I know I'm not currently preaching in a church. I'm not a pastor of a church, nor can I claim to have years of preaching experience under my belt. However, I have been listening to sermons for years. I have set in the pews, heard men get up and preach, and I have listened to what they said. In combination with all this, I have also been reading my bible, studying Scripture, and seeking after Christ for probably longer than I have been a regular church attendee.
I note all of the things above, because I would like to talk about preaching. I want to discuss the right way, and the wrong way. I can only write from the perspective of someone who has read Scripture, taken classes, and had limited opportunity to, pardon the pun, practice what I preach. But, I believe I can write about preaching from three perspectives: the preacher, the hearer, and the Word.
The most important aspect of preaching is what the Word has to say about it. Here is a list of 26 verses that have to do with preaching in the Bible: Ezekiel 20:46, 21:2; Amos 7:16; Micah 2:6, 2:11; Matthew 3:1-2, 4:17, 11:1, 11:5, 12:41, 23:3; Mark 1:7, 1:35, 1:38, 1:39, 2:2, 3:14, 16:20; Luke 3:18, 4:43, 4:44, 7:22, 9:6, 11:32, 16:16, 20:1. I invite you to take your time and read each of these verses, and then to read the context around those verses to see to what "preaching" the author has in mind. My conclusion is this: preaching, in every section of Scripture, is proclaiming the word of God as it has been given to the individual proclaiming it. (Notice that those who "preach wine" are not preaching God's word, but are preaching their own word, a passage to which everyone who would preach would do well to devote their attention.)
For a prophet, preaching would be proclaiming the message God has given him to the people to whom he has been sent. For a modern day preacher, preaching is proclaiming the word of God as it has been handed to us in our particular formats to the people to whom God has sent us. This means that no preacher has actually preached until he has spoken the word of God. And the word of God has not been spoken until the whole counsel of God has been spoken on any subject. And, because Christ is the one whom God has spoken to us through, in these last times, (Hebrews 1:2) no modern preaching is complete if the hearers of the message are not brought to Christ.
When we stand up and read a section from Genesis, Leviticus, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Isaiah, or any other book of the Old Testament, if we do not show how that passage relates to Christ, we have not preached. We have not preached because, no matter what we have said, we have not really shared what the Word of God was saying. Notice that when Christ preached, he preached the good news (go back and re-read the vast majority of the verses listed above from the gospels if you want evidence). If we preach anything less than the good news of Jesus Christ, then we have not preached.
If we preach from proverbs then, and encourage men to have wisdom, but we do not point that wisdom is offered to us freely through Christ, then what wisdom have we encouraged men to have? If we preach from the prophets and show that God is a righteous God who judges his enemies, but do not tell them that Christ has suffered that judgment on our behalf, then what judgment are they expecting? No matter what section of Scripture we preach from, if we fail to show how these Scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that he offers men redemption before a holy and righteous God, then we have not preached.
Likewise, when we hear a sermon that tells us how to live a good life, or tells us about the great love of God, or tells us about the rapture of the church, or how to suffer through the tribulation, (pick any millennial position, for the sake of the example it doesn't matter) if we do not hear about the fact that we are sinners, and we stand separated from God, but that Christ died for us, and he rose again on the third day, and that anyone who places their faith in him can have eternal life, then we have not heard a sermon. If hearing a sermon means we have heard the preached word of God, then we have not heard a sermon until we have heard the good news proclaimed from the pulpit, because the good news is the Word of God to us today.
Hebrews 4:2 says that the good news has come to us, just as it came to those in the wilderness. God's message has always been the good news of salvation through faith. The law did not abrogate his promise. The law did not conflict with grace, but acted as an instructor to point us to the grace of God that was coming. And now, the grace of God has come, so it is the message that we need to continually preach and hear. My challenge to every pastor, and I hope my people will challenge me with this, is to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, because that is the only message that is worth preaching, anything less is just advice.
If your goal is just good advice, then get out of the pulpit. God has called pastors to be preachers, caretakers of the flock. Do you think your advice is better than his? Do you think your wisdom is superior to the good news of Jesus Christ? Pulpits are places for preachers, and preachers preach the Word of God.
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