Preaching--Its Nature and Urgency

NOWADAYS preaching is considered as a somewhat prosaic and outworn occupation. Everyone, even preachers, occasionally takes a crack at the sermon and the sermonizer and the seeming futility and unpopularity of preaching. . .

NOWADAYS preaching is considered as a somewhat prosaic and outworn occupation. Everyone, even preachers, occasionally takes a crack at the sermon and the sermonizer and the seeming futility and unpopularity of preaching.

Yet in the very teeth of such banality and stupid evaluation, from what ever source it may come, I maintain that no occupation in the New Testament is as clearly defined, commanded, and urged upon the church as is preaching.

Christ Himself made preaching a central part of His earthly ministry among men. Luke reports, "He went through out every city and village, preaching" (Luke 8:1). No sooner had He ordained the twelve than He sent them "through the towns, preaching" (chap. 9:6). After the resurrection Christ commanded that the gospel "should be preached in his name among all nations" (chap. 24:47). The early church obeyed and moved out on its mission, going "every where preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). It appears that everyone, apostles and laymen, got with it and told it as it was and is.

The early believers were under high orders, they cared little whether their preaching received a high rating from the critics or not. Floggings, stoning, jailing, let alone a "turned off" audience, could not make these Christians turn off Their ardor and fervor were compelling.

 It never Occurred to them to substitute some less strenuous method of communicating the gospel, or to quit be cause preaching was wearing and tiring, or to seek some comfortable administrative or teaching assignment as compensation or relief from preaching. First of all, and always, these men were preachers.

Neither was the word relevant found in their vocabulary or thinking, for as far as they were concerned, the gospel was not to be tailored to satisfy contemporary philosophy or theology. Theirs was not a message of explanation, but of proclamation—"thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. . . . And ye are witnesses of these things (Luke 24: 46-48). "Go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (chap. 9:60).

Neither ambiguity nor equivocation could be charged to the apostles. They stated their message with singular clarity, force, and conviction. What they had to say they said, and men understood what they said.

They were understood so well that many suffered martyrdom. Pleasing platitudes, vague generalizations, and meaningless statements were not the cause of their death. Stephen, James, Paul, and Peter lost their lives because their Christian testimony was clear, lucid, and explicit. When charged to refrain from preaching and teaching in Christ's name, Peter and John answered, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20).

Watch Peter on the day of Pentecost. When confronted with the question "What meaneth this?" he did not retort, "Well, to be sure, we are not certain ourselves," or "Well, what do you think?" Neither did he panic theologically, dismiss the expect ant congregation, and race to the theologians of his day to check on whether his text was relevant or not.

Peter had something to say, and he said it, contemporary theological views notwithstanding. With resolute courage and conviction he lifted up his voice and said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (chap. 2:16). "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins" (verse 38).

He seems to be doing little more than quoting Scripture and reasoning from it. Yet, as he preaches, a change takes place. At length the multitude is deeply moved, and forgetful of everything but the overwhelming conviction of the moment, they exclaim: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

The straightforward answer caused some three thousand persons to resolve to join the newly formed church. Had Peter's preaching been permeated with faith-destroying skepticism the early Christian church would have suffered an irretrievable loss, if not dissolution.

Although lacking powerful pulpit personalities, and certainly not considering their sermons as literary masterpieces, they nevertheless stormed the cities of their day preaching Christ, the Word, the cross, the resurrection, and urging men to believe, repent, and be baptized. Their preaching was a diagnosis of, and a remedy for, sin. Their aim was not so much relevance as redemption for those who listened.

They had no illusions as to which road—the narrow or the wide—would be thin-ranked or crowded as a result of their preaching. They were neither elated nor dismayed by either the presence or absence of phenomenal success, for they remembered their Master's warning, "They will follow your teaching as little as they have followed mine" (John 15: 20, N.E.B.).*

Nevertheless, in spite of abuse, scorn, and vilification, they persevered until they formed churches in Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens, Philippi, Macedonia, and Galatia; culminating their efforts by planting the banner of Christ in the axis of the empire—Rome—and in the chief household of that city—Caesar's. What boldness! What audacity! What faith! What vision! Yea, more, what preaching!

All this helps us to better understand Paul's fervent charge to a young preacher: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, . . . Preach the word" (2 'Tim. 4:1, 2).

In like manner we have been commissioned to preach. Lest we forget, this was a charge given us at our ordination service. That charge has never been re called by Christ, inspiration, or the brethren.

"Well," some retort, "what can preaching do for people today? People are no longer dependent upon preachers for in formation, so why should they listen to someone laboring through a thirty-minute discourse on themes unrelated to their interests?"

The observation that today's preacher, when measured with gifted TV personalities, is somewhat unattractive and his speech somewhat flat is no excuse to stop preaching. Most effective sermons will never be gems of literature. And were all apostles, including Paul, powerful and magnetic personalities? Upon his own admission, his exciting Athenian sermon almost added up to nothing.

In spite of personality defects, Paul became an effective preacher. Whether he preached thirty minutes or all night, there was one thing he did not do—"I declared the attested truth of God without display of fine words or wisdom. . . . The word I spoke, the gospel I proclaimed, did not sway you with subtle arguments, it carried conviction by spiritual power, so that your faith might be built not upon human wisdom but upon the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:1-5, N.E.B.).

It is very easy to draw attention to one self in the pulpit. We are plagued with the temptation to pull in the brilliant quotation, the quip that makes for a smile, and the apt slang that shows we are in with our generation. But often as not, these things fail to communicate Jesus Christ. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher. If people desire to be better because of my preaching, they will never get to Christ.

In this respect all of us sense the frustrating impossibility of penetrating the mystery world of man's mind without the aid of the Holy Spirit. Underscoring this point, Ellen G. White says: "The preaching of the word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit."—The Desire of Ages, p. 671. In discussing the origin and growth of the church in Thessalonica, Paul says, "We brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth" (1 Thess. 1:5, T.E.V.).†

Consider therefore these three Biblical characteristics of effective preaching:

1. The word of truth. 2. The power of the Holy Spirit. 3. The complete conviction of its truth. Preaching should have the ring of authority. The authority we seek is in a Person and in His Word. Christ is the truth and His Word is truth. The Scriptures testify of Him and "to him give all the prophets witness" as Lord and Saviour (Acts 10:43).

Congregations today are hungering for Bible-oriented and Christ-centered preaching. Church members open their Bibles and follow the Scriptures avidly when the minister digs deeply into the Bible and uncovers divine truth. This is the natural reaction to Biblical expository preaching.

And why not? All the sins that men commit are uncovered in the Bible, as are all the virtues, the vital spiritual interests, and all the high opportunities and qualifications for fellowship with the Eternal. Accurate Bible preaching makes God real to people and at the same time prepares people to meet God.

In every congregation there are the sorrowing, the discouraged, the depressed, the wayward, and those burdened with the guilt of sin. You can believe it that somewhere within the Bible is an open promise of spiritual supply for every conceivable human need. The Bible confronts us at every crossroad of life. There is comfort and cheer for the sorrowing, there is warning and rebuke for the sinner, and there is confirmation and guidance for those who repent. The moral interests and compassion of the Eternal Father expressed in the Scriptures fit in close around the needs of His earth-born children like some well-made garment— the garment of Christ's righteousness.

Why then do not our pulpits ring with the Biblical proclamations of God? It may be that the real rub is the discipline expository preaching involves as contrasted with the small amount of time necessary to develop pious twaddle. The minister who would preach an expository sermon must be willing to spend the necessary time in his study, using all possible resources to let the light of the text break through. Not only study but prayer is an essential before and during sermon preparation; and beyond this is the difficult task of applying these timeless truths to everyday life situations. Could it be that other methods and means are more attractive to the preacher because they are less exacting?

We must restore expository preaching to its rightful place. We present Christ to men truly and fully only when we present Him in the context of all Scripture. Expository preaching will also fol low the apostolic example in tracing the divine program in human history. In his sermon on the day of Pentecost Peter pointedly stressed the sovereignty of God and revealed from the writings of the prophets how closely entwined are the histories of redemption and sin. He interpreted what happened by recalling the words of the prophet Joel centuries before.

As Peter preached, he swept across all history and saw God at work in it. He noted that God has been planning man's redemption from the beginning of time. He saw the cross at the heart of history and the resurrection as the mightiest act of God. He looked onward to the climax of history to what he calls the "restitution of all things" and emphasized that all this had been declared by "all his holy prophets since the world began."

His theme was that God is at work in history, that God has permitted sin and evil to enter and infect history, yet has provided both answer and antidote in Jesus Christ. His Word was therefore relevant to the situation and the proclamation of that Word was the supreme need of that generation and every one that followed.

Certainly there are some people who find all preaching dull, even as some people are bored with a powerful symphony. Still others rate a guitar higher than a pipe organ, a picket sign more pro found than a Bible study, and a dialog as something superior to a sermon.

The overuse of the word relevance by some has scared the wits out of some preachers; so much so that some of them have become second-rate psychologists, psychiatrists, and marriage counselors. Relevance, which means little more than being related to our temporary interests and immediate needs, has also panicked other preachers into preaching fantastic, outlandish, and highly diluted sermons.

If we turn to the gospel record it is quite evident that Christ knew how to relate to the people of His day. He spoke their common language and not some professional religious jargon. He talked about food, drink, marriage, children, taxes, housework, hospitality, cooperation, birth, death, and all other things that made up the everyday life of those He lived with. Believe it, He was relevant.

He also talked of things that the masses did not wish to hear about—like sin, obedience, commandments, judgments, hell, and being "perfect." In so doing He was wholly indifferent to the climate of opinion around Him. Hence, the crowds began to fall away. His words grew more mysterious and more searching. Even among His close followers "from that time many . . . went back, and walked no more with him" (John 6:66). Of one thing we can be sure. Had He responded and concentrated on their kind of relevance there would have been no cross, no resurrection, no Second Coming, no future—nothing but death and eternal loss.

In our day the man who has made material success, the acquiring of a for tune, the supreme goal of life will walk away from our preaching even as the rich young ruler did from Christ. Like wise, the self-contained and the self-satisfied will consider our gospel of forgiveness, repentance, and salvation as sheer "foolishness." Millions today consider themselves capable of running their own lives apart from God. And to submit themselves to the grace of Christ and His absolute ethic in the Ten Commandments is to them a sign of weakness.

For any scoffing frame of mind the preaching of the gospel is, of course, irrelevant. Surely it is better for Seventh-day Adventist preachers to recognize this than to attempt any dilution of the third angel's message so that it appeals to the self-assured. This would only as sure the damnation of preacher and hearer.

Let us observe right here that the preacher's finest asset in reaching modern minds is his own "complete conviction" of what he is preaching. Unless the truth possesses him wholly, notwithstanding the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit, he is a non conductor of the grace of Christ. Can we move others with messages from a Book we doubt and disbelieve? Can we move men from sin to righteousness if we address them with less conviction and enthusiasm than a TV commercialist offering a tonic for tired blood?

It is said that the great Thomas Chalmers preached with a thick provincial accent, without any dramatic gesture, with his finger following the written lines as he read, and with scarcely a look upward at his congregation. Yet the mes sages of that godly man went like fire through the land, and multitudes hung breathlessly upon his words.

For us also that which matters most is that we possess deep convictions and are aflame about what we preach, that we be God-possessed, our minds directed by the Holy Spirit, and love overflowing in every word we utter.

When we preach we want people to do more than just think about what we say. Far more than just kindling the imagination, moving the feelings, and convincing the judgment, our preaching should cause men to feel so deeply that they will resolve and act—act in taking their place under the banner "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14: 12). If our preaching does not accomplish this it has accomplished nothing. We have left people where we found them. As we use the cleaver of present truth our task is to separate people from a death-doomed, death-saturated world in to the company of those awaiting the re turn of the Lord of life. Our preaching has no other purpose. Therefore let us seek to turn all who will listen in this direction.

Pulpits and voices there are in the land that are urging people to "learn, baby, learn." Others implore the masses to "earn, baby, earn." A few call upon the disadvantaged to "burn, baby, burn."

But as God's preachers we should swell a clarion call throughout the land, "Turn, baby, turn!" "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die" (Eze. 33:11). "Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin" (chap. 18:30).

Let it be repeated again and again that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has not been commissioned to educate, reform, civilize, or govern the world. Neither has it been raised to solve economic problems or to Christianize the social order, and certainly not to meddle in politics.

The church's commission is clear and specific, namely, to "preach the gospel to every creature." Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else! It exalts one Person, and one Person only—Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ coming again. Urgently it invites mankind to become reconciled to God by exercising faith in Jesus Christ. Should we as Seventh-day Adventist preachers permit ourselves to be diverted from this divine commission it would thereby blur and muffle the church's message and witness. This must not happen and, under God, it will not! What then is the future of Seventh-day Adventist preaching? Prophets of doubt, indecision, and uncertainty would have you believe the worst. Listen to God's evaluation.

The last work of the third angel's mes sage swells into the "loud cry." Empowered by the latter rain, with angels hurrying from heaven to help us, the whole earth will be lightened by the proclamations of God's messengers resulting in the following:

1. Many who hear the truth will accept it.

2. God-fearing rulers will accept truth.

3. Many backsliders will return.

4. Love will triumph over race prejudice.

5. Mighty miracles will be wrought.

6. Sick will be healed.

7. The health message will be proclaimed mightily.

8. Providential interpositions will help.

9. God's people will leave popular churches.

10. The whole earth will be enlightened.

Therefore, take courage, man of God! Keep preaching. Your work is not in vain, the best is today and tomorrow. There is no better work to be engaged in until the Lord returns, so—"Go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60).

* From The New English Bible. © The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 1970. Reprinted by permission.

† From the Today's English Version of the New Testament. Copyright © American Bible Society 1966.


Ministry reserves the right to approve, disapprove, and delete comments at our discretion and will not be able to respond to inquiries about these comments. Please ensure that your words are respectful, courteous, and relevant.

comments powered by Disqus

June 1970

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

To Make Ready a People

What is the ultimate goal of our mission as a church? What is the final objective of our ministry as modern apostles for Jesus Christ? Is it to finish the work, or to change the world, or to demonstrate for peace, or to press for social reforms and true racial equality? Is it to preach with power the three angels' messages, or to fill up the church and make up the 144,000? . . .

The Spirit-Filled Home

ONE need not look far or listen long to realize that today's world is filled with staggering problems. Committees are appointed, task forces as signed, and policing agencies reinforced in an attempt to control an unruly, rebellious generation; a generation of confusion, filled with paradox, where people are more intelligent than ever before, yet without answers; more wealthy than ever before, with more poverty everywhere; producing more food than ever before, but more are hungry. . .

Do We Know the Holy Spirit?

IN ALL the religions of the world there is nothing that corresponds with the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And nothing is more vital to the Christian's life than the consciousness of the indwelling of the Spirit. One can be a baptized member of the church, however, and know nothing of this experience. . .

The Spirit-Filled Church

THE Christian Church was launched at Pentecost. Pentecostal power impelled the young church on its mission. The assigned mission of the church was to preach the gospel of Christ in all the world. And the youthful, Spirit-filled church plied its mission magnificently.

Newly Edged With Power

AN AMAZING group experience is written with letters of fire in the first chapter of Acts! One hundred and twenty ordinary men and women prayed that they might shake the world—and they turned it upside down!

Enter Into Life

WHEN Jesus said to the rich young ruler, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. 19:17), He was expressing an eternal truth. But a misinterpreted doctrine of the grace of God leads many Christians today to assume that Jesus did not really mean what He said. . .

Church Strandards---The Minister's Responsibility

Unfortunately, how ever, today this attitude of "don't preach to me" is prevalent to a greater degree than ever. When one ventures onto the field of church standards he has, according to some, stopped preaching and gone to meddling. He takes the risk of being labeled a "legalist," a "has been" or one who isn't "with it." In spite of this anti-attitude we must not neglect our responsibility to hold high the standards of Jesus Christ in our living, teaching, and preaching.

The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever

"Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines."

The Remnant Church

IN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST parlance, based on what I have always considered to be sound scriptural exegesis, we lay claim to the term remnant as applying to Seventh-day Adventists. . .

The Challenge of Northern Europe

Somehow we must lift up Christ, sound a warning message, and call out a remnant in this great Northern European Division. From West Africa and Ethiopia to Iceland and across to Poland; in historic Britain, beautiful Scandinavia, and that most densely populated land on earth—little Holland, we need to work with the belief that this is the last hour.

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up
Advertisement - SermonView - Medium Rect (300x250)

Recent issues

See All
Advertisement - SermonView - WideSkyscraper (160x600)