PREACHING-PERSPECTIVE
Which
receives the greatest attention: the ornamentation of your words and phrases,
or prayer for empowerment from the Holy Spirit? Which is your greater focus:
exciting pleasure in the people and praise for the preacher, or reducing the
impenitent to tears of contrition and repentance? After which does your heart
clamor: the pleasure of knowing that your sermon has been remarkably good, or
joy in seeing your people radically affected by the truth of God?
Preaching that Hinders Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
The young
preacher has been taught to lay out all his strength on the form, taste, and
beauty of his sermon as a mechanical and intellectual product. We have thereby
cultivated a vicious taste among the people and raised the clamor for talent
instead of grace, eloquence instead of piety, rhetoric instead of revelation,
reputation and brilliancy instead of holiness.
E.M Bounds
Power
Through Prayer, Baker, n.d.
p. 31.
The preparation for the public ministry of
the Word is even more excellent than preaching in church. To live in constant
communion with the Lord, and to be habitually and frequently in meditation over
the truth is its own reward.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
33. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
The point is
that preachers must at all costs do justice to the biblical text and not twist
it into responding to a different issue than its author originally addressed… Preachers
are like transmission towers who transmit the original biblical message from an
earlier generation to the present generation. Their calling is not to invent
their own messages but relevantly to pass on the divine message found in the
Bible.
Sindey
Greidanus
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans, www.eerdmans.com,
1999, p. 281.
If it is
important that we learn to know the condition of the hearts of our hearers, the
best place to begin is, of course, with our own hearts. Apply the Word there,
and we will soon learn to be like surgical attendants: our exposition of the
text will become like sterilized knives, perfectly tooled, which we hand to the
Spirit for the precise spiritual surgery that our people actually need.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 208.
I have never
once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.
John Knox
There is
something radically wrong with dull and boring preachers. How can a man be dull when he is handling
such themes? I would say that a 'dull preacher' is a contradiction in terms; if
he is dull he is not a preacher. He may stand at the pulpit and talk, but he is
certainly not a preacher. With the grand
theme and message of the Bible dullness is impossible. This is the most
interesting, the most thrilling, the most absorbing subject in the universe;
and the idea that this can be presented in a dull manner makes me seriously
doubt whether the men who are guilty of this dullness have ever really
understood the doctrine they claim to believe, and which they advocate. We
often betray ourselves by our manner.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan,
1971, p. 87.
A sermon is
meant to be a proclamation of the truth of God as mediated through the
preacher. People do not want to listen to a string of quotations of what other
people have thought and said. They have come to listen to you; you are the man
of God, you have been called to the ministry, you have been ordained; and they
want to hear this great truth as it comes through you, through the whole of
your being. They expect it to have passed through your thought, to be a part of
your experience; they want this authentic personal note.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p.
222.
The greatest
of all the temptations that assail a preacher is pride. Pride, because he is
set up there almost on a pedestal. He is standing in a pulpit,
he is above the people, all of whom are looking to him. He has this leading
place in the Church, in the community; and so his greatest temptation is that
of pride. Pride is probably the deadliest and the most subtle of all sins, and
it can assume many forms; but as long as one realizes this all is well.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p.
256.
What is the
rule then? It is: be natural; forget yourself; be so absorbed in what you are
doing and in the realization of the presence of God, and in the glory and the
greatness of the Truth that you are preaching, and the occasion that brings you
together, that you are so taken up by all this that you forget yourself
completely. That is the right condition; that is the only place of safety; that
is the only way in which you can honour God. Self is the greatest enemy of the preacher,
more so than in the case of any other man in society. And the only way to deal
with self is to be so taken up with, and so enraptured by, the glory of what
you are doing, that you forget yourself altogether.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan,
1972, p. 264.
There is
nothing like it. It is the greatest work
in the world, the most thrilling, the most exciting, the most rewarding, the most wonderful. I know of nothing comparable to the
feeling one has as one walks up the steps of one’s pulpit with a fresh sermon
on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening, especially when you feel that you have
a message from God and are longing to give it to the people. This is something
that one cannot describe.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972, p.
297.
The work of
preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone
can ever be called.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The
Christian’s life should put his minister’s sermon in print.
William Gurnall
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 195.
No man who is
full of himself can ever truly preach the Christ who emptied Himself.
J. Sidlow Baxter
Again, men
tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can
preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall
have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a
polemic book almost from beginning to end… It is when men have felt compelled
to take a stand against error that they have risen to
the really great heights in the celebration of the truth.
J. Gresham Machen
What Is Christianity,
cited in Biblical Separation, by Ernest Pickering, p. 97.
Popularity
has slain more prophets of God than persecution ever did.
Vance Havner
The devil
will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing
himself.
Vance Havner
A preacher
should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child and the hide of a
rhinoceros. His biggest problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening
his heart.
Vance Havner
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 138.
To love to
preach is one thing – to love those to whom we preach, quite another.
Richard Cecil
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 100.
Lack of
intensity in preaching can only communicate that the preacher does not believe
or has never been seriously gripped by the reality of which he speaks – or that
the subject matter is insignificant.
John Piper
The Supremacy of God in Preaching, Baker, p.
103.
We ministers
are weak, common, plain, fragile, breakable, dishonorable, and disposable clay
pots who should be taking the garbage out – but instead we’re bringing the
glory of God to our people (2 Corinthians 4:7).
John MacArthur, Jr.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 285.
In the New
Testament there is a fine distinction between teaching and preaching. The
preacher is described as more of a “herald” (see 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). He
is to herald forth the good news, much as a town crier would enthusiastically
announce good news. Good teaching will have some aspects of heralding about it,
and it should involved some motivation and application. Good preaching will
certainly involve teaching also, but preaching does not stop there. Preaching
also involves a dynamic that strongly calls for actions, whether it is a call
to repentance and faith, a call to service, or a call to carry the Gospel to
others.
Curtis C. Thomas
Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books,
2001, p. 68. Used by Permission.
And seldom if
ever do I leave the pulpit without a sense of partial failure, a mood of
penitence, a cry to God for forgiveness, and a resolve to look to Him for grace
to do better in the future.
John Stott
To love to
preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach quite another.
Richard Cecil
Brethren, it
is easier to declaim against a thousand sins of others, than to mortify one sin
in ourselves.
John Flavel
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 191.
Some
preachers never appreciate the compliment given them when a saint disagrees
with the pastor’s exposition of a text. At least the Christian under his care
is devoted more to Scripture than to the man in the pulpit. Under his ministry
the child of God has reached a maturity to think through issues for himself and
has imbibed a Berean spirit (Acts 17:11).
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 61-62, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
When a minister
goes into the pulpit, he is a shepherd in the act of feeding, and if every
minister had borne this in mind, many a sermon would have been other than it
has been. The curse of the pulpit is the superstition that a sermon is a work
or art and not a piece of bread or meat
Charles Jefferson
Preaching
must pump his heart until he lives and breathes the message. The message will
hound him, drive him, even explode within him. So
great will be the desire to preach that he will find it difficult to wait for
the next time to deliver the message of God.
Michael Tucker
Quoted in: Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to
Pastor, Kregel, 1998, p. 33.
Underlying
the preaching of the Puritans are three basic axioms:
1.
The
unique place of preaching is to convert, feed and sustain.
2.
The
life of the preacher must radiate the reality of what he preaches.
3.
Prayer
and solid Bible study are basic to effective preaching.
J.I. Packer
Puritan Preaching, Reformation Today, 68.
Called by God
to preach!… Commissioned of God to teach the word! A
herald of the great King! A witness of the Eternal Gospel! Could any work be more high and holy? To this
supreme task God sent His only begotten Son. In all the frustration and
confusion of the times, is it possible to imagine a work comparable in
importance with that of proclaiming the will of God to wayward men?
W.E. Sangster
The Craft of Sermon Construction, Epworth,
1949, p. 14-15.
How can
Christian pastors hope to feed their flock on a well-balanced spiritual diet if
they completely neglect the 39 books of Holy Scripture on which Christ and all
the New Testament authors received their own spiritual nourishment?
Gleason Archer
A New Look at the Old Testament, Decision,
August 1972, p. 5.
There are
many reasons why pastors must preach from the Old Testament:
1.
The
Old Testament is part of the Christian canon.
2.
It
discloses the history of redemption leading to Christ.
3.
It
proclaims truths not found in the New Testament.
4.
It
helps us understand the New Testament.
5.
It
prevents misunderstanding of the New Testament.
6.
It
provides a fuller understanding of Christ.
Sindey
Greidanus
Preaching Christ from the Old
Testament, Eerdmans (www.eerdmans.com), 1999, p. 25.
Preaching
usually represents one-way communication. When pastors are taught how to preach
but do not learn other forms of communication, they are severely handicapped. When
they express stress and tension in the congregation, they revert to the form of
communication they know best, and that is preaching. Not listening, mind you,
but preaching. We (as pastors) have learned well how to speak our opinions, but
we have not learned how to hear or respond equally well to the opinions and
positions of others. Often, once we stake out a position within a conflict
scenario, we are immovable.
H.B. London Jr.
Leaders on Leadership, 1997, p. 113, Gospel
Light/Regal Books, Ventura, CA 93003, Used by Permission.
Our forebears
back in the camp meeting days used to say that if people left a meeting talking
about what a wonderful sermon the preacher gave or how beautifully the singers
sang, the meeting had failed. But if people went home saying
thing like "Isn't God good? He met me tonight in such a wonderful
way," it was a good meeting. There was to be no sharing the stage with the
Lord.
Jim Cymbala
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Zondervan Publishing
House, p. 70.
[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.
The pew
cannot control the pulpit. We cannot deliver ‘demand led’ preaching because no
one demands the Gospel.
Dick Lucas
Quoted in: Begg, Alistair.
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway, 1999, p. 19.
It is an
obvious error for all to see in those ministers of the Church who make such a
wide gulf between their preaching and their living. They will study hard, to
preach exactly, and yet study little or not at all to live exactly. All the
week long is little enough to study how to speak for two hours; and yet one
hour seems too much time to study how to live all the week. They are loath to
misplace a word in their sermons; yet they think nothing of misplacing
affections, words, and actions in the course of their lives. Oh, how curiously
I have heard some men preach, and how carelessly have I seen them live!
Richard Baxter
I believe in
comforting the afflicted and in afflicting the comfortable.
Author Unknown
Only once did God choose a completely sinless preacher.
Alexander Whyte
The first
heart God’s Word needs to reach is that of the preacher. There will be no
benefit to our people from expository preaching unless we ourselves are being
impacted by the Scripture we are preparing to preach. It is imperative, when we
are dealing with the biblical text, that we are personally changed by it.
Alistair Begg
Preaching for God’s Glory, Crossway,
1999, p. 34.
It is not
with us, as with other labourers: they find their
work as they leave it, so do not we. Sin and Satan
unravel almost all we do, the impressions we make on our people’s souls in one
sermon, vanish before the next.
John Flavel
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 193.
Screw the
truth into men’s minds.
Richard Baxter
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 222.
I preached as
never sure to preach again and as a dying man to dying men.
Richard Baxter
Quoted in: Jones, Preachers and Preaching,
Zondervan, 1971, p. 86.
Some of us
who have preached the Word for years, and have been the means of working faith
in others and of establishing them in the knowledge of the fundamental
doctrines of the Bible, have nevertheless been the subjects of the most fearful
and violent doubts as to the truth of the very gospel we have preached.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons 11.290.
If I did not
believe in the infallibility of Scripture – the absolute infallibility of it
from cover to cover, I would never enter this pulpit again!
C.H. Spurgeon
36.9.
My deacons
know well enough how, when I first preached in Exeter Hall, there was scarcely
ever an occasion in which they left me alone for ten minutes before the
service, but they would find me in a most fearful state of sickness, produced
by that tremendous thought of my solemn responsibility. I am compelled to put
my responsibilities where I put my sins, on the back of the Lord Jesus Christ.
C.H. Spurgeon
48.619.
The man who
cannot weep cannot preach. At least, if he never feels tears within, even if
they do not show themselves without, he can scarcely be the man to handle such
themes as those which God has committed to his people’s charge.
C.H. Spurgeon
15.233.
I always say
to young fellows who consult me about the ministry, "Don't be a minister
if you can help it," because if the man can help it, God never called him.
But if he cannot help it, and he must preach or die, then he is the man.
C.H. Spurgeon
“You
preached well,” said a friend to John Bunyan one morning. “You are too late,”
said honest John, “The devil told me that before I left the pulpit.”
C.H. Spurgeon
A
Jealous God, Sermon 502, March 29, 1863.
When
intimidated by who's sitting in the audience, we should remember the King of
Kings is also here, and it's his message.
Charles Swindoll
Leadership, v. 15, n. 1.
The man who
studies theology, and especially he who studies dogmatics,
might watch carefully whether he increasingly does not think in the third
rather than the second person. You know what I mean by that. This transition
from one to the other level of thought, from a personal relationship with God
to a merely technical reference, usually is exactly synchronized with the
moment that I no longer can read the word of Holy Scripture as a word to me,
but only as the object of exegetical endeavors. This is the first step toward
the worst and most widespread ministers’ disease. For the minister frequently
can hardly expound a text as a letter which has been written to him, but he
reads the text under the impulse of the question, How
would it be used in a sermon?
Helmut Thielicke
A Little Exercise for Young Theologians,
Eerdmans, 1962, p. 33.
He has his
back to the world, his face toward heaven and a Book in his hand.
John Bunyan
There is no
one gift which offers so strong a temptation both to vanity and to pride – as
that of public speaking. If the orator really excels, and is successful, he is
the immediate spectator of his success, and has not even to wait until he has
finished his discourse; for although the decorum of public worship will not
allow of audible tokens of applause, it does of visible ones – the look of
interest, the tear of penitence or of sympathy, the smile of joy, the deep
impression on the mind, the death-like stillness, cannot be concealed – all
seem like a tribute of admiration to the presiding spirit of the scene; and
then the compliments which are conveyed to his ear, after all the silent
plaudits which have reached his eye – are equally calculated to puff him up
with pride. No men are more in danger of
this sin than the ministers of the Gospel; none should watch more sleeplessly
against it.
J.A. James
Christian Love, 1828.