Quick Synopsis: This article is the first half of a lengthier essay I wrote recently on my philosophy of preaching. In the essay I draw particular attention to God’s promises of what he will accomplish in the Church through the preaching of his word. It is important for both preachers and congregants to understand what God says happens on a Sunday morning. It is a unique experience in the life of a believer, and should be cherished, held in eager anticipation, and prayed for eagerly by all who participate.
Introduction
God, in his covenant faithfulness, has been pleased to ordain the preaching of His Word as the primary means by which the Gospel will go forward, hearts will be convicted, men will be saved, and the Church will be strengthened. In the eyes of the carnal world, a preacher in a pulpit proclaiming words from a book written multiple millennia ago, is nothing more than the epitome of foolishness. The Apostle Paul however, embraced this very “foolishness” as none other than God’s plan, stating that “it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).
The sad state of affairs is that in today’s modern church, it is not only the outside world that has a diminished view of preaching, but it is the Church as well. Even among the Reformed and Evangelical, preaching is often viewed as simply one form of word ministry among many other equal forms that might be effectively used for kingdom building. But the Bible says otherwise. We ought to regard the preaching of the gospel as the “means more especially appointed by Christ, and in its own nature best adapted for bringing the truth effectually to bear upon the hearts of men.”[1]
First, a definition of preaching will be helpful. Joel Beeke defines preaching “a public interpretation or dividing the Word, performed by an ambassador or minister who speaks to the people instead of God, in the name of Christ.”[2] This definition provides a few key phrases vital to our study. Preachers are “ambassadors”, not in a general sense, but in a unique and formal sense, who speak “to the people instead of God.” It is to the defense of these ideas that we turn first.
A Defense of the Primacy of Preaching
In chapter one of the Second Helvetic Confession, it is stated that “when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is preached.”[3] Mark Beach comments on this section of the confession that “according to the classical Reformed tradition, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.”[4] This language is shocking to many modern ears, but it was common throughout church history, and I believe it is common to the pages of Scripture. The preaching of God’s Word is indeed “Christ’s living voice to the church and world today.”[5] Preachers are therefore properly called “heralds” (2 Peter 2:5) speaking on behalf of their King. In the following sections I will lay out a biblical defense for this high regard of preaching.
The Deuteronomic Pattern
Christopher Ash makes his case for the priority of preaching from Deuteronomy. He argues that “we must listen today to the voice of the Christian preacher because he is the prophet in our generation, as Moses was in his.”[6] Ash argues that the primary question Deuteronomy attempted to answer was how the covenant people would continue after their covenant mediator was gone. The answer that Deuteronomy provides is that God mandated his people to “assemble under the preached word of God, or to be more accurate, the written word preached.”[7] Ash helpfully demonstrates that throughout Israel’s history, it was the role of the prophet that was the critical role among the people, particularly as the prophets preached. In Deuteronomy we see both the Word of God written and the Word of God preached. “The ‘Ten Words’ of the covenant were ‘inscribed by the finger of God’ (Deut. 9:10), but they were preached by Moses.”[8] This Deuteronomic pattern of the written word preached, continued throughout Israel’s history. “Neither the written word alone, nor the prophet alone, is sufficient, but rather the written word preached.”[9]
Ash argues that while the revelatory function of the Old Testament prophet and New Testament Apostle has ceased, “the proclamatory function must necessarily continue.”[10] This is precisely what we see occurring in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul did not simply record the very words of God in the New Testament epistles, but preached the Word of God. Even after sending a written Word of God to the church at Rome, he stated that he was “eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (Romans 1:15). The Apostle Paul believed that like the Old Testament prophets, it was the Word of God preached that had a peculiar power about it to accomplish God’s purposes. It is for this reason that Paul so vehemently charged the next generation of preachers in Timothy and Titus to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).
Charles Bridges, in his masterful The Christian Ministry, briefly traces the history of Christianity and comments that it “is to preaching that Christianity owes its origin, its continuance, and its progress.”[11] From the Apostolic Age, through the days of the Roman Empire, through the success of the Reformation, down to our day, this “ordinance has always been held in the highest honor.”[12] Bridges goes on to say that history proves that a nation’s blessing or distress can be directly traced to the health of the pulpits. “The sacred history connects this ordinance with national blessing, and the extension of scriptural religion.”[13]
Biblical Terms for Preaching
Jonathan Griffiths provides a thorough biblical analysis of primacy of preaching in scripture in his work Preaching in the New Testament. Griffiths demonstrates that there are three key terms used by New Testament authors to discuss or describe preaching: euangelizomai, katangello, and kerysso. He refers to these three terms as “semi-technical terms for gospel preaching the gospel.”[14] These terms are not normally used in a general sense to designate any form of word ministry, such as bible study or one to one evangelism. In fact, it is significant that “none of our three ‘semi-technical’ verbs for preaching the gospel are used anywhere in the New Testament to frame an instruction, command or commission for believers in general to ‘preach’.”[15] Rather these terms almost always (with rare contextually clear deviations) contain the following formalities
- The one communicating is usually a figure that carries a formally recognized authority.
- The communication almost always occurs in a public context.
- The substance of the communication is the gospel message, or some particular aspect of that message.
- The proclamation is primarily targeted at believers
While these word studies are themselves an interesting contribution to the Bible’s theology of preaching, there are quite a few direct passages that can shape our thoughts on preaching as well. I offer a sketch of four of the most critical below.
2 Timothy 3-4
In 2 Timothy 3-4 Paul establishes a bridge between his apostolic ministry and Timothy post-apostolic ministry. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:12 about his stewardship to preach the gospel as something that has “been entrusted to me.” Then in almost the next line of reasoning he encourages Timothy to “guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13-14). The Apostle Paul saw preaching as a formal charge given to a formal agent, with a direct line of succession from the Apostles. Further, the designation of Timothy as a “man of God” in 2 Timothy 3:17 and 1 Timothy 6:11 is no mere general term of endearment. The term “has a substantial Old Testament pedigree as a name used to refer to God’s appointed leaders of his people and, in particular, those who are sent as authoritative speakers of his word.”[16] The term therefore is best understood a semi-technical term referencing a particular man of God who has been set apart for a preaching ministry in similar fashion to the prophets of old.
Romans 10
A second vital passage is found in Romans where Paul considers the means by which the good news of the gospel will be spread out around the world. In the midst of this chapter Paul quotes from prophet Joel that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32). He then connects this Old Testament prophetic word to the New Covenant act of preaching, by asking how “they are they to hear without someone preaching” (Romans 10:14)? It is through preaching that Joel’s prophecy will be fulfilled. Paul then goes further by quoting from Isaiah, “Lord who has believed what he has heard from us” (Romans 10:16). Paul’s answer is that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Paul is drawing a “fundamental correspondence between the act of preaching and the creation of faith.”[17] In other words, Paul in this passage is not simply stating that preaching is the best method for achieving faith, but rather that it is the “natural, appropriate and God-ordained means of producing faith.”[18]
1 Corinthians 1, 9, 15
Likewise, 1 Corinthians speaks often of the work of preaching in a way that clearly separates it from other ministries of the word. In 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, Paul states that he was sent to “preach the gospel”, and then clarifies that this preaching is “the power of God.” It is clear from the context of this passage that when Paul speaks of “preaching” he is referring to acts of public proclamation, not simply private conversation, for he is comparing his plain style of preaching against the high oratory of the false Corinthian preachers. Therefore, Paul’s belief is that preaching, when done by God’s agent in God’s way, is the very power of God. Later, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul makes the argument that preaching is a formal line of work, that should be set apart by a church and financially supported. “In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). Paul goes on to call this line of work a “stewardship” (1 Corinthians 9:17) that is an overwhelming call upon his life. He passionately cries out, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). In the final chapters of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul reminds the church “of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). As Griffiths says “Ultimately, the response – and continued response – to this preached word is a matter of life and death.[19]
2 Corinthians 1-2
2 Corinthians provides wonderful language that pulls some of these themes together. In 2 Corinthians 1:19 Paul writes that Christ was preached among them authoritatively by himself, Silvanus, and Timothy. The authority of the proclamation of God’s Word was not due to Paul’s office as apostle, but to the designation of these three men as preachers. Indeed, in this verse Paul writes of Jesus Christ “whom we proclaimed among you.” The term “proclaimed” is a passive participle, “almost certainly a divine passive… to point to the fact that it was ultimately God who was the preacher.”[20] Paul reenforces this very idea in the next chapter when he says that they are men of sincerity, who are “commissioned by God” and “speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:17). This language suggests that in preaching, the ordained preacher is the mouth used by God—who is the ultimate source of the word—to preach the true Gospel.
1 Thessalonians 2
Perhaps the Apostle Paul summarized it best when he wrote to the Church in Thessalonica “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The preached Word of God, by a commissioned minister of God, is the Word of God. This does not mean that other forms of word-ministry are not Holy Spirit filled activities vital to the health of a Christian. But it does mean that the preaching of God’s Word is a uniquely set apart activity designed by God to achieve the purposes of God. As Mark Beach summarizes, “Thus nothing may be substituted for it, even if other means would prove to be more popular or useful.”[21]
[1] Fairbairn, Patrick., Dodds, James. Pastoral Theology: A Treatise On the Office and Duties of the Christian Pastor. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1875.120.
[2] Joel Beeke, A Puritan Theology, 683.
[3] Second Helvetic Confession in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, with Translations, vol. 3 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882), 831.
[4] Mark J Beach, The Real Presence of Christ, 77.
[5] Mark J Beach, The Real Presence of Christ, 78.
[6] Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching (Geanies House, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2009), 16.
[7] Christopher Ash, 23.
[8] Christopher Ash, 26.
[9] Christopher Ash, 27.
[10] Christopher Ash, 33.
[11] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, 189.
[12] Charles Bridge, The Christian Ministry, 189.
[13] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, 191.
[14] Griffiths Jonathan. Preaching in the New Testament (New Studies in Biblical Theology Book 42) (48)
[15] Jonathan Griffiths, 51.
[16] Jonathan Griffiths, 72.
[17] Jonathan Griffiths, 83.
[18] Jonathan Griffiths, 83.
[19] Jonathan Griffiths, 94.
[20] Jonathan Griffiths, 101.
[21] Mark J Beach, The Real Presence of Christ, 96
