Evangelistic Preaching and Scripture

I think it is fair to say that I am a bit unique in my preaching. I love listening to many different styles of preaching and surely have been shaped in some ways by what I have heard. But above all, I have become more and more convinced of the authority of the Word of God, and as a result have found expository preaching the primary method of preaching. Not just walking through the text with explanation, but explanation of the text which drives us somewhere. Where that is, I have not decided. Some have claimed that we must get to the cross in every sermon. One person I know thinks you need to get to the cross and the eschaton in every sermon. Both are worthy ends, but not ends which seem to me required in preaching on every text. Why stop at the cross and the eschaton? But still, preaching expositorily has to get somewhere and be purposeful. But I digress.

My desire for faithful, textual preaching while remaining lively and hortatory (that is, urging some action on the part of the hearer) has been encouraged by the sermons of 18th century American preacher, Samuel Davies. He is my soul-mate in preaching, and one I desire to attain to.

But this very desire comes with some opposition—especially when entering into mission preaching. I have had some conversations where I have been told that I will need to adjust the message to the crowd of the mission. The implication is that a sermon preached to a church will not fly in a mission since the men are less educated and in a different state of life. I was told that the sermons of Samuel Davies would hurt the men and I should not go in that direction as I preached.

I thought long and hard about this. I thought of John Wesley preaching his long, involved sermons to the poor and the needy. I thought of others including Davies and how successful they were. I thought of Jonathan Edwards who read from a manuscript as people fell down and cried out, “What shall we do to be saved?” And of George Whitefield. It was not their method of preaching, or how in tune with the crowd they were. It seems it had more to do with how in tune with the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word they were. The obsession we have of ‘exegeting an audience’ seems a bit fool-hardy to me, especially as we devalue the exegesis of the Word of God.

I decided to go forward with the tools that have been given to me in the past four years. Not wearing the knowledge for men to see, but using the knowledge that men might know—know Christ and His Word for them. I have heard too many people denigrate the study and preaching of Scripture with the implication that it is irrelevant to the lives of regular folks. But that is to deny that it is the very, living and imperishable Word of the Living God.

I came across and was affirmed by these wonderful words of Scripture from 1 Peter 1: “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God...and this is the Word that was preached to you.” And then in chapter 2 he tells us to long for this Word as a newborn babe yearns for milk that we might grow with respect to salvation. This is the Word I am supposed to set aside for words of my own?!?! The perishable in place of the imperishable?!?! Hogwash.

I am no great preacher (I think I am better than I really am), but I pray I will be faithful to the preaching of His Word and He will give the message through His Word that He wants me to speak to the people.