For more than six years the Houston Home Journal has graciously been printing my articles. There are weeks when I am super busy, or traveling and I rely upon another local pastor to fill this space. Thankfully, these other pastors are both competent and willing to cover for me. Generally, however, I try to consistently submit articles each week that I hope are of spiritual relevance and benefit. I have endeavored to cover a wide range of topics, including theology, current events, practical matters such as finances and worry and much more. Every article is submitted with the express intent of pointing your minds towards eternal truths. You will forgive me (I trust) if I focus a week or two about a theme that is near and dear to my heart … the subject of preaching.
Preaching is something I have spent the better part of my life studying, practicing and trying to master. Handling God’s Word well is the primary duty of those in pastoral ministry. While church leaders have numerous responsibilities; from counseling to visiting the sick to reaching the community around them, no task is as important as preaching the Word of God with clarity and accuracy. Standing, week after week, between a Holy God and sinful men is a daunting and glorious commission. It would be no exaggeration to say, I approach the preaching hour each week with fear and trembling.
I want to handle God’s Word well, although I often feel as though I fail at that task. While you may not have the vested interest that pastors have in learning all you can about preaching, you should still care deeply about how the Bible is proclaimed each Sunday. If you are a Christian and a church member, you should expect – no demand, that God’s Word is handled rightly. After all, the Scriptures are the Inspired Revelation of the One True God which makes known to us vital eternal truths. Therefore, we must demand that those who teach us what God has said, do so with great carefulness. While none of us in ministry are ever going to get everything perfect, we should strive to do our best to teach God’s truth accurately. You, confessing Christian, should care deeply that those who teach you, are studying and endeavoring to rightly handle the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
How can I know this? You may be thinking, I am not a Bible scholar, so how can I determine if those who are teaching my family each Sunday are doing so properly? Let me give you one general answer to these all-important questions.
When you sit under the preaching of God’s Word are you hearing the King’s message? I know that may sound a little odd, but follow me. Preaching, at its most basic core is faithfully declaring what King Jesus has said. In fact, the very word “preach” means to herald. Go back in your minds to a time before FoxNews and CNN. Go back to a time before the internet, TV or the radio … long before a world leader could simply step into the pressroom to make a public announcement. In that ancient age, if a ruling monarch needed to send a message to his citizenship, they would employ heralds or messengers. These messengers were called into the throne room, given a specific message and then dispatched throughout the kingdom to proclaim what the king has said.
These heralds would go to their appointed location, stand in a public place, cup their hands to their mouths and cry aloud – “Hear ye, hear ye!” and then declare what the king has said. These heralds did not have editorial license over the king’s message to alter it in anyway. They were given the solemn duty of clearly proclaiming what the king demands! Messengers did not have the right to change, modify or soften the king’s edicts. Even if the people did not like what the herald had to say, still he must remain faithful and proclaim the king’s message with the authority entrusted to him. Capitulating to the crowd, and weakening the king’s words would make these men unfaithful heralds. Who would be held accountable to the king for failing at their sacred duty.
Friends, in like manner … current day preachers are to be heralds of King Jesus. In 2 Timothy 4:2 the Apostle Paul told Timothy to “preach the Word.” This means all those in ministry are to herald what the King has said in the Holy Scriptures. Like those ancient messengers, preachers must go to their appointed place, open up the Bible and clearly declare, thus saith the Lord. Like the heralds of old, we do not have editorial license over what the King has said. Preachers must not minimize, allegorize, spiritualize or philosophize what the King has declared in His written Word. Our task is to faithfully proclaim the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Whether our audience likes what the King has said, or despises His teaching, makes no difference. Pastors have been divinely tasked to herald the Good News of King Jesus without apology or hesitation. Those who fail at this task will give an account to King Jesus one day.
So reader I ask you this, when you are sitting in church on Sunday – are you hearing the King’s Message?
– Does your pastor systematically work their way through the written Word and show you, from the printed page, why they are saying what they are saying?
– Does the person speaking to you; read, explain and apply the Holy Scriptures?
– Or does your pastor rarely even use the Bible?
– Or do they just throw in some random verse to make their talk sound Biblical?
– Are you being taught the King’s commands or the random thoughts from someone’s overactive imagination?
– Are you hearing the wisdom of King Jesus or are you hearing the vain philosophies of men?
Preachers are called to be faithful heralds, not court jesters.
Friends, life is too short and eternity too long to sit under the ministry of someone who constantly mangles the King’s message. If your pastor doesn’t show you from chapter and verse what the King of kings requires, it’s time to find a place where the King’s voice is clearly heard.
Expositor Online 