The Power of Preaching the Word
Text: 2nd Timothy 4:1-5
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
As your pastor here at Ft. Supply Baptist one of the main things I want to do is make sure we have a healthy church. And so one thing that I do is search the Scriptures to see what the Bible has to say for not only you as a congregation but for me as a pastor.
In our text here we have one of the passages in the Bible that is explicitly written to a pastor. Paul was writing to Timothy, giving him advice on how to be the best pastor he could be.
Now it is my belief that if we as a church do what God tells the church to do, we will be a healthy church and that if I as a pastor do what God tells pastors to do, it will help us achieve that goal. And so when we look at our text and we see that it is written explicitly to pastors, and specifically to Timothy who was a pastor, we see that Timothy is told to do something. But before we get to that we need to look at the seriousness of this command. Paul says, “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, this was a very serious thing that Paul was about to tell Timothy. We know it was serious because this charge was made before God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, then look what else Paul says, “Who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and kingdom.” Now Paul is bring to Timothy’s mind the same thing James was speaking of in James chapter 3 verse 1 when he wrote, “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” And so the instructions that Paul is about to give to Timothy are very, very important.
Verse Two: “PREACH THE WORD.”
This is what is so important for Timothy to know. This is how Timothy will fulfill his ministry. He is to preach the Word. He is to be ready at all times, and through the preaching of the Word he is to convince, rebuke, and exhort, and he’s to do it with patience and by incorporating teaching into his preaching. Paul tells Timothy he needs to do this because a time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but instead will heap up teachers who satisfy their itching ears, and be turned away to myths and fables. So Paul concludes by telling Timothy to be alert, to endure the coming hard times and to do the work of an evangelist.
The word “evangelist” appears only 3 times in the NT. In Ephesians 4:11 where we read that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers; Acts 21:8 which speaks of Phillip the evangelist, and in our text from 2nd Timothy. When we hear the word “evangelist” most of us probably think of Billy Graham, but we can look at those Scriptures which have the word in them and study them out to better understand what an evangelist is.
In Acts 21:8 it mentions that Phillip is an evangelist; so what exactly did Phillip do? Well in Acts 6 we are told that he was elected to take care of the widows in the Jerusalem Church – this was his first position in ministry that we know of, in Acts 8:4 we see that he preached the Word wherever he went. In Acts chapter 8:12-13 Phillip baptized believers, in Acts 8:30-39 Phillip expounded on Scripture to the Ethiopian and taught him about Christ. So Phillip preached the Word, he explained and expounded on the Word and he baptized.
So let’s look at what Timothy did. We read about Timothy mostly in the letters written to him by Paul. We see in those letters that Timothy had a gift, and that gift pertained to the preaching of the Word, which involved exhortation, correcting errors, rebuking those who were false teachers, and teaching or expounding Scripture – thereby spreading the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
What I see from Scripture is that both of these men proclaimed the Gospel whenever and to whomever they could. They did it by preaching and teaching, and their preaching was expository.
So what do we mean by expository? If pastors need to do this, and churches need pastors that do this, then we need to know. We usually contrast it with what we call topical preaching (and I confess that topical preaching is what I’ve always done, having never been taught any other way). Topical preaching is when we take a subject and talk about it. Rather than taking a text from the Bible and drawing the meaning from that text for our sermon topic, topical preaching usually takes a topic that the preacher wants to preach about, be it prayer, marriage, holiness, salvation, or as in this case, expositional preaching, and then he usually finds a main passage of Scripture and several other passages that back up his point. When we do this, the point of the sermon is already determined, the pastor already knows what he wants to say, so he finds passages that back that up. Expositional sermons take the main point from the text itself and then expound on it.
Now let me say this… expositional preaching isn’t simply preaching a verbal commentary on Scripture. It’s preaching that take for the point of a sermon, the point of a particular passage of Scripture. Then the preacher unfolds it and teaches it to the people of God.
Expositional preaching assumes a belief in the authority of Scripture, what I mean by that is that if we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then we should let the Bible speak, and say what it intends to say. And the pastor who preaches expositionally allows God’s Word to do what it was intended to do. What this means is that preachers today have authority to speak from God, ONLY as long as they preach the Word of God. If a preacher is preaching a sermon that backs up his pet project… even if he uses Scripture to support his message, we should be cautious, because if Scripture is being used to convey a message that God did not intend it to convey, then we are treading on dangerous ground.
Here’s the 2nd reason a preacher should preach for the majority of his sermons expository sermons: A preacher who doesn’t preach expositionally limits his congregations’ growth. If all I ever do is preach topically, then you the congregation will never grow through your church attendance past the knowledge that I have. In other words, you will only hear what I want you to hear, whether it’s what I feel that God is leading me to preach, or whether I miss God completely. And you’ll never get past my knowledge (that’s not to say that some of you aren’t already past it) because I would only be preaching what I already knew. And thus we limit the power of God’s Word, by not proclaiming it fully. Expository preaching allows us to dig deeper into the Word. If all I did was preach topically then the church will slowly be conformed to MY image and my personality, rather than to God’s; and that is not what we want here at Ft. Supply.
So Paul’s charge to Timothy was to preach the word, and by preaching the word we see that Paul meant the full counsel of God. We do that by preaching expopsitionally. But why is it so important for a pastor to preach the word? Why is that the main command that Paul gives to Timothy? Why not tell him to be kind to strangers, or do good works, or any number of other things?
Surely there are other things a pastor could do that are just as important right? Well not according to Paul, and we know that by the seriousness of his charge before God and Jesus.
When we read Scripture we see that God has decided in His infinite wisdom to use His Word to bring life to His people. We see this in the very beginning, God said, and it was so. We also see it after the fall in the Garden of Eden, God spoke and gave a promise of hope. He said, the Seed of the woman will crush the serpents head. So in one sense God was the first evangelist in the Bible. In Genesis 12 God’s Word is given to Abraham to call him out of Ur and to follow God. Notice that Abraham never set up a committee; he simply heard God’s Word and trusted Him. The children of Abraham eventually ended up as slaves in Egypt, but in Exodus chapter 3 God called out to Moses… God SPOKE to Moses and told him His plan of setting the captives free. In Exodus 20 God gave His law to His people, and by their acceptance of it they were made His people. By His Word, the Israelites became God’s people. In 1st Kings 18:1 we read that after “many days the Word of the Lord came to Elijah…” How many times do we hear that phrase? “The Word of the Lord CAME…”
Think about it… how do we define who God is and what He wants us to do? We can either try to figure it out through what He has revealed of Himself through creation, or we can go to His Word. Why is it so important that we translate the Bible into the languages of people? It’s because the Word of God presents Him to us in a fuller manner. People without God’s Word have often times gone astray, creating false gods, and worshiping all manner of things. So we can say that God has presented His Word to us by His grace. God didn’t have to give us His Word. He didn’t have to give that promise of Hope in the Garden of Eden. God would’ve been perfectly just in saying that Adam and Eve disobeyed Him and thus they must face the judgment that is due them. But He did give us His Word, and it is by His Word that we have a fuller revelation of Him. Turn with me to Hebrews 1:1-3 (read). God has always spoken to His people, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, the Word who became flesh. Through Whom He also made the worlds… and upholds all things by the Word of His power.
In Ezekiel chapter 37 we see that life comes by the Word of God. Turn there and lets read verse 1 through 14 (Read Ezekiel 37:1-14). Look at vs. 4, “Hear the Word of the Lord!” Ezekiel obeyed and spoke God’s Words to the dry bones, and again in verse 10 and life came to this army of zombies. In verse 11 God interprets the vision and says, “These bones are the whole house of Israel…” How did God bring life to them? By His Word!
Just like those dead, dry bones, all of mankind is dead in trespasses and sin, we must be born again. Romans 10:14 says, “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
I think it is a great temptation of churches today to create a church around the personality of a preacher, or around political views, or around an emotional experience. We can create churches around all sorts of things, but we can only create a church that is pleasing to God by the preaching of God’s Word.
1st Thessalonians 2:4 says it is pleasing to God when the Gospel is preached. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please Him. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So you see, it’s the Word of God that brings faith, it’s the Gospel. It’s the Word of God that causes us to grow, it’s the Word of God that sanctifies us – “sanctify them by your truth, Thy Word is truth.” It’s the Word of God that leads us in the way we should go – Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Ephesians 5 tells us that it is the washing of the water through the Word that cleanses us, and again I would say that the water of the Word was the water that Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus in John 3:5, not the water of a baptistery, but the water of the Word.
We need God’s Word, not only to get saved, but we need it to continually challenge us and change us and shape us and mold us, and conform us to His image by the renewing of our minds. And this should not only be done individually but also corporately.
There is a reason we are called preachers. We are called to preach. It’s a shame that we have audience driven churches today. It’s a shame that today it seems that the purpose of the church has become finding its purpose. It’s a shame that today we have preachers who instead of looking to the Word of God are instead looking to opinion polls. Preachers are called to preach, not what’s necessarily popular or entertaining; we aren’t called to preach social or political commentaries, we are called to preach the Word of God to the people of God.
Let me tell you; there will come a day when faith will give way to sight and sermons will no longer be necessary. When we see the Lord, preaching will not be necessary, but we aren’t there just yet. We are still laboring in this fallen world, but we are not laboring in vain because of God’s grace.
So what does all this mean? Does it mean that topical preaching is evil or worthless? Absolutely not… like I said, I’m preaching a topical sermon to you in order to explain expository preaching right now. Topical sermons have their place and can and should be used on occasion, but the majority should be expository. Does it mean that preachers shouldn’t do things besides preaching? Absolutely not! Most of us don’t have that luxury.
What it means is that for a healthy church, the preaching of God’s Word must be CENTRAL, and that expository sermons are the best means of spiritual growth because they give the full counsel of God.
Now there might just be somebody here today wondering why I’m preaching a sermon about preaching and why I’ve used a text that was written to pastors… after all you all are the congregation, I’m the one doing the preaching right?
But let me ask you this morning; do you really believe that the Bible is God’s Word? Do your actions show that you believe that this is God’s Word? Because one of those actions is to make sure that the man who is standing up here, be it me, or someone else (many, many years from now) is preaching the Word of God faithfully. If you go to a restaurant and aren’t getting fed, chances are that restaurant isn’t going to stay in business for long, and so it’s important for you, the congregation that you have someone up here who is preaching the Word faithfully, someone who is feeing the hungry who come here every Sunday and Wednesday.
Do you remember how we just went over all the things the Word of God does? How it saves us, brings faith, how it sanctifies us, and is used to cleanse us, how it helps us in our spiritual growth? Well if the Word isn’t being preached faithfully, then are all those things going to happen? So let me close with this: Preaching should have a certain content, a certain manner in which it is preached, because man does not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God, and if we aren’t getting that Word, then are we truly living?
CLOSING AND INVITATION
