Gordon McPhee (in St. Edward’s Beauharnois)
John 2: 13-22
PREACHING, OF ALL THINGS!
Introduction:
Welcome to St. Edward’s church in Beauharnois. We are a church that desires to grow in holiness together in God and we believe that we’ve been called to be a spiritual hospital in this community. On this 18th day of Lent, well, actually, yesterday was the 18th day and today doesn’t count as part of the 40 days of Lent, none of the Sundays count, so in fact, there are about 45 days in Lent as only the Monday to Saturday count against the 40-day Lenten countdown from Ash Wednesday to Easter. And yes, I’m confused too so I don’t really worry too much about it.
This morning I’d like to ask, “What am I doing here?” Not as a rhetorical question for you to answer about yourself, but really, “What am I doing here?” Yes, I’m leading you in worship but at some point, for good or ill, I’m going to preach a sermon. You’ve come to expect this. So, “What is preaching?”
A dictionary definition went like this, “to deliver a sermon; to urge acceptance or abandonment of an idea or course of action specifically: to exhort in an officious or tiresome manner.” Well, I hope and pray it’s not that bad. You can let me know during our coffee and snack after the service. But in our scripture reading this morning from 1 Corinthians 1 Paul says, “God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered stupid—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.” So even Paul didn’t have a high opinion of preaching, but he used it always and, in every way, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ because he knew, in its foolishness, it was “the power of God for salvation.” And that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.
Let’s pray….
Sermon:
The great theologian J. I. Packer says preaching is, “the event of God himself bringing to an audience a Bible-based, Christ-related, life-impacting message of instruction and direction through the words of a spokesperson.” Which is in of of itself, mind boggling and, I can attest, for the preacher, overwhelming. The word “preach” comes from the Greek word kerusso, which means to proclaim, to declare, to announce, or to herald a message. That sounds a lot safer than being the spokesperson for a message that God is delivering. But I think J. I. Packer’s definition describes what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians much more precisely.
There are, and have been, numerous great preachers over the centuries who we could talk about this morning. Great orators who come with a simple but life altering message, Martin Luther King Jr. or Billy Graham. But there are also those who proclaim with great skill and conviction, a message that is misleading or tainted, and whose daily lives ultimately do not bear up to the light of scrutiny.
One who I like in particular is Charles H. Spurgeon. Converted from a life running away from God at the age of 16 and with no more than a modest education as a Congregationalist pastor and a couple years of preaching, at 20 years of age he took charge of a Baptist congregation of 232 souls in a rundown industrial area of London England. He didn’t come with new street-smart social programs or discipleship and training agendas. He came preaching the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ Jesus, crucified, buried, and risen again. That was in 1854. Two years later, in 1856, while waiting for their new building to be finished, they were meeting at the Surrey Music Hall on Sunday nights with ten thousand crammed into the hall and another ten thousand listening outside. In 1891, the active church membership was 5,311 souls and some 14,000 had been baptised over the years.
But such success won critics. Some pastors in London claimed Spurgeon was a glory-hound while local newspapers issued caricatures of Spurgeon as an egotistical and uneducated buffoon. All the while Spurgeon simply longed for God to pour out His Spirit on His people. He was always calling the church to true revival. His legacy is the hundreds of sermons that he has left behind, transcribed while he preached. Permit me to read to you his very poignant critique of the church in his time, that I think applies in our time even more. This is from page 143 of Iain Murray’s, “The Forgotten Spurgeon”. “The time has come for Christians to stir: The house is being robbed, its very walls are being digged down, but the good people who are in the bed are too fond of the warmth, and too much afraid of getting broken heads, to go downstairs and meet the burglars …Inspiration and speculation cannot long abide in peace. Compromise there can be none. We cannot hold the inspiration of the Word, and yet reject it; we cannot believe in the atonement and deny it; we cannot talk of the doctrine of the fall and yet talk of the evolution of spiritual life from human nature … One way or another we must go. Decision is the virtue of the hour.”
No philosophical argument, not speculative reasoning, no profound teaching, just a plain and clear declaration of the truth as revealed in God’s Word. Martin Luther said of preaching, "The Devil does not mind the written word but he is put to flight whenever it is preached aloud.” It’s no surprise that Spurgeon met with criticism and opposition and Paul knew this as well when he said in 1 Corinthians, “Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd.”
So, “Why preach?” Certainly, there is no shortage of exhortation in scripture on its behalf. To his co-worker, Timothy, Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:13 “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” So preaching is not the same as public reading of scripture or teaching. And in 2 Timothy 4:2 he exhorts Timothy, ”Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” Preaching is meant to encourage but also correct, and rebuke, and is appropriate in all occasions. To the Thessalonians in the first letter 2:4, “Be assured that when we speak to you we’re not after crowd approval—only God approval.” It is assuredly, as J. I. Packer agreed, God’s message, regardless of how its hearers receive it.
Preaching is obviously vitally important, but why. “The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense” is what Paul says about it. I could come to you with the most insightful council, gleaming towers of philosophical reasoning and inspirational maxims that would excite your mind and persuade your heart but they would accomplish nothing to help you find your way to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” If I come to you speaking with wisdom and eloquence of my own divining I effectively disempower the very cross of Christ that is meant to be lifted up to save you.
All the vast literature and knowledge that we have accumulated in the world cannot take you to the cross of Christ where you can be saved. Every great and wondrous reason and wisdom of man, faced with the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified sees only foolishness. Paul says in our passage today, “So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God.”
Spurgeon’s warning of liberal excess in our time, “Inspiration and speculation cannot long abide in peace” is the light of preaching cast upon the cleverness of human contemplation. Paul said it succinctly in his letter to the Romans 10:14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” There are tens of thousands of pages of great inspired works by sincere Christian thinkers, Father’s of Christianity if you will, Aquinas, Augustine, Irenaeus, Chrysostom, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, whose works establish, define and clarify our understanding of ourselves as believers; but for all their reason, wisdom and truth, they do not carry the power of the Cross of Christ to save.
That is not something in our hands, minds or will to wield. The power of preaching is not in the preacher but the Holy Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:4, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” The power of Paul’s preaching to save was the work of the Spirit. How else could we have Paul’s attestation from Philippians. “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” Even if my motives are wrong, as long as it is Christ I am preaching the Holy Spirit will use this to work the Kingdom of God in the hearer’s life. Which for me is a great encouragement. It makes me very gracious and careful listening to others as they preach, so as not to judge but only ask, is Christ being preached. It also makes me less self-critical. I am encouraged that even when I don’t get it right to my thinking, if the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is at the centre of my preaching, the Spirit’s power will be in the cross.
And this is the problem we experience in our church theology today that Spurgeon spoke of so clearly and so long ago. Preaching makes no sense to human understanding. Although we know, in practice and in faith and in the witness of the Scripture that it is the power of the Gospel of Christ Jesus unto salvation we still do not understand how it works. So, if you’re intelligent and well schooled with a prodigious and respected position in the church and society with your doctorate degrees and literature published, the temptation to justify oneself with the tools of human endeavour in reason and philosophy is overwhelming. Would that our church leaders could content themselves with Paul’s words from Ephesians 3:8, “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.” Pray the humbling grace of preaching would come upon those given authority.
Remember that preaching is simply declaring the Gospel not expounding a sermon from a pulpit “in an officious or tiresome manner.” Each one of you here, who know the Lord Jesus, is called to the grace of preaching the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. Not in an officious or tiresome manner, but humbly, honestly, knowing that the philosophical will pass it “off as absurd” and those looking for a magic cure will label it empty and worthless. But you know “[h]uman wisdom is so cheap, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s ‘weakness.’” “Preaching is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.” How else are we to “bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.” Only by preaching, of all things!
Amen
