God’s Glorious Church
Pastors: Leading as Preachers
2 Timothy 4:1-5
Woodlawn Baptist Church
March 13, 2005
Introduction
One of the most important duties of the man whom God has called is to be a preacher and teacher of God’s Word – to proclaim to you and to others, “Thus saith the Lord!” In this message I want to deal specifically with the pastor’s duty to lead as a preacher of God’s Word. It is my goal to help you know what God expects of His preachers, and what you can do to get the most out of preaching.
Leadership 101
Before we look at the text, let’s talk about what it means to lead, because the only way to understand true Biblical preaching is to understand it in light of God’s definition of leadership. Man’s way of leadership is for each of you and everyone else to serve me so that I accomplish my goals. If I wanted to be a famous preacher, then I would use you and you would serve me so that I accomplished that goal. But God’s way of leadership is vastly different. His way of leadership demands that I serve you so that His goals are accomplished.
What are God’s goals? His chief goal or aim is for every man, woman, boy and girl to glorify Him. Now we know that everyone will glorify God, whether they want to or not. But God’s desire is that we purpose in our hearts to glorify Him. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind.” It isn’t until a man knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior that he can really love God like that, and even after salvation not many genuinely desire to put God first in their lives. In other words, even after salvation, relatively few people purpose in their hearts to glorify God. It is something they must grow in. As you grow in Christlikeness so does your desire for the glory of God.
Now, if God’s way of leadership is for me to serve you so that His goals are accomplished, then my task as a leader is to serve you, or minister to you so that you know and grow: so that each of you knows Christ as your personal Savior and so that each of you who knows Christ grows in your relationship with Him so that you are conformed to the image of Christ. My job as a pastor, as a servant leader is to see to your spiritual transformation, and God has determined that his men perform that work through the vehicle of preaching.
Preach Preacher Preach!
In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, the apostle Paul said to the young preacher Timothy,
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and they shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
A man in the church choir couldn’t sing. Several people hinted to him that he could serve in other places, but he continued to come to the choir. The choir director became desperate and went to the pastor.
“You’ve got to get that man out of the choir,” he said. “If you don’t, the choir members are going to quit. Please do something.”
So the pastor went to the man and suggested, “Perhaps you should leave the choir.”
“Why should I get out of the choir?” he asked.
“Well, five or six people told me you can’t sing,” answered the pastor.
“That’s nothing,” the man snorted, “At least 50 people have told me that you can’t preach!”
I wish I could say that all of what goes on in this pulpit could be called dynamic and inspirational preaching, but I know that not every Sunday do I have on my “game face.” For your sakes I have desired the oratory skills of a Paul, the boldness of a Peter and the wisdom of Christ Himself, but I have to remind myself that God has not called me to be those men: He has called me to preach.
Of all the important things a pastor is called on by God and his church to do, it would be difficult to place any higher than that of his duty to preach. We all like to have a good time when we come to the Lord’s house, but when it gets right down to it our purpose here is of the utmost importance. A careful look at our text shows that…
“The Bible does not call pastor-teachers to be entertainers, movie directors, or psychologists. God calls His shepherds to be preachers. He calls them to stand in the gap and skillfully proclaim His Word. In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, God explicitly calls [preachers] to preach the Word, in season and out of season. He calls them to convince, rebuke, and exhort – carefully instructing the church with great patience. He calls them to do so even when a generation refuses to put up with sound doctrine. He calls them to endure hardship that may be incurred by their faithful exposition of His Word. He calls them to faithfully discharge their ministry even when congregants flock to other teachers who will say what their itching ears want to hear.”
It seems foolish to us that God would use preaching to lead the lost to repentance and the saved to a deeper level of commitment, but preaching is God’s chosen way. Preaching is the way the lost come to faith in Christ.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How 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?”
The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18,
“Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power, for to those who are perishing the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to those of us who are saved it is the power of God!”
Not only is it through the instrument of preaching that the lost are lead to faith in Christ, it is by preaching that the saved experience spiritual transformation. That is why Paul continued his instructions to Timothy by saying…
Preach The Word
I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Bible contains the answers for all of life’s problems. The Bible has the answer for any broken marriage. It contains instructions on raising children, finances, employment, politics, entertainment, and every other area of life you can imagine. Depressed? The Bible holds the key to freedom. Sad? The Bible holds the key to your joy. Wounded? It is a first-aid kit for your soul.
Remember, your purpose in life is to please God, and God’s desire is that you grow in Christ-likeness. If your goals are different from that – then the Bible may not help you, but if your desires are God’s desires, then there is no end to the joy and delight and satisfaction you will find in Him!
Because the “word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,” and because all Scripture is given by God and is profitable for you and will bring you into Christian maturity, and because God has commanded that you be transformed by the renewing of your minds, the Bible must be the basis of any and all preaching that is done by God’s man.
We’re talking about pastors leading as preachers; about me leading by ministering to you, serving you by preaching the Word of God so that you grow and experience the spiritual transformation that God wants to see take place in your life. For me to preach, and to preach God’s Word is not enough. There is a third thing that a pastor must do if he is to lead as a preacher, and that is to…
Preach For Life Change
Throughout the Scriptures, anytime God’s men were instructed to preach, to teach, to proclaim, to instruct, or to admonish, they were instructed to do so with the goal of seeing the lives of their hearers changed. It doesn’t matter how theologically sound or how biblically based a sermon might be if it is not intended to produce change in the lives of those who hear it. It doesn’t matter if the sermon is memorable. I could really care less how many times you talk about me stepping on your toes or how great a sermon was if it doesn’t produce its intended effects – and that is to see spiritual transformation take place in your lives.
If God has called me to help you grow, then my task as a preacher is to preach in such a way that you know what to do, why you should do it, and how you can do it; and if I go to the trouble of getting God’s message and delivering God’s message, then I also expect you to do something with God’s message.
Now, granted there are many things I can do to be a better preacher. I will continue to study. I will continue to work on better delivery. I must continue to yield my life to Christ. The sin in my life must be removed so that it does not hinder my message. But there are also a number of things you can do. Whether you have thought about it before or not, you have certain responsibilities before, during and after the sermon that will help you to not only hear the preaching, but to make better use of the Word that is preached.
Responsibilities Before the Word is Preached
If my job is to lead you in the way of spiritual transformation through the means of preaching, then God expects you to do your part, but the truth is that most people don’t come to church prepared to encounter the Word of God with life-changes in mind. In fact, most people wake up an hour or two before the sermon, skip breakfast, come in with foggy heads and sleepy eyes, and leave with grumbling stomachs. With a little effort however, you can change all of that and create an atmosphere where you encounter the Word of God each week through a personal encounter with the God of the Word. How?
Focus on preparation
With just a few exceptions, you already know what I’m going to be preaching before you get here. Every month I give you a list of the messages I’m going to preach. Often times I will even give you a text. You would be pretty unhappy with me if I did not prepare before I preached, so why shouldn’t you prepare before you come to listen?
Pray for something significant
One of the greatest things you can do leading up to a worship service is to pray and trust God for a significant encounter with Him. When you take time to pray, you are aligning your hearts with God’s. You are saying to Him that you want what He wants, and that you are purposing in your heart to meet with Him in His Word.
Pray for the preacher
If you are looking for rich sermons from your pastor, then pray. Pray for me in the study. Pray for wisdom and insight. Pray for spiritual discernment. Pray that I would have boldness, that God would inspire me, that He would protect me, and that He would teach me what I need to know. The greatest encouragement you can give me is to take me to the throne of God week after week in your prayers.
Schedule around church
You might think that if meeting with God in worship was one of the highest duties of man, and experiencing God in His Word was one of the richest experiences of man, that we would place greater importance on weekly attendance, timeliness and practical planning, but it just isn’t so. I realize that we live in a culture that plays hard all day Saturday, stays up late Saturday night and sleeps in on Sunday morning, but you as God’s people must live counter-culturally. We need to build in a value that declares Sunday morning and Wednesday evening the most important times of our week.
I hear you say that you can’t get going or that you can’ get here on time. Listen, you are the only one stopping you. You must discipline yourself to get up earlier, eat a real breakfast and get ready. Being habitually late or being a habitual church skipper isn’t a laughing matter – it is a declaration to God that meeting with Him really isn’t a priority in your life.
If you begin to schedule around church, then it will drastically impact the way you think about Saturday evenings, weekend getaways, and Sunday morning routines – and it should motivate you even more to give your best efforts when you arrive to encounter God in His Word.
So, you must focus on preparing for worship, pray for something significant to happen in your life, pray for me, and schedule your week around these services – all before you get here. What about…
Responsibilities During the Preaching of the Word?
Worship
Every part of the worship service must be thought of as an act of worship. Singing, giving, and hearing the preaching are acts of worship.
Think
You are responsible, before God, to think as I preach. I will do my best to deliver thought provoking messages, but I cannot make you think – you have to be a willing participant in order to do that. Thinking during the preaching is going to require that you tune in both to me and to yourself.
Take Notes
I am convinced that taking notes, even in the form of a few simple statements, can greatly enhance the benefit a sermon has in your life. Those who take notes will remember a sermon longer than those who don’t, and taking notes moves you from being a passive listener to becoming an aggressive listener. Now I’m not asking you to transcribe the sermon – I will gladly give you a copy of any sermon I preach. Having a copy of it is not the point. Taking notes means that you are going to write down key thoughts, primary points, and those things that God impresses upon you during the process.
Use your Bibles
Enough said right?
Fight Distractions
One of Satan’s greatest tools during the service is to distract you. There are always going to be distractions, so do your best to keep eye contact with me and stay focused on the message. I would also encourage you not to be distracting. Every one of you can help keep distractions down by learning and training yourself to turn off the sound on your phones and pagers, to bring some cough drops, go to the bathroom before we start, use the nursery, and don’t start putting your things away until we are through.
Conclusion
Of all the things God calls pastors to do, preaching His Word for life-change is what I believe to be the among the greatest. We’re living in a time when God’s preachers are being pushed aside in the worship services and are being told to shorten it up and shut up, but when we look at God’s call and understand that God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to change the world, we can begin to change our own ways of thinking about church services and we can begin to align our hearts with God’s in light of what He’s trying to do in our lives.
What is He trying to do in your life?
