Lesson 1: Introduction To Preaching

BY VINCE OLAER4 COMMENTS

One fine Sunday morning, we sing and praised God for his goodness and all the things
that he have done all through out the week. I stood up infront of the people and began
to preach. Some children were crying, a few is talking with their sitmates but most listen
attentively to what I am preaching.

As I preached, I feel like people have a blank mind, they do not understand what I am
preaching, and seems like to look attentively listening but their minds are flying
somewhere out there gazing upon their own fantasies as they day dream.

After preaching, I felt like that it was a failure. But just as I am shaking people’s hand as
they go out the church, a lady which is my member shook my hands saying; “what a
great sermon pastor!” I don’t know what to say at that very moment. I haven’t seen that
while I was preaching and is totally opposite to what I felt. How could this happen?

Preaching is one of the most visible ministries that we can see inside the church. And it
is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why there is a Sunday worship service, that is
to hear God’s word. Our worship services will be lacking something without preaching
even though many people would desire to sing rather than to listen.

People inside the church listens to God’s word through the preacher and then go and
move on with their own lives. Some were blessed with the Lord’s message while some
do not even know nor understand what had been preached.

I wish this book will be able to explain to preaching disciples the importance and the
essence of preaching in the church. I do not intend to make another book or material
that will teach us about preaching, but to practice what we already have learned.

What is Preaching?
The dictionary defines preaching as: “To proclaim or publish tidings; specifically, to
proclaim the gospel; to discourse publicly on a religious subject, or from a text of
Scripture; to deliver a sermon.
[1913 Webster]”

The difference between preaching and homiletics is that preaching is the actual
discourse of public speaking of proclaiming the gospel while homiletics is a form of
pastoral theology where it is a branch of rhetoric that treats of the composition and
delivery of sermons or homilies (Wikipedia).

However, both homily and preaching are being used simultaneously and now known to
be the same. But in reality, most protestant churches used to call it preaching while the
Catholics and other similar churches like Episcopalian and Anglicans used to call it
Homilies.

For the purpose of uniformity, let us use the word “Preaching”.

Why Learning How to Preach is Needed?

Our world now is filled with false teachers. Paul in the book of 2 Timothy warned
Timothy to become a man who correctly handles the word of truth preaches it (2
Timothy 2, 3 and 4), being ready in season or out of season. With all the cultic
movements going on around the world, we as Christians are being instructed and
encouraged to become good steward of the God’s word.

I think many people have been asking this all the time. Why should there be a preaching
portion in almost every Christian gatherings. Nowadays, I have seen programs now
being shortened in the preaching portion and such programs focused now in the event
rather than God’s word.

Furthermore, there are still very few people who share and teach the gospel. The
laborers are still few. We need more workers in the field. We need more people who are
willing to commit in sharing the gospel of Christ. But where do we recruit? Who can be
the students for preaching? Who can be the future preachers of our churches?

Where to Find Potential Preachers?

There is no better place to look for potential teachers of God’s word than the church.
Going to seminary and asking someone to come to your church to preach can be an
immediate answer but not a long term solution for the lack of preachers inside your
church.

If your church doesn’t have a seňor pastor and your pastor has just left, what should
you do then if you have no preacher in your church for the moment? Hiring someone
can be one of our immediate actions. In contrast to this, whether or not our church is in
need of preachers for the moment, we as members, as a church should be trained to
take over the pulpit if fortuitous events where vacancy for pastoral office will happen.
The best place to get those potential preachers is inside the church. We need to train
our young men to preach. Training preachers inside the church gives our church
advantages:

 Your pastor can do more things than preaching.

 Your church can definitely stand in the absence of pastoral office.
 Your church is at the same time producing more church leaders.
 Your church will have a stronger foundation since more people now will have to
study God’s word vigorously.

Qualifications of a Preacher
The book of 2 Timothy tells us about how Paul charged Timothy to become a good
pastor. In our time, there are some preachers who were not really pastors. But
nonetheless, any preacher should live like that as of the standard of a pastor. This is
because as preachers, we are the one who teach God’s word to people. We are the one
who encourage them to live in accordance to God’s words. Thus, becoming a teacher
means, we should be the first who practice what we teach.

As a pastor of the church, it is our responsibility to identify who are the potential
preachers in our churches. “…in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable
men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)” This is what Paul said to
Timothy as he charges Timothy to take over part of his work since Paul is already in
prison.

To summarize the qualification of a preacher, let us focus broadly in the comparisons

that Paul mentioned.

1.A good trainer (2 Timothy 2:2) – a good trainer is able to entrust to reliable men who
is also able to teach others. This is very important qualification in order to ensure the
continuity of the work.
2.A good soldier (2 Timothy 2:3-4) – a good soldier does not go into civilian affairs.
This means that a minister should always take good care of his reputation and not
becoming an ordinary person in terms of his judgment and involvement in controversial
issues. This also means that he is expected to be above average and as much as
possible to be excellent in terms of putting into practice the word of God.
3.A good athlete (2 Timothy 2:5) – a good athlete competes in accordance to rules.
An athlete who violates the rules are being disqualified from the competition. Similarly, a
minister of God should abide in a strict discipline, playing in accordance to the rules.
Violation results to disqualification and such a minister will not receive the victor’s
crown.
4.A good farmer (2 Timothy 2:6) – a good farmer is the first to receive the share of his
crops. Spiritual farming is very similar to the literal farming. A farmer takes care of his
crops well so that in the harvest time receives a good harvest.

The four qualifications above covers the rest of the things discussed by Paul in chapters
2, 3 and 4.

Biblical Background of Preaching.

Probably you are wondering when does preaching started in the Bible. In the Old
Testament, preaching can be traced back during the time of Moses, when he had lead
the Israelites out of Egypt.

When God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and all other Laws, Moses has to
reiterate it to the Israelites. He stand in the midst of the Israelites, telling them about the
Laws of God. Moses in these incidents becomes a public speaker of God’s word. This
has been a regular practice of the Israelites even up to the time of Jesus.

In the New Testament, teachers of the Law like the Pharisees and the Sadducees
becomes the public speakers of God’s word. Then came John the baptist and Jesus
Christ himself. They were followed by the apostles in the book of Acts.

It is notable however that the preaching that they used to do before concentrates mainly
in on God’s word, reiterating the books of the Law and of the prophets. While now,
sermons are made through the sermons of the apostles and their stories. The idea is
still the same, but the content of is a little different from what we do now.

Efforts has been made in order to go back to what the apostles have been doing. This is
why some Bible study methods have been started and Exegesis has been put forward.
This method of Bible Study is “getting the original intended meaning of passage.” The
former school was known to be as Allegorical. Allegorical “is giving a meaning to the
passage.” We will discuss more about Exegesis in one of the chapters.

The Source of God’s Word for Preaching

Where and what is the source of preaching topics? With the emergence of the so-called
“Narrative Preaching”, some people thinks that the Bible is no longer the sole source of
God’s word for preaching.

In contrast to this, I would say that there should be no other source for preaching except
the Bible and a valid revelation from God (which is extra-ordinary and very rare). The
Bible is complete and is authoritative enough to be the source of God’s word. The Law
of Moses and of the book of prophets is included in the Bible Canon plus the books
written by the Apostles making it a valid source of authority.

The dangerous thing about “claimed” God’s revelation during these days is that many
false teachers now claims to have a revelation from God, yet failed when tested in
comparison to the Scriptures and the message that it brings.