This
passage that we have read this morning is one that many will simply glance over
and continue reading not giving much thought to it. And this is most likely
because it is about preaching and not everyone is called to be a preacher
behind a pulpit. Therefore, many of you maybe even are thinking, “Well I guess
I can tune out of this message if we are going to hear about preaching.”
However,
there are important reasons why this passage pertains to everyone here. But
first we must consider this portion of 1 Corinthians in the context of the
letter. This topic of preaching was something that the Corinthian church needed
to be taught. If we turn back to 1:11-12 Paul has heard that there were some
quarrels or divisions in the Corinthian church about the pastors who had
preached there. We read in 1:12 that some say, “I follow Paul, others say, I follow Apollos and still others say, I
follow Cephas or Peter”. This happened because Paul had preached there for
1.5 years; Apollos began after Paul had left and Peter came and preached a
little as well.
And surely, these three men all
preached the same Gospel; therefore the division was not over what they
preached; the division was over how they preached. The Corinthian
believers were magnifying the messenger while completely missing the message.
And ultimately
this passage is for all of us for 4 reasons. First, as you notice in 1
Corinthians 1:2 Paul is writing this letter to “the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and
called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ..” And then in 1:10, 1:11, 1:26, and 2:1 Paul is
clearly addressing, “Brothers”
therefore Paul isn’t writing to seminary students or people who are at a
Pastor’s Conference…..He is writing to the Corinthian believers and ultimately
to all believers. Because when preaching takes place; the whole body of
believers is active as the preachers speaks for God and the congregation
listens to God’s Words.
And
secondly, this passage is also important to Bell One because when I leave in
September there will have been three pastors in this pulpit at various lengths
for the past year and a half: Pastor Derek, Pastor Don and myself. And now as
you continue your search for a pastor of this church; it is important that we
don’t fall into the same trap that the Corinthians did by magnifying the
messenger and missing the message because this surely will only result in
division just like the Corinthian church.
And
thirdly, since Paul is writing this to the whole church; the congregation must
keep preachers accountable for the content of their sermon, their deliver and
the purpose of their preaching. The Belgic Confession names three marks of the
true church and one of those marks is the “pure preaching of the Gospel”;
therefore if we are going to keep the pulpit pure; we need to know the what,
the how and the why of preaching.
And
fourthly, preaching is something that is done by a pastor in a worship service;
however, preaching is also something that in a way, we all do as we share the
Gospel to all those who we meet in our everyday life.
And also I
want to mention that I come humbly before you today as a young preacher with
very little experience. I am a rookie pastor. I am still in my ABC’s of
preaching, therefore by preaching on preaching I am not claiming to know it all
because I don’t.
But what I do know is what the Word
of God says, and from this passage, Paul teaches the Corinthian church the
what, the how and the why of preaching. I’d encourage you to keep your Bible
opened as God speaks to us today.
The first
question that Paul addresses is the ‘what to preach’. But first, I want us to
think about what we want to hear being preached: what do you desire to hear
from a sermon? [PAUSE] The question of ‘what to preach’ is ultimately about
what should be in the content of the sermon.
And in this
passage, Paul mentions four similar things that were in his sermons; therefore
they should be in every sermon at all times.
First, in 1:17 Paul mentions that “Christ did not send him to baptize, but to
preach the Gospel…” Paul was sent by God to preach the Gospel. He was sent
to preach that we are sinners in need of a Savior. He wasn’t sent to baptize,
but to preach. Obviously it is okay for a pastor to baptize people, but first
and foremost; they have been sent by God to preach the Word for this is of
greater importance in comparison to administering the sacraments. We need to
hear that we are sinners in need of a Savior; and this should be apart of every
sermon.
Secondly, in vs 23 Paul says, “But we preach Christ crucified…” Paul
uses the ‘we’ to mean himself, Apollos and Peter who all preached the same
message of Christ crucified. And clearly preaching without Jesus Christ
crucified isn’t the Gospel at all. The Gospel is the good news of God providing
a sinless savior for soiled sinners to spend eternity with Him; nothing more
and nothing less.
Thirdly, in 2:1 Paul says: “…I proclaimed to you (Corinthians) the testimony about God.” Some translations have translated this as
proclaiming “God’s mysteries”. And this is a mystery indeed; a mystery of how
an infinite God saved finite human beings through the death of His very own Son.
This was the testimony of God that Paul proclaimed the Corinthians.
And fourth in 2:2 Paul says: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was
with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” You see, before Paul even
got to Corinth ,
he had decided already what he was going to preach. This was the only thing
that Paul could preach; the only thing that he desired to preach; and the only
thing that he ever preached—which was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he
knew if he preached anything more than this or anything less than this; then he
wasn’t preaching the Gospel.
All four of these things that Paul
mentions about the content of preaching are basically the same thing: Paul
preached the Gospel. And this is what this series has been all about—the good
news that Jesus Christ has been crucified delivering us from our sin and satisfying
God’s wrath. Therefore, the Gospel message of salvation is the only content
which should be heard in every sermon and from every pulpit.
Paul emphasized this four different
times because the Jews and Greeks wanted to hear some other content in a
sermon. In 1:22 Paul says, “Jews demand
miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom.”
You see, the Jews expected the
Messiah, the Savior of the world, to be one who would come with glory, power
and splendor to free them from the oppressive government and then to overthrow
the government. Therefore, they demanded signs from Jesus again and again to
see if He met their pre-conceived notions about what the Messiah should be
like. They couldn’t grasp the concept of a crucified Messiah. These two
things—a Messiah and crucified—didn’t go hand in hand for them—they were
opposites. And because of their distorted expectations of a Messiah; vs 23 says
that the cross has become a “stumbling
block to Jews…” They couldn’t grasp the content of Jesus Christ crucified.
And the Greeks wanted the sermon
content to be based on wisdom. This is because the Greeks were very wise and
skilled in their speaking. The thought of saving human beings by having a
God-man come to earth to die for the sins of them was absurd; this wasn’t wise
by any human standards—therefore as vs 23 states, they considered the crucified
Messiah as foolishness.
You see, knowing what to listen for
in the content of preaching is not only applicable to the Corinthian believers;
it is also important for believers in all time periods, especially those in the
21st century because there are many preachers who say they are
preaching the gospel; but you see, they leave out the cross of Christ in their
sermons. And when the cross is left out; then it certainly isn’t the Gospel; it
becomes a self-help or get-better message.
There are many preachers like Joel
Osteen from Houston , Texas
- Becoming
a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday
- Every
Day A Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week
- Your
Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
These are clearly only self-help books or simple moralistic
advice so that we can have a better life and have it now. This clearly isn’t
preaching the cross and certainly not the Bible either.
And I don’t know if you have heard,
but there is also a new television show coming out this fall called “Preachers
of L.A.” It will show 6 pastors from
this area—one in Huntington Beach area and
another in Long Beach —and
listen to a few quotes from them:
- “The Bible says I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers and I believe that.”
- And when they are challenged about their teaching of prosperity gospel they say, “There is no other kind of Gospel.”
- Another says, “P. Diddy, Jay-Z, they are not the only one who should be driving Ferraris and living in large houses; the Bible says that those of us who sow among us should reap from us, that’s implying that preachers should be taken care of.”
This stuff is absolutely ridiculous. It is amazing to hear
some of the things that people come up with this days and people actually
listen to it.
There are also some preachers who
are preaching a faith which is called a Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This
belief is summed up as needing God’s involvement in life only when there is a
problem and that the central goal in life is to be happy and feel good about
oneself.
People of God, clearly these so
called Gospels are clearly are based upon human wisdom and speech; therefore as
Paul says in 1:17 “he preached the
Gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of power.”
You see, when the Gospel is distorted from being sinners in need of a Savior
and Christ crucified, died and buried and rising again; the cross loses its
power. The power of the cross is the salvation of those who believe. The cross
is not needed for a prosperity gospel or Moralistic Therapeutic teachings about
God.
Christ came, not to give us 10
steps to be a better Christian or to have a better life, Christ came to help
sinners realize that forgiveness and salvation is outside themselves: it is
only found in Jesus Christ.
People
preach and believe these false gospels because they think like the Jews and the
Greeks; they think the cross is utter foolishness because they can’t comprehend
the magnificence of it. But in reality, the cross is clearly the wisdom of God
as Paul says in vs 25 even “the
foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.”
Therefore, the content of what is
preached is extremely important for the church in the 21st century.
For if Jesus Christ crucified isn’t preach; then this is not a Gospel at all;
it isn’t good news; it isn’t the power of God; it isn’t the salvation of all
who believe; it isn’t the good news of great joy; and it isn’t the remedy for
bad news.
Secondly,
Paul address the question of ‘how to preach’, in other words, the delivery of
the sermon. How should this be done? Should a preacher stand behind the pulpit
or move around? Should he use fancy words or certain phrased sentences?
Well, Paul
addresses this by fist stating how we shouldn’t preach and then how we should
preach:
- In 1:17 he says, “Christ sent me to preach the Gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
- In 2:1 he says “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom…”
- And in 2:4 he says, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words…”
So clearly, Paul didn’t preach with wise and persuasive
words or with eloquent speech because once again, this empties the cross of its
power. And Paul knew that human wisdom cannot come to know God as vs 21 states.
The Corinthians actually noticed the
lack of wisdom in his speaking and poked fun of him for it. In 2 Corinthians
10:10 some of the Corinthians said that Paul’s “speaking amounts to nothing.” You see, the Corinthians were very
wise and they were extremely boastful about their wisdom because they thought
they had acquired this by their own studying and practice. And according to the
Corinthians; Paul’s speaking style amounted to nothing in comparison with how
they spoke with wise and persuasive words.
And this is because of one of their
forms of entertainment was to have speaking competitions. They would have one
speaker come up to the front of a crowd and give a speech; then another person,
then another and so on and so on. After all were done, the audience would vote on
which speaker used the best words and used the best wisdom to persuade them
during the delivery of the speech. They were judging these things based on
human ability. This judging of speaking styles infiltrated its way into the
Corinthian church as we learned earlier, therefore causing divisions among the
members because of magnifying the messenger NOT the message.
And preachers nowadays have fallen into
this same trap by preaching as if they were entertaining. They tell jokes, lots
of stories or illustrations in hopes of people liking them as a person and
hoping that they like their delivery of the sermon. And as I learned from one
of my college professors which I will share with you; the only emotion that
isn’t mentioned of Jesus in the Bible is laughter. I am sure that Jesus did
laugh and I am not saying that laughter is bad, but there are proper places for
jokes and laughter and the pulpit I don’t believe is one of them.
Therefore, we need to expect
different things from a sermon. Instead of expecting to be entertained
throughout the sermon; we should learn to recognize God’s voice in the preaching
of His Word:
- We can interact with God’s voice by bringing our Bibles to worship or at least keeping the pew Bible open
- We can interact with God’s voice by recording our insights from the sermon and reflecting on them in our daily devotions throughout the week
- We can interact with God’s voice by expressing our emotions when prompted by Him
- We can interact with God’s voice by stilling our Spirit when overwhelmed by His Words
- We can interact with God’s voice by expecting the sermon to make us godly, not expecting it to give us guidance for our every day life
- We can interact with God’s voice by expecting the sermon to transform us, not expecting to gain mental information about a passage.
These are all simple things that we can all do so that we
can recognize preaching being God’s voice to His people.
Paul didn’t use human wisdom to
persuade people in his delivery. Rather he came as a humble servant as he says
in 2:3, “I came to you in weakness and
fear, and with much trembling.” He came this way most likely for two
reasons:
First, before Paul arrived in Corinth on his second
missionary journey
- He was
beaten, flogged and thrown into prison in
- Then
he moved on to Thessalonica where the Jews became jealous so they started
a riot in the city causing Paul to hide and fear for his life as he fled
to
- In
- He was
taken to
- And
finally after leaving
And he came in weakness, fear and trembling and rightfully
so!
But also, he came this way because
he knew the content of what he was going to preach. And he knew that the
preaching he was going to do was from God. He knew that he was speaking for God
to the people. Therefore, this caused him to be in weakness, fear and
trembling. And after all people of God. If we actually believe that this is
God’s Word for God’s people—shouldn’t we approach the reading and the studying
of God’s Word the same way—with weakness, fear and much trembling? Because if
these are God’s Word, remember Genesis 1 God created the earth. And how did He
create them? He said, “Let there be tree” and there was a tree. “Let there be
sand and there was sand.” “Let there be light” and there was light. God’s Word
is more powerful than the sun.
Now you know that when you ask a
pastor if he was nervous before he preaches; well certainly he should be
nervous because pastors are speaking for the holy God and creator of the
universe to the people of God. And every person who approaches the text to
study and proclaim the text; should approach it with fear and trembling—for
this is a good thing!
This is a good thing because Paul
writes in 2 Corinthians 12 that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
When we are at our weakest point; it is then that God helps us. And to come
before the text in weakness, fear and trembling is okay. It is a sign of
reverence and respect for the holy God who created the universe by His Word; it
is a sign of humbling ourselves before God, allowing Him to work through us.
It is a sign of full reliance upon
God when we come this way; for we need to use His Words and not our own. It is
this way because as vs 29 states, “so
that no one may boast before Him.” Instead of boasting in ourselves, we
must boast in the Lord because it is all of Him and all from Him. To Him be all
the glory!
And lastly,
the apostle Paul teaches us that there is a purpose in preaching. He answers
the question why preach? I have heard this question many times in my
ministry—especially from younger kids, although adults are just as guilty: “why
do we have to sit and listen to a man speak for 20 or more minutes? I just
don’t see the purpose in this.”
Well, many
pastors preach for different reasons, but
Paul gives us two reasons.
In 1:21
Paul says, “God was pleased through the
foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” God has chosen
the foolish method of men speaking for God to save those who believe in the
content being preached. For when the Holy Spirit speaks through a man; the Holy
Spirit takes those words and grips the hearers hearts, softening it and giving
them a new heart in obedience to God.
And
secondly in 2:5 Paul says faith is strengthened through preaching. Not only
through preaching do people find salvation; but they also have their faith
strengthened. Sermons are to transform people into godly people striving to be
like Jesus Christ. We can gain all the information we want from a sermon; but
this doesn’t transform people. The Holy Spirit speaking directly to hearts
transforms people.
And a great
example of this is the early church. The church was conceived in Acts 1 in a
prayer meeting and birthed by a sermon in Acts 2. And at the end of Acts 2 in
vs 42 Luke writes that, “They devoted
themselves to the apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread
and to prayer.”
- The apostle’s teaching was the ministry God’s Word proclaimed
- Fellowship was the ministry of God’s Word shared
- The Breaking of Bread was the ministry of God’s Word visualized
- And Prayer was the Ministry of the Word returned.
Everything that the early church did revolved around the
preaching of God’s Word—this made it a successful church in every way!
In
conclusion, this passage clearly is not directed only to preachers; rather it
is addressed to members of congregations. This passage helps believers realize
the content of preaching, the delivery of preaching and the purpose of preaching
which are according to God’s Word, not according to what the world wants to
hear. And these concepts are important so that we can keep the preaching of the
Gospel central to the life of the church and to keep the pulpit pure by holding
our pastors accountable for the things they preach.
For when
the pure Gospel is not preached; the true church doesn’t exist; and when the
true church doesn’t exist; then we have defiled the bride of Christ with Christ
no longer wanting her.
People of
God, I pray that in the future, BellOne may continually keep this pulpit pure
as they have done so in the past.
May the Lord bless us in this endeavor of keeping the pulpit
pure and faithful.
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