It has become fashionable to down-play the role of preaching in the church. For thirty-years, congregations have added time to their services to make room for longer, prepared remarks by the one serving at the Lord’s table. This is supposedly more of a spiritual exercise than, “plain old preaching.” There is no doubt, an effective period of teaching to focus the mind on the body and blood of Jesus, followed by prayer and self-examination is a moving and spiritual experience. Every priest, who serves at the Lord’s table, should prepare himself to be of service in this role*.
Another argument made against preaching has come to us from what is known as the “house-church” movement within churches of Christ. They argue what we see as a pattern of New Testament worship is really just a return to worship services from the Reformation. They claim the format of pews, facing a speaker, who entertains the congregation is more a result of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli than Peter, Paul, or even Jesus. In this way they strike at the preaching and the preacher simultaneously. Martin Luther and the Reformers were nowhere near perfect. But would you rather have the worship of the 1400’s in Rome or the mid-to-late 1500’s in Western Europe?
These arguments against pulpits and the men who fill them are really an assault on God’s chosen method of saving the world by grace through faith. It is not because of Luther, Calvin, or even Lipscomb, Wallace Jr., or Bowman that we preach. It is because Jesus, Stephen, John, Paul, Peter, and Philip all preached from the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. If preaching were outdated or part of a man-made religious movement. Why did God say the following in his word?
“For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”-I Corinthians 9:16
“When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,”-Acts 14:21
“but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”-I Corinthians 1:23-24
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”-II Timothy 4:2
“but he said to them, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.’ And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”-Luke 4:43-44
Our Savior must not have known preaching would not be invented until 1517. Because he sure did quite bit of it!
Only the gospel of God has the power to produce faith in the heart. And it is heard not read. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”-Romans 10:15. God chose to conquer the world through preaching.
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