When God gave Jonah that clear-cut command, "Preach," there was no room for doubt. It was "the second time" God had spoken, and because the delinquent prophet had failed to carry out the divine commission the Lord reinforced His word. Jonah had been given a special message and nothing must deter him. His preaching could become effective only as he permitted himself to be God's man.
No God-called preacher is at liberty to preach what he wants to, not even what the people might want. The preachers in ancient times were called "the man of the Word," or "the man of God." Jeremiah declared, God's "word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones." In declaring that Word he discovered he was unpopular. So he decided to change his style. He soft-pedaled the truth. But he could not escape his responsibility, and despite the threat of persecution God set him once again on the path of unpopularity. He was God's messenger to his generation.
Preachers of today, no less than the prophets of ancient days, are called to proclaim the Word of the Lord. And like them we must unfold God's truth in the setting of present-day events. There has always been a "present truth." What was present truth in Noah's day was different from the present truth of Isaiah's generation, yet both were preachers of righteousness. The vital message of justification by faith, so shattering in its effect in the days of Luther, was in essence no different from the message that Isaiah proclaimed, but Luther preached it in the setting of his time. Four hundred years later, we who serve in the sixties of this present century are to preach the preaching God has given us. We dare not equivocate. With earth-shaking events causing the multitudes to fear, it is a wonderful privilege to be called and commissioned as a herald of hope. No generation of preachers ever faced a greater challenge. And never were people more expectant than they are today.
When our congregations gather for worship what do we give them? What do they take back to their homes? Are we proclaiming God's last message as "present truth," relating it to the happenings of our day? Or could the sermons we preach be preached by sincere men of other Christian groups who do not have all the great light God has committed to us as a people?
We rejoice that the standard of ministerial training is on the upgrade, and it is encouraging to hear the well-rounded approaches evident in many areas. Yet, we would ask: Are we preaching the message in its fullness? Recently we listened to a fine psychological study on Peter, as one of the companions of our Lord. Many helpful lessons were drawn from this man's life.
And who of us has not preached on this lovable character? The pastor that morning seemed to have missed a golden opportunity when he failed to present Peter as one of the foremost prophets of the Second Advent. No New Testament writer excelled Peter's forthright presentation of last-day conditions leading up to the final destruction of the works of man when our Lord returns in glory. If during the sermon on that Sabbath morning he had referred briefly to Peter's clear concept of these future events, it would have reinforced the excellent lessons he was bringing to his people. What finer appeal could anyone make than the very words of the apostle himself: "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness"? Or as Phillips translates it: "What sort of people ought you to be? Surely men of good and holy character, who live expecting and earnestly longing for the coming of the day of God." *Peter's statement concerning the last-day events and the scoffers that would arise, ridiculing the historicity of the Flood and declaring that all things would continue as they were from "the beginning of the creation," is an exact picture of the evolutionary concept of our generation. To study the characteristics of this great leader in his pre-Pentecost experience is not sufficient—we must see him as the messenger of the Lord to our own generation also. It was Peter who spoke about God's people being established in the "present truth." As undershepherds it is our responsibility to proclaim God's saving message of grace, but it will come with greater appeal if it is brought to the people in a present-day setting.
We might take another example. If one were to preach on the tragedy of our Lord's rejection by the blind leaders in the days of Caiaphas when the Sanhedrin condemned One who was obviously innocent, it would not be difficult to bring many wonderful lessons to the congregation. But to discover these from a merely psychological viewpoint would not be sufficient. The message would mean much more if we brought our hearers right into the judgment hall where they could listen to the wards of Jesus as He addressed Himself to the high priest: "Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man . . . coming in the clouds of heaven."
A few terse sentences would be sufficient to show that John, who was one of those who heard those words, was referring to this when he wrote nearly seventy years later: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." John, like his Lord, was looking down to our own day when we can confidently expect the fulfillment of that great prophecy.
Although the first advent and the cross must ever be the center of our message and the foundation of every discourse, it is the second advent of our Lord that becomes the focal point to which we must lead our congregations, for we are "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Although the Second Advent would be impossible without the first, the first advent would be meaningless without the second. Not that we should be always harping on the signs of the times, but our preaching will mean much more if we can show forth God's last message, presenting it as "present truth." Psychology is not enough, nor is theology of itself enough. Our generation needs to hear theology unfolded in such a way as will lead us to the crowning event of the ages—the imminent return of our Lord.
As Isaac and Abraham wended their way up the hillside to the place of sacrifice the young man said, "My father, here is the wood, and the fire, but where is the lamb," That question, fellow preachers, is one that we must continually ask ourselves. We need more than wood and fire and an altar; there must be the Offering, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ must be the center of all our preaching, not only as our Example and Sacrifice but also as our coming King. His second advent and our preparation to meet Him must be the focal point of all our preaching. The tendency to wander off into the bypaths of philosophy and psychology and leave hearts hungry for the bread of life and the message of our Lord's near return is something every student must guard against. Our own souls are imperiled unless we keep a clear vision of our God-given responsibility. God's command to Jonah is as pertinent today as it was nearly three thousand years ago: "Preach . . . the preaching that I bid thee."
R. A. A.
* From The New Testament in Modern English, @ by J. B. Phillips 1958. Used by permission of The Macmillan Company.
