By Jason K. Allen
To stand before God’s people and unpack the oracles of God is an exhilarating and profoundly rewarding task, but it can also be a frightening one, especially for new preachers. There’s simply no way to camouflage
a lack of comfort in the pulpit.
Whether it’s due to inadequate preparation, limited gifting, or simply being a novice, to be unsure of oneself or one’s sermon is no way to preach. The most effective preachers deliver sermons with confidence and certainty in their calling. This confidence and certainty grows over the years but only if you continually cultivate your ability to preach.In the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis, Warren Buffet famously observed, “It’s when the tide goes out that you see who’s skinny dipping.” Buffet was reflecting on the banks and investment firms that had insufficient capital to meet their financial obligations during the Great Recession, but his observation applies to the ministry as well. When you stand before God’s people with Bible in hand, the tide goes out. In those moments, when you attempt to speak on behalf of God, all will see the veracity of your calling to preach.
For pastors, preaching and teaching God’s Word has a way of stripping us all bare; it exposes us and puts our gifting—or lack thereof—on public display. You can’t finesse your way through a sermon with polished appearance, warm people skills, or seminary credentials alone. In the moment of truth, your ability to teach and preach God’s Word reveals much about your calling.
This is the way it should be. Those called to the ministry are called to a ministry of the Word. This clarifying stipulation both challenges and reassures us. Those whom God has truly called, He has truly gifted for the task. Every pastor must be gifted to teach the Word, and every qualified pastor is.
This is so important because the health of the church rises or falls with the pulpit. Literally, lives are at stake. I know this is a debatable statement in parts of today’s church culture, but it is nevertheless true.
Why Preaching?
Preaching is God’s divinely ordained means for communicating His Word, for nourishing His church, and for redeeming a people for Himself. Other ministerial activities may complement preaching, but no ministerial activity should displace preaching.
As Spurgeon warned: “I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless his churches.”
God had one Son, and He made Him a preacher. Scripture tells us, “Jesus came . . . preaching,” and then He sent His disciples out to preach (Mark 1:14; see also Matt. 28:16–20). From the prophets of old, to Pentecost, to the end of the age, preaching is God’s appointed means to convey His message. This concept is rather straightforward, and so is the answer to the question of what the pastor is supposed to preach.
Preach the Word
Every preacher can readily identify with the apostle Paul’s binding charge to Timothy, “Preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2). This command is situated at the end of Paul’s final letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. It encapsulates the broader biblical expectation that ministers faithfully discharge their responsibilities of preaching and teaching the Word.
As Paul wrote 2 Timothy, he knew his death was near. Christians were being persecuted. False prophets plagued the church. Many who named Christ as Savior were falling away. Timothy himself was vacillating and questioning his call. Thus, Paul wrote his final letter, as the parting words of a dying man, to a distressed church and a discouraged son.
In this salutary charge he commanded Timothy, “Preach the word.” This exhortation occurs—explicitly and implicitly—throughout Scripture but nowhere more conspicuously than 2 Timothy 4:2. And it appears with added momentum because of its context in the book and in the lives of Paul, Timothy, and the church. There is a degree of narrowing earnestness, of focused deliberateness from Paul, to Timothy, to us.
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul documents the catastrophic effects of man’s sinfulness and presents the ministerial antidote—preaching God’s Word, which is inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient. We are called to “preach the word” because the days are evil and the Scriptures are powerful. For preachers, 2 Timothy 4:2 has a certain romance to it—a magnetic pull calling us back again and again to our central responsibility.
The call to preach—in light of so many problems in the society and the church—may appear simplistic, but it is God’s instruction. To preach means “to herald, to lift up one’s voice, to proclaim.” It is to speak boldly, without fear, to make truth known.
Again, Paul’s charge to “preach the word” is not complex. This beautiful simplicity adds an unmistakable clarity to the instruction. There is no need to clarify which word or whose word. Rather, we are called to preach the Word, God’s Word. In fact, the premise of preaching the Word is built on the entire canon of Scripture, and it roars throughout this book.
If you are not convinced of Scripture—its truthfulness, authority, relevance, and power—then you will be disinclined to preach the Word. You may look to it for sermon points because that is what evangelical preachers are to do, but you’ll never let the Word be the point and points of your sermon.
Though we have the rather straightforward command to preach the Word, this command cannot be obeyed if some essential ingredients of preaching are lacking.
Essential Ingredients of Preaching
While a quick wit, booming voice, and strong self-presentation can be helpful (or sometimes harmful) elements, two key ingredients must be present in faithful preaching: the study of the Word and the proclamation of the Word. To emphasize either to the de-emphasis of the other is to err. In your preparation you must maintain intentional balance.
Some pastors more naturally enjoy the process of preparing sermons. They enjoy digging into the text of Scripture, rightly interpreting it, constructing an exegetical outline, and stitching together a sermon. This is good and necessary, and no one should enter the pulpit without having delved into the text.
If you are one who doesn’t enjoy
sermon preparation at all, then you should perhaps consider some other form of Christian service. You can only talk yourself up about the importance of thorough sermon preparation for so long. Eventually fatigue and distraction will set in, and you will begin to settle for below-average work. This may be a slow fade at first, but the result is that the health of the church will suffer.
If the desire for faithful sermon preparation is there but the motivation some weeks is lacking, then you must pray. Ask God to rekindle your affection for His Word. Ask Him to strengthen your mind and to give you clarity in the text. Ask Him for the willpower to remain in your seat until you figure out what the text means.
While some naturally enjoy sermon preparation, others more naturally enjoy proclamation. The act of preaching itself animates them. They enjoy delivering the Word to God’s people.
My hunch, though, is that there are probably fewer preachers who fit this category as compared to the previous one. This may be the case for a couple reasons. On the one hand, a lot of preachers are so concerned with getting the text right that they don’t leave much time to consider how best to deliver its truth. They don’t strive for excellence in delivery because they don’t leave time to practice delivery.
On the other hand, those whose personalities are more inclined to the study may simply have more introverted personalities. For these preachers the physical act of preaching the Word may be draining. But again, this is no excuse. If you find yourself in this category, pray each time you preach that the Spirit of God would fill you with the energy necessary for the task, and watch how He will increase your capacity to do so through months and years of repetition.
To summarize, pursue a deep and thorough study of God’s Word with a thoughtful and poignant delivery. Great preachers excel at both, and you should cultivate both ingredients in your own pulpit ministry.
Conclusion
Like any other ability, preaching and teaching God’s Word is a developed skill—a skill given by the Spirit of God, yes—but you must pursue maturity and excellence throughout your ministry of the Word. When the tide runs out, don’t be left exposed. Determine to stand strong and confident before God’s people.
Jason K. Allen | President, Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministry
Editor’s Note: Excerpted with permission from Letters to My Students: Vol. 1 by Jason K. Allen. Copyright 2019,
B&H Publishing.
