By Timothy S. Warren
Preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the means by which men and women everywhere reconnect with the transcendent God above, their "image of God" significance within, and the eternal community of the faithful.
When our world treats the God of the Bible as just another god to choose from, when they miss His transcendence, His differentness, His "otherness," they miss their only hope. A god of his or her own imagination or creation cannot provide life after death.
When we preach, we are recruiting worshippers who will join us in spreading God's name throughout this world. Our job is to fill up the numbers of those who, in this missionary age, will give recognition, and honor, and glory to the One, Who alone, deserves it.
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We must ever struggle against corrupting this message. Our preaching is not about ourselves, our reputation. It is not about our denomination or affiliation. It is certainly not about our nation or race or culture. It is about God's nature, character, attributes, actions, and promises.
Our task comes down to this. Proclaim the truth about Who God is. Tell of His claims, His covenants, His boast. Tell His record; how He does what He says. Give them a glimpse of His glory. Then invite people to join in the celebration. Preaching is Doxological.
Conclusion
Preaching, then, is the communication of a biblical proposition discovered from a Spirit directed theological interpretation of a text and applied by the Holy Spirit through a preacher to a specific audience for the glory of God.
This missionary age presents us preachers with yet another, ongoing, opportunity. Some preachers have retreated to the seductive comfort of compromise in their personal lives or in their message. They have surrendered to sin, or doubt, or politically correct, but unbiblical, tolerance. They are boxed in.
We have come, God granting us grace, to recommit ourselves to the challenge of faithful preaching. And will it be worth it?
When Henry the Fifth gathered his army before the battle of Agincourt, he did not focus their attention on past victories, nor did he emphasize their present struggle. Rather, as Shakespeare recounts it, he cast before them a vision of the glorious future.
He that shall live this day and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,And say, "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian":Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day.". . . .And gentlemen in England now abedShall think themselves accursed they were not here,And hold their manhood's cheap whiles any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.(The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act IV, scene iii by William Shakespeare).
That day will come when we see clearly and experience fully the promise of God. In the in-between time we will preach, free of the confining box fabricated by unbelieving critics.