Why We Preach
Notes
Transcript
Richard Elelu used his Bible frequently. But not how we typically use the Bible.
Richard lived in a country dominated by muslims, where Christianity was almost nonexistent. He had been given a Bible by an old faithful missionary couple. And he used it regularly. Again, the way he used it was not what the missionaries had hoped and prayed for.
The thin pages were perfect for rolling joints. And so, Richard would carry the Bible around with them and when the time was right, rip out a page, roll it up, and smoke marijuana.
On one occasion, he was smoking and had to leave in a hurry, and one of the pages he had ripped out he put in his pocket. Later that night, bored and unable to sleep, he felt the paper he had ripped out earlier in the day. He read the words of Psalm 34:8 "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; how happy is the man who takes refuge in them."
For the next three weeks he couldn't get those words out of his head. They nagged at him so frequently that in an act of desperation he finally went to the missionaries who had given him the Bible. They shared the gospel with him, and that night Richard repented and believed. When he told his parents, they disowned him. He began receiving death threats, and had to move from missionary house to missionary house to escape the violence of the muslim community. His passion for Christ increased so dramatically that he eventually came to the United States to study for seminary so he could be trained to be a pastor back in his home country.
And it all started with a wadded up piece of Scripture in a druggie's pocket. God’s Word is like an arm that reaches out to do his saving work, to grab hold of and redeem sinners.
Sometimes I wonder if we have the slightest idea of what kind of power we handle every time we preach and hear the Word of God. Listen to some of the Scriptures descriptions of itself:
Hebrews 4:12-13: The Word of God is a Sword that Pierces. It will pierce you in the deepest part of who you are. James 1:22-23: The Word of God is a Mirror that Reveals. You will never truly know yourself until you hear from God's Word. 1 Peter 1:22-23: The Word of God is a Seed that causes the New Birth. You cannot be born again unless the seed of God's Word is planted in your heart. 1 Peter 2:2: The Word of God is Milk that Nourishes. You cannot grow unless the milk of God's word feeds you Psalm 119:105: The Word of God is a Lamp that Shines. You can't see without the word of God shining in your life. Jeremiah 23:29: The Word of God is a Fire that Consumes. The fire of God's word will either consume you in judgment or possess you in zeal. Jeremiah 23:29: The Word of God is a Hammer that Shatters. Shatters pride. Crushes self-righteousness.
So when we gather as God’s people, the main thing we’re doing is placing ourselves, together, beneath the cleansing Niagara Falls of God’s Word.
Annie Dillard writes: “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? …. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares.”
The Bible is God’s Word. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. If you love God, you love his Word. How would you feel if someone told you, “I love my wife, I just never want to listen to her talk.” A reason to be concerned, no?
We’ve just finished 2.5 years studying the gospel of Mark. For about a month, we will be studying four different psalms. After that, we’ll study Job. Then, Lord willing, Ephesians.
We, as a church, are committed to expositional preaching. When I say expositional preaching, I don’t mean mentioning a Greek verb every once and a while. I simply mean this: preaching that exposes the meaning and application of the text. Expositional preaching is when the point of the text is made the point of the sermon. J.I. Packer said true preaching is simply “letting texts talk.”
Four compelling reasons the entire church, preachers and non-preachers alike, must be committed to expositional preaching. Turn to 2 Timothy 3. Four reasons why we are committed to expositional preaching.
First, The Famine of the Word (3:1-9). Now, we have the Word. But history tells us that places that were once bastions of truth can become burnt over districts where the Word of God is no longer welcome. Paul is warning Timothy that this is what’s going to happen, and when it does, it gets ugly.
The “last days” according to biblical chronology, are the days we’re in now; the era since the resurrection of Christ. And during these days, people are going to be characterized by vice, not virtue - vices listed in verses 2-7.
But I want to draw your attention to verses 7-8. These describe why this decay happens. Paul writes that these people are, "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith."
Jannes and Jambres were the two magicians were imitated Moses’ miracles. Remember, they turned their staffs into snakes, they turned water to blood. What Paul is saying is that in our day, men will oppose truth by imitating it. Isn’t that profound? Isn’t that true in our day?
The most dangerous enemies of the gospel are not the churches of Satan. They are the churches that claim to be Christian, but have half-gospels, incomplete saviors. They call for an acknowledgement of Jesus, but not obedience to him. God is love, but God is not holy. They baptize people who have no credible profession of faith. The church comforts people who are living in rebellion against God. Their opposition to God is like the magicians who opposed Moses - they appear to have the power of God, but they are corrupt.
One pastor put it like this: "We live in a strange day, when even Christians who claim to be born again and churches that claim to be evangelical ignore God's Word." Turn to Amos 8:11-12.
"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it."
This is a terrifying scenario - God’s judgment against Israel is that he removes his word from among them. He goes silent. It is helpful to imagine the spiritual realities here.
You've seen the images of people suffering from poverty in third world countries. Their bodies are malnourished, their stomachs are bloated from lack of food. Their lips are parched and dry; their arms and legs are grotesquely skinny. They're literally starving to death. There's no food.
This is the spiritual condition of our world without the Word of God. People who reject the word reject the only source of life and sustenance available. They are spiritually malnourished, dying for lack of food, in misery, grotesquely unhealthy, spiritually dying. This is a terror of the judgment of God. This is the punishment. "There is no calamity like the silence of God."
Paul tells Timothy, this is what will happen. The result will be utter moral detail. Spiritual cancer will spread everywhere the Word isn’t. There will be a famine of truth. The church of God must be a storehouse of spiritual food for the hungry. Every gathering ought to be a banquet and a feast. And so we preach God’s Word. This is how we fight the famine.
Second, The Sufficiency of the Word (3:10-15). Now, as we consider growing moral corruption, a question arises. What do we do? Like we said earlier, and we've seen it more clearly in recent years. It's not a subtle drift. The last few years we’ve seen aggressive rejection of the word. That's what Paul described in vs. 1-9. It seems like the opposition is too overwhelming—like keeping back the tide of the sea with a broom.
What should churches do? What could possibly help? How do we deal with these issues?
Should we tone down the preaching? Focus on more positive themes? More about love, less about holiness? Should we blunt the sharp edges of our doctrinal convictions? Do we really need to talk about sin? I mean, can’t we just privately believe there’s a hell? Do we really need to tell people about it? Repentance implies that people need to change - isn’t that hurtful?
Or maybe the church should dive headlong into politics? Community service? Social action? What should we do?
Paul’s word to Timothy is twofold: commit to God’s Word and God’s way.
In verses 10-13 we see the word is sufficient to shape Paul's life. Paul knew God’s Word and lived God’s way. Timothy should do the same. And in verses 14-15 Paul explains why he should devote himself to God’s Word and God’s ways. He writes "But continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able (sufficient) to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
Timothy is described as having "learned" the word, "firmly believed" the word, because he was taught the word at a young age he is described as being "acquainted with" the word. What is the result? What is the word able to do? The word is able to "make you wise for salvation." The word works.
If Jesus said "I will build my church," how do you think he's going to do it? He's going to do it the way he's always done it: by speaking. He spoke creation into existence, he speaks to bring dead souls to life, and his speaking calls the church into existence. The Scriptures are sufficient to save and sanctify.
By the way, this is why I think it’s good for me to step out of the pulpit from time to time. In the next four weeks, you will hear sermons by Michael Sciarra, Mark Severance, and Justin Grasmick. When we start our Sunday evenings again, you will hear Hans van Velzer, Kent Roberts, Bryan Zarate, and perhaps even others this year. Do you know why it’s so important to get a variety of people up here? Because it reminds us that the power is not in the man, it’s in the message. It’s the Word. I will die, but so long as we remain doggedly committed to Scripture, this church will be fine. The word of God is miracle-grow for the people of God.
Your life and mine have been touched by God’s transformative Word. And it works not so much like a tidal wave, but like a tide - in and out, in and out, while gently and unnoticeably, over the course of years - changing the terrain of our lives.
Notice also when Timothy learned the Word. Verse 15 “from childhood.” If you turn back to chapter 1:5 “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” Behold, the power of a godly mother and a godly grandmother. Interestingly, Timothy’s father was not a believer. Mothers, raise your children in the truth.
Children need the word of God. We have lots of kids here. Babies everywhere. Babies in the womb. Parents, make the word of God unavoidable in your households. Decorate your walls with it. Sprinkle it in your conversations. Make sure it’s a topic around the dinner table, before bed.
Timothy was raised like this was childhood, and Paul encourages him in his ministry to continue devoting himself to it. You don’t grow out of it. The church will never cease needing to be fed the word of God. In fact, one way we will know we’ve grown in maturity is when we hunger for sermons that are saturated with Scripture. We’re not looking for funny preachers, emotional preachers; we are hoping for long sermons or short sermons - we want God’s Word.
There have been a few times when I’ve had to preach something that is culturally controversial right now. The nature of marriage, gender roles, homosexuality, hell, sin, judgment. I’ve had to preach it because it’s there in the text. And I know that there are some preachers who are tempted to avoid those subjects because their church doesn’t like them. You know what - when I come to those hard passages, I feel like I have the support of my church. They don’t want me to back down. They don’t want me to blunt the message. They’ve got my back; they’re praying for me, and they want me to stand up and speak God’s message. Praise God for a church that loves the word. May we continue to be faithful.
Third, The Relevancy of the Word (3:16-17). All Scripture. We actually believe that if you were to open your Bible, at random and read a portion of Scripture, it would be absolutely relevant to your life. You'd need to understand its context, its message, the principles contained there. But it would absolutely be relevant. Why? Because "All Scripture is profitable." You can profit Spiritual from any text at any time.
But one might say: isn't the method of preaching antiquated? Isn't it old fashioned? I mean, I get how people listened to sermons in the 1800s, there were no iPhones, apps, tweets, Facebook, text messages, TVs, and the like. Does preaching really work with people who were taught the alphabet by a cast of fuzzy, colored monsters on a screen?
It says it’s all profitable. Why? Because it’s all God’s word. The text says, “God-breathed” - theopneustos. The Bible is God’s breath. Look at what it does: it teaches, reproves, corrects, trains, equips.
It’s interesting that God’s acts in Scripture are always through words. He creates with his word. “Let there be light.” He sustains the universe by his word. Hebrews 1:3 “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” God brings new life through his word. Right now, God is acting upon you with his Word.
Isaiah 55:10-11 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
This is why we go through books of the Bible sequentially— examining book by book. This is why, Lord willing, I hope to have preached through the entire Bible before I die (Don’t laugh - I won’t go through everything as slowly as I went through Mark). It’s all relevant. We need it all.
"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Expository preaching is relevant the same way eating is relevant. Expositional preaching is relevant the same way breathing is relevant. If we are not fed God's Word, we will suffer the pains of spiritual famine.
Fourth, The Mandate of the Word (4:1-2) "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word."
Do you feel the weightiness of this? Paul reaches to the pinnacle of human language to make sure his point is heard. This is a solemn and serious passage of Scripture. Could he be any more superlative?
"I charge you In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus" -- this is a divine mandate. This is an inescapable duty. Paul is about to describe something so weighty, so important, so urgent that he calls in two members of the Godhead to be his witnesses.
God the Father, whose very word brought all things into existence; God the Son, who is the word incarnate, are called to the stand. Paul, in essence, is saying to Timothy: "God is watching you. Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ is watching you." There is a sense in which the preacher is preaching to an audience of one. The blazing eyes of the Holy God of Israel is upon us. Every preacher of God's word ought to prepare his sermon as if God's eyes are on the page staring right back at him.
Luther was afraid of no man. He wasn’t afraid of speaking his mind to anyone. But every time he stepped into the pulpit his body quivered because he knew he was called to speak on behalf of God. Scottish preacher in the 1600s John Knox said, “I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.”
This is sobering. Those who teach will be judged more strictly. Listen to the words of Jeremiah 23:26-32:
"[26] How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, [27] who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? [28] Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. [29] Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? [30] Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. [31] Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’ [32] Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD."
One reason I am for expository preaching is because I don't want God to be against me. I remember listening to an old, faithful Bible teacher who had taught for years and years in various Bible colleges and seminaries. One student raised his hand and asked: "Why is God allowing such misuse of the Bible?" The old teacher quickly and firmly replied: "He is not allowing it. There will be an accounting. There will be a confrontation."
"Who is to judge the living and the dead" - Jesus' return puts everything into perspective. Sinners will not be able to continue in their sin forever. Believers will not be left to struggle and strive in this world forever. Jesus will come for his people and against his enemies. And Paul not only calls the Father and the Son to witness this solemn charge, he reminds Timothy of the glorious appearing of Christ. Paul is reminding Timothy that one day, time will run out for the unbeliever. One day, there will be no more chances. One day, Jesus will set us his kingdom and judge his enemies. And this shapes the way we preach. We want souls saved, and so we reach into our arsenal to get the only weapon that can destroy the power of Satan; the only aid that can awaken the dead to life- we go to God's Word. Spurgeon said it like this: "We cannot play at preaching. We preach for eternity."
God reveals himself through his Word. God reveals his plan of salvation through his word. Churches ought to ensure that preachers preach his Word. They are not authorized to preach anything else. They announce the message: God is holy. He is Lord of all and will hold everyone accountable. And we all are great sinners deserving of his righteous punishment. But here’s what he wants you to know: He sent his son, who became a man, who died in the place of sinners, who rose from the dead, and everyone who trusts in him will be saved. This is the content of the Christian gospel. And we cannot know this apart from the Word.
So what is Timothy to do? Society is falling apart. People are abandoning the truth. People are becoming more self-absorbed, less inclined to care about God. People are more distracted than ever. People don't learn auditorily. People are not religious anymore. People don't like being talked to or preached at. People are leaving the church. People are walking out. People are ditching the faith. People are wandering into myths. People believe everything they hear.
"Preach the word." We don’t preach the culture. We don’t preach felt needs. We don’t preach the headlines. We don’t preach the current events. God has spoken, and we must announce his message to the world.
Martyn Lloyd Jones, one of the most influential modern preachers, said, “I would say without hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.” This man lived out this reality.
Throughout WWII, Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached to those who gathered at Westminster Chapel in London. Many were fleeing because it had become dangerous, and it was quite regular to hear bombs in the distance as they gathered. On one occasion, a bomb fell only a few yards from the church during a service, causing the plaster from the roof to fall on the heads of the congregation. When the bomb hit, Lloyd-Jones was praying. He paused for a moment, and then finished his prayer, and went on to preach his entire sermon.
Bombs or no bombs, we will preach. And whether it’s popular or not. We will preach. My main responsibility as a pastor is to preach the Word of God. This is the spring from which all our spiritual vibrancy will flow.
Do you pray for the preaching of the Word? Do you support and encourage biblical preaching? We, corporately, as a church, must all together prioritize this sacred task.
So, there is a famine of God's word in the land. But there need not be a famine among us. We are invited to a feast. The living word is preached here
In John 6, Jesus is preaching some hard words. Sometimes this happens when you're committed to preaching through the Bible. Sometimes--often-- we hear things that are hard. Well, Jesus was preaching a hard sermon. Slowly but surely the crowds that were once excited about him began to disband. They fell away. And finally, it was just the 12.
Jesus turned to them and asked, "Do you want to go away as well?"
Peter answered, and I believe he answers for all of us: "Where else shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life."