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Grab to eternal life!

Jesus is the way,
 the truth, and the life

What is preaching like?

 

Preaching in the church is easy to some and difficult to others. Some are good by nature in that area, while others must do more work so that they can put their thoughts into words. They can be slow of speech and slow of tongue, as Moses was.

   However, whatever the faculties of speech are, it is good to pay attention to the next issues. They are useful to all speakers:

 

Pointing out the main issues. The first issue in spiritual preaching is, of course, that the most important issues concerning salvation in Jesus Christ are pointed out. One example of it is that of Philip, who preached Christ to Samaritans. Paul spoke about the same issue. If this – the most important issue – is forgotten and the only topics spoken about are social inequality, commandments, values, peace (about which any humanist could speak), then it is not real spiritual preaching. It does not fulfill those conditions.

 

- (Acts 8:5,6) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ to them.

6  And the people with one accord gave heed to those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

 

- (1 Cor 2:1,2) And I, brothers when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.

2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

 

Important subjects in spiritual speeches are, among other things, the next points that are worth pointing out often. They are the most important issues in preaching the Gospel:

 

- The love of God towards sinners

- The will of God to save

- Man’s separation from God and being damned without Christ

- Salvation is a gift and grace

- Man cannot save himself by his works

- Conversion to God

- Giving up one’s life to God

- Where does impenitence lead

- The responsibility of man

- Damnation and Heaven

- The holiness and perfection of God and that sin will not get you to Heaven

- The atonement and vicarious death of Christ for us

- Jesus is the only way to God and Heaven

- Why did He come into the world

- His freedom from sin and perfect life

- His deity

- What becomes of you if you reject Jesus Christ?

- Faith or trust in Jesus Christ

- Receiving Jesus and grace, where rejecting leads

- Access by Jesus Christ into the state of grace

- Regeneration

- Judgement according to works

- Justification

- Good works are a result and fruit of salvation, not its condition

- Faith is not only theoretical belief but trust of the heart in Christ

- The purpose of the law is to show sin

- People must be guided to a place in which they understand that they need a substitute and a mediator, meaning Jesus Christ

 

Are the matters regarded too clear? One very common mistake in preaching is that we regard matters too clear, even though the same concepts can be quite faint and unclear to others. Such words as regeneration, salvation, righteousness, faith and so on can be perfectly strange to many and, therefore, guidance about these terms is needed, as Philip advised the Ethiopian eunuch on a deserted road. It is not enough that we say: “Believe, believe, believe” but we should also tell people what it means and in what they should believe:

 

- (Acts 8:30-35) And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understand you what you read?

31  And he said how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

32  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:

33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

34  And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray you, of whom speaks the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?

35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached to him Jesus.

 

Charles G. Finney who lived in the19^th century, has told how he collided with the same issue before his salvation. He heard spiritual speeches by priests in which many points remained unclear to him. He aimed later to speak as simply as possible so that people would understand the content of his speech:

 

(...) He seemed, as I said to him sometimes, to begin as if from the middle of his speech and to consider issues that I thought to need argumentation self-evident (…) But I have to say that to me, his sermons rather confused than built (…) So, I really did not get clear information regarding many terms that he used extremely often and conventionally. What did he mean by repentance? Was it only sorrow for sin (…) What did he mean by regeneration… faith… sanctification… I do not know, and neither he himself seemed to know in what sense he used these and other similar words.

   (…) Before my conversion, I aspired to another direction. In writing and speaking, I had sometimes used decorated language. But when I started to preach the Gospel, I was very careful to make people understand me, so that I – on the other hand – tried to avoid all too common words and say my thoughts as simply as possible.

   (…) First, as I came to England, I noticed that theology was handled there mainly from its dogmatic side and people lived under its authority. They had their “articles” and confessions of faith and their authority. People were not at all used to proving the views mentioned in these “norms”; they were considered self-evident truth. As I started to preach, they were surprised when I talked about them with people. And I was also told that this kind of argumentation had convinced them about what they had doubted before, and as my sermons were not dogmatic but appealed to the common sense, they met the needs of people.

   I myself had greatly wished for guidance and sense appealing sermons before my conversion. This experience greatly influenced my way of preaching. I knew what a thinking man felt as a priest regarded as self-evident issues that needed proving. Therefore, I went to great trouble so that I would satisfy the needs of people who had a similar mind. I knew my own former difficulties and therefore I tried also to satisfy the intellectual needs of my hearers. (1)

 

Does the speech lead to conversion and receiving grace? One great fault, especially in churchy preaching, is that people are never addressed directly as “you” and they are not advised to convert. The speech can rather be about telling stories and talking about the life of people but seldom is it spoken about how the hearers themselves must turn to God today to save themselves (mere instructional speeches are, of course, a different matter altogether, and it is true that not everybody is a natural evangelist). The listeners will not understand that the message has something to do with them personally:

 

The Gospel of the kingdom of God should be preached according to how the audience can absorb the message and concentrating on an individual, so that everyone would feel and know that the message concerns just him. Someone has said about the right preacher: “He actually does not deliver a sermon but he only explains the same that the others preach, and he speaks straight to me.” (2)

 

The goal of an ordinary spiritual speech should be that those who are still far from God will not be left in uncertainty but will understand the gravity of their situation. They must understand their guilt before God, that they cannot save themselves, and that they need grace to come through Jesus Christ to get to Heaven. Charles H. Spurgeon has explained this:

 

There are many preachers who do not do enough to examine the heart and to wake the conscience by revealing how man has turned away from God and by expressing that selfishness and evilness, which hides such a state of affairs. People need to hear that if the grace of God does not save them from their hostility towards God, they will have to go eternal damnation. They must be reminded of God’s supremacy that He is not obligated to free them from their state; that He would be righteous and just if He left them to their current status; that they cannot refer to any merit before God and that they have no well-founded demands and instead, if they want to be saved, it must take place by grace and only by grace. The task of a preacher is to lead the sinners to an extreme helplessness, so that they have to look at up to Him who alone can help them. (3)

 

The truth in love. In Ephesians, Chapter 4, it is spoken about “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) and this is a good motto for all spiritual work. It means that you try to obey the truth of the Bible but love must not be forgotten, either. Both of them are needed, even though one or the other of them is often neglected. Especially in the present society it is common that love is emphasized but people do not want to know anything about judgement and responsibility. The truth of the word of the Bible has been wholly rejected in those areas.

   If we ourselves are faithful, it is possible that we feel no love for those who are hardened or who think another way. This should not occur, even though others deny some important truths of the Word. Nobody has been called to curse hardened people, homosexuals or unbelieving priests but to pray for them and to bless them (Matt 5:44, Rom 12:14). Jesus was, when on the Earth, a friend of sinners, and we too must aim at that. If we have always disapproving and judging attitudes, how can any unbeliever be freed and come to the knowing of God? It is impossible. The next quotes reflect what kind of an attitude everyone should not have:

 

I have not seen signs of people becoming better, as far as it means changing into greater likeness of the moral holiness of a divine being. It does not seem to me that people generally would understand better the content of religion, would control better their passions, would show greater Christian love towards their neighbours or would be more precise and regular in their devotions before God. (...)

   One very clear distinctive mark of this movement is that it makes people proud and egocentric and harsh towards their neighbours, relatives and also their beloved; especially towards priests, briefly, towards the whole that part of mankind, which is not like them and who do not think and act like they do. (4)

 

We want to be good to anyone who is like the Lord Jesus. But what about those who have not yet become like Jesus? And what is more important: what about the unsaved alcoholics on the streets and drug addicts? What about those who resist the will of God? What about those who are involved in sorcery? What about the spiritualist mediums?

   Generally, believers judge these kinds of people and because of that, it is more difficult for them to be freed. Be you therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful. Jesus continues in the verse 37:

   Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven…

Why do you think that Jesus said this? Because he knew what would happen if we began to judge. He knew that when we judge and disapprove people, we bind them to their sins and prevent them from coming freely to Jesus.

   (...) I know believers who wonder why they do not have the unity of the Spirit with another believers. It is because they have judged half of the residents of their town and gotten back what they deserve. They have started to bind other people and thus been forced to the slavery themselves. (5)

 

Regarding love, especially in preaching, Charles H. Spurgeon who lived in the 19^th century pointed it out well. He emphasized how it is terrible if someone speaks coldly and indifferently about the judgement of the ungodly. Such persons have lost all humane friendliness and kindness and by that it is impossible to attract others. Of course, such features as lust for money, or a person being full of pride can be harmful to the work as well:

 

It is terrible when a man becomes so orthodox that he can speak coldly and indifferently about the judgement of the ungodly. Even though he perhaps does not praise God straight, he doesn’t feel heartache when thinking about the drowning of the millions of people. This is terrible!

   I detest to hear such men speaking about the judgements of the Lord whose cold face and rude voice express dry orthodoxy. They do not have any humane friendliness or kindness. A preacher who does not have any feelings cannot bear feelings in others. People sit and listen to such a dry and lifeless presentation until they start to criticize him “for healthy”. They too become “healthy”, and I do not need to add that they also sleep and see “healthy dreams”. The life that was in them disappeared when they noted deception and tried to make sinners from the devout men because of one word only. If only we never came to be immersed in that kind of spirit!  (6) 

 

Does mercy come into view? As people are in a congregation, it is ordinary that they have burdens from which they have not been freed. The majority of these have come as a consequence of their past lives and difficult experiences but it is also possible that wrong teachings in the congregation have added to them or at least have not removed them. Law-minded teaching in particular, in which mercy does not appear properly, and against which it was fought in the early church, can be one such factor. Likewise, there can be some other factors, which add to the burdens of people.

  

Law and mercy. Law spirituality and lacking teaching can so be one problem in the church. It can appear in the lives of people as factors like a continuous feeling of guilt, uncertainty about the approval of God, like a picture in which God is seen as an angry judge. These are all symptoms of a person who is so-called under the law:

 

In addition to Pasi and myself, I have met hundreds, perhaps thousands, of similar “Christians on hold,” depressed people who stare at themselves or who are persistently toiling “do it yourself” believers. The common problem of them all is that they search for the foundation from their innermost feelings, efforts, the change of life or natural kindness instead of seeking safety in what God has done for them by sacrificing Jesus and by speaking to us in His own words. What would help Pasi and us other “Christians on hold” in anchoring us to the unchangeable acts and truths of God, so that we would not try to search for the foundation from our own innermost? (7) 

 

A good question as a result of the previous is: do we teach in the church properly about mercy? Is the preaching such that it shows people how to be saved by mercy without any preliminary or following acts (it is true that acts and fruit can follow faith but they are not a condition for salvation). You see, it is possible that people place conditions on salvation, which happened during the formation of the early church when some people preached circumcision as a condition to salvation (Gal 5). People do not preach the sufficiency of Christ’s work alone but pay too much attention to dress codes and rules of behaviour, and speak about how people must also change, belong to some institution or pray more, so that God would give His approval. The salvation and approval of God is thus based partly on the work of Christ and partly on the efforts of people. It is a mixture of them.

   But, happily, this is not the message of the Gospel. We are either saved by mercy through belief in Christ without action on our part and salvation is a gift, or we won’t be saved at all. There is no middle ground.

   However, the lesson of the New Testament is that salvation is an act of mercy from beginning to end. It is immediate, starting from the moment of salvation (Eph 2:8,9: For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.) But it is also at the moment of a fall when a person who is in faith is unable and does not have the energy to obey the will of God, even though he would like to do that. His falls do not change the condition in any way.

   The conclusion is that we need clearer preaching about what Christ has done for us, about the mercy that comes through Him and our continuous life in mercy. (Of course, it is true that this kind of teaching does not help unrepentant people. To them you must speak about what serious consequences will come from living in sin and rejecting Christ, so that they would understand the seriousness of their condition and turn to God to receive His mercy.) The benefit from such preaching is that people are freed from burdens, begin to produce more fruit, and are renewed in their spiritual life. Veikko Pekki has observed this in his pastoral care and preaching work:

 

When one preaches evangelically, that is, preaches about Christ and His work by which the sinners are accepted, a two-sided phenomenon takes place. Firstly, many people experience freedom from their burdens, legalism, and strictness. I have seen this phenomenon take place dozens of times: showing Jesus as a perfect and sufficient offering on our behalf in front of God brings about miraculous results. One must not think that preaching about grace is easy. Because the law for us is “in the flesh and blood”, our own nature and reasoning require more on people. The results are, however, continuously encouraging. A Christ-centered sermon of grace always has the anointment of the Holy Spirit, bringing freedom to its listeners.

   Again and again have people called or written or come to tell me how their lives have changed. These people have been in need of freedom. The thing that shocks me most is that they have not heard clear and correct teaching about the grace of God in their own congregations. (8)

 

You must be happy, healthy and successful! Just as this legalistic preaching can add burdens upon people, it is possible that emphasizing health and success can also lead there. The point made in such an approach is that people want to be healthy, happy, and succeed, and if this does not happen, there is something wrong in their faith life. Their faith is faulty or weak if they do not experience this. This is what may be emphasised.

   Donald Gee noticed decades ago how his own revivalist movement had drifted a bit into that direction:

 

Preacher Gee visited Finland, Sweden and Norway, and observed miraculous, growing awakening. It was light, joyful and happy, almost without weeping and breaking. He set for himself a serious question: "Possibly I have made a mistake, but there is one issue that I can see in this modern Pentecostal movement, namely that there is an apparent endeavour to get the congregation to become happy! They want people to smile and laugh. Usually, an evangelist asks people: "Are you happy? Are you all happy?" He waits until they shout ‘Amen’, and he encourages them there, and after one or two such meetings all of them shout amen, when they are asked if they are happy.”(9)

 

There is much good in teachings like those described above. Firstly, rejoicing is important because Paul urged us to do so in Philippians. There is reason to take it seriously because often we regret matters in vain when we could be happy. We are irritable or worried instead of happy.

   Healing and success are excellent things. Those can come as blessings when you wait; renewal in your spiritual life can occur. If they are forgotten, we must leave much away from the Bible. That is why it is good to point them out when teaching people to speak about the promises of God and about the atonement work of Jesus.

   But there is also another side to the matter, which is that we experience failures, and the Church is not a community of perfect people. If this is forgotten and people are not allowed to be sick and depressed (even Paul was occasionally depressed because of difficult conditions: Nevertheless God that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 2 Cor 7:6), we have drifted far away from the real Christianity in which the burdens of others are carried.

   What is the solution, other than that we must carry the burdens of others? It is surely that we must concentrate more on Jesus Christ who is the giver of blessings and faith, and concentrate less on our faith and blessings. From Him alone comes faith that can move mountains and help people, and that is why we must search for Him above all. An ordinary sense of faith and our own performance cannot bring about issues to which His work and faith coming through Him are needed (Hebr 12:2: Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith). Healing and other miracles are possible only when the Saviour Himself gives His faith and connects it to us according to His own will. The atmosphere in such meetings is not so hard and oppressive when people concentrate on Jesus instead of the blessings given by Him. Charles S. Prize, in whose meetings thousands of sick people were healed, has explained this:

 

There is a huge difference between what we call the faith in God, and God’s faith which God himself offers to a person. Such faith is not achieved through your own accomplishments or as the result of your own troubles.

   (...) I believe that it is easier for us to come to Christ and ask Him to give to us His faith than to work ourselves to bring about our own faith. If we do not see this, we are in huge danger of interpreting this issue the wrong way. We have to admit that the Master time after time mentioned the faith of those people who searched for His help, and pronounced His recognition for those who had it. But I don't ask, had they faith but from where they got it?

      (...) But do you know what I have noticed? Before all large healing meetings, days have been spent praying to the Lord. When the crowds have only rushed out to experience healing, the meetings have been hard and heavy. But when the Healer and not healing has been sought, His charming presence has broken the power of the enemy, and the sun of His face has melted hard and stone-cold hearts. Was it then pity towards ourselves or self-conceit, which took us at His feet, so that after coming there our attitude completely changed when we finally saw Him.

   (...) Occasionally, we are so absurd that we answer, "Yes, I can, for I have faith! I can use it and function with its help, for the Word of God says that we can have faith, so that we can move mountains.” To that kind of people I would like to say, “Go and try, and we shall see what is the result!” All things are possible to those who believe. But there is a large difference in what you believe. If you believe that you own the power that can move mountains, without the belief and mercy being connected to you divinely, it is a dangerous idea. I know many who in their own power and righteousness have tried to carry out such a program but instead of joy, a bitter grief has come to them. (10)

 

 

 

                      Jari Iivanainen