“The Word of God Proclaimed”
Preached at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1/20/2002
The Rev’d Quintin Morrow, Rector
8But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14How then 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? 15And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:8-17).
Hugh Latimer, the first Protestant Bishop of Worcester, and English Reformer and martyr, in a sermon preached before the King’s Majesty in April of 1549, tells the story of a young woman in London who was asked by a neighbor, “Mistress, whither go ye?” “Marry,” she said, “I am going to St. Thomas of Acres to the sermon; I could not sleep all this last night, and I am going now thither; I never failed of a good nap there.”
More recently, theologian Thomas Allan has written: “It takes a great amount of skill to take the gospel and make it boring, tedious and dull. Our preachers today, it seems to me, have mastered that skill right well.”
And the final nail in the coffin is this short poem. It reads:
I never see my preacher’s eyes
Tho’ they with light may shine—
For when he prays he closes his,
And when he preaches, I close mine!
We are continuing today with the second part of our 3 part series of messages on “The Word of God.” Last week, as you may recall, we looked at “The Word of God Written: The Might of His Word.” Examining II Timothy chapter 3, verses 14-17, we saw that the Bible is God’s Word, because, as St. Paul said, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” We also discovered that the Bible is reliable and trustworthy in all that it teaches and proclaims; that it is sufficient for salvation; and that it is useful for doctrine, for rebuking us, correcting us and for training us in righteous living.
Today we will be looking briefly at “God’s Word Proclaimed: The Primacy of Preaching.”
This may come as news to you, but there is currently a crisis in preaching. Many mainline churches, presently suffering from doctrinal division and insecurity about the reliability of Holy Scripture, have relegated preaching to a minor role in public worship. Denominations, such as ours, which were once known for dynamic and life-changing preaching, are now known more for what they are not pro- claiming from their pulpits rather than what they are proclaiming. In past generations it was the expectation that ministers would spend hours in prayer, study and preparation for the Sunday sermon; and these men used to stand boldly in the pulpit on Sunday morning, with open Bible in hand and proclaim, “Thus says the Lord.” Ministers today, however, timidly mount the pulpit on Sunday mornings, and after little study and even less prayer, clear their throats and say, “This is what I think.”
But the crisis in preaching doesn’t end there. Some theologians and sociologists are also currently sounding the death-knell for preaching. They make the case that modern society has produced a generation of people who distrust authority—all authority, including biblical authority. Whereas people used to exercise an unchallenged confidence in government, police, physicians, church and Bible, they are now more cynical and mistrustful of traditional authority figures—like preachers—and less apt to be impressed by the statement “Thus says the Lord.” Further, these same preaching skeptics have said that television has a bred a generation of people who are unable to hear sermons anymore. One noted theologian wrote:
We can no longer assume that people either want to listen to ser-
mons, or indeed are able to listen. When they are accustomed to
the swiftly moving images of the screen, how can we expect them
to give their attention to one person talking, with no frills, no light,
relief and nothing else to look at?
Another famous theologian has defined preaching as: “A monstrous monologue by a moron to mutes.
It used to be that Christians would walk miles to hear a good sermon. It used to be that Christians would feel cheated by a sermon that was less than an hour in length. It used to be that people read sermons, discussed them at Sunday dinner, and readily compared the merits of different preachers they heard on a regular basis. But not now.
In the minds of many modern Christians the sermon has become the equivalent of the 7th inning stretch--no more than a break between the opening hymn and Holy Communion. And today, any preacher who dares to go longer than 15 minutes is in danger of incurring the wrath of his impatient congregation. Some churches have replaced the regular exposition of the Word with a 12-minute “life application talk,” or a dramatic skit. There is a crisis in preaching.
And the secular media has picked up on this crisis of preaching in the church. Time magazine, for its final issue of 1979, published a cover story posing this question: American Preaching: A Dying Art? The editor of that issue, in that cover story, wryly made this statement:
“Whereas 200 years ago the preaching of Jonathan Edwards made all of New England quake in its boots, today the chilling of the Word has become a major contributor to the evident malaise in many large Protestant denominations.”
Yet, despite this apparent crisis of preaching that is plaguing our modern church, and despite the fact that modern man is seemingly culturally ill-equipped to listen to sermons, I must tell you categorically and unapologetically that preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Indeed, did you hear St. Paul in Romans chapter 10? In the passage that we read this morning, the Apostle makes it clear that without the preaching of the Word of God, one cannot be a Christian. He says: You can’t believe unless you hear. And you can’t hear unless someone preach to you. “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
In this passage Paul uses what is called a regressive argument. That is, he argues from a conclusion to a cause. He says that everyone who calls upon the Lord in faith will be saved. But to call upon him, one must first hear about him. And to hear about him, one must first have someone tell him about the Lord. And that someone is a preacher. “How can you believe in one that you have not first heard about?” Paul asks. “And how can you hear about God unless first a preacher tells you about Him?”
You see, preaching is indispensable to believing. And believing is a prerequisite to salvation. Preaching is the sine qua non—the “without which nothing”—of faith and everlasting life.
John Stott, the former rector of All Souls, London, put it this way:
Preaching, he said, is indispensable to Christianity. Without preach-
ing a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity
is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to
understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the
truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself
savingly to fallen humanity; or that his self-revelation has been given
by the most straightforward means of communication known to us,
namely, by a word and words; or that he calls upon those who have
heard his Word to speak it to others.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the reality is that every true minister of the Gospel must be a preacher. It is incumbent upon him to preach—both well and often. It is a divine mandate for him to mount the pulpit, after hours of study and prayer, and to open God’s Word and feed God’s people from the spiritual meat of this book.
Bishop Latimer, in his sermon before King Edward the VI in 1549, which we alluded to earlier, also said this:
For the preaching of the Word of God unto the people is called meat.
Scripture calleth it meat, not strawberries, that come but once a year,
and tarry not long but are soon gone. But it is meat; it is no dainties.
The people must have meat that must be familiar and continual given
unto them to feed upon. Many make a strawberry of it, ministering it
but once a year; but such do not the office of a good [pastor].
“Preach the Word!” Paul admonishes Timothy in II Timothy 4:2. “Be prepared in season and out of season,” he says. One of the essential qualifications for the office of presbyter given by Paul in I Tim. 3:2 is that he be able to preach. Why? Because preaching is fundamental to the job.
We have examined the problem of preaching in the modern church; and the importance of preaching in the Christian life. Now we must affirm the power of preaching.
Put simply, the power of preaching lies in two distinct but related truths. The first is that God Almighty has spoken, and continues to speak today, in the pages of the Bible. The second is that because of the first truth, that God speaks through His Word, this Word can change hearts and destinies.
Firstly, the power of preaching—because preaching is the sharing and applying of this book—lies in the fact that God has spoken and continue to speaks through His Word. “All Scripture is God-breathed,” Paul says in II Tim. 3:16. Opening up this book and reading and expositing its truths is not the same thing as opening up and reading Shakespeare, and listening to a university lecture about one of his plays. Shakespeare is inspiring, but the Scriptures are inspired. And there is an eternity of difference between the two.
The first truth that is fundamental to preaching is that Almighty God has spoken in the pages of the Bible; that he has revealed himself, his will, his law and the way of salvation in the words of the Bible. And without that conviction, preaching is nothing more than a discourse on Semitic literature, or the sharing of one man’s ideas and opinions. I like the definition Andrew Blackwood, former editor of Christianity Today, gives for preaching. He said:
Preaching means God’s way of meeting the needs of sinful men
through the proclamation of His revealed truth by one of His chosen
messengers.
But far from being a collection of pious sayings and sentiments from days gone by, the Bible is the vehicle that God uses to still reveal Himself, His will and His salvation to mankind. God still speaks through His Word today.
For the Word of God is living and active, Hebrews 4:12 says. Sharp-
er than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul
and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of
the heart.
The power of preaching, because preaching is the exposition of the Word that God has spoken and still speaks through, secondly, lies in the fact that this Word can change hearts and eternal destinies.
God’s Word is a living thing. That conviction underlies true biblical preaching. God’s Word has power, therefore, to change you. It has the power and ability, by the working of the Holy Spirit, to change your mind, melt your hard heart, cause you to love and forgive the unlovable and unforgivable. It is powerful. The Word of God can convert the soul. It can move you to tears. It comforts and relieves your fears. It can give you wisdom, strength and courage. The Word of God is active. It plants seeds in your heart. It moves within your soul, often times when you are not even aware of it. It breaks down walls of hatred and mistrust. It binds hearts together. It sheds light on the paths of our life that we might see things as they really are and not as wish to see them.
I read a story recently about the conversion of the most notorious drunk in a small Texas town. Apparently the town drunk wandered into church one Sunday morning. And after the sermon he came forward during the altar call with tears streaming down his face. He was gloriously saved that very morning. After the service, the pastor of the church ran up to the man, grabbed his hand, and said, “What was it that I said this morning that changed your heart?” “Nothing,” the man replied, “it was your text.”
“It was your text.” Biblical preaching is powerful, because God has spoken and speaks through His Word, and that Word can change hearts and destinies.
But just as there are counterfeit bills, there are counterfeit ministers and counterfeit sermons as well. We must distinguish biblical preaching from its pale imitations. I therefore conclude this message on the primacy of preaching with the purpose of preaching.
In Isaiah 55:11 God declares:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
“Preach the Word!” Paul tells Timothy, not your own opinions.
The purpose of biblical preaching is twofold: The first is to communicate God’s Word, and only God’s Word, and the second is to, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, apply God’s Word.
Look, folks, I don’t have anymore authority or right than anyone else to stand up and give you my opinion about things. What you want—what you ought to demand—is that after hours of study, preparation and prayer, your minister to mount this pulpit and with open Bible in hand and say, “Beloved, God has spoken, and this is what He has to say.” Because you want to hear what God has said, not what the preacher has said or thinks.
God has promised to bless His Word, not my words. It therefore behooves me to make my sermons as much God’s Word and as little of my words as possible. You make your Rector preach the undiluted Gospel and the whole Word of God to you. And if he doesn’t, you fire him and hire someone to be your Rector who will. Don’t you settle for cotton candy. You demand the meat of the Word. You expect quality preaching. St. Paul says in Gal. 1:8 that if anyone preaches another gospel than the one he preached, they should be eternally condemned. Tell me Paul didn’t think preaching God’s Word wasn’t important!
The preaching project is simply this: Declare the Word, explain the Word, and apply the Word. Biblical preaching answers three simple questions if it is indeed biblical preaching: 1) What does this text say? 2) What does this text mean? And 3) What does this text mean to God’s people? Exposition. Interpretation. Application.
I am calling all of you to raise your standards of preaching. You ought to be bringing your Bibles to church. You ought to be opening them and listening to the sermon, because it is important. You ought to be checking the sermon with God’s Word and making sure what the preacher has said squares with what God has said. You ought to call the preacher on it if he deviates from the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. This may sound unkind, but I am not really interested in whether my audience likes what I’ve said in a sermon. What I’m interested in is whether or not what I preached came clearly from the text of Scripture. It is the preacher’s job to impart God’s truth to God’s people and to inoculate them against error.
The trouble in the Episcopal Church today is that too many bishops and priests are afraid to courageously minister God’s Word without compromise. It might offend someone, you see. Elijah wasn’t afraid to offend. John the Baptist wasn’t afraid to offend. Jesus wasn’t afraid to offend. Neither was St. Paul. I counsel young men contemplating the ministry: If you are timid, don’t do this job. It is the preacher’s job to preach God’s Word and only God’s Word. That means he must preach the whole counsel of God—both the good news and the bad.
It has been said that the preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. God’s Word contains great news: God’s Love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, healing, restoration, hope, resurrection and eternal life. Some preachers spend all their time speaking only about those things. But that is an unbalanced gospel. Because the Gospel also contains bad news.
It contains news that we are sinful and in need of repentance; news that God is just and will punish the wicked; news that we have to repent of the evil things that bring us pleasure before we can be right with God; news that the wages of sin is death; news that there really is a hell, and that people really go there; and news that being a disciple of Jesus is costly. Some preachers preach only those things. That, too, is an unbalanced gospel.
The call of the preacher is to preach the whole counsel of God—both the terrors and the hope, both the good news and bad.
Preaching rests on the convictions that God has spoken through his Word, that God still speaks through His Word today, that this Word can change your life and your eternal destiny, and that it is the job of the preacher to preach God’s Word and only God’s Word.
Bernardino of Siena, the 14th century Franciscan Friar, once said, “If of these two things you can do only one—either hear the mass or hear the sermon—you should let the mass go, rather than the sermon. There is less peril for your soul in not hearing mass than in not hearing the sermon.”
I admonish you: come to this place prepared and eager to hear the Word of God preached. If the preacher were giving directions on finding buried treasure every ear would be strained to hear and understand every detail. How much more should we hear and heed the words from this pulpit which give us directions to eternal life.
James 1:21 admonishes us to receive the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.
“Preach the Word!” Paul says. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
AMEN.
