Foolishness of Preaching

I recently had an email exchange attempting to get Pastor Chris to Blog. He hasn’t agreed yet due to his busy pastoral schedule, but I am sure this may get his fingers typing. I have wanted to do a series on the church. So, I’d thought I’d start with the necessity of the foolishness of preaching.

With the rise of the Emergent church movement, preaching seems to be on its way out and other means of communicating the Gospel are to be used. Means such as group discussions about what we all think a text is saying. That may seem fine, but usually what occurs is that people begin to express their different interpretations of God’s Word and feelings as too what God is doing in the world.

God’s Word eventually becomes “unclear” and “insufficient” for everyday life. Doctrine is placed in the classroom and “practical theology” takes the front seat. Everyday life is divorced from “dogmatic teaching”.

The diminished role of preaching in the life of the church is nothing new. History is replete with times of apostasy and preachers being thrown out on their ears. Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book Preaching and Preachers stated:

“Is it not clear, as you take a bird’s-eye view of Church history, that the decadent periods and eras in the history of the Church have always been those periods when preaching had declined? What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or of a Revival? It is renewed preaching. Not only a new interest in preaching but a new kind of preaching. A revival of true preaching has always heralded these great movements in the history of the Church.”

The denial of the need for preaching is happening in our day. Truth has become relative. How is “modern” man any different from the first century? He isn’t. “But we need ‘new’ ways to reach people” we are often told. Man’s need is the same now as it was in the first century.

Men will cloud the issue and equivocate preaching with other means. For instance, Jones likens “elements of worship”, “responsive reading”, “drama”, “giving of testimonies” and the like as being entertainment and not equal to the ministry of God’s Word. Yet do we not see in our mega-churches exactly that. I actually heard a guest speaker say that singing the Gospel is just as good as preaching the Gospel. It doesn’t matter how you “share it”. I don’t remember the Apostles “sharing” or singing the Gospel as a means of the proclamation of the Gospel. Even Steve Camp, a Christian musician, will be only too quick to point this out.

It was preaching that the Apostles did in order to call God’s people. It was through their preaching that thousands of souls were converted to Christ in one day. It was their preaching that called dead sinners from spiritual death to spiritual life. Preaching the Word of God is the means by which God has ordained the salvation and preservation of men. To deny this truth is to deny the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.

Preaching is the means God has ordained to save sinners. There will be times when men will reject preachers. Now may be one of those times. Still, God’s ministers should remain faithful and steadfast. For God is glorified in the Proclamation of His Word in times of revival or times of trial.

Some passages to think about:

Mat 3:1 Now in those days John the Baptist *came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
Mat 3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Mat 12:41 "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Luk 3:3 And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;

Luk 4:44 So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Luk 20:1 On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him,

Act 5:42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Act 8:4 Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

Act 8:12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

1Co 2:4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Col 1:25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

1Ti 5:17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

Series on the Church