Preaching

Minimize the importance of the Scriptures and you will soon have no need of preaching. Make salvation about religious duty and there will be no place for the pulpit. Dead religion can only survive where the living Word is not proclaimed. Christ affords no room in His church for competing voices. There is either the Word of God or the word of man, and in terms of ultimate realities these are mutually exclusive—the one must serve the other. No one can listen to two master voices, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. No man can serve the master voice of God and man.

Preaching is but a voice put to the written Word of God, heralded by a heart that has been captivated by the meaning of that Word in the power of God the Spirit. Preaching is the mouthpiece of God. It threatens the authority and power of man and unleashes the power of God for salvation. Remove the good news and you have nothing to preach. Obscure the Gospel and preaching loses its substance. Lives are changed and souls are sanctified through the hearing and believing of the Gospel preached, not by ritual, sacrament, or deed. Martin Luther stressed this point by insisting that the Gospel is received by a “hearing faith” that corresponds to the preaching of the Word.

Luther said that it was the very nature of the Word to be preached. In each of the Reformed creeds, though variation of number and emphasis exists, all insist that the first mark of the church is the preaching of God’s Word. The Reformation brought the Word of God back to the people, esteeming the Word above all else as God’s ordained means of revealing Himself, His will, and His promises to His people.

Preaching in the church was nearly lost for roughly one thousand years. It was in the Reformation that God brought about two interrelated transformations that revived the importance of preaching: (a) the rediscovery of the voice of God in the Scriptures and (b) the rediscovery of the principle of the Gospel in justification by faith alone. These two tremendous gifts of God to humanity are unleashed and enlivened through true preaching—a distinctive recovery of the Gospel in the Reformation. It is no wonder why biblical Christianity is the only religion in the world that prioritizes regular, public preaching of Scripture—it is the only religion in the world that has good news. News requires announcers; good news requires heralds of joy! The Reformation has revived in the church of Christ, and for the good of the world, exegetically-based, Scripture-driven, Christ-centered, impassioned, joyful, sanctifying preaching.