Preach the Word!

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 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. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 

~ 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Stephen Had Lunch Duty

Google Reader suggested the One-Man Peanut Gallery blog the other day. 

I've been reflecting a bit on the first post I read on Michael's site. Here's a little snippet, but do read the whole post--it is well worth it.

Stephen's story in the New Testament isn't very long, but he makes quite an impression in only two chapters. This guy was such a powerful speaker that his most learned opponents "could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking", and resorted to lying about him to try to shut him up. When he was brought before the rulers, he delivered an incredibly bold, convicting, smoldering sermon that left the listeners with only two choices - repent, or kill him. They chose poorly, and Stephen became the first martyr for Jesus. Unwilling to be silenced or compromise the truth, he stands forever as a model to those who would rather die than disown their Lord.

Yet despite his obvious oratory gifts, what do we first see him doing in the Jerusalem church? He's in charge of making sure that when food is distributed to widows, the Jews don't get more than the Gentiles. This incredible preacher is assigned lunch duty, and he does it without complaint.

Elders = True Servants of the People

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 

~ 1 Timothy 5:17

whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies

—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

~ 1 Peter 4:11

The task for the church is thus twofold: to create a culture which reflects the Pauline culture where to desire to be an elder is a good thing, elders are honoured, and elders who teach are considered worthy of double honour; but also to avoid the kind of Protestant sacerdotalism where many think the only way of being of true value is to hold ordained office. That requires church officers to be true servants of the people; and to have the courage to tell someone who cannot teach that, however powerful the inner call, they are not called to be a teacher. Not an easy balance; and the latter in particular might prove tough in a culture where it is considered self-evident that every member has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of ministry.

~ Carl Trueman

Pestiferous Bogs of Error

So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago; the past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, [men of God] had said, "The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better."

Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on. Note what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe to our fathers.

~ Spurgeon

Devoted to the Apostles Teaching

Tact and diplomacy have many places where they’re absolutely necessary, but the Apostolic preaching of the New Testament must be our example as we examine the work of pastors and elders today. Not only must we compare our doctrine to the Apostles’ doctrine, but also our methods to the Apostle’s methods.

In other words, if the sermons of a particular church are filled with humor, disarming anecdotes of the pastor’s home life, and extended illustrations from movies, it should be obvious to us that the church is not devoted to the Apostles’ teaching. Try to imagine the Apostle Paul preaching like that today and you’ll understand the point.

If the sermons seem lite, the theme of repentance is rare, and the pastor often fails to apply Scripture’s doctrine to our lives in such a way that we’re left gasping for breath as the benediction is given; then again, the church is not devoted to the Apostles’ teaching.

A church that is devoted to the Apostles’ teaching will not tolerate preaching that is risk averse, conflict avoiding, and indecisive. Such teaching is well-suited to our relativistic culture but it’s not Apostolic.

~ Read the rest at Bayly Blog on Preaching To An Effeminate Age

This Is the Lot of the Good Shepherd

Discovered the Bayly Blog this morning via Twitter.

Please read the full post if you're interested in standing for the clear presentation of Scripture truth.

Here's a summary:

But we never find the Apostles editing their teaching and preaching in such a way that they would cause no offense; we never find them taming things down in the hope that the Church would survive for another generation.

In the radical relativism of the decadent Roman Empire, the Apostles didn’t cop a posture of false humility starting their sentences with “I believe…” or “Don’t you ever find yourself wondering whether…” or “Speaking only for myself….”

When, under the guise of humility and compassion, a pastor avoids confronting the sin of his congregation; when he minces his words; there's little doubt he’ll also avoid the suffering and death of the faithful shepherd. Remember how the Apostle Paul paused his rebuke of the Galatians long enough to ask them so very plaintively, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

Faithful pastors devoted to the teaching of the Apostles will correct and rebuke in the same manner the Apostles corrected and rebuked. And for this, they will suffer just as the Apostles suffered—this is the lot of the good shepherd:

Remember the word that I said to you,

‘A slave is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;

if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

~ John 15:20

God’s prophets have never been able to escape persecution when they were faithful to proclaim the message God entrusted to them.

Inflexible, Because God and Conscience Require It

This serves as a good follow up on certainty and humility from several weeks ago.

Jonathan Edwards said:

"A truly humble man is inflexible in nothing but in the cause of his Lord and Master, which is the cause of truth and virtue. In this he is inflexible, because God and conscience require it. But in things of lesser moment, and which do not involve his principles as a follower of Christ, and in things that only concern his own private interests, he is apt to yield to others.

There are various imitations of (humility) that fall short of the reality. Some put on an affected humility. Others have a natural low-spiritedness, and are wanting in manliness of character. … In others, there is a counterfeit kind of humility, wrought by the delusions of Satan: and all of these may be mistaken for true humility."

~ via Bayly Blog

Not the Season for Snoring

“Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture…The call is: watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read cannot be read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well…The devil…the world…and our flesh are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brothers, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent…This evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring.”

-Martin Luther via Passion for Preaching

What a Message Needs

Thoroughly enjoyed Peter Mead's post this morning over on Biblical Preaching. Here's a quick summary--but if you're a student of God's Word who desires to share it with others (expositionally or evangelistically), go read the whole thing!

Perhaps these three principles (from Aristotle, I believe), are too obvious to state. Let me state them anyway:

1. A message needs unity - that is, a message should be about one thing. If it’s missing then the listeners will supply an imposed unity (often in the form of only remembering your most poignant or amusing illustration)
2. A message needs order - Often a message that makes total sense in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4, simply does not communicate when it is structured 1, 3, 4, 2.
3. A message needs progress - It needs to be going somewhere. Without progress the message is about as enjoyable as treading water, in a confined space, with limited air.

Preaching Is Not a One-Hit Job

Peter Mead writes on the Biblical Preaching blog:

What we observe in our own spiritual walks, or in the lives of those around us, is part of what the preacher is called to participate in. Preaching is not a one-hit job. You don’t present a truth and then move on knowing the listeners now have that truth under their belts. You don’t encourage a specific response to God and then look for horizons new in your preaching ministry. The truth is that preaching also needs to tap into the rhythm of patient change, of gracious reinforcement.

Oh, there are crisis moments, but not every Sunday. There are times when a single message will radically transform a life. Pray for that, preach for that, but know that most fruit grows imperceptibly slowly.

The difficulties that come with this ministry are not simple. While God works inaudibly and often below the surface, the preacher works audibly, visibly, obviously and overtly. This opens the preacher up to the challenge of avoiding monotony and sameness while preaching to graciously reinforce the handful of big big ideas that weave their way through Scripture. Patience required implies discouragement faced, and it does come in so many forms – natural and otherwise.

~Read the full post here

Getting Hay Out of the Loft

Greg Laurie writes:

The trend in some churches today is away from the teaching of Scripture. Instead, you are likely to hear more topical message, with the Bible merely referenced but not exposited. There is plenty of time for worship, video, and other things, but not much given to the teaching of what the Word of God says.

This is a dangerous trend and it is producing Bible illiteracy. I fear these sermonettes are creating Christian-ettes!

On the other end of the spectrum, you have preaching in churches today that is disconnected and frankly boring! This is the fault of the communicator who has not prepared properly.

I have no understanding of how speakers can take the dynamic, power-packed Word of God and make hearing it . . . dull!

Our “job” as communicators is to, as one commentator put it, “Get the hay out of the loft to where the cows can get to it.” Or as another said, “Put the cookies on the lower shelf so the children can reach them.”

There is nothing impressive about preaching over the heads of the people you speak to.

The effective communicator needs to connect. We are not in the pulpit to impress, but to feed; not to put on a show, but to call people to Christ.

Certainty and Humility

This is a longer post than normal--but I hope you'll take a few minutes to read through it.

Phil Johnson and Dan Phillips from the Pyromaniacs blog wrote this week regarding humility and certainty. Both posts (Phil's here and Dan's here) are worth reading in their entirety. Here are a few quotes from each:

Phil writes:

If you're looking for a blog where ambivalence, uncertainty, backpeddling, and indecision are valued more highly than clarity and firm beliefs, there are plenty of blogs like that out there. It's a very popular thing to be wobbly nowadays. But that's not authentic humility. Search the Scriptures and see for yourself. I can't think of a single verse in the Bible that equates humility with vacillations of the heart and mind. In fact, before you can be truly humble you must at least be certain of your own fallenness and guilt.

Who is more "arrogant"? Someone who refuses to compromise even when popular thinking shifts against him, or the guy who never really settles on any truth and yet constantly argues about everything anyway—not because he himself has stumbled on something he is certain about, but merely because his contempt for other people's strong convictions is the way he justifies his waffling in his own mind?

Once more: Scripture never commends people for the "humility" of claiming they're not sure what's true and what's false, or that it's impossible to clearly understand what God's Word actually means. The Bible never encourages us to remain unanchored about what we believe and celebrate our doubts—especially while we're functioning as teachers of others. Jesus referred to that as the blind leading the blind, and He indicated that it's a Really Bad Thing.

Dan writes:

So cast your mind back to Psalm 1. You know the characteristic of the blessed man: rather than join in the walk and worldview of the wicked, he delights in and dwells on God's Word. To what does God liken him? To a tree, transplanted by streams of water (v. 3).

Think of trees. They're boring! They just stand there. And stand there, and stand there, and stand there. Imperceptibly, yet steadily, they grow and bear fruit — but their characteristics are (1) life, (2) fruitfulness, and (3) a certain immobility.

Much more exciting is the chaff. Watch the chaff driven by the wind: now here, now there, ever in motion, ever moving, ever dynamic — ever dead. See, that's why it's so mobile. It has no roots, no life, and no future (vv. 4-5).

God's stance is very plain. He in no way calls dithery, compromising instability "humility." In fact, listen to what He does so categorize: "But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66 2b).

So, in sum:

The soul of humility is to seek a clear word from God, and respond with "Amen" — that is, to find it, and stand on it without compromise or apology. It is about God and His glory.

The soul of arrogance is to take a clear word of God, and respond with "Has God really said?" — that is, to put energies into defending compromise, dithering, uncertainty, unbelief. It is about man and his straying.

God grant us true humility as He defines humility.

Response Rather Than Apathy

Peter Mead at the Biblical Preaching blog writes:

When the Word of God is preached, something happens. God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit, pointing toward God’s Son, spoken by a person empowered by the Spirit of God for their calling from God’s Son, to people prepared by the Spirit of God – it’s a recipe for response!

At times we can see that response. We get to see the people moved, the individuals gripped, the lives changed. Sometimes we see something at the moment of preaching, or soon afterwards. Sometimes we only see the response over months and years of ministry.

Nevertheless, let’s be committed to preach for response, even an apparently negative one, rather than playing safe and settling for nothing other than polite platitudes.

Let’s not settle for smooth, let’s rather preach the Word with sensitivity to God and to His people, with a prayer-fuelled passion to see Him prompting response rather than apathy, transformation rather than safety.

A Famine...Of Hearing the Words of the Lord

​​​​​​​“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when I will send a famine on the land--

not a famine of bread,

nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord."

Amos 8:11

I finished reading through the book of Amos this morning and was struck by this verse. Though obviously first speaking to the nation of Israel, it also has application for us today.

Larry DeBruyn writes:

We find ourselves living in times like Amos who indicated of his day that there was, “a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). And seeing the helpless churches dying in the drought, pseudo-prophets seize the opportunity to “speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:16b). In many former evangelical pulpits the Scriptures are no longer taught, and correspondingly, in those pews the Scriptures are no longer learnt. Survey after survey reveals the abysmal state of both biblical belief and behavior in the evangelical nation.

With methods (i.e., doing church) having replaced the message, pan-evangelicals no longer find Scripture to be solely sufficient for matters of faith and practice. So absent the life that comes from God’s Word (1 Peter 1:23), many local congregations lay dead or dying amidst the spiritual famine. And energized by the sight of corpses that were once churches, prophets for profit circle like buzzards over what were once vibrant local churches, bodies of Christ, congregations that, for reason of possessing no real life in them, can now only perpetuate “a form of godliness” while “denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5).

The Teacher's Guide

Dan Phillips writes:

We've been handed the Teacher's Guide, so to speak. What this means is that Christianity isn't the conclusion of a series of deductions leading to open conclusions, per se. It isn't the conclusion of a syllogism. It is revelation, and the Christian starts his thinking with that revelation.

That means that, if I'm working on a dandy, shiny, impressive, lovely theory or hypothesis, and then get T-boned by the clear teaching of Scripture, I bail on my theory. No matter how much I loved it, what admiration it would earn me, what applause and kudo's — I bail on it. No matter how much the world would prefer it to the old Christian answer — I bail on it. No matter how much better-feeling sense it made to me that the Biblical position — I bail on it.

What's so bemusing is when a man or woman professes to be a Christian — which is to say, someone who agrees with Jesus that the Bible is the Teacher's Guide — approaches issues like a non-Christian.

...

Confronted with a Biblical phenomenon that doesn't match our theory, the Christian response should be, "Evidently not." That is, in this case — as I pointed out in that post and many other times — clearly God the Holy Spirit has no problem whatever moving apostles to issue commands to Christians, and calling Christians to obey. That's in the Teacher's Guide.

So if a Christian sees that phenomenon, and sees it clashes with his theories of Christian living, he should say, "Evidently I did the math wrong. Start over!" And he should re-work it until his answer matches the Teacher's Guide.

Healthy Pulpits = Healthy Congregations

Let us beware of despising preaching. In every age of the Church, it has been God’s principal instrument for the awakening of sinners and the edifying of saints. The days when there has been little or no preaching have been days when there has been little or no good done in the Church. Let us hear sermons in a prayerful and reverent frame of mind, and remember that they are the principal engines which Christ Himself employed when He was upon earth. Not least, let us pray daily for a continual supply of faithful preachers or God’s Word. According to the state of the pulpit will always be the state of a congregation and of a Church.

~ From J.C. Ryle Quotes (emphasis mine)

It’s Time For Us to be Conscientious--Even Relentless

Chris gives his two cents on a zero-tolerance policy on preaching:

I urge those who have the privilege and responsibility of choosing guest preachers to choose those who preach the text, every time. God has promised to bless His Word, not funny stories. Insist that those you put in the sacred desk have a reputation for preaching the Bible, verse by verse, preferably expositionally. That’s not to say that I’m opposed to topical messages. I’m not, as long as they’re exegetically sound. I’m simply arguing against messages that arise from the preacher’s creative juices rather than the Scriptures. And preachers generally have reputations for one or the other. It’s time for us to be conscientious—even relentless—about this.

This shouldn’t be controversial. Paul urged Timothy to “preach the Word” in 2 Timothy 4:2. Not stories. Not red meat. Not jokes. Why? Because the Word is the only thing that is able to save (3:15), that is inspired and therefore profitable (3:16), that is life-changing and equipping (3:17). Clever stories can’t do any of that.

Come Out and Be Separate

There is a widely-spread desire to make things pleasant in religion – to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid, as far as possible, self-denial. On every side we hear professing Christians declaring loudly that we must not be “narrow and exclusive” and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest of saints of old thought bad for their souls.”

That we may go anywhere, and do anything, and spend our time in anything, and read anything, and keep any company, and plunge into anything, and all the while may be very good Christians – this is the maxim of thousands. In a day like this I think it good to raise a warning voice, and invite attention to the teaching of God’s Word. It is written in that Word, ‘Come out and be separate.’

~J.C. Ryle

Teaching Them to Observe

In Matthew, chapter 5-7 are commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. According to Matthew the Great Commission is, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mathew 28:19-20).

Preaching is no substitute for teaching. They complement each other, and for every preacher there needs to be many teachers, In this respect as well as all others Jesus is the prime Example.

It is obvious that Jesus had called at least 4 of His 12 disciples not long before He went up into the mountain and opened His mouth and taught them. There are those who time this discourse after He had spent the night in prayer and called the Twelve.

What the Ten Commandments were to the chosen nation under the old covenant, this Sermon on the Mount is to all disciples of Christ. It is different but it does not abrogate one item in the Decalogue. It deals not in particulars but in principles. It is the Magna Carta of the Kingdom. Its greatest demands should be laid on the conscience of all Christians.

It is not futuristic. It is the criterion for ethical practice in this day of grace. The Holy Spirit has come to make it possible for Christians to live by these precepts. The Master dealt with ideals and attitudes. He offered remedies for heart diseases in order that His followers might bear the fruit of the Spirit and thus prove to all who observe their lives that they have been redeemed.

~From Holiness for Every Day, G.B. Williamson, August 1

What Would Jesus Say?

Recently, John MacArthur was invited as a guest writer on the Washington Post's On Faith section. I appreciated the entire article, but particularly this quote:

"But to "the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3)--those who are exhausted and spent by the ravages of sin; desperate for forgiveness and without any hope of atoning for their own sin--Jesus' call to repentant faith remains the very gateway to eternal life."