by Dr. Steven Riser

INTRODUCTION:

In meeting new people, I have a lot of fun answering the question: What do you do? Do you know one of my favorite answers? … “I comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” Doesn’t the writer of Hebrews say that the Bible - God’s Word - is like a two edged sword?

The Bible is more like a surgeon’s scalpel than a machete, it doesn’t cut, it divides. Hebrews 4:12-13: “For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are. He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done.”

Newsflash: Not everyone wants to know God’s Word because they don’t want to be exposed for what they really are. We have all heard the expression that: “Either God’s Word will keep us from sin or sin will keep us from God’s Word.” It’s not always easy exposing ourselves to the truth about ourselves, is it? Cf. Psalm 139:23, 24

In recent days the place and importance of preaching has been downplayed but that’s not the case in Scripture. When it comes to our salvation we’re reminded: God ordains both the ends and the means. I Cor.1:21b: it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe. 2 Tim.3:15: the Holy Scripture makes us wise, leading us the salvation through faith in Christ. Rm.10:14-15: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach, except they are sent?”

How many people clearly understand the nature & importance of preaching today? My guess: very few!

1) What is preaching anyway and what are some basic elements of Biblical preaching?

2) What are some of the impediments or barriers to good preaching?

3) What is the responsibility of those who listen to the preacher?

These are the basic questions we want to consider in our sermon this morning. What is preaching? One classic definition is: It is God’s truth through human personality. It’s the spiritual activity of a God ordained person; it is a ministry to which one is called by God. A preacher stands in Christ’s stead, under His authority & in obedience to His call/command to preach. A preacher proclaims, explains, illustrates, persuades & applies the whole counsel of God to daily living. The focus of preaching is God’s Word – “the whole counsel or purpose of God.” (Acts 20:26, 27) The focus of God’s Word: a revelation of the nature & character of God; (the Law and the Gospel). The focus of the Gospel is: God’s love and grace revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The focus of the person of Christ is the Son of Man (human nature) and the Son of God (divine nature). The focus of the work of Christ is His sinless life, atoning death and victorious resurrection. What we are called to preach is not a reductionist gospel for your personal salvation only. What is being preached is the gospel of grace – the glorious good news of the Kingdom of God!

What is preaching? It’s the authoritative/persuasive proclamation of the news of God’s sovereign grace. Preaching is the exposition, illustration & application of God’s authoritative & inspired Word to daily living. It involves proclaiming the living Word of God by those called of God and controlled by the Spirit of GOD. The goal isn’t information but transformation by illumination & conviction leading to repentance & faith.

Preaching involves an attempt to persuade: 2 Cor. 5:11: “…we try to persuade men...” In Acts 26:28, King Agrippa said that Paul almost persuaded him to become a Christian. Preaching doesn’t consist in excellency of speech, or in human wisdom or in worldly power. Preaching involves the testimony, wisdom and power of God transmitted through His Word and Spirit.

I Cor.2: 1-5: Dear brothers, even when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God's message. For I decided that I would speak only of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. I came to you in weakness-timid and trembling. And my preaching was very plain, not with a lot of oratory and human wisdom, but the Holy Spirit's power was in my words, proving to those who heard them that the message was from God. I did this because I wanted your faith to stand firmly upon God, not on man's great ideas.

Preaching needs to be Bible based, Christ-centered, Spirit controlled and person oriented. (2 Tim.3:15) It reveals the hearts of men, the nature and will of God, and the way of salvation through faith in Christ. Biblical preaching is authoritative and persuasive because it is based on the Word and Spirit of God. Preaching is grounded in God’s Word therefore (2 Tim.3:16-17; 2 Tim.4:1-2; 1 Cor.2:2) it harmonizes with truth (Gal.1:6-7). “The sum of Thy word is truth.” It is simple and practical. It reveals the sinfulness of sin (Rm.7:7, 13) and the love of God through Christ (Jn.3:16; Rom.5:8). Good preaching is well rounded – it involves preaching the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20: 20-35). It also proclaims and clarifies God’s intended purposes (desirous will) for His people.

What is it that makes preaching spiritually effective? In a word: the unction or anointing of the Spirit. In the unction of the Spirit, the preacher becomes a channel though which God’s powerful/loving presence and persuasive purpose is realized. Briefly, what are some of the characteristics of this unction?

1. Care & diligent preparation in the Word and prayer and submission to the Spirit of God are essential.
2. Servants of God are called and gifted by God to minister the Word of God in the power of the Spirit.
3. Preaching presupposes that we recognize the Word of God as the final authority of faith and practice.
4. God’s Spirit must accompany the preached Word in order to have the desired result or effect.
5. Preaching must be done with great conviction and loving boldness or it will be a hypocritical show.
6. The gospel we preach is urgent and important and we must be passionate and enthusiastic about it.
7. The minister must be properly motivated: to persuade people and to please God.
8. Preaching must be based on God’s purposes and we must not to seek to please men.
9. Preaching must be according to God’s will, God’s Word, God’s way, and God’s glory. Finally…
10. Preaching must include law and gospel so as to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. (Preaching about the law of God is necessary in order for us to see our need for the Gospel.)

What’s the goal of preaching? The goal of preaching isn’t necessarily to make one feel good. The goal of preaching stated by Paul in his missional vision was “the obedience of faith.” (Rom.1:5; 16:26)

Biblical preaching is both objective and subjective: 1) preaching is concerned with what God has objectively done in human history through Christ (death & resurrection); 2) its subjectively concerned about awakening the human heart by the Spirit (regeneration, illumination, repentance & faith).

What are some of the modern hindrances that today’s preachers need to avoid?

1. We need to avoid becoming too moralistic by not stressing human effort and/or human decision.
2. We need to avoid placing too much emphasis on the importance of knowledge which only puffs up.
3. We need to avoid “cheap grace” or “easy believism”–a faith without repentance or without obedience.
4. We need to avoid dead orthodoxy-enslavement to human traditions - even orthodox church traditions.
5. We need to avoid exhibitionism – trying to entertain or please the people rather than God. Gal.1:10
6. We need to avoid substituting style for substance & being too preoccupied with feel good Christianity.
7. We need to avoid the practice of isogesis - reading into the text what is not in the text (vs exegesis).
8. We need to avoid politicizing the gospel. Jesus is not a republican or a democrat but judges both.
9. We need to avoid being so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good.
10. We need to avoid being so earthly minded that we’re no heavenly good.

Did you know that hearing a sermon is an act of worship? We need to be very careful how we hear. What responsibility do the worshipers have in listening to a Pastor give a biblically-based sermon? We need to prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word and commit to obey God’s Word in advance! We need to have an expectation (faith) that God is going to speak to us through the preached Word. We need to have the right attitude – i.e.: “Speak Lord for Your servant is listening.” - I Sam. 3:10 We need to have the right motivation – wanting to please God through glorifying Him. I Cor.10:31 We need to ask “why” questions, not just “what” questions to know both what and why we believe. We need to be proactive listeners and takes notes on what is being said and how it applies to our lives. We need to be reminded that listening to a sermon is an essential act in the corporate worship of God. We need to be humble and teachable and apply whatever we’re learning on an ongoing basis. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day and regularly remind ourselves of God’s grace. If we take our preaching seriously then Jesus’ words will come to fruition: “He who hears you, hears me.” (Luke 10:16) Then and only then will we be a means of grace to God’s people in a lost and dying world.

How To Identify A Reliable Preacher – by Rev. Tullian Tchividjian - (used by permission)

God grows Christians by feeding them his Word. One way he does this is by providing the church with teachers and preachers. This means that if we are going to grow we need to be sitting at the feet of reliable carriers of God's truth. This, however, begs the question: how can we identify a reliable carrier of God's truth? The Bible makes it clear that there are many unreliable carriers of so-called truth. Satan masquerades as an angel of light seeking to deceive. So we need a lot of biblical discernment here. Just because a teacher or preacher comes in Jesus' name with a Bible under his arm doesn't automatically mean he is reliable.

Thankfully both the Bible and church history give us some direction. So I want to provide you with a brief list of 5 questions (based on the 5 sola's of the Reformation) that can help you discern the reliability of a particular teacher or preacher.

Question 1 (Sola Scriptura): Does the preacher ground everything he says in the Bible? Does he, in other words, begin with the authority and sufficiency of Scripture? A reliable carrier of God's truth seeks to revel in, wrestle with, and expound from, the Bible. He starts with the Bible. All of his comments flow from what a particular passage in the Bible says. He doesn't simply use the Bible to support what he wants to say. That is, he submits to what the Bible says, he does not seek to submit the Bible to what he says. He cares about both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He refuses to take verses out of context. He recognizes the unity of the Bible. He acknowledges that both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell one story and point to one figure, namely that God saves sinners through the accomplished work of his son Jesus Christ.

Question 2 (Sola Gratia): Does the preacher freely emphasize that because of sin, a right relationship with God can only be established by God's grace alone? Beware of any teaching that emphasizes man's ability over God's ability; man's freedom over God's freedom; man's power over God's power; man's initiative over God's initiative. Beware of any teaching which subtlety communicates that a right relationship with God depends ultimately on human response over Divine sovereignty.

Question 3 (Sola Fide): Does the preacher stress that salvation is not achieved by what we can do, rather salvation is received by faith in what Christ has already done? It has been rightly stated that there really are only two religions: the religion of human accomplishment and the religion of Divine accomplishment. Does the preacher emphasize the former or the latter? A reliable carrier of God's truth always highlights the fact that God saves sinners; sinners don't save themselves.

Question 4 (Sola Christus): Does the preacher underline that Christ is the exclusive mediator between God and man? Does the explainer both affirm and proclaim that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" and that nobody comes to the Father but by Christ? Does he talk about sin and the necessity of Christ? Preachers must learn how to unveil and unpack the truth of the Gospel from every Biblical text they preach in such a way that it results in the exposure of both the idols of our culture and the idols of our hearts. The faithful exposition of our true Savior from every passage in the Bible painfully reveals all of the pseudo-saviors that we trust in culturally and personally. Every sermon ought to disclose the subtle ways in which we as individuals and we as a culture depend on lesser things than Jesus to provide the security, acceptance, protection, affection, meaning, and satisfaction that only Christ can supply. In this way, good preachers must constantly show just how relevant and necessary Jesus is; they must work hard to show that we are great sinners but Christ is a great Savior. 

Question 5 (Sola Deo Gloria): Does the preacher exalt God above all? A reliable explainer will always lead you to marvel at God. A true carrier of God's truth will always lead you to encounter the glory of God. A God-centered teacher is just that: God-centered. He will preach and teach in such a way that you find yourself hungering and thirsting for God. You will listen to sermon after sermon and walk away with grand impressions of Divine personality, not grand impressions of human personality. This is just a start, but I hope it serves as a resource to help you determine the reliability of a particular teacher or preacher.

In I Corinthians 1:20-25, the Apostle Paul writes:

So what about these… wise men, these scholars, these brilliant debaters of this world's great affairs? God has made them all look foolish & shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. 21 For God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find God through human brilliance and then he stepped in and saved all those who believed his message, which the world calls foolish and silly. 22 It seems foolish to the Jews: because they want a sign from heaven as proof that what is preached is true and it’s foolish to the Gentiles: because they believe only what agrees with their philosophy & seems wise to them. 23 So when we preach about Christ dying to save them, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it's all nonsense. 24 But God has opened the eyes of those called to salvation, both Jews & Gentiles, to see that Christ is the mighty power of God to save them; Christ himself is the center of God's wise plan for their salvation. 25 This so-called foolish plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness - Christ dying on the cross - is far stronger than any man.