What Is Preaching?

The goal of preaching is to actually preach the message of the Bible itself. Biblical preaching therefore is expounding a text for its main points and the main points are what the text says. It is in this type of preaching that people are truly hearing what God is saying to the church by means of the Holy Spirit and then glory comes down. God gives no assurance to bless our “pyscho-babble,” “philoso-babble,” or “socio-babble.” I know that some may argue, “all truth is God’s truth.” Let us differentiate that all truth is not God’s word. My goal is not to engage in etymological gymnastics but let’s get real E=MC² does not really alter your eternal destiny. Scriptures seem to hint at the idea that “ grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever” [Isa 40:8].

What Response Do We Seek?

We are looking for two different outcomes if we desire to preach God’s truth versus preparing a “religious talk.” One leads to a vertical encounter with the transcendent God while the other leads to horizontal connectivity devoid of the transcendent experience. What was the people’s response to Jesus’ preaching?

• ·      And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes” - Mark 1:22
• ·      And they were all amazed…saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him’” – Mark 1:27
• ·      And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority” – Luke 4:32
• ·      The chief priests…came up to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’” – Matthew 21:23

These scriptures do not indicate how loving Christ came across or how scholarly He was. He preached with authority. Peter Berger, Austrian born sociologist challenges my thinking when he says, “Christianity always stands over and beyond any particular culture, and that this transcendence involves judgment as well as grace.”[1] Preaching is God’s voice when the basis is from the Bible. Dietrich Bonhoffer, theologian who died twenty-three days before the Nazi’s surrendered would say that we are not to make the Bible relevant, do not defend God’s word, but rather testify to it.[2]

God has given us his very breath in writing, always true, ever new, and eternally compelling. Preach the authority of God’s Word without apology!

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[1] Peter L. Berger, Let’s Get Back To Authority, Eternity, February 1972, p.30.

[2] Eric Metexas, Bonhoffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy [Nashville: Nelson 2010] 172.