Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Friday, 31 January 2025 09:17

A Pulpit in Need of Repair, Part 2

by Joey Carroll Corinth Missionary Baptist Church

Last week I wrote that Jesus Christ and Him crucified should be the content of every sermon. If you are a Christian, certainly you agree “…for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, NASB). But we also need to understand the character contained in those 5 words. That is why Paul will say, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” (Philippians 2:5-8, NASB). Therefore, Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the singular message that saves sinners, as well as transforms the saved into the image of their Savior.

Paul was concerned with more than the content of sermons at Corinth. He was also concerned with the methods being used. Paul would say something about how his preaching was different than what was going on at Corinth. “My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God,” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5, NASB). So the question is, what makes a sermon Spirit-filled and full of power in order that the faith in the hearers will be genuine? First you need to understand what made Paul’s preaching different.

Apparently since the first century, preachers have taken popular things within a culture and applied them to sermons. In the first century, it was “persuasive words of wisdom,” (1 Corinthians 2:4, NASB). Today it is everything from showing movies to live, onstage performances and everything in between. I even witnessed a mega church building a basketball court during March Madness to connect with the current cultural fascination. For Paul, one word summed up his method to presenting the Gospel and to preaching, and that word was “proclamation.” It is a style and a method that seems foolish to the world.

Proclaiming is the method in which something is made known publicly, emphatically, and simply. It is not a form of entertainment, but rather its goal is to be heard and understood. In the original language of the New Testament, the word “kerusso” is a verb that means “to proclaim.” That word is used some 60 times in the New Testament, and it is overwhelmingly translated as “to preach.”
Proclaiming or preaching is the method our Lord used. It is also the prescribed method for preachers by the Father. “…God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe,” (1 Corinthians 1:21, NASB). The Gospel is not only a foolish message to the world, but God has also chosen a foolish method to present His message. In the Old Testament, that faithful message began with “thus saith the Lord.”

Like everyone else on the planet, preachers want to be cool and connected. So they wind up doing all sorts of “cool” things in hopes that it will connect with the culture around them. And they justify their actions by saying “whatever it takes to communicate the Gospel.” And so you take your lost friends to a church in hopes that they hear the Gospel, and then suddenly the preacher drops in from the ceiling 30 feet off the ground on a guidewire like the lead singer of a rock band as the music on stage sounds like a concert too. Yep, I have seen that happen. But the faithful ones stand and proclaim a message in the simplest and easiest to understand way because he desperately wants the people before Him to hear, understand, and obey it. He knows it will appear foolish, but he is okay with that – he knows the world considers the content of his message foolish as well.