There are many, many books on today's topic,
a very few of which I have read.
I want to simply begin by mentioning one
or two that I've found helpful.
By a man called Campbell Morgan, of course
inevitably most of his books are in English,
and I don't know of any of them
being translated.
Campbell Morgan wrote a book simply called Preaching.
Campbell Morgan was, for two periods of his
life, minister at Westminster Chapel in London, one
of the most influential large churches in London,
and he wrote a book simply called Preaching.
I found that very valuable, simple, short, it's
not as long as some of the others.
Then Martin Lloyd-Jones gave some lectures and
then wrote them up and produced a book
only a couple of years, I think, before
he died, not long, anyway before the Lord
took him home, a book called Preaching and
Preachers.
Now Campbell Morgan was originally from a Methodist
background and Martin Lloyd-Jones from a Welsh,
Calvinistic background.
Both of them had a very high view
of the authority and place of the pulpit
among God's people.
And then Donald Coggan, a one-time Archbishop
of Canterbury, an Anglican scholar, theological college principal,
bishop, pastor, leader among the Anglicans around the
world, he wrote a book called Stewards of
Grace, which is a characteristic title.
His ministry was always marked with flashes of
insight and great touches of God's grace.
And then from many years ago, A.
P.
Gibbs wrote a book, The Preacher and His
Preaching.
And it's not a book that is tremendously
well-known or popular, it came from a
background among brethren assemblies, but that too has
many good...
...and His Preaching by A.
P.
Gibbs.
John Stott's book, I Believe in Preaching, in
this valuable I Believe series that's been going
now for the last few years, John Stott
includes at the back of this an incredible
bibliography.
He claims himself to have read dozens and
dozens, I think it's something around 140 books
on preaching.
And the book is littered with quotations, evidence
of the honesty of his claim, and that
too is very good.
It's Anglican, it's designed for people who would
have a regular pastoral ministry in a particular
group of people.
All these books, perhaps their situation doesn't exactly
fit ours, but for many of them we
can glean valuable help and tips from men
who've come before us.
And then there's a book that I suspect
may now be out of print, called The
Gagging of God by Gavin Reed.
And that is a book against preaching altogether.
But it's a book written by a very
lively evangelist in England, it's called The Gagging
of God by Gavin Reed.
And he's talking about the way in which
modern preaching actually shuts God up.
And that we need to find new ways
of communicating that buttress the spoken word.
Now my plan is roughly as follows, but
I am willing to be guided by you.
I was thinking of talking this morning, this
first session, on the importance of preaching.
And then this afternoon in the first session
after lunch, you are going to work.
We are going to pool our ideas on
the characteristics of Jesus as a preacher.
And I'm going to write up on the
blackboard the things that you suggest, the scriptures
that you bring to bear as evidence of
the points that you want to make.
And then if we have time, we might
do a little bit of organising, so that
if you had to preach on the characteristics
of Jesus as a preacher, we would work
on our moulding clay together with me at
the chalk.
And then this afternoon, the second session, the
after coffee session, we're going to talk about
how to prepare a message.
That may for some of you be the
key thing.
And I will share with you the things
that I feel important.
And then we've got Don Hammond's experience to
draw on.
I've preached across Western Canada with Bert, his
experience.
Peter has preached in something like 60 or
80 countries.
He may have something to suggest.
Some of you have been with the Logos.
Some of you have actually preached in Eastern
Europe.
There's actually a lot of experience here.
And I will kick off, set the ball
rolling, but please feel free to interrupt me,
to question, to put another point of view,
to argue.
I like that.
Don't at all feel that I'm beyond argument.
I rise to that.
And let's please understand from the beginning that
I'm going to lead a seminar.
I'm not simply going to preach.
That, I hope, will be this afternoon.
And then tomorrow, we'll kick off in the
morning with considering the life of the preacher.
Because very often, what people remember is not
simply the outline points of the message, but
the man himself.
It's the impact of the man's spirit on
the hearts and the minds of the people
sitting in the congregation.
And therefore, if we stray away from considering
that, I have not been faithful to the
topic.
Then Friday afternoon, we might think of some
of the pitfalls that we should be careful
to avoid.
I have a number.
I'm sure you've got others.
And then I have at the end what
I've put down on my little plan sheet
as miscellaneous scraps.
I want to talk about the wife that
you marry, or the husband that some of
you may, may marry, may want to scrap,
and other related topics that I haven't been
able to see their way into my scheme,
but I feel that they're worth at least
thinking about.
Now, do you want to raise anything else
that we should, that I've missed out, that
don't fall within those divisions?
Yes, Peter.
Right.
I'll touch on that right away in this
first session.
The whole question of who should preach and
the question of gifts.
Yes.
Good.
Anything else that you're really hoping to get
talked through?
Because I want to try and lead you
so that we all together serve one another.
Although inevitably, I'm going to do quite a
bit of the talking, I'm afraid.
Is that the only thing that you want
to ask?
Pop up as we go.
Yep.
I'm, you mean training college?
Or are you talking about how to prepare
a series of messages?
And a better preacher?
Yes, I hope that.
Let's leave that question.
If you're unsatisfied by the time we are
into tomorrow, you don't think that we're covering
that, then bring it up again.
Because I hope that many of the things
that we say will, will touch on that.
Noel.
Thank you.
The relationship between expository preaching and worship.
Roger.
Well, if you've got some thoughts on that,
I shall call on you.
By way of introduction, I think one should
say that everyone who has ever written or
talked on this subject, it seems to me,
begins by saying that preaching is the most
urgent need in the church today.
They all seem to start out this way.
For instance, John Stott says, preaching is indispensable
to Christianity.
Christianity is in its very essence a religion
of the word of God.
Martin Lloyd-Jones says the most urgent need
in the Christian church today is true preaching.
And about a hundred years ago, a man
with rather flowery ornate 19th century language, describing
the preacher, said this, his throne is his
pulpit.
He stands in Christ's stead.
His message is the word of God.
Around him are immortal souls.
The saviour unseen is beside him.
The Holy Spirit broods over the congregation.
Angels gaze upon the scene.
And heaven and hell await the issue.
What associations, and what vast responsibility.
I'm going to give up already.
But Matthew Simpson, in those remarks, is trying
to get us to see how incredibly important
it is that preaching be faithful and godly,
and honouring to God and his word.
I suppose it is the case that whatever
is our spiritual gift, we always tend to
think that that is the most important thing
that's needed.
The man who's got the gift of serving
thinks that if only more people were servants.
The person who has the gift of prophecy,
or administration, the problems they see in the
Christian church, or in OM, are always in
terms of their own gift.
We always think if we're an administrator, that
the place is chaos and just needs a
touch of our administration.
Or if we're preachers, we sit in the
meetings thinking, oh this is, this is, this
is thin gruel, this is, this is poor
stuff, if only there were proper preaching.
Whereas the person who has the gift of
serving, will very often wander around thinking how
dirty the place is, how people ought to
start cleaning it up, how other people need
so much ministry, it's just the way we
are built.
It's one of the key indications to begin
to nibble at Peter's subject, that a particular
gift is ours.
When you arrive in OM, what do you
think the major need is?
Because that may be a hint as to
the nature of your own gift.
Some people feel terribly frustrated at the awfulness
of the worship.
They only wish that we worshipped God better.
Maybe it's because their own gift would tend
to lead them that way.
The problem with preachers is that they're always
preaching, and always hogging the microphone, and therefore
always proclaiming that the main need is for
the Word of God to be preached.
So I tend to think that it perhaps
is.
But if some of you here are not
preachers, I would entirely understand if you wanted
to disagree with me.
But certainly we cannot deny that in our
day, with the kind of problems that we
face, there is a great need for God's
Word to be digested, filtered through the personality
of gifted godly men and women, and then
proclaimed to his people.
Let me think with you of four reasons
why preaching is so important.
And the first is quite simply the example
of Jesus.
Example of Christ.
It was the primary purpose of his itinerant
ministry.
Let me show you that from scripture.
Turn to Mark's gospel, chapter 1 and verse
14.
Now after that John was delivered up, Jesus
came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God,
and saying that time is fulfilled and the
kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe in the gospel.
He came and immediately exploded on the scene
and began to preach.
Turn to Luke chapter 4 and verse 18.
I'm going to give you quite a lot
of scripture during this first session.
The Lord has come to Nazareth where he
was brought up.
And as was his habit he went into
the synagogue and as was the custom among
the Jews, he stood to read.
There was given unto him the book of
the prophet Isaiah.
He opened it and he began to read
these words.
It was the stunning beginning of his ministry.
Six hundred years before these prophecies have been
given, Jesus stands up in his home community
and says that prophecy those years ago is
beginning its fulfillment now.
At this precise moment the spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he anointed me
to preach.
To preach good tidings to the poor.
He sent me to proclaim release to the
captives and to proclaim recovery of sight to
the blind and to set at liberty those
that are bruised and to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and so on.
In Mark's gospel chapter 2 we see an
interesting illustration of this.
A paralyzed man is brought to Christ.
Christ is sitting preaching in the house with
the Pharisees.
There's a scuffling and a scratching above.
Bits of plaster start to fall.
Daylight suddenly comes through the ceiling.
Tiles are ripped up.
There's a hole big enough for a man
to be lowered through.
And he's a paralyzed man.
He's been brought by his friends.
As people sat around the group, what was
it they would have felt was the man's
obvious need.
The reason why he'd been brought to Jesus.
Well obviously his paralysis.
Jesus didn't deal with his paralysis first.
Can you imagine the man, centuries later, in
heaven, so grateful that Jesus didn't heal him
first.
But he dealt with his sin first.
Because if that man had been healed first,
he might well have stood up and been
grateful and looked around the group and then
darted outside to test his newfound legs and
gone home and he'd have spent the rest
of eternity in hell.
Because his sin was not forgiven.
Jesus went to the root of his heart
need, which was his sin.
And preaching does that.
Jesus gave the disciples around a demonstration that
his priority was preaching.
And his healing ministry was because of the
compassion of his heart.
It was because he wanted to buttress what
he was going to say and illustrate what
he was saying.
He was responding as the creator to the
fall in man.
But his primary purpose was to destroy the
works of the devil.
To preach.
Turn to Mark 1 38 39.
Mark 1 38 and 39.
Jesus saith unto them, let us go on
elsewhere into the next towns.
He's got an enormous following already.
But he's going on.
Let us go into the next towns that
I may preach there also.
For to this end came I forth and
he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee
preaching and casting out devils.
They were bringing him from all over the
area.
The poor and the blind and the lame.
And Jesus said I'm going to leave them.
I'm going on to preach.
The son of God at work.
In Luke's gospel chapter 4 and verse 43.
Jesus said unto them I must preach the
good tidings of the kingdom of God to
the other cities also.
For therefore was I sent the father and
the son in communion within the trinity.
There had been an agreement and Christ had
placed himself willingly under the authority of the
father.
As the son that he was going to
go under orders to preach.
The example of Christ is quite clear.
And Christ in his own testimony standing before
Pilate in John 18 and verse 37.
Pilate has said unto him are you then
a king?
Jesus answered you say that I'm a king.
You've said it.
To this end have I been born and
to this end am I coming to the
world that I should bear witness unto the
truth.
And everyone that is of the truth hears
my voice.
So with a world to regain.
With men and women to see redeemed.
With the father's will to be done.
Christ has come to preach.
Day after day to preach the word of
his father.
That's the first thing to notice.
If we are to follow in the footsteps
of Christ we must have a high view
of preaching.
Secondly Christ produced a race of preachers.
The people that followed him became preachers.
They had that same sense of priority from
the very beginning.
Think of the apostles.
In Acts chapter 6.
The church is expanding.
There are now hundreds of people.
Little cell groups springing up all over the
place.
They're trying to teach the kids.
They're coping with the economic upheavals that it's
meaning.
There are now widows and poor people in
the church.
They've got social problems.
And you know the way it is at
a conference.
The person who appears in public very often
is the person that you think you can
go to with your problems.
The man who appears behind the microphone is
the person you think immediately can deal with
your problems.
So if you've got problems of broken shoelaces
or problems of kids or problems of the
washing up not getting done in time or
problems of your wife having got stuck in
the lift between the third and the fourth
floor and she's been there a day or
two and nothing seems to be happening about
it.
You immediately go to the person who seems
to be the public preacher teacher and you
think that they can solve the thing.
This is why here in the conference we've
set up the apple desk you see to
deal with wives stuck in lifts and dirty
plates and so on like that.
So that others amongst us can be free
for the ministry of the word and of
prayer.
Turn to act six and just see how
the apostles put it.
Because they've got Christ's sense of priorities.
There's a multiplying of the disciples.
There's a grumbling in the church.
There's a racial tension.
Some widows are feeling neglected in the daily
allotment of of whatever was needed.
And the twelve called the crowd together and
said look it's not right that we should
forsake the word of God to serve tables.
Verse four we will continue steadfastly in prayer
and in the service of the word of
God.
That's what it means in the original.
I'm called either to serve tables or to
serve the word of God.
I cannot serve both.
And they said no we're going to serve
the word of God.
It was in fact what Christ had called
them to.
In Mark chapter three and verse 14.
He had called some disciples.
One to be with him.
Two that they should be sent out to
preach.
And three to have authority to cast out
devils, demons.
An order of priorities quite clear from the
beginning.
To be with Christ.
To go and preach.
To have authority over evil spirits.
You remember when the apostles had been preaching
in Acts chapter four.
And there was trouble.
And the leaders had been called in.
They'd been threatened.
And you must not carry on doing this.
And they'd stood and said look what are
we going to do.
We must obey God rather than men.
Evangelism was going on.
It was meeting opposition.
They gathered the church together.
What did they pray?
They've already been beaten.
They've already been threatened with imprisonment.
There's a distinct possibility that the wrath of
the whole nation will fall upon them and
it will lead to death.
Jews stirred up in anger like a hornet's
nest.
So they pray to God not for a
quiet time.
Not for a sort of way around the
problem.
But that they may have boldness to preach.
Because that's what God has called them to.
Acts chapter four verses 29 to 31.
So it was the heartbeat of men.
The apostle Paul had the same thing.
1 Corinthians 1 verse 17.
He said I didn't come to baptize.
I'm thankful that I baptize none of you.
Save perhaps Crispus, Gaius, Stephanus, one or two
people of you.
I can't hardly remember.
Because it wasn't my ministry.
I came to preach.
Men and women are transformed through the foolishness
of the preaching of the cross.
And when we come to the last words
that we believe Paul penned.
Scribbled down when he knew that sentence of
death was already passed upon him.
Paul was executed we believe sometime in the
late 60s.
It was around about 68 maybe that Nero
died.
He died in the June of 68 I
believe.
Perhaps he wrote the second epistle to Timothy
from the prison the closing autumn.
He's asking for extra clothes you see.
Because he's cold in that jail in Rome.
And he's writing passing on the charge that
Paul that he's been given by Christ.
Passing it on to young Timothy.
Now look he says time is coming when
people don't want to hear good teaching.
They're not interested in sound doctrine.
They get bored in meetings where the doctrine
of the scriptures of God are being proclaimed.
They they won't endure it.
They have itching ears.
They want new things.
What are you to do Timothy?
I'm I'll be gone within maybe weeks now.
To Timothy chapter 4 preach God's word.
Preach the word be instant in season and
out of season.
Reprove that's one ministry of the word.
Rebuke that's another.
Exhort that's another.
With long suffering and teaching that's your own
character growth.
For the time will come when they won't
endure the sound doctrine.
But having itching ears will heap to themselves
teachers after their own lusts.
What are you going to do?
You just carry on preaching and teaching the
word of God.
You know it is a it is a
fact that in many churches around the world
people have become gradually and increasingly disinterested in
scripture.
And I have had the experience I remember
a very clear case of it in a
meeting I was in Nigeria.
I don't know Don whether you ever remember
something the same in Nigeria.
Um we I was there speaking in this
Pax church.
And it was a wild meeting.
They got worked up and there was dancing
and there was drums and there was a
dance leader and his job was to sway
and gyrate in front of the choir.
To get the choir moving in time you
see.
And people were really getting going and there
was tambourines and and it was quite breathless
and and the noise was enormous.
And the minister of this church large man
in flowing robes had no hope of gaining
control of the congregation in in full flow
without a great big bell like a school
bell.
And when he wanted to say something or
he wanted to lead in prayer suddenly or
he used to ring this enormous bell and
after a bit they would get quiet you
see.
And when he finally decided that well the
guest preacher was here so we better let
him say something.
He rang his bell and people eventually sort
of simmered down and shut up.
And then it was the time for preaching.
Now the preaching must have been appallingly bad
I presume because they weren't interested.
They all went to sleep.
When you sort of open the word of
God and they like that.
It happens that people lose their interest in
scripture because they get addicted maybe to something
else.
To the personality of the preacher maybe.
Or to the the musical experience that they
expect.
Or to the fellowship that they're enjoying.
This very often happens among some of the
younger people.
You know they like to come and sit
beside their friends.
They've got the group they can whisper.
They can pass chewing gum.
They get with their friends.
The fact that something is going on up
at the front really isn't too important.
Because they like being there.
It's entirely a social thing.
The church can be like a a Derby
and Joan club sometimes.
I don't know whether you have these things
in other parts of the world.
You know the sort of old people's little
nice meeting place.
And the preaching of God's word is really
rather irrelevant.
And it is very difficult to come into
that setup and and begin to minister there.
Your early days are tough.
But you will always find that as you
preach God's word faithfully you will lose a
few and then people will begin to come.
People will begin to respond to what you
are saying.
I'll come back to this later on.
Paul's advice to Timothy was preach the word
nonetheless whatever's happening.
And then thirdly my third reason why we
should highly esteem the preaching of scripture is
church history.
Read church history.
I'll come back to this more tomorrow when
we talk about the leader and his reading
the preacher and his study and so on.
But it has been the history even of
the pre-reformation renewal movements.
John Wycliffe in Britain, Jan Hus in Czechoslovakia
if I pronounce him right, that the Dominicans,
the Franciscans, these were renewal movements within Roman
Catholicism in the 12th century, in the 13th
century.
Do you know the result every time was
back to preaching?
Francis of Assisi was a preacher.
He was also a hippie.
He was a 12th century hippie.
He was the most extraordinary man.
And if things had been allowed to go
their course he would have led a movement
right out of the church of Rome.
But he was persuaded back in by a
wily old cardinal who came down from Rome.
He was a preacher.
And in Britain Wycliffe was preaching God's word
to people.
People became interested in preaching.
The reformation in the 16th century in Europe,
I mean it hasn't hit all parts of
Europe yet.
We've never really seen the reformation in Spain.
We've never really seen it in parts of
Western Ireland yet.
But the beginnings of it certainly in Germany,
in Switzerland, in parts of France, up here
around this area.
This was a tremendously Christian evangelical area you
know 400 years ago.
Up until the 1570s.
Then the opposition began to come.
I wish some of us could go and
see the place where Tyndale was burnt at
Villefort just not far away.
He was he was an amazing man.
But the reformation brought the Bible and preaching
back to the to the fore.
Zwingli and Calvin and these men.
You know what Luther said at one point
one point some of you will love this
others may not so much.
He said I simply taught, I preached, I
wrote God's word otherwise I did nothing.
And when while I slept or drank Wittenberg
beer with my my Philip and my Amsdorff.
These were were two German princes who became
Christian and supported him.
He drank beer with with Philip and Amsdorff.
The word so greatly weakened the papacy that
never a prince or emperor inflicted such damage
upon it.
I did nothing.
The word did it all.
I like that.
The thought of preaching the word and then
going having a a little refreshment somewhere.
While the word does its work the
revivals in the 18th and 19th century show
exactly the same thing you know.
The whole fabric of British society was changed
through the preaching of men like Whitfield and
Wesley and Harris and so on.
Unpaid unrecognized adventurers more often than not pelted
with rotten eggs.
Read Wesley's diaries it's so fascinating.
The things that used to happen the men
that used to come to his meetings with
pockets loaded with with bad eggs and tomatoes
and Wesley used to have a a friend
who used to walk amongst the crowd unknown
a sort of incognito friend and if he
saw someone waiting there with with pockets full
of rotten eggs he would sort of lean
up against him and crush the eggs in
his pocket.
So that nothing got thrown at Wesley but
it all dribbled down the man's trouser legs.
These men stood on I can hardly go
through the villages of England and see these
little stone market crosses weather-beaten places without
thinking of very often Wesley.
If you track down in in his diaries
these men stood on these crosses and they
preached God's word and they changed the face
of the country and throughout the 19th century
tremendous revival movements when London was expanding at
the time of Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle
and Baptist churches were being built all over
the now downtown suburbs of London.
There was a movement of God among people
through the preaching of the word and the
revivals that sprang up in Northern Ireland in
1859 and in some parts of Scotland and
and so on through the preaching of God's
word.
You had a question?
The question that's been asked is it involves
a comparison between some parts of the world
where it seems easy to gather a crowd
to listen to preaching and Europe where if
you stand in the streets and preach at
any rate that people don't stop to listen?
Very fair question but I think it has
something to do more with the culture and
the weather and the busyness of people and
the things that make people embarrassed in society
than the preaching necessary.
You see when Wesley was preaching there was
no television there was less rush in society.
Preachers still retained their role in society as
the bringer of news.
There was no telephone the roads were still
bad no canals or railways have been built
and a preacher coming in was interesting if
your world was bounded by quite a narrow
horizon.
Now in India you go preach in the
streets you can have a crowd in many
places of 100 200 300 within five or
10 minutes.
I've done it five or six times a
day over some years because it's it's hot
weather people live in the streets and anything
that's interesting that takes you away from the
labors in the fields well it's it's good
stand and watch and listen.
Not so now in in Europe where it's
often cold the weather's bad and so on
but my claim would be that where you
are prepared um in a a building or
in a lecture theater to consistently preach the
word of God in in an imaginative lively
relevant prayerful way you will gather a crowd.
You will gather a crowd.
I've seen this in university meetings preaching the
gospel.
I would go into a secular university in
Britain where nowadays we're dealing with people who
um are amoral post-christian society they know
practically nothing about the bible but it's night
after night consistently you preach God's truth from
God's word holding it up before them telling
them what it says asking them what they
believe about what Christ says.
Night after night you'll notice an interesting thing
the crowd begins to build up and most
of the missions that I've been involved in
over the last few years will finish up
at the end of only six days with
the largest lecture theater in the university packed
to overflowing people sitting on the windows or
sitting on the floors in the aisles to
listen to the preaching of God's word.
Now I've also preached out in the streets
in Britain.
I can remember getting back from India in
1971 and I stood with George Verwer in
in Bromley high street in London and I
preached my heart out for 20 minutes to
two children a policeman and a cat and
then and then George who'd said you go
first said said come on let's not bother
with this anymore I think you gave them
enough of the truth let's go somewhere else
and I think we went down into a
pizza house and um had some pizza and
did the cat come through I'm not I'm
not sure um but it is true that
people do gather to to hear the word
of God um one of the I think
the most interesting book I've read in the
last uh few months has been the first
volume of the life story of Martin Lloyd
-Jones.
It's a yellow book it's it's in hardback
I've not seen it in paperback it's printed
by um Banner of Truth and I can't
even for the moment remember the title can
somebody remind me the first 40 years the
first 40 years it is it is well
the best book I've read for a long
time.
Martin Lloyd-Jones um resigned from his medical
career in London he was headed for the
top he was already the personal assistant to
um the leading physician in the 1920s Thomas
Hoarder I think was his name uh he
was a lecturer a professor he was um
physician to royalty and Lloyd-Jones was his
personal assistant gave it all up and he
took over a little downtown mission in a
place called Aberavon down in Wales it's a
a small town adjacent to a mining area
and not far from um the sandy shores
of the South Wales peninsula took his wife
down there began to preach a lot of
the people were unemployed there was no money
they were backward many couldn't read the church
in that area um had really been been
dead since the days of the revival the
Welsh revival in 1904-1905 degenerated in a
lot of singing there was very little consistent
teaching from scriptures in that revival and it
was as if God took Lloyd-Jones into
that area to to bring scripture to build
up the foundations of what had been started
he started with just a handful of people
and the numbers grew and grew and grew
and all he would do would be expound
passages from scripture he would have a men's
meeting on either a Wednesday or Saturday night
no women allowed the men come together in
the church to discuss to argue to debate
he was digging scripture into this this congregation
large numbers of of unemployed men from a
terrible background totally transformed simply through the regular
preaching of God's word he was getting hundreds
in the meetings eventually he was um led
of God to come to the Westminster chapel
in London between two and three thousand people
hearing him at a service simply through the
exposition of God's word you get the same
now in Aberdeen um a brother by the
name of Willie Still packs his church simply
through the systematic exposition of scripture around Britain
the country I know best and it's true
also in other parts of the world the
men who regularly teach God's word they will
draw a crowd this last February the Reverend
Dick Lucas was asked to lead a mission
in Cambridge University 9,000 students quite a
strong Christian union it's actually supposed to be
the second strongest in the world but they
only have about 400 at a Saturday night
meeting Dick Lucas said I'm not going to
come and preach the gospel in the way
that you have been used to hearing it
preached I'm not going to take the topic
of God on a Monday night and sin
on a Tuesday and and the purpose of
life on a Wednesday and the cross on
Thursday and the resurrection on Friday and the
second coming on Saturday or something I'm going
to expound Mark's gospel and I'm not going
to make any appeals either I'm simply going
to expound Mark's gospel night after night are
you willing to have me come and do
that because if you're not then I won't
come and they they were brave enough and
so he stood up in the guild hall
which holds about a thousand and he began
with Mark chapter one on a Monday night
and preached it through and then a bit
more on Tuesday night Wednesday night and Thursday
night very soon the place was packed and
on the final night he said well on
Saturday we're going to have an after meeting
those of you who feel you want to
become Christians who want to follow the Christ
that has come alive to us from Mark's
gospel I want you to come back for
an extra meeting between eight and nine hundred
came ordinary students the Christians who were belonging
to the Christian union they were not supposed
to be there these were people who had
been touched by the systematic exposition of God's
word I've noticed in my own experience far
smaller by comparison that when I hold up
the gospel of John shall we say and
read them what it says and take my
points visibly from a scripture the modern student
pays attention because he hasn't met God's words
in primary school or at home I've tried
in my days as a school teacher at
teaching a bit of Mark in a religious
instruction class I was taking they didn't know
anything about the resurrection they didn't know where
Mark was didn't know whether it was old
or New Testament didn't know a thing about
the thing that we would take for granted
the whole of the gospel story they were
15 year old 16 year old South London
school boys in a good school some of
them were going to go on to university
and yet they were gripped and fascinated by
God's words we need to let it loose
and and trust God to speak now I
want to urge you if you have the
courage nowadays to be the men and the
women who will proclaim God's word very easy
to think that you have to bring all
kinds of lurid illustrations exciting stories reminiscences red
hot imitations of some fiery preacher that you
may have heard and there's very little biblical
content in what you beware because it is
scripture in the long run that changes people
the impact of a man's personality alone wears
off within a day or two it is
God's word as God brings revelation to the
heart that actually changes I wouldn't mind betting
if I was that sort of a man
some of you have been around our end
for many years you look back over conferences
uh years gone by some of the most
memorable messages that you ever heard have been
scripture expounding God's word faithfully preached now I
don't know whether I'm touching on what Noel
was was hinting at but we sometimes feel
that for a meeting to have impact for
God you've got to create the right atmosphere
you've got to have the right sort of
musical accompaniment the right sort of worship you
need visual aids and drama and dancing and
so on now these things have their place
but in the long run my friends lives
will be changed by the preaching of God's
word I've never known anyone converted by seeing
someone dance beautifully I've never known anyone converted
by simply seeing a drama the drama will
need to be buttressed by God's word preached
authoritatively now why is this let me come
forthly to what I'll call the the theology
of preaching we've talked about Christ our example
we've talked about the apostles whom he produced
the lessons of history and now the theology
of preaching point number one God is a
communicator in words God uses language Genesis chapter
one perhaps the first activity that we see
God doing is God speaking the trinity is
a communicative expressive fellowship of three and language
is used within the Godhead let us make
man in our own image says God God
says let there be light and there was
light God is a communicating being and man
has been given language as one of the
highest gifts that that he possesses do you
know that do you honestly recognize that because
you're made in the image of God language
is one of the highest things that you
possess now think of Genesis chapter two there's
man been created but he's alone he's lonely
he hasn't got anyone to talk to there's
nobody to sort of help him and be
a communicating friend for his heart he needs
a wife says God so he brings him
a hippopotamus have a look at the hippopotamus
comes in no no good brings him a
monkey brings him a giraffe brings him a
water buffalo brings him a warthog all kinds
of thing no good too dirty too noisy
uh you know giraffes too high if you
feel like a good night kiss need a
ladder to get up there all kinds of
problems the big problem was no language now
some of you some of you are married
some of you are going to be married
do you really let the message of Genesis
2 sink into your life because when God
is speaking about language he's talking about marriage
relationships and we know throughout scripture that the
marriage relationship is itself to be a picture
of a higher dimension of relationship between us
and God in Genesis chapter 12 God proposes
marriage to Abraham have you heard that in
the first two or three verses of Genesis
12 God proposing marriage he says now Abraham
will you be willing to come with me
for the rest of your life leave your
home come with me to my home he
started looking for the city that had foundations
the most important thing is your communication because
you have been made to speak therefore when
Christ comes he comes as the word he
comes to speak God is a communicator we
are made to communicate last December we had
in in an old people's home that i
know in London a very strange incident it
was one of these old people's homes where
you know the folk have got perhaps nowhere
else to live and so they they gather
together and there are some staff look after
them and during the day they sort of
sit in front of the television they brought
in and they have their meals and they
go to bed at night and they just
plonk down well there was a thorn-off
shotgun raid on this old people's home in
the middle of the afternoon suddenly the French
windows were thrown open and two men in
balaclava helmet burst into the room with all
these old people lined up in front of
the television thorn-off shotgun and said freeze
you see like this and and there was
absolutely no response at all so the men
said again freeze and they got so frustrated
because half the people sitting there hadn't even
heard them in the first place perhaps they
were i don't know tuned into radio two
with their deaf aids or something that the
men said get on the floor on your
faces on the floor nobody moved so that
the half that hadn't heard them probably couldn't
have got on the floor anyway if they'd
tried certainly couldn't have got up again and
finally these two men in total disgust one
of them threw down his gun and and
this was announced on on the radio i
know the old people's home well my my
own local church in london when i lived
there used to go and do regular services
there we used to get much the same
sort of response in the old people's services
i don't know whether you've ever been there
i i can remember as a a young
lad as going along with the choir from
my church i was unbelievably angelic in the
choir we stood there in front of these
old people and we sang them christmas carols
and there was an old lady in a
wheelchair came in rather late she wheeled herself
to the front of of the um the
thing you see and she she parked herself
in her wheelchair on the foot of the
person that was sitting at the front beside
her you see just got the wheelchair up
on the foot and and the the woman
said get off me foot you see but
but this other lady had come in to
listen she we choir boys
were absolutely helpless and laughter we were we
were in the middle of silent night or
something and this and this row was going
on between these two ladies i have had
a number of experiences in my life of
trying to communicate like those two men with
a shotgun and simply not getting through people
either don't understand what you're saying or can't
do anything about it anyway people fall asleep
sometimes in meetings that's why a little bit
of humor around about 12 o'clock after
the night of prayer can sometimes help i've
seen a man suddenly in a church who
was sleeping in the evening service suddenly leap
up grab his hymnbook and laugh realize that
in his dreams he thought the hymn had
been announced but actually the message was still
proceeding on and sit down very sheepishly preachers
need to think about communication and they need
to begin their thinking with god himself i've
talked about genesis 1 genesis 2 genesis 3
christ comes seeking communication with those from whom
he's been cut off wanting that expressive fellowship
that god has made us for and to
have with him you and i are made
like adam to believe and to hear and
to communicate god's word we're made for it
what was the fall of man it arose
because they would not believe the word of
god they believed the word that came from
another source and there is a discipline therefore
in life for all mankind that they should
be saved through the foolishness of preaching because
god wants to reverse the very process of
genesis chapter 3 those opening verses of genesis
3 where mankind fell because they believed the
wrong word god now requires that we be
converted not because he's going to do miracles
in the sky he's not going to lean
out of heaven and shout down to us
he's going to require that as fallen men
and women sons of adam and eve we
believe the right word by faith that's why
paul when he's writing to the ephesians chapter
1 between about verses 16 and 18 is
praying for these believers that they have a
continuing revelation in the knowledge of god there's
a spiritual battle involved in any communication now
one or two of you are really suffering
from the night of prayer i can see
that i can see i enormously very difficult
when you've been up until late stay away
spiritual battle involved and paul didn't take it
for granted ever that the believers would understand
what he was talking about he prayed ephesians
1 verses 16 to 18 in 1 corinthians
2 verse 14 he said that the natural
man cannot understand the things of the spirit
of god they are spiritually discerned i can
remember being in an evangelistic meeting in cardiff
i think it was um we had a
whole series and and people began to pray
christians during the meetings it made a tremendous
difference to the meeting if there was a
group of people actually praying while the meeting
was going on and one night we'd announced
the title um muhammad buddha the gurus christ
what's the difference now there are a lot
of overseas students in in that university i
don't know whether su remembers uh that particular
occasion but i believe you were actually converted
during that series of meetings at that very
meeting oh this is tremendous it just popped
into my head i arrived um at the
meeting at about a quarter past seven it
was due to start at half past seven
and of course with that title the room
was full of muslims and buddhists and hindus
and all kinds of folks like that you
see waiting to hear what this infidel was
going to say so when the christians arrived
well there was no room for them to
sit down they always come late anyway it
seems to be one of the first things
of adaptation to the evangelical culture you start
being late for appointments meetings anyway they all
arrived no room room full of muslims you
see what are you going to do christians
can't get in i'm going to be thrown
to the lions here so the christians in
a group went along to another room in
the university where there were two or three
people sort of in there slumped in front
of the television they'd been there a couple
of days probably just sort of this is
cardiff university of course you must remember and
so they threw them out and they took
over the room and they began to pray
they began to pray they began to storm
the bastions of heaven for the meeting and
i sort of walked into the room very
trembly and another fellow gave his testimony and
then i preached and i felt like a
man at the front row of a of
a rugby scrub now this may not mean
very much to you um people pushing behind
people pushing back from in front and i
was sort of like the ball in the
we pray they were not determined not to
budge very much but a number of people
and two among them trusted the lord that
night even though the atmosphere i found electric
i was praying god spoke god communicated the
best talk i've ever heard in the last
year or two for the conference i was
invited to speak at of medical students and
a man who stood up who was i
think the deputy director of a hospice one
of the early beginnings of the hospice movement
you know where folks who are dying um
go there to be cared for in their
closing weeks in some cases months this man
was speaking on communication with patients and their
relatives it it was an incredible talk he
it reduced me to to tears as i
sat as i watched his pictures and he
was talking about the way in which in
these kind of situations god the communicator comes
in he steps in that is the moment
the preacher is looking for you know when
god the communicator the god who speaks the
god who reveals himself the god who's given
us language the god who knows how to
speak to the heart that's what you want
those moments when you're speaking when god steps
in when people are under conviction people are
struck they may it may result in them
being angry or surly or crying or just
move to worship god has communicated the thing
has suddenly reached a different dimension not just
your words it's god in there and that
is a spiritual battle to see that happen
where he takes over he speaks he heals
the broken hearts let us never be satisfied
with preaching that does not reach that that
level now that's something to start with on
the um importance of preaching let me take
up the question of gift in preaching before
lunch unless you've got some questions right now
any questions it is a it is a
gift my father is brilliant at that we
had um my father is a minister a
vicar in england and one of these large
anglican churches and one sunday morning there was
a pigeon in the church during the service
there's a great big high church this pigeon
and there was a lady came into church
with a very sort of flowery hat and
and the pigeon sort of at one point
got right down into this hat you see
and it would sort of dive bomb people
he was trying to lead the worship and
the service and the most incredible thing happened
i it really was quite extraordinary he was
proceeding with the service as best he could
they couldn't get the pigeon out and he
got up in the pulpit to preach he
bowed his head to pray and the pigeon
sat on here just sat down you see
and my father looked up and sort of
smiled at the people and said ah for
a minute i thought it was an angel
and then then the pigeon flew down to
the the steps and hopped down one step
hopped down those and i hardly i think
must be an answer to the prayers of
the people it walked solemnly down the aisle
and the virgin at the back opened the
door and it went straight out that you've
got to make the best of it you've
got to hope that i mean there's some
things you can't do you can't cope with
can you um sometimes a ready wit if
people want to heckle or there's um sometimes
people faint in the meeting you you have
got to um perhaps make a little comment
if everyone's distracted well go with them for
a moment join them and lead them back
again give them perhaps a brief non-panicky
instruction if we had um a woman who
often fainted when she was pregnant it was
one of the features of her pregnancy and
she would just keel over unexpectedly and it
would worry some people but of course if
she just lay there for a bit she
would recover and get back up and sit
on her seat and a simple comment like
you know she'll be all right just we've
met this before and she'll be right in
a minute or two um take control if
it's a heckler um you will have to
either answer him if if if you've got
a good witty response that's kind um back
to him or arrange to let him ask
questions afterwards but let you finish the course
of the argument first sometimes if babies cry
you just take them out or in some
cultures nobody minds if they cry anyway you
just keep talking and the pigs run through
and the chickens cluck about and in more
primitive circumstances um i would say the worst
thing to do is just to sort of
stop and freeze and gawp because you've given
up then you've somehow got to be gentle
and and do the best you can and
control it and if need be ask people
if it's a distraction like a pigeon or
a seat suddenly collapsing sometimes happens or someone
falls off their seat because they've fallen asleep
this has happened in all my meetings especially
people always falling asleep well you just sort
of make a little comment we had in
one of the early meetings in the tent
um the moles the moles in belgium seem
to be extraordinary christian moles and they they
come to the meetings and suddenly this mole
came up out of the ground and the
three girls went oh see make a little
comment make a little joke control it get
them sat down carry on try and keep
control if you can what jesus would have
said i don't know we may imagine that
he knew it was going to happen in
the open air heckling increases and some people
have even been known as christians to do
a bit of heckling to increase the crowd
um it's been known um the question of
gift because we will lose our time martin
lloyd jones said preachers are born not made
well that's encouraging isn't it this is an
absolute you will never teach a man to
be a preacher if he is not already
one so we face first the question of
the calling of god ephesians 4 ephesians 4
verse 7 unto each one of us was
the grace given according to the measure of
the gift of christ the first section of
ephesians has been talking about the gift of
god you know the verse ephesians 2 8
the gift of salvation by grace are you
saved not of yourselves it is the gift
of god god has given a gift of
salvation but now here in this middle section
of ephesians which i take to run from
2 11 up to um 4 16 we're
reading of the gift of christ the risen
ascended messiah he too has gifts to give
us if you want to complete the the
last section of ephesians from 4 17 to
the end not about god the father or
christ the messiah but about man the redeemed
and renewed man he too has a gift
to give you can read of it in
in ephesians 5 verse 2 also in verse
25 i'll leave you to trace that down
but here he's speaking of the gift of
christ wherefore he saith when he ascended on
high he led captivity captive and he gave
gifts to men the tenth he that descended
is the same also that ascended as far
above all the heavens that he might fill
all things and he gave some to the
apostles some prophets some evangelists and pastors teachers
for the perfecting of the saint unto the
work of ministry unto the building up of
the body of christ and so on now
those gifts of christ all require um speaking
ability don't they how do i know whether
i've got a preaching gift or not well
how do you know whether you've got a
gift for football or playing the piano well
you like doing it not only do you
like doing it and show a bit of
skill but you you like watching other people
doing it you're fascinated by the skills of
other people and you sense a bit of
growth as you do there are certain things
i'm utterly hopeless at i will never be
any good i'm not interested really in other
people doing them they bore me but i
am interested in certain things and i like
to watch other people growing and it's one
thing to think that you've got the gift
of preaching but other people need to have
the gift of listening um at the same
time and you need to check check what
other folks think is their growth do other
people appreciate your ministry one of the advantages
of om is that you're thrown into um
a pool of people where you get demands
made upon you in many different kinds of
ways and you get opportunity to exercise gifts
in a number of different areas in the
early days especially some of you have to
learn simply to be faithful servants others of
you have to take leadership responsibility some of
you have to learn to speak quite early
to preach and to teach some of you
are going to be thrown into situations where
your team is perhaps full of of invalid
people with problems you're going to have to
learn to show sympathy and mercy and have
the gift of that now as time goes
on as you get exercise in these different
areas this is one of the values of
the thing you grow strong committed enthusiastic in
some area or other and other people in
the body can see that you've got strength
in this area and if you stay with
us you'll be directed into those areas of
strength they don't ask me to organize travel
or finance in om i'm utterly hopeless at
it finance i i i'm not interested in
it it bores me apart from being able
to spend a bit now and again the
organizing of it the flow of it backwards
and forwards i'm just hopeless at finance i
don't think i'm really any good at showing
mercy you know and just understanding sometimes the
sensitivities and the hurts of people i i
don't know whether i'm any good at that
i feel appalling at it some of you
perhaps heard the um i don't know the
story it's not a funny story the story
that came originally i believe out of a
bill gothard seminar of seven people sitting around
a table seven different gifts the seven gifts
that are mentioned that's in romans chapter 12
there's the prophet there's the um teacher the
exhorter the administrator the giver the one who's
just a helper i say just because i'm
talking to preachers he doesn't speak very much
he's a non-verbal gift and the one
who shows mercy now these these seven sitting
around the table the prophet you see the
person who has the habit the tendency to
see things as needing a strong word from
god oh just a word that will bring
bring fire unction conviction flame thrower stuff the
person who is a server just sees practical
things that need to be done they're not
a great talker at all they they are
practically motivated they like to clear up things
um mend things switch things on at the
right time all that the person who teaches
just loves to be studied loves to be
into scripture the folk who has the gift
of exhorting they they want to move people
they're out there like a sheepdog they're they're
a mover they're often an encouraging person when
they walk into a group people's spirit lifts
you know the encourager is there the motivator
the administrator brilliant sharp mind for seeing what
needs to be done and who should do
it the giver nothing pleases them more than
just to give to give financially to give
hospitality to give anything they've got to give
and the person who shows mercy well imagine
seven people each of these seven gifts around
the table they're going to have a meal
the wife of the house is not among
the seven bringing a tray of soup to
these great spiritual elders you see and there's
lots of chats and it's all very interesting
and she's chatting away with someone and she
puts the soup down on the edge of
the not looking quite where she puts it
and the whole thing falls on the floor
crash this lovely meal that's been prepared there's
soup everywhere broken plates and it's a social
disaster you will get seven different reactions instantly
from around the table the prophets they may
not all come without come out with it
but the prophet's reaction in his heart will
be god provides and we throw it on
the floor this isn't good enough the teacher
will want to sit back and explain you
know if only that had been pushed just
a little bit more that wouldn't happen because
gravity's like this and soup is like this
they'll have quite a teaching session around the
table while the stuff soaks into the carpet
the helper will be the first one out
of their chair they're into the kitchen they're
gathering up wet cloths they're coming to clean
the thing up they're not saying anything they're
moving the administrator will start to organize will
you do this you clear up those will
you put the broken bits away because we
don't want to cut our fingers and immediately
they're giving people jobs the exhorter will immediately
want people well forget that that was a
soup we don't need soup let's go on
to the next course i can smell it
all that soup i've had plenty of soup
before in my life let's move on move
on the person who has the gift of
giving will immediately think you know i could
pay for a new dinner service for that
person or this meal is already a disaster
i got a tax rebate last week can
i take you all out to the chinese
restaurant and we'll we won't bother about this
old meal here and the person with the
gift of showing mercy their immediate reaction will
be to want to go and put their
arm around the person who dropped it in
the first place and encourage them you see
some will move to explain some will move
to clear up some will move to organize
some will move to comfort it's the way
they are god has given them that tendency
the person who has the gift of preaching
likes to to be heard to illuminate a
passage to enforce truth to move people with
the spoken voice and other people appreciate the
way they do it turn to 1 corinthians
12 a moment 1 corinthians 12 very interesting
um three verses you can see how the
whole of god is involved in this now
there are diversities of gifts but the same
spirit there are diversities of ministrations but the
same lord and there are diversities of working
but the same god the spirit the lord
and god the spirit gives you your gift
your particular enabling to be a preacher or
an administrator or whatever it is the lord
who puts you in your particular place in
the vineyard to appoint you to children's work
or to old people's work or to pass
return or to work in korea or africa
he is the one who gives you your
particular ministration your area of service it is
god the father who decides and governs what
happens when you work the working are decided
by god i have been to a place
and preach the sermon and people have appreciated
what has been said and perhaps have been
conversions and i've gone two weeks later and
preached the same sermon to another very similar
group and it's come across like a lead
balloon and i say well you know have
i sinned am i am i out of
fellowship with my wife what's happened nothing same
message same illustrations is it me no may
not be maybe come on to that tomorrow
but it may not be because i tell
you this what happens in a meeting actually
depends far more on the congregation than it
does on the preacher usually it's god who
decides what they are ready for what state
their hearts are at and we have to
leave the fruit of the meeting with god
who decides the working now all three persons
of the godhead are involved in this business
of us having a gift having a place
to work and seeing some fruit through our
ministry but let me explain another very interesting
and very important thing there is a difference
my friends and preachers must learn this between
your gift and your character you can have
a gift as a preacher and you can
preach so as to move men to draw
people into your church you can seem to
have an outwardly successful preaching ministry but your
character remains immature our gifts are given us
temporarily 1 corinthians 13 the next chapter now
we have gifts when we see christ face
to face what we'll be left with is
our character our love not our gift of
working miracles not our gift of giving ourselves
to be burnt that will all be temporary
when i see the lord i will no
longer be quite the man i am praise
god but any gift i may have in
the realm of evangelism or teaching finished but
my character is what remains in eternity now
you know you can sometimes feel rather proud
of your ministry because it seems as if
people are flocking to hear you but your
home life your domestic relationship your own inner
walk with god can remain shriveled you can
remain discourteous rude unable to relate to people
unable to run your own household well and
at the same time god is blessing your
public ministry why is that why is that
because god has given you a gift so
that he might use it the temporary thing
it's for his glory he's not wasting his
gifts by giving them out and you reach
eternity and you've got nothing to show for
it might have been a leader in om
you might have have moved multitudes of people
but you actually have not grown very much
in your character get that difference clear because
it is a necessary humbling principle that we
need to to learn and this will affect
and then i'll come back to you that
this will affect your preparation have you ever
known those of you that have preached you've
got to go preach somewhere and you get
down to preparation you don't know what to
give what to bring them and and you
seem to get a message and then finally
you think well i don't know that doesn't
seem to be right for them god very
often will give his first message to you
it's for you first because actually you've been
a bit dry recently you've not been reading
your bible very consistently recently and god wants
to get your attention for the good of
your character so that you before you ever
stand in the pulpit and try and change
the characters of others are submitting to that
inward discipline as a preacher of letting god
deal with your own character first so watch
out for the time when god actually wants
to give you two messages the first one
is a private one for you as you
prepare now joseph you had a question i
think i think it fits precisely with the
thing i've just said because god is the
one who gave us the gift not to
waste it but he's given us the gift
in order to train our character your character
is more important than your gift and it
always will be now this isn't a very
difficult thing for me to say look at
kids we give children gifts but we give
them special kinds of gifts why in order
to influence their characters you know my wife
comes from a long line of engineers scottish
engineers the dear woman gives my son a
toolbox at the age of three i i'm
wanting to give him a hockey stick or
a football have you noticed how parents will
give you the gift of piano lessons when
you're young or they'll give you certain kinds
of gifts because they want to move your
character in certain ways we all know this
we give gifts in order to influence character
and there are disciplines involved in the gifts
that we give we may think our son
needs to become a little quieter a little
less boisterous we give him a stamp collecting
album or something we're trying to bring influences
into his life not so that he might
for the rest of his of eternity collect
stamps but so that his character will develop
in a certain way now god will give
and withhold fruit for his own sovereign purposes
um but our character development is involved in
but included in the development of our character
is the desire that there be fruit for
god's glory now there were times when paul
preached when he didn't see very much evident
fruit and there are times when people who
have been working in the muslim world have
walked in paul's footsteps in that i'm talking
last october this is lionel gurney that 80
years old leader of the red sea mission
team and he takes a completely philosophical attitude
to the work that they've done they say
look we've we worked in aden we worked
there 20 years we didn't see much fruit
we were kicked out the seed is sown
trusting god every farmer sows his seed and
then leaves it if we have to leave
it for 20 years let it be god
knows the seed that's been planted we'll go
to another field and we'll sow that now
good for the character god very often god
knows the fruit that we need i have
had the experience on occasions of god um
letting me know little encouragement you know sometimes
i complete the message and it seems as
if no one would help or bless and
two years later somebody will come up you
say you know you know that conference you
did and i say yeah i remember that
i got converted then wow isn't that tremendous
god knows when we need a little encouragement
the fruit is his to control but as
we become one with his desire we want
ourselves to see fruit for our ministry allowing
for due processes of growth in our character