effective, moderns are opposed to domination of a congregation from an elevated pulpit, and so on. But the remedy for the disappointing level of much contemporary preaching is not less preaching, nor its removal from the church’s agenda, but better preaching. And that is because something happens through preaching that cannot occur in any other communication context.
Proclaiming the Word
David Jackman
In this convenient handbook, David J. Jackman presents a basic methodology for the study and preparation of expository teaching.
God is committed to preaching, by which he speaks through the proclamation and explanation of his word. So the preacher’s task and privilege is, in J. I. Packer’s memorable phrase, “to mediate a meeting with God.”1 Preaching matters not because human beings decide that it does but because through preaching God speaks today. His voice is heard. So let’s look at three basic convictions or principles (and key Scripture passages for each) that help us to understand not just why preaching matters but why it is of supreme importance.
Preaching Matters Because the God of the Bible Is a Speaking God
The act of preaching today cannot be separated from the word of God that he has infallibly spoken in the Scriptures—the sixty-six books of divine revelation that make up our Bible. That is the bedrock foundation on which all preaching is to be built.
A basic biblical definition of the preacher is that he is a herald or proclaimer. It’s a significant description because it implies that there is a message, or declaration, that the messenger is to pass on faithfully and accurately without distortion. Because God has spoken in his word, the preacher can and must preach. Without that divinely given biblical content, all that a preacher can achieve is the expression of his own, often highly questionable, opinions. On offer, then, are the mere words of human beings. They may appear attractive and promise all sorts of comfort and joy, but ultimately, they are just human words—transient and powerless. Instead, in biblical expository preaching, the authentic voice of God is heard. What is expected is that God will speak to our souls through the human agency of the preacher.
To mediate a meeting with God will require the preacher’s disciplined preparation and dependence on the Holy Spirit. The conviction that such a meeting is God’s purpose and, therefore, possible will have constant implications for the preacher. If we are to be expositors, we must take sufficient time for preparation so that we have more than just a surface acquaintance with the text. We must read and reread, to listen carefully and hard, if we are to represent God’s truth faithfully. This will ensure that what we say is accurate to both the content and tone of the Bible passage we are preaching. Otherwise, we may easily lead our hearers astray. We must be actively depending on God, the Holy Spirit, to grant illumination and understanding to us and our hearers so that in our preparation we are governed by his life-giving word and praying for its impact on all who hear. Equally, we must be dependent on the Spirit who inspired the text to give us clear thinking, a warm heart, and effective delivery in the process of preaching so that the wind of God may be in the sails of the sermon.
Convictions such as these need to be rooted in us through the power of the Scriptures themselves. So it will be profitable to examine a key passage from Paul in 2 Timothy to help us ensure that our view of preaching is shaped by God’s word and not contemporary opinions.
To mediate a meeting with God will require the preacher’s disciplined preparation and dependence on the Holy Spirit.
At the end of his life Paul passes on the ministry baton to Timothy, who is serving as pastor-teacher in Ephesus, the church in which Paul himself had spent his longest period of settled ministry. Like many pastors today, Timothy is struggling against false teaching bringing divisive factions into the church, but the conviction Paul wants his young colleague to embrace is that the Scriptures—what he calls “the sacred writings”—are more than sufficient as his authoritative source of divine revelation by which he can fulfill his ministry and lead the church. Paul writes, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:14–15). Paul’s appeal is for stability, for continuance in the Scriptures, on the grounds that Timothy has experienced already their trustworthy truth in his own life and family as well as through close observation of Paul’s own life and ministry (2 Tim. 3:10–14).
Paul’s main argument, though, builds on the double purpose—or what we could perhaps label as the job description—of the Scriptures. First, according to 2 Timothy 3:15, the Scriptures are able to make us wise to come to Christ by faith to find salvation. As the Bible story unfolds, God is progressively revealing himself through the Scriptures until, ultimately, he comes in person into our world. As we meet Jesus in the pages of the Gospels, we see the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his person (Heb. 1:3). This is what compels us to repent of our sin, accept his merciful forgiveness, and lay our lives before him as our Savior, Lord, and God.
The second purpose appears in the following verses: “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 Tim. 3:16–17). Because all Scripture is breathed out by God, it is the articulation in words of his mind and purposes. Because of that, all Scripture is profitable to teach what is right and to correct what is wrong. And this is necessary so that the man of God (a technical term for the pastor-teacher like Timothy) may be equipped for the task in all its aspects. The term “equipped” means that everything necessary has been provided to get the job done. Scripture is the pastor-teacher’s totally sufficient resource for ministry because what Scripture says, God says.
Paul’s solemn charge is, therefore, brief and to the point: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:1–2). Whether or not it seems to be “in season,” the word is always to be preached in order to do its work of reproving and rebuking so as to build up and strengthen the people of God. The need is urgent, then and now, because false teaching is constantly multiplying and spiritually destructive. But Timothy is not instructed to seek out or discover some new message. He is to keep faithful to the revelation already given; he is to preach the word, the word breathed out by God himself, whatever the personal cost might be.
Paul concludes, “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). Paul warns Timothy not to allow any pressures, whether external opposition or internal uncertainty and divisions, to divert him from this primary calling. The apostle’s confidence is entirely in the power of the preaching of the word of God to accomplish the work of God, both in the church and in the world. Only that confidence will keep the contemporary preacher unashamedly at this good work, whatever the responses. When God’s word is faithfully preached, God’s voice is authentically heard. Preaching matters because the God of the Bible is a speaking God, the only one.
Notes:
- J. I. Packer, Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 120.
This article is adapted from Proclaiming the Word: Principles and Practices for Expository Preaching by David Jackman.
Related Articles
3 Convictions You Need to Have before You Teach the Bible
If you’re just getting started teaching the Bible, this is the first thing I want to put in your mind: beginning preachers and teachers (and experienced ones too!) need confidence in God’s word.
5 Steps to Take within the Exegesis Process
What follows is a suggested method for preaching preparation that I have followed for many years and found to be helpful. Please know that this is just one approach.
Why Preaching Is the Number One Way a Pastor Leads
Preaching has to be the first way we lead as pastors, in one sense, because it’s inherent within our position, within our role.
Podcast: 3 Church Fathers Every Pastor Should Be Reading (Coleman Ford)
Coleman Ford shares his thoughts on why so many evangelical pastors aren't familiar with the church fathers and how this lack of awareness can negatively impact their ministries.
