Preaching is a sacred trust. God trusts me in a special way when He calls me to preach. “The glorious gospel…was committed to my trust” (1 Tim. 1:11). God trusts me not to dilute the gospel for selfish gains. What a betrayer a preacher could be!
Preaching is an impartation of life as well as of message. “We were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls” (1 Thess. 2:8). Unless my soul is vigorously, abundantly alive, my preaching is uncreative. Life-giving preaching is costly preaching, I have found. It isn’t so costly to give twenty dollars to missions as to give my life in a message.
Preaching is one of the ultimate in self-revelation. Preaching is my willingness to make transparent my motives and purposes.
If I preach truly, I tell God’s word through my own mind an life experience. Preaching has as personal a stamp on it as the New Testament epistles have on them.
It is a humbling exercise, to expose so much of my inner life to others. More than once Paul explains, apologetically and parenthetically, “I speak as a fool.”
Partly for this reason, perhaps, Inspiration speaks of “the foolishness of preaching.” And in the truest and simplest ministry of the Word of Life, there is so much of me that may be ridiculed that I am ever reluctant to preach again unless God anoints me and guards the truth while I unveil my inmost thoughts to others.
To me, preaching is the regal function of the Christian minister, just as prayer is the priestly function.
The pulpit is a throne, in the sense of the place of announcing a glorious proclamation. It is the authoritative announcing of the conditions and benefits of the gospel. Something about the awful glory of this elevates my soul and stirs me as nothing else can.
Finally, preaching literally compels me to “search the scriptures,” “feed among the lilies.” There is only one gospel to preach, the revealed gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord. I cannot preach if I do not know Him. I cannot preach as I should unless I know Him better than my best friend.
Scripture history and geography intrigue me; sacred languages and customs beckon me; sacred biography is the challenges of my thought and devotion. I love to live among the thunders of Sinai, in the darkness of Calvary, in the sunrise of the Resurrection Morning, among the flames of Pentecost, along the New Testament mission trails of Asia and Europe.
The preacher’s “first” blessing is the revelation of truth to his own soul; his “second” is the imparting of the truth to others.
-George E. Failing
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