Why Commit to Preaching?
Why Commit to Preaching?
In the past several posts we have looked at many of the challenges to effective preaching these days. Here is the first in the series. With all the challenges of expectations, of preaching an absolute truth in a relativistic world, loss of prestige, and the like, why commit to preaching in this modern world? That’s going to be the subject of the next few posts.
Commit to Preaching Because God Has Revealed Himself
Traditional theology says that God has revealed himself in a couple of different ways. General revelation refers to information that God has made accessible to everyone. Here are a couple of Bible verses that make reference to this: Romans 1:19-20 and Psalm 19:1-3)
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
There are wonderful stories of people who have come to believe in a great God because of what they have seen in the general revelation of God. One woman confessed to believing in a creative God because she watched a spider create a web. The intricacy of design made her start thinking of God.
Others have observed the creation and come to the conclusion that there must be a creative force behind it. This is information that does not require a preacher.
We Commit To Preaching Because God Has Given Special Revelation.
Special revelation goes beyond what happens in the world in general. These special events and information are ways God is seeking to communicate with a broken and hurting world. The special revelation examples include things like:
- Miracles: When the disciples were ordered not to preach in Jesus’ name (Acts 4), they prayed that God would send power to do miracles so that people would know that God was real. These included healings and works of power.
- Angel visitations: How many people in the Bible had their perspective changed because and angel spoke to them. I’ve heard similar stories. One woman who was dying suddenly came out of a comatose situation and said to her friends gathered there, “I see angels”. She described where they were in the room. She then lay back down and died. It made me think of the old spiritual, ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” For more such stories check out Billy Graham’s book, Angels.
- Jesus, of course, was the ultimate special revelation.
Scripture: God had more information he wanted to give, things he wanted to communicate with us creatures created in his image. So, in love, he provided more information. Scripture describes itself as “God-Breathed”. 2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
God so passionately wants people to know about him, and he wants communicators to spread the word.
Psalm 68:11 put it well. Here is how Frederick Handel put that verse into song:
The Lord gave the word:
Great was the company of the preachers. (3x)
The Lord gave the word:
Great was the company of the preachers. (3x)
The Lord gave the word:
Great was the company of the preachers.
Conclusion
Why commit to preaching? Because God wants to communicate to humankind, and he desires preachers to do so.
