Another year. Another year of preaching. So why do we do it?
There are so many factors involved. I don’t want to ponder issues of pay (many preachers receive less than minimum wage for what they are doing). I don’t want to dwell on inappropriate motivations, even if they are significant for some. I will just mention some of them in passing.
Let’s take stock of some of the good reasons we preach.
1. We preach because God is a God who speaks—therefore, we have something to say. Actually, there are probably too many who are too confident they have something worth saying. I don’t think we have much that is worth saying, but the Bible is a revelation of God that is certainly worth proclaiming! That is why Paul could urge Timothy to “preach the Word!” in his final words to him. He wasn’t urging Timothy to chatter and noise and declaration of vain imaginations relating to societal ills and self-improvement principles. He wanted him to preach the Word.
Consequently the Bible must never become just a repository of preaching material. It must always remain the very exclusive fuel for the fire of our walk with Christ, through whom we can know the Father. When the Bible starts to feel dry to us, we have a real issue. Not because we need to squeeze a message out of its apparently dusty pages, but because something isn’t right in our relationship with the One whom we represent when we stand to preach.
2. We preach as an act of service to others. Paul views every gift given by the Spirit to the church as a gift given for the building up of others. Consequently, any gifts that relate to preaching must be offered to others in faithful service. So it can’t be primarily about our own fulfillment, and it certainly shouldn’t be about our own egos. We preach to build up others—to proclaim, to offer, to invite, to comfort, to challenge, to help.
Not to control—that would be self-focused. Not to cajole—that would be self-serving. Not to show off—that would be self-glorifying. We preach to serve.
3. Because the Gospel is thrillingly good news. The mission of the preacher is not merely to communicate ancient truths relevantly. God has given us a message. And that message is labelled as good news for a reason. The great sweep of redemption history involves the intra-trinitarian mission to rescue fallen creatures and restore them to full glorious fellowship with a loving and giving God.
It is not some sort of heavenly plan B to make the best of a bad situation and try to restore some semblance of respectability to a God who is on the throne but attacked on every side. When time is wrapped up and we have the benefit of both hindsight and eternal perspective, we will be gasping at the multi-colored and multi-faceted dazzling beauty of what God has done in Christ.
We get to proclaim that now!
4. Because people need to hear the Gospel. There are only two types of people in the world: Those who need to hear the Gospel and be saved, and those who need to hear the Gospel as they are being saved. While we may get beyond simplistic and trite presentations of some scaled-down version of the good news to some sort of legal loophole, we never move beyond the Gospel in its glorious richness.
What God is like, what He has done for us in Christ, how much we need Him, redeclaration of total dependence—justification, regeneration, reconciliation, adoption, fellowship. Preaching Christ so people will trust in Him. This is something our people can’t hear enough about. They need the hope, the faith and the love that is only found in the Gospel. We are not called to give tips for successful independent living, or to offer life coaching team talks. We are called to preach Christ and Him crucified, that all may trust in Him, know Him, enjoy Him.
Gospel preaching, why wouldn’t we want to do that?
