What makes peaching so wonderfully beneficial? Isn’t preaching just some guy talking? No, it is entirely different from mere public speaking or lecturing. Though these disciplines are somewhat related, preaching transcends them through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Preaching has for its subject matter the Word of God. In preaching, the Word is proclaimed, explained, and applied. This we see in Paul’s admonition to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
What is Preaching?
It has its exclusive focus on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Now, whenever the Bible is opened faithfully, the Spirit of Truth is working. In preaching, His activity is called unction. It has been described as the elevation of the preacher beyond his own level to a higher place. The Spirit takes all that the preacher has, and makes it more. The Holy Spirit also operates on the hearers directing the Word to their hearts according to His divine purposes. See the below quotes:
- Haddon Robinson: “Preaching means, “to cry out, herald, or exhort.” Preaching should so stir a man that he pours out the message with passion and fervor. Not all passionate pleading from a pulpit, however, possesses divine authority. When a preacher speaks as a herald, he must cry out “the Word.” Anything less cannot legitimately pass for Christian preaching.”
- R. Albert Mohler: “There is only one authority that is the preacher’s authority, and there is only one authority that undergirds and justifies his teaching ministry, and that is the authority of the Word of God. This Word is inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and trustworthy. It is that Word, and that Word alone, that is our authority; and it is not only the foundation, but the substance, the content of our teaching and preaching.”
- John Gerstner: “If preachers insist on competing with psychiatrists as counselors, with physicians as healers, with politicians as statesmen and with philosophers as speculators, then these specialists have every right to tell them how to preach. If a minister’s message is not based on “Thus saith the Lord,” then as a sermon it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of the specialists in the department with which it deals.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd Jones: “What is preaching? Logic on fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that 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.”
A speech or lecture is an act of man speaking primarily from books by men accomplished in the power of man alone. They may or may not aim at truth: indeed, anything less than preaching might never come across any truth at all. Preaching begins and ends with: “This is what God says…” And the wonderful thing is that God the Holy Spirit is there to enforce the declaration.
Preaching also differs from speaking or lecturing in that it engages the whole person. It is the whole person which God wants, and so the whole person which His Word through His preachers deals with. See Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37:
- Deuteronomy 6:5: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
- Matthew 22:37: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
Preaching is therefore more than a lecture to stimulate and inform for it goes beyond that. It is more than persuasive oration to move the affection for it also engages the intellect. See what Sinclair Ferguson said:
- Sinclair Ferguson: “Preaching to the heart addresses the understanding first, in order to instruct it; but in doing so it also reaches through the mind to inform, rebuke, and cleanse the conscience. It then touches the will in order to reform and transform life and equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12).”
Another unique quality of preaching is that it is truly worshipful: that is to say, preaching worships the one true God. In elevating the Word of God, delivering it as indeed His own Word, and receiving it as such altogether we commit an act of corporate worship. When rightly done, preaching moves the heart nearer to God. The heart is submitted more to His will, and so the worshipful act enhances all other worship. Luther said:
- Martin Luther: “The highest form of worship is the preaching of God’s Word.”
Preaching is then set-apart from all other forms of communication as something greater and more important by virtue of what is it about, and who has ordained it, and its aim. It is monumental. It is necessary. It is primary. Indeed, the preaching of God’s Word is so central in the life of God’s people throughout both Scripture and church history faithful preaching is held as a sure mark of a true church. Luther, Calvin, and Lloyd Jones comment:
- Martin Luther: “Now, wherever you hear or see this Word preached, believed, professed, and lived, do not doubt that the true ecclesia sancta catholica (Christian holy people) must be there…. And even if there were no other sign than this alone, it would still suffice to prove that a Christian, holy people must exist there, for God’s Word cannot be without God’s people and, conversely, God’s people cannot be without God’s Word.”
- John Calvin: “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd Jones: “Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church, the people who are set in this position of authority; and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need.”
The final distinctive of preaching then is that it belongs entirely to the Church. No one outside of Christ is capable of preaching in the true sense of the word. Many people claim to preach who are not preaching, and many people preach who never claim to have done so. It follows that not all preaching is equally good.
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