What’s So Special About Preaching?

8/14/2019 Whats So Special About Preaching?

1/7

This year the Proclamation Trust is 20 years old--though the preaching conferences go back a gooddeal earlierand the EMA itself pre-dates it by 3years. We are fundamentally a single-issue con-cern, Preach the Word. All our ministry is de-signed for the well-being of the Church and thespread of the gospel throughout the world, by en-couraging, enabling and equipping pastor/teachers

to keep at this central task, to make it their maincommitment, their life workto do it faithfullyand to keep on keeping on, to pursue excellencein the work and to allow nothing to divert themfrom this greatest of all privileges and responsi-

bilities: Preach the Word! The Word is the contentand preaching is what we do with it. In the good-ness of God ministries have been changed, pulpitshave been re-won for the exposition of Scriptureand the preaching of the gospel, a new generationof devoted Biblical ministers has begun to emergeand its numbers and competence seem to be grow-

ing. For all of this we should stop and praiseGodto Him be the gloryand we should surelybe thankful for our fellowship, opportunities and

resources. And yetwe are barely holding ourown. For every pulpit won, another seems to be

lost, not necessarily to heresy, but to the Bible being relegated from the driving-seat to the pas-senger seat, where it makes a useful companion,a map to be consulted from time to time, but doesnot really determine the direction of the car. Forevery new church plant, another faithful, evangeli-cal church is in terminal decline. For every zeal-ous young pastor, there is a wounded, discouraged,exhausted and quietly despairing older brother.For every growing church staff in the wealthy ar-eas, there are single-handed brothers in less afflu-ent parts of the country who, as one shared with

me the other day, cannot even afford a secretaryto help with his administration one day a week.

Are we really right to be so obsessionalabout Biblical preaching? Or are we just hanker-ing after a by-gone age? And if the spoken word

WHATS SO SPECIAL ABOUT

PREACHING?

Inaugural EMA Address on Preaching

David Jackman

The grand design and intention of the office of aChristian preacher [is] to restore the throne and

dominion of God in the hearts of men(Cotton Mather)

is not pass, and if Scripture and experience bothpoint to the continuing centrality of Biblical proc-lamation, how can we ensure that Gods purposesfor preaching are being fulfilled in what we are do-ing? For if it is probably true that good preachingmay not easily fill a church these days, it is undeni-ably true that poor preaching will easily empty it!

Lets read Luke 4:16-32. It establishesthat the Lord Jesus was an expository preacher.He chooses a text from Isaiah 61 which focuseshis ministry by repeating the verb to proclaim(which is mentioned 3 times in verses 18-19):

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed me to preach good newsto the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom

for the prisioners and recovery of sight for theblind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the

year of the Lords favour.

This also identifies his person as the fulfilment ofIsaiahs prophecy (v21: and he began by saying

to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in yourhearing.). Here is Christ preaching Christ from

Old Testament Scripture. But Jesus not only inter-prets Isaiah, he also interprets the Nazareth con-gregation. Its as though the sermon is like an el-lipse with twin focal pointsthe Biblical text andthe condition or situation of the hearers. There isa particular Nazarene focus and application, whichJesus introduces by his use of one of their contem-

porary proverbs (v23:Jesus said to them, Sure-ly you will quote this proverb to me: Physician,heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what wehave heard that you did in Capernaum.). At onelevel the message is received so well (v22a: All

spoke well of him and were amazed at the graciouswords that came from his lips.) but at the deeperlevel it is profoundly rejected (v22b: Isnt this

Josephs son? they asked.). So Scripture is usedto interpret Scripture. 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 5are brought into play to interpret their reaction to

David Jackman and PT Media - a ministry of The Proclamation Trust. Published in 2006


2/7

Isaiahs proclamation (an observed Biblical patternwhich explains the present)and so the unbeliefof their hearts is laid bare, with very predictableconsequences (v28-29:All the people in the syna-

gogue were furious when they heard this. Theygot up, drove him out of the town, and took him tothe brow of the hill on which the town was built, inorder to throw him down the cliff. But he walkedright through the crowd and went on his way.). Asuccessful sermon? Drummed out of town? Ohyes, totally effective (v31-32: Then he went downto Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sab-bath began to teach the people. They were amazedat his teaching, because his message had authori-ty.). That authority had been proclaimedand in

Nazareth hearts were hardened, just as some in Ca- pernaum began to soften. Faithful teaching min-istries harden as well as soften hearts. This is whywell-taught churches can seem suddenly to collapsewhen a faithful ministry comes to an end. There

has been tacit resistance alongside positive accept-ance. Now do you see how this cuts right across somany of our presuppositions about the preachingtask and how it exposes the alarming extent of ourcultural accommodation as 21st century preachers?

I want to suggest that we need to carry out avirus check, to see where our own thinking is lessthan Biblical, and why that affects our practice sodeeply. Look back over the past 3 months. Doesyour diary reflect your affirmed priorities? We allknow we are called to the ministry of the Word and

to prayer. We call our people to it as the heart oftheir daily devotion to the Lordbut are they notoften the hardest things actually to prioritize in our

busy, busy lives? Now Im not here either to initi-ate a guilt-trip, or to pretend that we should be un-troubled by such pressures. But I do want us to berealists and explore why the priorities to which wegive lip-service so often get squeezed out of that

position in practice. How much time do we spendin preparation and in prayer? And how do you useit? There are powerful issues at work in the cul-ture and in the church and I think it may be helpfulto take a few moments to step back and look at

ourselves, our time and our energy, what they arespent on, and why, and what returns are we getting?What are the perhaps unrecognised presuppositionson which we are actually building our ministries?

I. In the culture.Of course there is nothing new under the sun.414 years ago a book was published by Wil-liam Perkins entitled The Art of Prophesying(Preaching we would say). In it, Perkins la-mented the scarcity of true Biblical ministers, atruth, he says, which is self-evident from the ex-

perience of all ages. He laments that few menof quality seek the calling of the ministry andeven says that of those with the title very few de-serve the honourable names of messenger (angel)and interpreter. And he traces this to 3 causes:-

i.) The contempt with which the calling istreatedBiblical ministry is hated by the world

because it reveals sin and unmasks hypocrisy.ii.) The difficulty of discharging the dutiesthecare and charge of souls, to be the one who speaksto God on behalf of the people and to the people on

behalf of God is an overwhelming responsibility.iii.) The inadequacy of financial recompenseand status. Who would accept the contemptand the difficulties for such a poor reward? In-stead, Perkins says, the sharpest minds of ourday turn to the law. And that was in 1592!

But while we are not unique in 2006, we do haveparticular cultural pressures at work, as the worldseeks to squeeze us into its mould and is oftensubtly successful in ways we hardly realise, letalone admit. Where the Reformation regarded

preaching as the source and spring of Christianfaith, now it is marginalized and then reject-

ed. The arguments may be familiar, but impor-tant because the virus is highly contagious andit very readily lurks in our sub-conscious minds.

i) Preaching is presumptuous in an age whenthe Church is no longer central to the fabric ofsociety and has lost its credibility. For one per-son to instruct others about matters of belief or

behaviour is unwarranted arrogance (Dont preach at me!). It smacks of the pompous, theself-important. In a culture which finds it hardto cope with seriousness, there is a distaste

and distrust of anything which sounds earnest.

ii) So, preaching is nave because there is noTruth, only many individual stories. Advertis-ing/marketing has destroyed the credibility oftestimony. Would you buy double glazing onyour doorstep? How do we know that Chris-tian opinion hasnt been produced by manipula-tion? How can the same old Biblical agenda berelevant to our world of revolutionary develop-ment and change? Preaching only addressesone of our senseshearing. It follows a lim-ited linear mode of thoughtit lacks immediacy.

iii) Preaching is ineffective Most of the congrega-tion cannot reproduce accurately the contents of asermon even immediately afterwards. It is lackingin reciprocity/dialogue. There are the inevitablelimitations of one persons point of view, even withPower Point! Preaching is an introverted activity;it privatizes religion. And it is frequently boring,which raises questions about the commitment andintegrity of the preacher. If hes boring me, he is

probably boring himself. Does he believe and livewhat he proclaims? Does he live in the house of

his dogmas? Where is his own centre of gravity?

Arguments like these chip away constantlyat our confidence as preachers. Totally fo-cussed on human wisdom and criteriaGod isleft out! The virus spreads through the system.



3/7

And so the church itself propagates their devel-opment, in its structures and accepted norms,which constitute a downgrading of preaching. Weshall find these much harder to identify and ac-cept because we have become so used to them.

II. In the church

i.) A downgrading of expectation.There is a Spurgeon story that whenhe was approached by a young preacher whocomplained of his own comparative ineffective-ness, he asked him, Do you really expect Godto work every time you preach? The youngman replied, Oh no! Of course not! Spur-geon answered, That is why nothing happens!

Do you really expect I wonder if we have soover-reacted to the mystical and the subjective-emotional in preaching, that we see it now in termsof dispensing Biblical knowledge rather than plead-

ing with God in prayer and men in proclamation tochange lives in time for eternity. Preach the Wordhas become Explain the Bible. There is a differ-ence. Systematic theology is essential. Biblical the-ology in the whole sweep of the Bibles big picturefrom Genesis to Revelation, in Kingdom and cov-enant, is deeply enriching. But they are not the wayGod wrote the Bible and to let them govern the ser-mon, rather than the text of Scripture as written is toend up speaking about the Bible rather than lettingthe Bible speak. One is the words of men; the otherthe Word of God. Not observing the text, but listen-

ing to God; not cool analysts, but passionate hearers.

Perhaps there is a confusion here betweenthe church and the academy. The better the preach-ers theological trainingand we thank God forthe splendid developments in this area over the last20 years or sothe more he is likely to want toemulate the seminary in the pulpit, and to want thechurch to be a sort of Christian university. Let metrace this through a little because I think its a realissue. We tend to quote 2 Tim 2:2, What you haveheard from me entrust to faithful men, who will beable to teach others also and apply it to the man

of God, the pastor-teacher and his congregation.But I had a very stimulating conversation with DrMervyn Eloff in South Africa a few months ago,where he suggested that Timothy might be an ex-ample of the apostolic delegate, rather than a modelof the local church pastor-teacher, or elder. Timo-thys task would then be to raise up pastor-teach-ers, to discover and train them, and that would inturn be part of their task, perhaps. But that is notthe primary focus of the local church. If we wantto see Paul spelling that out, its in Acts 20 to theEphesian elders as he passes on the baton of local

church leadership in these terms, Keep watch over yourselves and all the flockbe shepherds of thechurch of God (v28) and we know from the LordJesus himself that this means feeding his sheep andtending the flock (John 21). The origin of theseinstructions goes right back to Ezekiel 34 where (1)

Yahweh condemns the shepherds who think theflock exists for them (v2); (2) Yahweh himselfdecrees I will seek out my sheepI will rescuethemI will feed them with good pastureI willbring back the strayedbind up the injured

strengthen the weak -- that is Christs ministry;that is the pastors task, through his Word minis-try. We certainly want to lift the level of trainingin our churches, but that isnt what the churchis for. Its a subtle difference. The field hospi-tal is a more Biblical model than the universityseminar rooms, but it is still the Word that doesthe work. We would be in danger of seeing thechurch as the focus for ministry practice, so thatthe training agenda dominates everything else.

This might account for the commoncomplaint that well-trained evangelical preach-ers are often boring, or that what is said fromthe pulpit doesnt connect with real life, or that

we are not being fed, in the sense of beinghelped to live effective Christian lives. Nowit could be argued that if we have small groupBible studies, or develop one-on-one disciple-ship training ministries (both of which are ex-cellent, of course) we dont need preaching somuch, especially pastoral preaching. Peoplewill be taught the Bible in their groups. How-ever, in practice this is to put a huge load on thecomparatively untrained shoulders of the groupleaders, however well we may try to equip them.In many churches, the leader is not expected to

fulfil a leadership teaching rolemore the chairof a discussion without any significant authority.In others there is a lack of theological acumenand pastoral wisdom, which means the discus-sion is severely limited, and peoples questionsare often dismissed as irrelevant diversions,red herrings. Some groups become a poolingof ignorance and others processing and formu-laic. The answer lies in the preaching, whichcan and should achieve so much more than the

best trained home groups, for these reasons:

1) The messenger has bee trained and

equipped to preach;2) The whole congregation is addressed sothat the corporate content of Scripture is heard

by them as a community;3) The church is therefore led from the pul-

pit by the proclamation of the Word.

ii.) A downgrading of the calling.If our expectations of preaching are lowered,then the sense of the preacher being uniquelygifted and commissioned by God will tend todisappear with it. Because we are rightly suspi-

cious of subjectivism, which sees a mystical au-thorization of ministry in special circumstanc-es or verses called a call, we have tended toswing to the opposite extreme and imply thatanyone of reasonable intelligence and godly in-clination can do ministry. Of course we all



4/7

have a ministry to fulfil and in that sense everyChristian is in ministry, but it is misleading toimagine that everyone can do everything. Thecharismata of the New Testament are giftingsfrom God himself and there does need to be ob-

jective attestation to their existence, coupled withan inner constraint of the Holy Spirit that this isthe work God has given me to do. This is whatconstitutes the call, which I believe is neededfor full-time ministryand it would seem thataptness to teach is one of the essential ingredients.

If we take this seriously, it will mean that theperson and work of the Holy Spirit is absolutelycentral to the task. If the gifts of Word minis-try are empowered by the one Spirit who ap-

portions to each one individually as he wills(1 Cor 12:11), then those whom he has not gift-ed will not know his empowering in that area.

This has important implications for the many

ministry schemes and apprenticeship schemes,which we rejoice to see multiplying around thecountry. There is perhaps a danger that they can

produce a conveyor-belt, by which a young gradu-ate can move to church leadership and ordination,without there ever being a real assessment of hisability and giftedness as a preacher. Because theneeds are great and we want to multiply the work-force greatly, we may be tempted to cut cornersand assume that everyone who can do personalwork and lead a group Bible study well should

be in ministry. But Matthew 9:38 does remind

us, Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvestto send out labourers into his harvest. It is hisharvest, not ours. Only he can gift and equip ef-fective labourers. We may send people out to doa job, but are they actually the chief harvestersworkforce? This is a very important issue for thefuture health and welfare of our congregations.

Biblical knowledge may be conveyed faithfullyand engagingly, but what will be lacking is anencounter with the living God. And where thegifting is present, there will still need to be adeep dependence on the power of the Holy Spir-

it in answer to prayer, to quicken the dead andto edify the saints, to convince, instruct, rebukeand correct. So we say to ourselves as we climbthe pulpit steps, I believe in the Holy Spirit

That priority is reflected by:1. prayer in the preparation (for clarity, faith-fulness and relevant application);2. prayer for the proclamation (the expositionand structure); and3. prayer for the congregation (a love for peo-

ple, asking ourselves,What must I preach from

this passage to them?).

As Jesus reminded his disciples, Without me,you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

You can preach a sermon and get byeven be

approved and applauded but the eternal yield isnothing. Gods most effective method of reach-ing the whole congregation with the life-changingWord is effectively neutralized, if we are not to-tally dependent on the ministry of the Holy Spirit .

Preaching is central to this calling, as itwas in Christs own ministry, from whom all au-thentic ministry is derived. In Karl Barths defi-nition in his Homiletics, Preaching is the at-tempt enjoined upon the Church to serve Godsown Word, through one who is called thereto, byexpounding a Biblical text in human words andmaking it relevant to contemporaries, in intima-tion of what they have to hear from God Himself.

iii.) A downgrading of the preacher.By this I mean that there are strong pressures to see

preaching as one of the things I do, in ministry, but not its heart-beat, not its indispensable core.The argument runs like this: Im not especially

gifted as a preacher. Others can do it much betterthan I can and anyway all the study that is requireddemands a price, in terms of time, that I cant af-ford. So Ill go to one of the websites, downloada really good sermon, tweak it a bit with an illus-tration or two and make it my own. Nothing newunder the sun. Do you know that old limerick,

There once was a preacher called Spurgywho had little time for liturgy

but his sermons are fineso I use them as mine

and so do the rest of the clergy?

So whats wrong with that? A great deal! TheWord isnt in the preacher, because the preacherisnt in the Wordand instead of heart-to-heart

proclamation, you have a ministry of perform-ance. The actor the mask the hypocrite. Allvery much culturally approved and appreciated,

but barren of the power and presence of God.

Listen to Calvin preaching in Sermon XXIIon 1 Tim 3:2 apt to teach:

For St Paul does not mean that one should justmake a parade here or that a man should showoff so that everyone applauds him and says Oh!Well-spoken! Oh! What a breadth of learn-ing! Oh! What a subtle mind! All that is be-side the point When a man has climbed up intothe pulpit, is it so that he may be seen from afar,and that he may be pre-eminent? Not at all. It isthat God may speak to us by the mouth of a man.

(THL Parker, Calvins Preaching, (Westminster/John Knox 1992 p.24)

Do we have a high enough view of theoffice of the preacher (not of ourselves)? Dowe still tremble at the awesome responsibil-ity of the taskso few minutes to preach, invest-ed with such eternal potential, for gain or loss?



5/7

Calvin again:

It is certain that if we come to church we shallnot hear only a mortal man speaking but we shallfeel (even by his (Gods) secret power) that God isspeaking to our souls, that he is the teacher. He sotouches us that the human voice enters into us and so

profits us that we are refreshed and nourished by it.

(Op. cit., p.42)

In his book, T.H.L. Parker concludes, froma wide trawl of the sermons and the Institutes, thatthere are 3 or 4 dominant aims in Calvins manyreferences to the primacy of preaching: to hon-our God, to reform lives, to witness to truth andto present salvation. All this can be summed upin the one over-all concept of edificationwiththe New Testament sense of construction or build-ingwith Christ himself as the one foundation.

So what is so special about preaching?What antibodies do we need to develop to ward offthese crippling cultural infections? The New Tes-tament has the answer. It is the result of preachingand is itself a form of preaching. Do you remem-

ber how Luke begins his Gospel with reference tothose who from the beginning were eyewitnessesand servants (ministers) of the Word (1:2)? Themessage communicated is the Word of the Lordand that is what gives birth to and lies at the heartof Gods covenant community. There are basicBiblical principles here of which we need to be

100% convinced. The community of Gods people is to meet together regularly, and not to ne-glect this primary means of grace (Heb 10:25).The roots of that go back to the origins of Israel.Where do you first find congregational preachingin Scripture? At the very formation of the nation.

The book of Exodus is central to Old Tes-tament Scripture and is the essential primer incovenant theology. Central to the book is the re-deemed nation gathered at Sinai; 19:1 24:11is the controlling section. Their identity as a na-tion is forged as they are called together to listen

to the voice of God in the 10 Words, to respondin obedience to their covenant Lord and to sealtheir agreement, with the blood of sacrifice, inthe covenant ratification ceremony. Either sideof the Law as given in chapters 20-23, there aresermons/preaching. In ch 19 Moses is given theLords Word to preach to the people concerningthe nature of his covenant grace in redemption,which creates their identity as Gods special pos-session (treasure-chest) and commits them to obeyhis voice and keep his covenant, so as to enter intoall the blessings of the covenant mercy. In ch 24

after the giving of the Law, Moses came and toldthe people all the words of the LORD and all therules. And all the people answered with one voiceand said All the words that the LORD has spokenwe will do (24:3). The book of the covenant iswritten and then proclaimed as the fore-runner tothe covenant ratification. Worshipping the LORD

means listening to his Word, with its declarationsand explanations and then committing oneself toa life of trust and obedience, appropriating cov-enant grace to live distinctively different lives.This is the beginning of expository preaching.The Torah is not merely a code for determiningsin and judging the wicked. It is much more the

basis of guiding the righteous, expounding theway of life for Gods redeemed people whichis in accordance with his character and will.

So it is hardly surprising that the book ofDeuteronomy is a series of expository sermons

preached on the Torah before the entry to theland. It is the establishment of a Biblical pattern,a pattern which continues with the Prophets, whoare preachers of the Torah, to the specific circum-stances of the covenant community in their day,and sometimes to the unbelieving world, throughthe Wisdom tradition and on into what became the

post-exilic synagogues. Its pattern is confirmedby Nehemiah 8, where the reading and exposition

of the Torah leads to repentance, worship and cov-enant renewal. And that became the establishedtemplate for synagogue practice. A set lesson fromthe Torah and a lesson from the Prophets (chosen

by the speaker, as did Jesus in Nazareth) and anexposition of the texts, understood throughout theinter-testamental period as the continuation of the

prophetic ministry. Thats why the Council of Je-rusalem concludes with James pronouncement inActs 15:21, From ancient generations Moses hashad in every city those who proclaim him, for heis read every Sabbath in the synagogues. Read-

ing and proclamation of the Word are the centralactivity. It explains why Paul goes first to thesynagogue and why apostolic preaching is re-garded as God speaking: The Word of the LORD.

It is striking that this term Word whichPaul and the other apostles are very happy to useabout Old Testament revelation, they also appro-

priate to their own preaching. The Thessaloniansreceived the word in much affliction, but it alsocame in power and in the Holy Spirit and with

full conviction (1 Thess 1:5-6). Indeed when you received the word of God, which you heard

from us, you accepted it not as the word of men,but as what it really is, the word of God (2:13).Thats the high status of apostolic preaching. Theclaim is profound. God himself speaks throughthe words of Paul. The word of God is a geni-tive of ownership, meaning that Gods voice isheard in the preaching of the apostles. But whatabout our preaching? Could we ever say thatour preaching has that sort of authoritycan it

be an encounter with the living God? Of course,we are not to be equated with the unique apos-tolate who were eyewitnesses of the risen Lord

and directly commissioned by him, even Paulas one untimely born. We believe because oftheir testimony. But does the fact that we are re-cipients of revelation (second-hand knowledge, ifyou like) mean that our preaching is only humanwords and bound therefore to be second-rate?



6/7

One interesting pointer is that Paul doesntseem to differentiate between the quality, or author-ity, or effectiveness of his apostolic proclamationand the preaching of his fellow-workers. There areinteresting hints. For example, 1 Cor 16:10: WhenTimothy comes, see that you put him at ease among

you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. No apostolic differentiation in Word ministry. In1 Thess 3:2 Timothy is our brother and Godsco-worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish andexhort you in your faith both evangelism andedification. In the pastorals and especially 2 Tim,he is passed the baton of ministry with the same

priorities and practice Paul had. This is the trueapostolic succession. That was what led the Re-formers to affirm (2nd Helvetic Confession) WhenScripture is now preached in the Church by preach-ers lawfully called [those are the safeguards!] we

believe that the very Word of God (ipsum dei ver- bum) is proclaimed and received by the faithful.

Attacked by rationalism (in the 18th cen-

tury), liberalism (in the 19th century), scepticism(in the 20th century) and now postmodernism (inthe 21st century) can we still have that sort of con-fidence in preaching? Yes, if the preacher is pro-claiming the Word of God in Scripture. There thevoice of God is truly heard. Its efficacy is neitherdetermined nor limited by the spiritual or techni-cal quality of the preacher. It is God who speaksthrough the lips of men, which means that Scrip-ture is, in the phrase of H.O. Old, the fixed normfor preaching, and exposition the only valid meth-od. But the other ingredient, the other focal point

of the ellipse is equally vital. It is not just repeti-tion of Scripture or even careful exposition alone.It has, in Olds words, to be actualized, skilfullyand powerfully directed towards the hearers andtheir situations. Congregations are not passive

buckets to be pumped into (Tillstrom). All goodpreaching is essentially dialogicalin two senses:

(a) between the preacher and the congregation sothat what is said is weighed and tested; and

(b) but also between God and the people (including thepreacher) so that what is heard is believed and obeyed

and so the God who speaks is loved and worshipped.As Jim Packer states: The proper aim of preach-ing is to mediate meetings with God (J.I.Packer,Truth and Power (Eagle Publishing (1996)). SeeChapter 5, Mouthpiece for God) . And in or-der for that to happen application needs to ad-here (Jim Packer suggests) to 3 guidelines.

i) It should constantly focus on the unchang-ing realities of each persons relationship toGodincluding faith, love, hope, obedience;

humility, repentance, forgiveness, fidelity; thank-ful praise and trustful prayer; stewarding gifts,sanctifying ones activities, serving others andstanding against evil in ones own heart andin the world outside. (Op. cit., p.148) Itsabout living a Christian life, walking with God.

ii) Application should constantly focus on theplace and person of Jesus Christ:

Jesus my Shepherd, Husband, Friendmy Prophet, Priest and King;my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End.

(Op. cit., p.149)

iii) Application should constantly search thehearts and consciences of the hearersit mustcome home in a penetrating way and person-ally to as many as possible in the congregation.

It is time to conclude. And to do that I ask you toopen your Bible again and turn to Romans 10:8-17:

But what does it say? The word is near you; it isin your mouth and in your heart, that is, the wordof faith we are proclaiming: That if you confesswith your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, youwill be saved. For it is with your heart that youbelieve and are justified, and it is with your mouththat you confess and are saved. As the Scripture

says, Anyone who trusts in him will never be putto shame. For there is no difference between Jewand Gentilethe same Lord is Lord of all andrichly blesses all who call on him, for, Everyonewho calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.How, then, can they call on the one they have notbelieved in? And how can they believe in the one ofwhom they have not heard? And how can they hear

without someone preaching to them? And how canthey preach unless they are sent? As it is written, Howbeautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. ForIsaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

What does it [the righteousness based on faith- from verse 6] say? This is as much Gods un-changing Word, for every generation, includingours, as is the magisterial exposition of the gospelin chs 1-8. The righteousness based on faith says

that it is engendered by preachingor rather thatwhat God does in bringing men and women to newlife he does in and through preaching. Fideo exauditu (faith and hearing). This is the ever-present,always living Word of God in the gospelon thelips in the confession that Jesus is Lord and inthe heart in the belief that God raised him fromthe dead (v8-9). But Pauls point is that universalavailability (v11-13) requires universal proclama-tion (v14). That sort of proclamation is divinelycommissioned (sent v15). Not just individualChristian witness, but public proclamation of the

whole counsel of God. The forward movementof the gospel, and the resultant growth and healthof the Church does not depend on communicationtechniques, or rhetoric, or human wisdom or human

power, not on mass psychology or clever market-ingit depends on the proclamation of the Truth,



7/7

in season and out of season, whether they will hearor not. God himself is reaching out to people in thefaithful preaching of his Word and this is such a taskas demands the whole life of the preachercalled,set apart, equipped, consecrated and sent out. It isa life of immense privilege, grounded in ongoingsacrifice. But verse 14 inexorably leads to v17.The inescapable implication is that Christ speaks inthe proclamation of Scriptureand for the preacherthat is both the most amazing privilege and the mostoverwhelming responsibility. That is why we giveourselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer.

I close with a quote from John Pipers excel-lent book The Supremacy of God in Preaching(Baker Book House (1990)) . Cotton Mather, theNew England puritan, said, The great design andintention of the office of a Christian preacher [is]to restore the throne and dominion of God in thesouls of men. As John Piper comments, The keyquestion is: What does the preacher herald? Whatis the good news referred to here [Romans 10: 14-

15]? Since verse 16 is a quotation of Isaiah 52:7, wedo well to go back and let Isaiah define it for usThe good tidings of the preacher, the peace and sal-vation that he publishes, are boiled down into onesentence: Your God Reigns! Mather applies this,with full justification, to the preacher. The greatdesign of a Christian preacher [is] to restore thethrone and dominion of God in the souls of men

So, brothers, Preach the Word!


Documents

What’s So Special About Preaching?