What Is Good Preaching?
Before addressing what good preaching is it is important
just to briefly list what good preaching is not. Good preaching is not preaching that violates
the context. It doesn’t matter if you
have been preaching for two weeks or two centuries, if a preacher violates the
context of a passage, he is committing an act of idolatry! Some may think that is a stiff statement to
say but if you have a high view of Scripture which will give a high view of
God, no preacher worth their salt will take a passage of Scripture and force it
to say something that it does not say and that is the violation if a talk is
given out of context. Good preaching is
not whimsical self-help motivation. Good
preaching is not driven by emotional, tear-jerking stories that elicit a
response. Good preaching is not content
that simply promotes peace at any cost in the church and works to never upset
the big givers or prominent members. Good
preaching is not witty little talks that soothe people so that there is a
steady flow of cash in the coffers. Conversely,
preaching really matters and we have to do it well!
Brother Woodward made reference to an adage about preaching
when he said that commonly we may hear someone say, “That was a great message!”
but to the question, “What was it about?” the answer is very troubling. “I don’t know but it was good!” That statement in itself can be summed up by
a Shakespearean thought in Macbeth when he wrote that life can be a tale told
by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Preaching can be called good, great,
superlative, and powerful but if it is not biblically grounded it has been a
speech told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying absolutely
nothing. We as preachers dare not drag
our noble calling into that muddy ditch.
With that in mind, ask yourself as a preacher, “What is good preaching?” There are many good answers to that question
but for now, I will only address three of them.
1.
Good
preaching is always biblical.
At the core of all preaching is the absolute responsibility
for it to be biblical. Paul’s command to
Timothy was for him to preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:1-2). Preaching that is not biblical will lead to
churches that are weak in doctrine and have no desire for holiness. Soft preaching creates hard hearts and hard
preaching creates soft hearts. Hard
preaching is not to be understood as dictatorial and heavy-handed, hard preaching
is simply that preaching which deals with the hard sayings that are all through
the Scripture. For instance, in this
matter of “hard sayings,” there are eight times that the Lord speaks in the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 with the phrase “but I say unto you.” The Lord was affirming the higher call that
holiness has over the Law. There are
those who seemingly love the Law and want all kinds of checklists and moral
boundaries given by a preacher so that they can feel “holy” if they do these
things. However, the Lord would have us
to understand that the Law has a higher calling. In the city that I pastor at the end of every
peanut harvest season there is a parade that stretches over a 3-mile area of
main street. The crowds over the years
have been estimated to be as many as 200,000.
There are speed limit signs along the way that show you can travel 40
miles per hour on this street. That is
what the law would encourage but on this day of the parade the higher calling,
the “but I say unto you,” would actually call for a speed limit of 3-4 miles
per hour or less. If you were to travel through
that street at 40 mph on the day of the parade it would result in the critical
injuries of a large number of people.
Our age has become such that when someone affirms the
difference between right and wrong or truth and error, people would do their
best to mock and scoff at such a stance.
They would rather turn that message of truth into a matter of opinion
and dispute strongly as to it being a personal conviction of a preacher. While there are areas of personal conviction,
there are some who would turn the truth of God’s Word into this kind of
thing. If a true preacher is to emulate the
Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, he will find himself at odds with the so-called
enlightened who are at best very confused and at worst arrogantly atheistic in
their view of God and His Word. Those
who attempt to preach the truth will be looked upon as harsh and
intolerant. But good preaching is always
going to be doctrinal, truth-affirming, and ultimately soul-saving.
2.
Good
preaching will not be driven by a secular mindset.
Good preaching will not be driven by a secular mindset that
exploits and encourages human potential.
If the apostles were to be able to time-warp and come to one of our
modern day Pentecostal services what would they say about the content of the
message. For now, let’s remove the
personality of the preacher or the venue of the message and simply boil down
the message that is preached. Has it
devolved into a moralistic, self-help, motivational pep talk that could be
delivered by any secular motivational speaker?
Has it slipped into the false health, wealth, and prosperity gospel
preached by pseudo-Pentecostals and well-coiffed Charismatics? Is it promising a chicken in every pot or a
so-called prophetic blessing on a presidential candidate? While current events will always be with the
church, when preaching allows this to be the sole message, it is not the
gospel.
I have a feeling if the apostles were to be able to
time-warp back, they would be much alarmed at what the preaching of western
civilization has gravitated to. It is
highly unlikely they would understand the educational push to settle a thesis
about the message or to derive the antithesis or be able to relate to the whole
idea of God simply being in existence to advance the comfortable lifestyle of
modern day worshipers. It is not likely
they would believe that we have elevated education to a place to think that
will make a man of God. What they
understood was the matter of truth, error, revelation, knowledge, life and
death, darkness and light, and time and eternity. Read their sermonic content in Acts and glean
the doctrinal depths and the spiritual power that they commanded and then
compare our modern day preaching with it and see how it stacks up. Even more importantly compare your own
sermons with theirs and you most likely will want to mail in a resignation
letter. However, don’t do that, just get
better at what you are called to do. It
takes time, discipline, effort, and agony of soul and mind but that is our
calling!
If a preacher changes the content of his preaching into a
more secular matter, he will replace a Word-based and Spirit-driven
worldview. Secular, humanistic preaching
will cause confusion in the minds of those who occupy the pews. The creation account in Genesis, the role of
males/females, the purpose of marriage, bioethics, gender issues, and a host of
other issues that are answered by Scripture will be removed from their
thoughts. That will mutate into a
modern-day Tower of Babel where mankind will work themselves to the bone in
efforts to outwit God. Sadly, secular
speech removes the matter of the cross and makes it void and without effect (1
Cor. 1:17-21).
3.
Good
preaching requires the preacher to understand his position.
Good preaching places a great responsibility on the
preacher. James 3:1 should be a verse of
Scripture that every preacher memorizes.
My brothers, be not many masters. . . teachers. . . you will have the
higher level of responsibility because you will be called into account for
everything you have preached. If we as
preachers ever grasp that fact, novelty and creativity in the pulpit will be
jettisoned and we will be so concerned with Truth-telling that we forget about
trying to be coy and cool. If a preacher
understands his position, then he will work hard to be a Bible preacher and teacher. Once he understands his position, he will
discipline himself to spend time with the Book and on his knees.
One of the great dilemmas that I personally face is the
amount of time that I have set aside to work with the Word to preach. There are times that the devil would make an effort
to tempt me to believe that all of my obsession with God and His Word and with
preaching is utter foolishness and the average church member cannot really
ascertain between good preaching and poor preaching. He would whisper to me, “It doesn’t
matter. You are spending too much time
with trying to wade through the Word.
Just keep people happy and encouraged and you will do well!” The antidote for that temptation boils down to
a clear understanding of Paul’s words to Timothy about the Scriptures being
inspired by God and the profit it has for the church of God. If Scripture is God-breathed and it is the
mind of God, there is fair more wisdom in it than any other source that I could
give my mind to. Just knowing that helps
me to understand the greater calling I have to preach the whole counsel of God. I am not alone in this calling! Brother Pastor/Evangelist/Teacher put your
heart and soul into being a good preacher!
I am certain to revisit this with more thoughts over the
next few weeks. . . .
Thanks for reading. . .
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