I recently had the opportunity to preach and was once again reminded that it is hard and difficult and that I know nothing, but it has forced me to wrestle with the purpose of preaching. I know it is a gift to be used to edify the body. But how does that practically play out? Is our preaching to transform individual Christians in order that they would look differently which would inadvertently affect the body? Is it primarily preaching to the body as a whole and how the truth affects the way we as a local expression of the body of Christ conduct ourselves? What is the aim or application of our preaching? Is it individual application, community application, a mixture of both, is it for vision casting?
These are the questions I have asked myself often lately and I don’t have the answers. It appears from the state of our churches that they both despise and breed a consumeristic mentality of shopping for the favorite flavor of preaching that it is about individual Christians. If this is the case, then it borders on self-help psychology engaging you as an individual to make you a better Christian so everyone reaps the benefit, but the primary focus is the individual believer.
This doesn’t sit well with me, since individual Christianity is seen nowhere in the Bible. The Bible talks about the fact the Christ came to establish a church, a people who would follow Him. It speaks of the church as His bride, His body, and the means by which he restores and redeems the world. The gospel calls individually, but it calls into a body, and the epistles (which are most commonly preached) are primarily addressing certain situations within a church body. If the Bible tends to address Christians as a part of a group then our preaching can’t focus solely on the individual.
If it is just about the individual, then why do we need a local body? I’ll just pop in my favorite podcast if I’m not going to get a contextualized message and in that case, why am I going to church? I know church isn’t primarily preaching, but let’s be honest, it’s the primary focus of our Sundays, let’s not kid ourselves.
It seems to me that our preaching has a 3-fold reach in regards to focus and application. It seems that each message has an individual application in how we view God, a community application that explains to the body how this message affects the local church they sit in and informs the strategy or theology of their vision and then finally how it affects the way Christians live in and engage a secular society that doesn’t agree with them.
These are my thoughts, but I do not feel that this is how it is typically accomplished, which makes me wonder if I’m wrong and if I’ve constructed something out of preaching that should be carried out in other ways in the body. I don’t have the complete answer, but I want to know the right answer.
In the end, I’m honestly confused and obviously frustrated and so I ask you, what is the purpose of preaching? Who is it for and what is it supposed to do?
7 Comments
July 7, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I know this in itself may seem consumerist in nature pointing you to another preacher. But Piper always has some good thoughts to chew on.
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1792_What_I_Mean_by_Preaching/
July 7, 2009 at 7:34 pm
The point of preaching is to reveal the cross of Christ and the price that the Son of God paid there for our sins. God loved us enough to plan for our redemption through the blood of His Son before time even began. In I Corinthians 15: 1-3, Paul tells us “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;”. THE purpose of preaching therefore is to preach the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. It was there that He suffered and died, crushed by His own Father in order that we might be saved. Paul said in Galatians 6: 14 “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” We have enough man-centered preaching (“What can God do for me?). What the church desperately needs is God-centered preaching (“What do I owe God?). The answer is obedience. Jesus said if we loved Him, we would obey Him. Focusing on how He paid the price of sin that we owed but could never pay teaches us to love Him. Charles Spurgeon was once accused of having all of his sermons sounding the same. He replied, “That may be so for I can take a verse from anywhere in the Bible and make a bee-line to the cross.” More of that is needed now. If we can see our sin, in light of His goodness and forgiveness that is offered to us through the cross, then, perhaps, the church will once again be what she should be. If we as a church body continue to focus on being a “better me” or having a better sex-life, marriage, children or a successful life, then, on Judgment Day we will have to answer for that. If, however, the church once again begins to focus on God’s holiness, perhaps we will see more truly come to know Jesus as Savior and then hear our Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
July 7, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Anna,
I completely agree that the aim should be the exposition of the gospel, my question is more how that plays out practically in the lives of the hearer. Because even in the exposition of the gospel it can become a man-centered individual experience and embracing, but that leaves out the people sitting to my right and left. That, to me, doesn’t make much sense because I see the gospel in terms of an individual in the context of community and on mission. If it is absent of 1 of those 3, it seems to me an incomplete gospel.
July 7, 2009 at 7:54 pm
[...] Go give it a read and chime in here! [...]
July 8, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Is it individual application, community application, a mixture of both, is it for vision casting? It is all those things, and I really like Piper’s explanation (ref by Eppers above)…my opinion: I think the practical application for the individual is different for one man than it is for another. The man struggling with giving up a particular ‘idol’ as he begins his journey after crucifying his flesh and getting on his knees for the first time and saying “abba father, help me, i can not do this” will hear a much different message from the pulpit than the man who has repeatedly learned how easy putting on the yoke of Jesus Christ is (ref Matt 11:29).
I believe the pulpit is even more important for the community, and again, I think it is different for different communities. The community that has been faithful and true to the gospel for many many years, but is starting to lose their desire for ‘our first love’ (ref Rev 2:1-7), vs the community that has just caught on fire to ‘have a heart for the city’, and everything in between…this is where I believe that God uses those men he has gifted as a profit (to tell the truth) and be able to discern the message that God wants the community to hear, so that we can be true to those two truths which Christ used to sum up the gospel…love God with all our strength mind and soul, and love our brother as ourselves.
July 9, 2009 at 2:07 pm
It’s true that God works with groups (the Jews, the church) but it’s also true that He comes to us individually and saves us when we respond in repentance and obedience. Then we are sent on a mission to seek and to proclaim the good news of Christ. We are also told to live it out day by day. As someone once said, “It’s easy to die for Christ. It’s the living for Him that’s hard because you have to take up your cross and die daily.” God never promised to illuminate our tomorrows for us but to be with us and give us light for our path–just enough light for where we are at at the moment. If we are walking with Him, He gives us guidance as to how to “take up our cross” and live His gospel among the people. I can’t save you and you can’t save me. I can pray for you and you for me or I can teach you and you can teach me but the living it out is still up to the individual. The gospel is meant to be lived out and that’s how it affects those to our right or left–those who might not “get it” otherwise, except for seeing it lived out. The gospel is complete (Jesus came, died bearing our sins and God’s wrath, and was resurrected). That can’t be changed nor would we want to. It remains to proclaim and to live it. When we do so God uses the truth that we have proclaimed and our lives that have been changed by His power to illuminate others and bring them to repentance or to more fully explain to them their role in obedience to Christ: that is, to take up our cross daily and die for Him. Meanwhile, at church, we can worship together while we worship individually. We can pray together while we pray individually. We can sing together….It’s corporate but it’s also individual. We cannot separate the two since both are commanded.
August 16, 2009 at 10:16 pm
hey logan, i just saw this come across the dg blog and wanted to make sure you saw it. http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1959_gods_word_good_exposition_great_joy_much_strength/