There may be various reasons that preaching in the twenty-first century fails to communicate that it is God’s chosen power to change lives. We are not living in times when preaching is valued. In our day, it seems to me, more than ever, pastors spend a lot of their time trying to convince people as to why they must come to church and sit under preaching. We place great emphasis on preaching as absolutely necessary for people. But this may not be entirely fair to the churchgoer if we’re not demonstrating the same thing about preaching as the Bible does.
Maybe paraphrasing Jesus’s words help a bit:“What did you expect when you went out to hear that local pastor? A man putting on a clown show? What then? Someone dressed as a figure from Toy Story? Can we say with Jesus, “not at all!”
But the problem may be more pervasive than clown shows. I have wrestled long and hard with my own preaching, often asking how I may be devaluing its importance in the life of God’s people.
One reason for our present demise of preaching has to do, I believe, with the rise of qualification preaching couched in niceness. It sounds like this, often with a smirk: “Now, I don’t mean this” or “please don’t misunderstand me,” or “I know the Scripture says this elsewhere...” When we come to a pointed truth of Scripture and then qualify it away with a series of limiting modifiers, something very important lost.
William Perkins spoke of two marks of faithful preaching: clarity and power. Qualification preaching like this tends to limit Scripture’s authority, muddle clarity, and undermine directness. The singular truth that should be deeply impressed on the conscience of the hearer is marginalized so as to lose all effect. No wonder people today hear preaching and are rarely driven to any kind of response. This is a kind of ear tickling in preaching that tends to pander to the wants of the people.
I have been recently preaching through the Beatitudes and I have felt this tension. When Jesus gave the Beatitudes, he was turning the religion of the Pharisees on its head. These truths in our post-Christendom context seem soft and unattractive to the intuitive drive for action. But imagine with me hearing the Beatitudes as Jesus gave them for the first time. There were probably long pauses between them. Can you hear the gasps in the aftermath of these “unqualified” statements? Here is how a few might have gone when the Pharisees heard them:
Jesus: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Pharisee: “What do you mean? Meekness inherits the earth? Are you telling us to submit to the evil Romans? Are you equating meekness with weakness? It sure sounds like you are saying we should be doormats? Doesn’t the Messiah bring in the kingdom of God with power? Shouldn’t we be actively changing political situations for righteousness sake? What is this meekness talk?
Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Pharisee: Wait a minute? Are you saying we should make peace with our enemies? Anyone who makes peace with wrongdoers is a weak, effeminate follower of God.The kingdom comes in by sword, and the Messiah is a man of war! Such a teaching would make us compromised.
I have no doubt that Jesus explained the meaning of each beatitude. But can you imagine Jesus giving endless qualifications to Pharisees after expressing the beatitudes as their consciences were convicted? “I’m sorry, you have misunderstood me. Yes, you’re right, God’s children are warriors and we must fight! But I want you to be meek too.” If Jesus did this every time he gave a surprising and shocking truth, what would have been lost is the effect that Jesus meant to convey in the hearts of those who heard at that moment?
Jesus didn’t let, for instance, the divisive man off the hook through qualification, justifying his behavior, when he spoke singularly of being a peacemaker. And, Jesus didn’t speak the truth worried constantly about all the misunderstandings of the people when he shot a direct truth at them like an arrow. His was this kind of preaching, contrary to that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, that blew away the minds of the people as he spoke with authority (Matt. 7:29) And in the face of being misunderstood, Jesus called people to give careful attention to “how they heard” fully recognizing that people generally hear only what they want to hear.
Our Lord knew that what was often behind the endless questioning of people was an attempt to find a way to marginalize the important truth that he chose to give them. The immediate attempt of people to downplay or disregard a truth by raising immediately another truth exposes the very problem in them he was intending to accomplish. The truth conveyed at that moment was intended to strike directly into the conscience, without all kinds of qualifications that would marginalize and lessen its intended effect in those who would have set it aside.
But the very point of this article can be illustrated at this point. What I want to express right now is, with great emphasis, that I don’t mean that qualifications should never be given. Yes, sometimes they're required. But, in the course of your pastor’s ministry, if he doesn’t qualify something in that moment, hasn’t he made clear that other truth before and in another place? This is the great responsibility for people to take care in how they hear. When we make endless qualifications in preaching, to ward of all possible misunderstandings, we become ineffective in that truth that the Spirit is using to convict the lives of the people, right then and there. Especially if the Lord is intending drawing out faith and repentance.
The truth should stand on its own terms, and should have its own intended effect. It’s a healthy thing when the people walk away from the church questioning and thinking through what they heard. The worst of messages have no effect on the lives of the people, leave them talking about everything else after the sermon than what was just heard. The best of messages challenge the people to think, to ask questions as they are pressed with the truth, and to seek for a solution in Christ. This gives the people something worth coming to hear.
Abounding Grace Radio