PREACHING: ANTIQUATED OR MANDATED?
2 TIMOTHY 4:1-5
INTRODUCTION
- Every Sunday morning, millions of people around the world gather together in buildings, huts, houses, or whatever else provides an acceptable meeting place, for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ, a man who claimed to be God, and because of this claim was crucified on a Roman cross. According to the accounts of his followers, three days after he was crucified he rose from the dead.
- So his followers, believing that faith in that death and resurrection for their sinfulness brings them eternal life; come together and, usually, sing together, pray together, give of their resources, and some time during their meeting sit down and listen to a person talk.
- For 20, 30, 45, or heaven forbid 60 minutes the church, this gathering of believers, listens to this person speak. We are quite familiar with this. Each week we gather together here, and everyone knows at some point I am going to come up to this podium and begin to talk.
- Now I want you to stop and think for a moment about why that is. What in the world would make someone want to sit and listen to one person talk for an extended period of time? And further, what on earth would cause someone to brave standing in front of an audience for that long?
- We call this phenomenon (and I’ll explain why I call it a phenomenon in a moment) preaching. We call the people who work at this craft preachers. We call the final product a message or a sermon. Now public speaking is by no means unique to the Christian church, but why is there such an emphasis among Christ followers on one man standing before a group delivering a message?
- What is this person, called a preacher, supposed to be doing? Is he free to talk about whatever he wants to talk about? Or does he have certain responsibilities? We could personalize it like this: why are you sitting there listening to me talk? And what am I supposed to be doing, now that I have your attention?
- Today I want to give biblical answers to those questions; and provide biblical justification for the act of preaching in a local church. I want to do this by looking at 2 Timothy 4:1-5. Turn there if you would. As you are finding your place I want to say that I am not saying these things because I feel I have to defend my occupation. If the Lord called me to some other work I would still have these convictions; because they come from the word of God.
Read 2 Timothy 4:1-5
- As we look to this passage of Scripture in order to understand why, after thousands of years, we continue to gather under the teaching of one individual, even at this very moment, I want to illuminate what these verses mean by answering three questions. The first is:
WHO IS THE “YOU”?
- In v.1 Paul, the author of this letter, writes: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Now before we get to what that charge is, I want to talk about to whom the charge was given. Who is Paul charging here?
- Now we might guess by the name of this epistle that the “you” to whom Paul is writing is a man named Timothy. I want to take a few moments to paint a portrait of who this young man was.
- We first read of Timothy in Scripture in Acts 16. Paul meets this young man and, in essence, recruits him to serve with him in ministry. There is not a lot of biographical information on Timothy; although we do know his mother and grandmother were followers of Christ, though his father was a Greek.
- From there Timothy is mentioned approximately two dozen times, always in close association with the Apostle Paul (with the possible exception of the book of Hebrews). And by the time he is receiving this letter from his father in the faith, he is the pastor-teacher in Ephesus. 1 Timothy 1:3 says: As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.
- So Timothy was the pastor of a church. Accordingly then, much of our ecclesiastical instruction (that is, instruction regarding church practice) is found in the letters that Paul wrote to him. In 1 Timothy we find that an overseer or pastor should be a man, the husband of one wife, sober- minded, self-controlled, respectable, able to teach, and so on.
- And our passage in 2 Timothy is more instruction regarding what Timothy is to do as an overseer in the church, as the pastor of his flock. And every pastor standing in a pulpit today is a modern day counterpart to Timothy. And the Bible is clear concerning why these men do what they do.
- In Ephesians 4, Paul writes: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
- There, the pastor-teacher, who is one man, is said to be given to the church for the building up of the body; particularly the building up of the body in sound doctrine, unity of the faith, and knowledge of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Now, by looking at Ephesians 4 we begin to answer our second question. We know that the “you” in 2 Timothy 4:1 is Timothy, and by inference, all pastors. Now we ask the question:
WHAT WAS THE “YOU” TO DO?
- With what responsibility does Paul charge Timothy? Look at v.2: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
- Let’s talk plainly about what this means. The phrase “preach the word” is from κήρυξον τὸν λόγον and it means to proclaim or announce publicly what has been spoken, the word. Let’s take those two things one at a time. To what “word” is Paul referring? What has been spoken that Timothy is supposed to preach? You probably know the answer, but I want you to know the answer because you know the context of what Paul is saying.
- He is writing these things to Timothy on the heels of what we talked about a few weeks ago in chapter 3:14-17. There Paul wrote: But as for you, 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 to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
- This is dealing with the doctrine of Scripture. That it is verbally and plenarily inspired by God; and so is fully sufficient for our every spiritual need. Remember verbal plenary inspiration means that every word of the original manuscripts was breathed out by God. The original writings were the very words of God himself.
- And this is the “word” to which Paul is referring. This is what he is calling Timothy to proclaim. Very simply, Paul is telling him to preach and teach the Bible. But what does that mean? What does it mean to preach?
- As I mentioned earlier, κήρυξον (which is translated “preach”) means to proclaim or announce publicly. It is a clear reference to the public teaching of a message; in this case, God’s word.
- Now in today’s churches, pastors are given loads of responsibilities and are expected to live up to high expectations. In fact I laughed when I read that after hundreds of years, a model preacher has been found to suit absolutely everyone; maybe you’ve heard of him:
- He preaches exactly 20 minutes and then sits down. He condemns sin but never hurts anyone. He works from 8:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M., in every type of work from preaching to custodial service. He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, buys books regularly, has a nice family, drives a good car and gives $100 a week to the church. He also stands ready to contribute to every good work that comes along. He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years! He is tall and short, thin and heavyset, and handsome. He has one brown eye and one blue; hair parted in the middle, left side dark and straight, the right, brown and wavy. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all his time with older folk. He smiles all the time while maintaining a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls a day on the church members, spends all his time evangelizing the un-churched, and is never out of his office.
- Humorous as that may be, there is reality there. A pastor has a lot of responsibilities, and in some cases, rightly so. But his most important priority is to faithfully preach and teach God’s word to the people whom he serves.
- Sadly, in a lot of churches today, this priority is being neglected. There are many reasons why this is the case; the most basic of which is that so called preachers lack confidence in the power of the word of God; or perhaps the relevance of the word. There is a simple neglecting of the command given here, and in other parts of Scripture, to proclaim the written word of God.
- But I do want to address a few secondary and tertiary aspects of why preaching is being neglected. Preaching is being replaced by different models in various circles because some argue that it is an outdated form of communication.
- There is, I think, some truth to this. By that I mean that I do find that people are less used to listening to a speaker than they used to be. Ironically, however, I believe the reason for this is not the inefficiency of the mode of communication, but the infrequency with which it is used.
- Somewhere along the line, as our world was being modernized, communicators began to neglect the art of the spoken word in favor of more technologically savvy forms of communication. Now I love technology, but I think there has been a swing too far in its direction.
- So because preaching was de-emphasized it began to be less common, and as people began to un- familiarize themselves with it, it came to be viewed as an old way of communicating. Not everything that is old is bad. Sometimes I just want grab the TV remote or PSP or iPod out of people’s hands and tell them to read a book!
- So I think that to whatever degree preaching is outdated, it is so because it is not being used like it should. Aside from that, people really aren’t as unfamiliar with listening to a person speak as some church leaders might want us to believe. We listen to the President speak. Students listen to their teachers and professors speak. It’s really not as outdated as it seems.
- One other objection to the continued use of preaching to communicate God’s truth comes from a more sociological or psychological angle. That is, that people don’t have the attention spans to listen to one person talk for any significant length of time.
- As I was researching this I found that the average attention span; meaning the amount of time a person can focus on one thing; is now said to be anywhere from 7-12 minutes. That’s down from when I last read about it. So the idea goes: if people can only pay attention for, let’s say an average of 10 minutes, we have to communicate to them in 10 minute chunks. Otherwise they will become bored.
- So since studies show this, we must adapt. My response to that is: of course studies show a minimal attention span. We spend the majority of our time getting 8-10 minute chunks of information on a television and then we get a 2-3 minute break for commercials. And it’s not just TV but other technologies and modern comforts as well.
- People used to be able to concentrate for longer periods of time. We can’t use our brains as an excuse; our brains are not the problem. The social conditioning we are familiar with is the problem. So if we have the attention span of a monkey, guess whose fault it is...our own.
- There are really only a few reasons why a sermon is boring. In fact I think I’ve reduced it down to two; though this may be over simplifying. One reason is that you are listening to a boring preacher. Let’s face it, some people are just boring.
- Do you remember Ben Stein in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off? This guy was the definition of monotone. When taking attendance: Anderson....Anderson, Adler...Adler, Beuller...Beuller...Beuller. Then when he’s teaching: in an effort to alleviate the ...anyone?...anyone?...Great Depression the … anyone?...tariff bill was passed, which raised or lowered...anyone?...raised tariffs in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government.
- I mean when you’re listening to someone like that you have a right to be bored. But I dare say that this is not the issue with most preachers. Most of the time we are bored because we are not good listeners. We have given in to the idea that we can hardly pay attention to anything.
- I don’t buy it. I used to think preachers were boring. Then I put the effort into listening and paying attention. Now listening to various preachers teach the word of God is my favorite thing to do. And I would rather read a book than watch TV (unless the Red Sox or Celtics are on!). Because I’ve developed and conditioned myself to be able to do those things.
- Now I know we’ve gotten away from the text a little, but I wanted to address those things because I think they are bogus. If a preacher is boring, odds are it’s just as much your problem as it is his.
- So as we refocus here, preaching the word is the highest priority for a pastor-teacher in a local church; no matter what cultural pressures may be indicating about its ineffectiveness. It’s not ineffective when it’s done right; and the people work at being good listeners.
- Paul tells Timothy to preach the word. And here’s where we can tie in this little cultural manifesto with the text, v.2: be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
- Preach God’s word, Timothy, when it is popular and when it is not popular; when it is convenient and inconvenient; when it is easy and when it is hard. Preach against sin, correct sin, and encourage godliness with patience and teaching no matter what.
- Now, the last question: why? Why is teaching God’s word in this manner so important? What is it about the method of communication called preaching that makes it irreplaceable in a local church? We’ve seen that Timothy was the “you”. We’ve seen what the “you” was to do: Timothy was to preach the word. The last question is:
WHY WAS THE “YOU” TO DO IT?
- Why was Timothy to work so hard at preaching? Because preaching proclaims the truth of God on behalf of God in a way that no other form of communication can do.
- Look at vv.3-4: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
- That time is here. Falsehood is rampant. And the preacher is the mouthpiece of God when he accurately proclaims God’s word. You shouldn’t give a rip about anything I have to say, unless it comes from this book. There are all sorts of “teachers” out there that will tell you whatever you want to hear. Preaching is the antidote to that nonsense. Preaching the word declares with authority, not the preacher’s authority, but God’s authority: this is what the Lord says.
- So while I fully support other methods of teaching God’s truth: bible studies, small groups, Sunday school, and so on; those things are to be in addition to the preaching of the word not at its expense.
- God has ordained that the primary way his truth is taught is through public proclamation. We can add whatever else we want to that; but we cannot replace it.
- That’s why the Scripture warns that not many should become teachers. Remember in chapter 3 of his letter James wrote: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
- The preacher is speaking on God’s behalf and will be judged for the things he presents as God’s truth. That sort of proclamation doesn’t happen in any other setting.
- So no, the preacher is not free to say whatever he wants. His conscience, his heart, his mind, his mouth is bound by the word of God. If you want 7 steps to make your garden grow, you won’t find them here.
- And that’s how Paul encourages Timothy in v.5: As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
- Let other people do what they are going to do. As for you, you preach the word. You guard your mind. You proclaim the gospel. You serve as a faithful minister of Jesus Christ.
