Some Thoughts On Preaching

“The bigger the truth we try to speak the smaller the words we should use, and the shorter sentences” (Ian Pitt-Watson). Good preaching does its hearers good. Our concern is not to impress people with our eloquence. Our goal is to direct attention away from ourselves to the Saviour. We should aim to be simple, sincere and spiritual.

Preaching, Prayer And The Power Of The Holy Spirit

'Pray ... for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel' (Eph. 6:18-19). There is no true boldness in preaching without the prayers of faithful man and women who call upon God on behalf of the preacher. With the supporting prayers of God’s people, the preacher goes into the pulpit. Through the continuing witness of God’s people, the preached word goes beyond the pulpit into the world. The preacher is one among many within the fellowship of the Lord’s people. His minstry is significant, but so also is the ministry exercised by others. As we consider the relationship between the pastor and the people we must never forget that the spark which gets the fire going is the power of the Holy Spirit. If there is to be a fire lit in our day, it will not be the work of man but the mighty working of the Spirit. In all the works of ministry - the ministry of the preacher and the ministry of the people - there is something we must never forget: 'We are servants of the word and not its masters ... Not only are we servants of the word ... we are unprofitable servants.'
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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

May Our Preaching Be The Spark Which Sets The Church On Fire For Christ.

The method of preaching will vary from sermon to sermon, from one series of sermons to another. The manner in which we preach remains constant. It is to be preaching grounded in the Scriptures, centred on Christ and empowered by the Spirit. Such preaching has relevance, not only for the Church but also for the world. The gospel cannot be kept within the ‘four walls’ of the Church. Paul described the gospel in this way - ‘The gospel for which I am suffering and wearing chains like a criminal’. He then went on to say, ‘But the word of God is not fettered’ (2 Tim. 2:9). Sometimes, the preacher will feel like Paul - imprisoned within his circumstances. He may feel imprisoned within a clerical strait-jacket. He may feel imprisoned within the limitations of being only one man, able to do so much and no more. Like Paul, however, the preacher can lift up his eyes to the Word of God which is able to break free from such imprisoning limitations. When the Word of God is preached, it is not simply a proclamation by one man within the ‘four walls’ of the Church. It is a proclamation which reaches out into the world. It is carried by the hearers into their life-situations. This fact encourages the preacher to believe that his message preached may be just the spark which gets a fire going. His preaching may be just the spark which sets the Church on fire with a real desire to pass on the good news of Christ’s love to the needy world. The possibility of being the spark which lights a fire gives the preacher greater boldness. It assures him that his preaching is not as insignificant and ineffective as he may sometimes feel. There is, however, a humbling factor here. The preacher receives boldness in answer to the prayers of God’s people. 'Pray ... for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel' (Eph. 6:18-19).

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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

Preaching A Message Which Is Relevant To The Life Of Our Hearers

If evangelical preaching is to make a significant impact on today’s world, it dare not rest content with giving theological lectures. ...The preacher dare not place himself far above the people, preaching a message which goes over the heads of the people. The preacher, no less than his hearers, must sit under the Word of God. If he is to preach a message which is relevant to the life of his hearers he must first find in Scripture a Word that is relevant to his own life. This involves much more than being an academic theologian who seeks intellectual stimulation from his study of the Bible. The preacher is not to remain a stranger to the people. He dare not speak as a theologian, proud of his education yet detached from his hearers’ life-situation. The preacher is to be a friend to his hearers. He lives among them. He meets them in the streets and at the shops. He visits them in hospital and at home. He teaches their children at school. He hears about and shares the joys and concerns of the community in which he lives. Within this very human context the pulpit must not become an ivory tower of irrelevance. Though not merely human - he is an ‘ambassador for Christ’, bringing to his hearers ‘the message of reconciliation’ (2 Cor. 5:19-20) - the preacher must not ignore the very human context in which the word of God is to be preached. In preaching from the Scriptures he proclaims a word which transforms the present and not merely a word that belongs to the past. The preacher who is sensitive to the pastoral relationships which exists between himself and the people will not preach messages which could be preached anywhere and at anytime. He takes account of the particular situation into which he is called to preach God’s word. He seeks to hear and to speak the word which God wants to speak to this people at this time.
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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

In A Real Sermon, Christ Is The Preacher.

In Christ, we face the claim of love upon our lives. This living presence of Christ inviting us to receive salvation and calling us to embark on the pathway of discipleship is the depth-dimension of preaching. On the face of it, preaching involves a preacher giving an address to a congregation. There is, however, something much deeper than that going on when the Word of God is preached. ... 'In a real sermon ... Christ is the preacher. ... The biblical view of preaching is to confront men with the question, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ And out of this question, to have the encounter shift into the dimension of a personal confrontation by Christ, who himself asks, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ ... Preaching must always be for decision. Our aim is not merely to inform the mind, to stimulate the feelings so that men have a rather pleasant emotional experience: it is rather to strike directly at the will with the demand for decision ... until we have confronted men with the issue so that they either have to surrender or rebel further, to accept it or reject, believe or disbelieve.' This decision concerning Jesus Christ is also a decision concerning the meaning, purpose and direction of our own lives - ‘Deciding about him is at the same time deciding about ourselves.’As we hear the story of Jesus Christ, the word of God tells us the story of our own lives - what we are and what we can become. The call for decision is a call to leave behind what we are in our sin, and move on to what we can become in Christ.
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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

If We Seek Relevance At The Expense Of Faithfulness, We Will End Up Being Irrelevant!

If we are to be faithful preachers of God’s word, we must preach what people need to hear, and not simply what they want to hear. This is not only the way of faithfulness, it is also the way of relevance. Those who seek relevance at the expense of faithfulness turn out to be irrelevant. Their shallow and superficial preaching turns out to be no real substitute for ‘the living and abiding word of God’ through which alone the hearers can be ‘born anew’ (1 Pet. 1:23). Before we can truly appreciate the grace of God in the Gospel, we must understand that ‘there is no human solution to the human problem.’ This can be a painful experience. We do our hearers no favours if we pay little attention to the uncomfortable truths of God’s Word. ... In the presence of Jesus Christ we learn that we are sinners, but we learn also that Christ loves sinners. Unlike the Pharisees who despised ‘sinners’ Jesus Christ ‘receives sinners’ (Lk. 15:2). In the presence of Christ we encounter both perfect holiness and perfect love. In Christ, we discover ‘an unmerited abundance of love.’ This love leads us to a special kind of obedience - the obedience of love. ‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 Jn. 4:19).
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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

Let Us Preach God's Word As The Living Word.

In the pulpit, faithfulness and relevance are to be held together. In the study authority and interpretation are to be held together. If, in the study, Scripture is not honoured as the authoritative word of God, there will not be faithful preaching from the pulpit. A commitment to faithfulness carries with it a concern for relevance, since God ‘is not God of the dead, but of the living’ (Matt. 22:32). He is the living God and his Word is to be proclaimed as the living Word. If we are to speak a word of relevance, we need to interpret God’s Word for this generation. It is not sufficient to affirm the authority of the Bible, if we do not give serious consideration to understanding what God is saying to the world of today.
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This post is an excerpt from my article on The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

‘Preach The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ.’

Today’s preachers are, like Paul, called to ‘preach the unsearchable riches of Christ’. Our situation is not however precisely the same as Paul’s. We are to preach the Word of God ‘as addressed to modem man’. This application of the gospel to the situation of modem man requires to be handled in a careful and sensitive manner. We dare not remain locked in the past if we are to speak a word which has genuine relevance for the present day. On the other hand, the threat of modernism’ is real. We can be so easily ‘squeezed into the mould of the world’s way of thinking’, rather than allowing our minds to be renewed by ‘the living and abiding word of God (cf. Rom. 12:1-2 J. B. Phillips; 1 Pet. 1:23). Where modern thinking is accorded an undue importance, the gospel can be seriously distorted....‘In seeking for relevance we must not renounce faithfulness.’ We must not set relevance and faithfulness over against each other, as though we are forced to choose between them - be faithful at the expense of relevance; be relevant at the expense of faithfulness. Relevance and faithfulness belong together. Relevance is not to be divorced from faithfulness but grounded in faithfulness.
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This is an excerpt from a post entitled The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today.

Our Preaching Should Be Grounded In Scripture, Centred On Christ And Empowered By The Spirit.

Our preaching should be grounded in Scripture, centred on Christ and empowered by the Spirit. The Scriptures, the Saviour and the Spirit - here we have a ‘threefold cord’ that cannot be broken. By stressing the importance of the Bible for contemporary preaching we are not simply being ‘traditional’. We ground our preaching in Scripture because we find Christ in the Scriptures (Lk. 24:27; Jn. 5:40; 2 Tim. 3:15). We do not base our preaching on Scripture simply because we wish to be ‘Biblicists’. We preach from Scripture because the Spirit points us to the Son through the Scriptures (Lk. 24:2; Rom. 10:17). This ‘threefold cord’, the Scriptures, the Saviour and the Spirit, must be preserved if contemporary preaching is to be truly evangelical.
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This is an excerpt from a post you can find here.

Worshipping The Lord, Walking In His Ways And Being His Witnesses

Micah 1:1-2:13
Micah was a fearless preacher of God’s Word. His message was not popular: ‘Let the Lord God be a witness against you’. He was a forthright preacher of God’s Word. He knew that the people wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say to them. He demanded that they listen to him. This wasn’t only Micah’s word. It was the Word of the Lord. That’s why Micah said, ‘Hear, O peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth and all who are in it’(2:2). We cannot afford to ignore the Word of the Lord. We must listen to His Word. He speaks His Word against us. He says, ‘You cannot save yourselves’(2:3). He speaks His Word against us so that we might learn to rejoice in His Word of salvation: ‘I will bring you together like sheep returning to the fold’(2:12).

Micah 3:1-5:1
Micah speaks to those ‘who hate good and love evil’(3:2). He calls upon them to change their way of living. He calls upon them to worship the Lord - ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’- and walkwith Him - ‘We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever’. How do we learn to ‘walk in His paths’? We come to His ‘House’. We listen to His ‘Word’. We pray that His Word will come to us ‘with power’. We ask Him to ‘teach us His ways’. We pray that we will be ‘filled with the Spirit of the Lord’(4:2,5; 3:8). We worship the Lord in His House. Gathered in His House for worship, we ‘receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us’. Through His power, we are equipped for witness: ‘you will be My witnesses...’(Acts 1:8).
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Blessings in Christ
Christ in all the Scriptures
http://christinallthescriptures.blogspot.com

Keeping Christ At The Centre Of Our Praise And Our Preaching

* Christ is to be pre-eminent in our praise.

In Luke 1:68-79, we have a song of praise. Zechariah worships the Lord: Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and He has redeemed His people (v. 68). This song of praise – from the father of John the Baptist - is directly connected to the song of praise which came from Mary, the mother of Jesus: My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour ... (Luke 1:46-55). Like Zechariah and Mary, we are to praise the God of our salvation. We are to give thanks to God for the gift of His Son - our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

* Christ is to be pre-eminent in our preaching.

Jeremiah warns us against the false prophets: ‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ (Jeremiah 23:1). We are not to be like the false prophets. We are to be faithful servants of the Lord. God is calling us to be faithful. To John the Baptist, God’s Word was spoken: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him” (Luke 1:76). This is our ministry. We are to prepare the way for the Lord. We are to point away from ourselves, saying, “I must decrease. Christ must increase” (John 3:30). We are to direct attention to Jesus, our Saviour, saying, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).