“Balanced Preaching”

Monday, February 26, 2018

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2-5).

Well, that sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Just preach God’s word and don’t turn aside to other things that would keep you from speaking the truth. Anyone who thinks being a gospel preacher is an easy job has never done it. It is a highly rewarding pursuit, but an extremely challenging one as well.

We are discussing, in this series on Strengthening the Local Church, some things that will help Jesus followers to grow, spiritually in our personal lives and numerically on the congregational level. Preaching is vital to both spiritual and numerical growth.

Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). We must learn to preach God’s word always, in its purity, without apology and without reservation or compromise.

Luke also records Paul’s words for us, in Acts 20:27, in which he reminds the shepherds from Ephesus, that he had preached “the whole counsel of God” while in their city. We must preach the Bible in its completeness, both popular and unpopular subjects.

A church will only be as strong, or as weak, as the preaching it receives.

And the pulpit, through the messages that emanate from it, will determine the “tone” or “culture” of the local church. Strong, solid, faithful gospel preaching can raise the commitment level of the entire church, from the weakest disciple to the strongest. It is said that a rising tide raises all ships and that principle applies spiritually as well as nautically.

Paul told Timothy to convince, rebuke and exhort with patience and careful instruction. He was not suggesting, as some have said, that our teaching should be 2/3 negative and 1/3 positive. Paul was reminding his young preaching friend, and it is preserved by inspiration for us today, that there will be a need for both tearing down false ideas and teachings and for building up the truth of God’s will among the members of every local church.

Timothy was also encouraged by Paul (1 Timothy 4:16) to watch both his life (how he conducts himself day by day) and his teaching (what he says in the pulpit and the classroom and also as he teaches from house to house). Much of the success or weakness of a congregation can be traced directly back to the preaching the church receives.

An evangelist must be friendly and outgoing. That doesn’t mean he has to be the life of every party and the chief entertainer of every assembly. It means that guests must feel welcomed when attending our services and told repeatedly by the members that they are glad the guests came. And while you and I know that the preacher is not really more important to God than any other member of the church, those who visit our services will often think he is and if he doesn’t project warmth and friendliness, many will not feel comfortable returning to hear more. This is just a simple matter of understanding human nature.

Is the preacher evangelistic in his own life? A non-evangelistic preacher is not going to be able to motivate others to really get out there and save the lost, if they know he talks about it a lot but does little in this area. (Frankly, is there really even such a thing as a non-evangelistic evangelist? Maybe he should be honest enough to call himself something else if he is not really doing the work of an evangelist.) There must be an emphasis on evangelism that begins in the pulpit, but everyone must see that it reaches beyond those who enter our facilities to include those who have never attended a service or a study. This is one of several areas where the preacher really must practice what he preaches or no one else will practice it either.

Does the preacher show an interest in young people, older members and everyone in between? Often a preacher has a natural tendency to spend more time with those his own age and with whom he shares similar interests. But sometimes this can make others feel unimportant, more like an outsider than a real member of the spiritual family.

There must also be a focus on telling people about Jesus, the Savior of the world. He said of Himself, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). Of course, He was speaking of His crucifixion, but we must lift Him up in our messages and classes as well. Paul said that when he preached in the first century city of Corinth, “…I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). We need to speak constantly of Him. When I began preaching full-time, I decided that I would deliver a lesson about Christ at least once a month and often even more than that.

Often our preaching is centered around certain truths about the Lord’s church, the need for Bible authority, what constitutes Biblical obedience to the Lord (faith, repentance, confession, baptism), how to worship God correctly (especially no instrumental music and being sure to take the Lord’s Supper every Sunday) and other similar doctrinal issues. I believe what the Bible says about every one of those matters and we cannot be faithful to the Lord without a proper understanding and obedience to those important truths. They must be taught regularly.

But we are not told to simply teach people to accept the truth on an important group of items. We must teach them to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength and to be converted to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I believe that a person who is taught to love Christ will also want to know all of the truth that can set them free (John 8:32). But it is also possible to only learn what the Bible says about some key, important issues and not really be in love with the Christ.

Gospel preaching must point people to Jesus who alone can take away their sins and make them right with God (John 14:6). And then when they become one of His, we can teach them “to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

--Roger Hillis

RogerLeeHillis@gmail.com

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