Four Lessons For Preachers (part 1)
I’m afraid to even look to see when I posted last. It’s been way too long.
This week, we’ll look at four lessons on preaching modeled by Jesus in John 6:51-66.
Lesson #1: Preach the message given to you.
I’m sure every preacher has had a message that was not so easy to give. I’ll never forget the time I was woken up at about 3:30am on a Sunday morning and God told me, “I have become too common to the church. Remind them I am terrible.”
“Terrible?! Are you kidding?! In 7.5 hours I am to tell these folks that You’re terrible?!”
I’ll never forget the response of the congregation that morning. Exasperated is a good adjective. One woman actually gasped, “No!”
One more personal example, and I’ll move on. One afternoon, as I sat down at the table to start taking notes for the upcoming service, I was getting all my books and computer set up to get going and I heard God clear as day. He said, “I know you can study, but can you listen.”
As preachers, we are sometimes tempted to preach to the crowd or for a crowd. However, we must never let the crowd (or hope for a crowd) shape our message. Jesus had a crowd of 5000 men (children’s church wasn’t counted), and when they got hung up on Jesus saying He was the Bread of Life, He got even more offensive and said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
Jesus had something to tell the people that had been following Him. It would not be easy for them to hear. It would be even harder for them to apply. However, He made no attempt to shape the message in a way that would make it palatable to the majority.
Let’s learn from Jesus.
- Preach His message as is!
- Apply communication principles and styles, yes, but don’t compromise the integrity of the message.
- It’s His message and His church.
- Let Him worry about the response.
Leave a Reply