PREACHING-DEFINED
[Preaching
is] a manifestation of the Incarnate Word, from the Written Word, by the Spoken
Word. [It is] a most solemn act of
worship, in which the thing given – the
Gospel of the Son of God – overshadows and even transfigures the preacher by
whom it is declared.
A Layman in the Ministry, Independent Press,
1942, p. 138.
(The
preacher's) throne is the pulpit; he stands in Christ's stead; his message is
the word of God; around him are immortal souls; the Savior, unseen, is beside
him; the Holy Spirit broods over the congregation; angels gaze upon the scene,
and heaven and hell await the issue. What associations,
and what vast responsibility.
Matthew Simpson
Lectures on Preaching, Phillips & Hunt,
1879, p. 98.
What is
preaching? Logic on fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on
fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say
again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right
whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan,
1971, p. 97.
Any true
definition of preaching must say that that man is there to deliver the message
of God, a message from God to those people. If you prefer the language of Paul,
he is 'an ambassador for Christ.' That is what he is. He has been sent, he is a
commissioned person, and he is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of
Christ to address these people.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan,
1971, p. 53.
The
preacher’s task is to declare what God has said, explain the meaning, and
establish the implications so that no one will mistake its relevance.
Alistair Begg
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway, 1999, p.
29
Your task, O
preacher, is to make sure that you are faithful to the text, that you are
faithful to the proclamation of that gospel, that you are faithful to set forth
the whole counsel of God, and then step back and let it happen.
R.C. Sproul
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 159.
[Preaching
is] a public interpretation or dividing the Word, performed by an ambassador or
minister who speaks to the people instead of God, in the name of Christ.
John Preston
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 221.
Preaching is
not just morally edifying speech. It is
not simply a pep-rally to excite the listeners to a day or two of penitential
service. It is taking the dominion of God and placing it within the deepest
reaches of the soul of those He is ministering to. It is screwing truth into
men’s minds in such a way as to enthrall the heart with more of Jesus Christ. Preaching
is a spiritual infection which ought to impregnate the hearer with the life of
God and Christ.
C. Matthew McMahon
The Pastor and the Pulpit, www.apuritansmind.com.
The pulpit is
the place where the voice of God is heard. The clay pot of the minister is
used by the Holy Spirit in such a way as to communicate the rational Biblical
message which has been burning in the bosom of that preacher's heart night and
day all week long. It is the place where God speaks to His people in a unique
manner. The Word of God is audibly expressed and expounded by careful and
responsible exegesis to God's chosen people.
C. Matthew McMahon
The Pastor and the Pulpit, www.apuritansmind.com.
Preaching is
that wise means of God by which the wisdom of the world is shown to be
foolishness, and the folly of the gospel, as the world conceives it, is shown
to be true wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21).
James Montgomery Boice
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 37.
[The preacher
is] the man of God who is set on fire with the truth of God, who believes that
he is called by God and equipped by the Spirit of God to speak to the minds of
his hearers in such a compelling way that he must have an audience.
John Armstrong
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 189.
(The heart of
all preaching is) to preach one Christ, by Christ, to the praise of Christ.
William Perkins
Works of William Perkins, John Legatt, 1613, 2:762.
Preaching is
unleashing the mind and character of God.
David Osborne
Pastoral
Wisdom, Tabletalk, October 2008, p. 70. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
[Preaching
is] truth mediated through personality.
Phillips Brooks
To teach is to
inform! To preach is to move!
Richard Owen Roberts
Preaching that Hinders Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
Preaching is
a spiritual event that is intended to grip your heart and shake you loose from
your comfort. It is designed to take you
where you haven’t gone in terms of your thinking and understanding of the Word
of God. It is intended to create a
spiritual response that very moment and to deposit seeds that will shape, over
a long period of time, a fixed set of convictions in the fabric of your life.
John MacArthur
The Master’s Seminary Mantle, The Adventure
of Preaching, Summer 2004, v. 11:2.
Preaching is
God's appointed means for the conversion of sinners, the awakening of the
church, and the preservation of the saints.
If preaching fails in its task, the consequences are infinitely
terrible.
John Piper
The Supremacy of God in Preaching, Baker,
1990, p. 54-55.
Preaching
means, “to cry out, herald, or exhort.” Preaching should so stir a man that he pours out the message
with passion and fervor. Not all passionate pleading from a pulpit, however,
possesses divine authority. When a preacher speaks as a herald, he must cry out
“the Word.” Anything less cannot legitimately pass for Christian
preaching.
Haddon W. Robinson
Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1980, p. 18.
A sermon
should be a bullet and not buckshot. Ideally each sermon is the explanation,
interpretation, or application of a single dominant idea supported by other
ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture.
Haddon W. Robinson
Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1980, p. 33.