On Sunday I made a mistake. I forgot to push the record button before I started to preach. Hence, there is no recording for the past Sunday. However, I will provide here my sermon transcript.
PREACHING, THE MEANS TO GLORIFY GOD IN A LOCAL CHURCH
Selected Scripture
INTRODUCTION
The goal of every church ought to be glorifying God. And I believe glorifying God is cross-denominational and cross-cultural. That is to say, it does not matter whether a church is a Baptist or Presbyterian, or a church is in America or Asia; glorifying God is a single mission of every church anywhere and anytime.
However, though that is a good biblical and theological summation, how to glorify God is another whole issue. Here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church, we have our mission statement that says: “We exist with a sole mission to glorify God by exalting the supremacy of Christ; equipping the saints of Christ, and evangelizing the sinners that are without Christ with the message of life-transforming gospel – locally, regionally, and globally.” I believe that is the best and simplest biblical and theological summation as to why we exist as a local church. However, that still begs the question how.
This evening I want to speak to you that the answer to how question is found in preaching. But not just any preaching, but preaching that is biblically-driven and God-exalting. And I would argue that preaching is one of critical marks of a biblical/healthy church. It is true that a biblical church or a healthy church has a strong preacher(s) preaching strong messages of God to strong people of God. Church’s greatest calling is to preach the truth of God to the people of God. What comes out of the pulpit or preaching is perhaps one of the main factors in choosing a church and/or determining a healthy or biblical church. Just listen to what one notable American pastor wrote in his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church:
If you are looking for a good church, this is the most important thing to consider. I don’t care how friendly you think the church members are. I don’t care how good you think the music is. Those things can change. But the congregation’s commitment to the centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one specially gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.[1]
Before I go on, let me briefly paint a picture of what is happening in the canvas of churches today regarding preaching.
Present Condition
I would argue that much of so called preaching today is not preaching at all. What is tragic is that we have a great percentage of church-goers today who cannot distinguish what is good and powerful from bad and weak preaching. And what is even more tragic is that people in the church are comfortable or satisfied with such bad and powerless “preaching.” Perhaps, it is because they have never heard real preaching before.
Let me describe a typical “preaching” of today. A “preacher” gets up and opens the Bible and reads few verses (sometimes just one verse), and then he uses that as a springboard to jump into whatever topic, discussion or “sermon” that has nothing to do with the verse(s) in which he just read. And the content of the message is usually full of stories of himself or someone else. Also, “sermon” contains personal experiences (usually, the speaker is the hero in the story), jokes, and some trivial matters that have nothing to do with the verse(s) in which he read. In other words, the Bible gets the backseat and he becomes the primary driver. Another way to say it is that the Bible does not get much attention throughout the message, but much of it is given to something that has nothing to do with the verse(s) that was read at the beginning. And typically, this type of “preaching” lasts for less than 20 minutes or so. To me, that type of preaching does not do justice to a church of Jesus Christ or a church that strives for spiritual maturity.
Types of Preaching
There are different types of preaching: 1) topical (e.g., sermon on marriage or even this very message that I’m preaching); 2) historical/biographical (e.g. “the life of Martin Luther”); 3) theological (e.g. “why is Roman Catholicism heretical?” or “what is Mormonism and why are their teachings dangerous?”); and 4) expositional of Scripture, which I favor. Unlike other types of preaching, expository preaching is literally the biblical preaching because the preacher is driven by what the Bible actually says and what it teaches. Although other types of preaching has its worth, in my opinion (along with many other godly men), expository preaching is the most effective way to communicate God’s truth, and thus it truly helps the church to grow spiritually.
Definition
What is preaching? What does that term mean exactly? Several years ago I asked a group of 7th to 9th graders who were directly under expository preaching every week to define what preaching is. And this is what they said:
- Teaching people God’s Word (Sarah P.).
- Sharing of God’s gospel (Sam L.).
- Helping people to understand the will of God (Esther).
- Simplify the Bible to make easier to understand (Sarah P.).
- Talking about the Bible (Daniel).
- Way for God to reach to the people (Grace).
- Shepherd leading his sheep (Sam K.)
- Guiding people how to live according to God’s Word (Ruth).
- All of that put together (Lisa).
I was so stunned by their accurate grasping of what expository preaching is!
According to dictionary, to preach is “to proclaim, deliver, or give sermon.” In the Bible there are few words for preaching. In the OT, there is karah, which the verb means “to call, cry, proclaim, or utter a loud sound.”[2] This Hebrew verb is found in Isaiah 61:1, which says: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim (karah) liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners.” The verb is also found in Jonah 3:2: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach (karah) to it the message that I will tell you.” Also, in Zechariah 1:4: “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear nor heed Me, says the LORD.”
In the NT the word is kerusso, which means “to proclaim, preach, or to be a herald.” In those days, a herald was someone who personally carried the message of a prominent figure like the king. In the NT I can think of no greater individual who fits that description than John the Baptist (cf. Matt. 3:1f). To preachers, that verb is used perhaps the strongest in 2 Timothy 4:2, which says, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” In that passage, the verb is in the imperative, which is to say that this is not a suggestion but a stern command.
I can honestly say that preaching is the only authoritative means in which God communicates His Word to us. In other words, it is God’s method of communicating His truth and His will to His church. God could have used other “methods” to communicate His truth, but He chose preaching instead through his chosen preachers. That is why when a church regularly substitute preaching with films, music, drama, or other things or belittle or even to cut the time for preaching for something else, I can assure you that church looses not only the God-given authority, but flatly disobeys what God has commanded the church to do – i.e., to preach the Word. That is why a healthy church is a church that hears the preaching of God’s Word and continues to hear the preaching of God’s Word. That is why preaching takes the most of the time during a worship service. Thus, when I visit a church and preaching is given only 20 minutes out of an hour and half, that clearly tells me that preaching does not take the priority in that particular church.
Having said that, just because a preaching is long and takes a big chunk of the worship service doesn’t necessarily mean that such preaching is biblical either or that it is a good preaching.
In Westminster Shorter Catechism (which is a theological teaching tool largely used by the Presbyterians and other Reformed Christians) in which Question 89 asks:
How is the Word made effectual to salvation? The responding answer says: “The Spirit of God maketh the readings, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.”[3]
Now, you have just heard what preaching means from both Old and New Testaments. And if I would to define what preaching is, I would say preaching means proclaiming the truth and message of God with authority. Please listen carefully. When I say authority, I am not speaking of the internal authority, that is to say, the authority that is given to preachers (i.e. God’s preachers were given divine authority to preach like in 2 Timothy 4:2). No. The authority that I am speaking of is external, which is outside of a preacher, which is none other than the authority of Scripture itself. So, when I say preaching is proclaiming the truth and message of God with authority, I can boldly preach God’s truth because His truth/the Scripture itself is already authoritative!
When people say, “Wow. That was a strong message. Your preaching is strong and powerful,” I have to remind people that the reason why I and others preach strong message is because the message itself is already strong! All I do is to simply tell it as is. In other words, I do not have to make the message strong; because it already is! So, I try to tell people that the focus of preaching is not so much on the preacher, but on the message itself! The Word of God is already strong and powerful (cf. Isa. 55:11; Acts 20:32; Rom. 10:17; 2 Cor. 6:7; Eph. 6:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12; 1 John 2:14).
Characteristics of True Preaching
1. True preaching must be driven by the text of Scripture itself!
A true preacher of God knows that he is not preaching his word, his message, or his opinions, but God’s truth and His Word alone. Thus, he already knows and believes that the Word of God itself is already strong and powerful. Therefore, a true preaching begins with the Word of God, stays with the Word of God, and ends with the Word of God. The preacher will not use the Word of God as a mere springboard to launch into whatever subject he wants to talk about. Rather, he begins with the Bible, stays in the Bible, and ends with the Bible. In other words, he is driven by the Bible itself. This is to say, if what is in the Bible does not get the spotlight or attention, then it is not a true biblical preaching.
2. True preaching is when the text of Scripture or the truth of the Bible is explained or expounded.
Whether it is a sermon or a Bible study, the content of the message should always have interpretation that moves applications or implications. In other words, instead of telling people to apply the Bible, they need to first know what the Bible actually says and what it actually means by what it says. In other words, explanation comes before applications or implications. One of the great purposes of preaching is to explain what the text of Scripture means. This ought to be the goal for anyone that wants to be a Bible preacher/teacher, that is, to explain what the Bible says correctly so that the people can apply it correctly.
I have heard too many messages that are full of story telling, jokes, illustrations, and emotional hypes. And I am not saying that those things don’t have its place in a message, but that should not be the main content. This is because some people can only remember a story or a joke more than the message itself. That should not be the main goal of a person who supposed to preach/teach the life-transforming Word.
All this is to say, true preaching has depth, as oppose to being shallow and superficial. Much of so called preaching today is superficial and shallow. It does not have depth, and people do not walk away feeling drowned and drenched by the depth of God’s Word. There is a good example of this found in the OT (Nehemiah 8:1-8).
What Ezra did in Nehemiah 8 is a good example of what good preaching is. This is an example of so-called expositional/expository preaching. Another example of expositional/expository preaching is found in Luke 24:27. There the word “explained” diermeneuo is used, which means to explain thoroughly, interpret, or translate. It is to expose the real meaning. And that is what exposition means. To explore, discover, to expose. Exposition means to expose, to reveal, or to bring out the true meaning. A true preaching is to give much attention to the text of Scripture and to explain what it means from what it says. This is not to say that topical preaching or other methods do not have a place in preaching, but the most effective way to nurture and nourish God’s people is through systematic, verse-by-verse exposition of God’s Word. And this point leads to next point.
3. True preaching uses proper hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics is science of Bible interpretation. It is science because it has set of rules. That means I cannot interpret the Bible any way I like. That is how a cultic group starts. That is why we have so many aberrant and false teachers and followers today.
Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the ultimate goal in Bible interpretation, or to say another way, what is the ultimate goal for a person who is trying to interpret the Bible? Without a doubt, the goal of every Bible interpreter is accuracy. His job is to examine what does the text say and what does it mean? That is why an interpreter must follow rules of Bible interpretation for the purpose of arriving at accurate and correct meaning. And those of you that have taken Fundamentals of Faith Class are already familiar with some of the rules in hermeneutics. For instance, as I often say, always interpret the text according to its context. Let me also mention few other worthy rules of Bible interpretation that is crucial in interpreting the Bible accurately:
a. Interpret the Bible from its original language.
If there is one thing that a pastor/preacher must be good at, it is to know the Bible well. To know the Bible well means not only he knows where things are, but most of all, he is skilled in interpreting the Bible. And how does one know how to interpret the Bible without having some working knowledge of the original language?
It is tragic that many seminaries do not have biblical languages as a must-requirement, but as an elective. And if some pastors were taught the language, it was only for the sake of just graduating but not actually applying it day-to-day preparation for studying and preaching. To me, laziness is no excuse. Knowing original language leads to my next point in Bible interpretation.
b. Interpret the Bible grammatically.
As I have demonstrated what the different verb for preaching is in the OT and NT, and how it is used in the Bible, a faithful exegete tries to interpret a particular word (whether it is a verb, noun, or phrase) grammatically from the original language. In other words, this requires skills. The term exegesis literally means “getting the knowledge/meaning out.” Thus, a goal of Bible interpreter is to get the correct meaning out from the text, not reading a meaning into the text.
c. Interpret the Bible historically.
It is important to know how a particular grammar or word is used at the time when it was written because sometimes the language changes (e.g. to say someone got stoned in the Bible may be mean something radically different today). Hence, expository preaching has to do with explaining the real meaning of the text of the Bible as the original author has intended at that historical period.
d. Interpret the Bible literally.
Overall the Bible is written in a simple and plain language (with few exceptions of metaphors and parables). Since God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), He did not make the Bible to confuse His people. If there is confusion, it lies with us, not with God. Generally, the Bible is simple enough that a child can understand, but also, it is deep enough that can drown an elephant, as a saying goes. While Bible interpretation does not require mysticism or only for the elite, it does require trained skills. One of the best ways to interpret the Bible is with a plain sense or literally – i.e. just as it is written. Don’t try to read into it or approach the Bible mystically as if there is some “hidden” message or secrets that only the “spiritual elites” can crack the code but to read it naturally.
4. True preaching is confrontational.
One of the goals of preaching is to challenge the listeners to change from wrong to right, from sin to sanctification, from unrighteousness to righteousness. Preaching helps move the people to a certain biblical action. Thus to get there, it must confront people of their sin and correct their errors to truth and help move people to make biblical actions that glorify God.
- NAU 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
One of the ways to test whether a preacher is truly a preacher of God, who is preaching the truth of God, is to see how unrepentant sinners react after hearing the preaching. If unrepentant sinners do not repent but enjoy and like the sermon, there is something seriously wrong. It means that a preacher failed to preach the truth of God, which confronts sins of his hearers. Where there is no confrontation of sin, there is false comfort. And that is exactly what is happening in many churches today. People are hearing messages that are not life-changing because it fails to convict sinners of their sins, but rather, boosts their egos, self-reliance, and pumps up even more self-esteem. Hence, sinners do not walk away from church feeling terrible, guilty, and ashamed about their sinfulness, but walks away feeling good about themselves! O God help us and have mercy upon us!
5. True preaching is a result of hard work.
True preaching is a result of many years of studying and many hours of preparation. Just think about what I just said so far about what is involved in preaching: True preaching requires skills in reading, translating, and understanding the Bible in its original language. It requires hard work of hermeneutics. It requires understanding the history and cultural background of the Bible times. And it also requires having good working knowledge of theology.
As you can see, expository preaching involves all of those processes and more. It is truly a lot of hard work. That is why biblical expositors spend much of his time studying and working on the Bible. That is why expository preaching has much of biblical depth in its content because it is all Bible and nothing more. That is why expository preaching is so crucial in feeding a church with a healthy spiritual food.
Show me a man whose preaching is weak and shallow, I will show you a man who does not take preaching seriously and fails work hard in studying and preparation. A man who is lazy in those things really shows in his preaching. Preaching is truly a great task for a pastor. That is why it is impossible to accomplish such a great task called preaching in just 15-20 minutes. It is true that sermonettes will produce Christianettes; that is to say, short sermons will produce weak Christians.
6. True preaching is interesting and exciting.
I am not advocating that all true preaching has to be long. Just because a preaching is long and takes a big chunk of the worship service doesn’t necessarily mean that such preaching is biblical or that it is a good preaching. Like many of you, I have also sat under some boring messages that were unbearable and what seemed so long. And there is nothing worse than to present the Word of God in a way that is boring and lifeless because God’s Word is not boring but life-changing! According to John MacArthur, “If someone can stand in the pulpit and manage to make the Word of the living God sound dry and dull, that person ought to sit down and let someone else preach.”[4] Furthermore Dr. MacArthur writes:
Good preaching occurs when the well-trained mind-filled with knowledge, skilled at clarity, motivated by love for the truth, and energized by the Holy Spirit – speaks powerfully to people. The true preacher is never content with informing his people about a few academic matters. He wants to overwhelm them with clear and powerful exposition of the Word so that they feel the impact of God’s truth at the most fundamental level.[5]
CONCLUSION
To me, biblical preaching is what drives a church to glorify God and answers the how question in how to exalt the supremacy of Christ, how to equip the saints of Christ, and how to evangelize the sinners that are without Christ with the message of life-transforming gospel – locally, regionally, and globally.
Also, preaching is what I largely look for if I am looking for a church to attend. To echo the words of Mark Dever once again, he said:
If you are looking for a good church, this is the most important thing to consider. I don’t care how friendly you think the church members are. I don’t care how good you think the music is. Those things can change. But the congregation’s commitment to the centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one specially gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.[6]
[1] Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 52.
[2] BibleWorks, Isaiah 61:1.
[3] Thomas Vincent, The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture (First published 1674. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, Reprinted 1998), 234-35.
[4] John MacArthur’s forward in Alex Montoya, Preaching with Passion (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2000), 7.
[5] Ibid., 8.
[6] Dever, 52.
