Within the late Sixties, Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave a collection of lectures on preaching to the scholars at Westminster Seminary. Explaining why he traveled all the best way from England to Philadelphia to show on the topic, he mentioned,
Finally, my cause for being very prepared to offer these lectures is that to me the work of preaching is the best and the best and essentially the most wonderful calling to which anybody can ever be referred to as. In order for you one thing along with that I’d say with none hesitation that essentially the most pressing want within the Christian Church right now is true preaching; and as it’s the best and essentially the most pressing want within the Church, it’s clearly the best want of the world additionally.
That’s a staggering assertion from a former medical physician. Lloyd-Jones was previously the assistant to Lord Horder, doctor to the Queen, at St. Bartholomew’s hospital in London. In entrance of him had been a lifetime of prominence and alternative. A shiny scholar, he’d rapidly risen within the ranks of drugs. However he’d left all of that behind to take a pastorate at a small Calvinistic Methodist chapel. Located within the rural hills of Wales, Lloyd-Jones fulfilled what he considered the best calling to which any man will be referred to as.
Preaching is a weighty process. It’s no shock, then, that many ministers discover themselves shrinking again somewhat than urgent ahead, asking with Paul, “Who’s ample for these items?” (2 Cor. 2:16). Certainly, in responding to the decision to pulpit ministry, it may be all too straightforward to slide and slide off the excessive, slender path of God’s appointing into the rocky depths beneath.
The satan laughs at prayerless preaching.
These entrusted with the duty of preaching—and who see it as Lloyd-Jones noticed it, as a labor each grave and wonderful—stand to profit from recounting its frequent pitfalls. Doing so ought to at all times present preachers with a clearer view of God and their duty in relation to Him.
Pitfalls in Preaching
Whereas there are certainly extra, we’re going to contemplate eight pitfalls of pulpit ministry:
Prayerlessness
The satan laughs at prayerless preaching. Conscious of the ability that accompanies a prayer-soaked pulpit, the Evil One will do every thing in his restricted energy to maintain pastors (and their congregations!) from praying—distraction, self-dependence, one other hour of research, and so on. Because of this, the earliest church leaders resolved to be males of prayer and preaching, refusing to compromise both of those religious obligations, even because it meant appointing others to satisfy the rising sensible calls for of the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:2–4).
A Doctrine–Life Hole
“Maintain a detailed watch on your self and on the educating,” Paul urges his younger pastor-protégé in 1 Timothy 4:16. Preaching doctrine doesn’t essentially correspond to obeying it. If he isn’t cautious, the pastor will be like these James describes, listening to the Phrase and never heeding it (1:22).
Extreme Reputation
Many pastors—particularly those that labor in missed contexts—would love a dose of renown infrequently. However with accolades comes the chance of satisfaction (Rom. 12:3). In the middle of every week, ministers will encounter lofty reward and undue critique. Finest they low cost the highs and the lows, lest they find yourself both prideful or crushed.
Crippling Despondency
This hazard is the dual to reputation. Whereas the pulpit can raise the minister as much as assume he’s terrific, it may additionally carry him all the way down to assume he’s the worst man to have ever lived. He can relate to Elijah in 1 Kings 19: alone, fearful, and paralyzed with dread. Certainly, residing below the burden of feeling ineffective and remoted is an element and parcel of preaching.
Laziness
On the one hand, true preaching calls for each ounce of a pastor’s fiber. Alternatively, pastoral ministry affords ample alternative for doing as little as doable—simply getting by with the naked minimal. As a rule of thumb, ministers shouldn’t be sitting round of their socks when their church members have had their sneakers on for the final 4 hours. “Work heartily,” Paul reminds the Colossian Christians (3:23). The identical goes for pastors too.
Misplaced Affections
It’s doable to remain near the Phrase of God however drift from the God of the Phrase—to develop into a theoretician or a doctrinaire however to have private devotion to Christ cool off day-to-day. Greed, immorality, domineering management, and comparable vices can all creep in when pastors lose sight of the Lord Jesus. As was the case with a lot of Solomon’s life, some pastors threat being profitable on the planet’s eyes however disastrous in God’s sight. Ministers subsequently should be vigilant in directing their affections.
Aimlessness
One minister, so the story goes, had an indication in his research that learn, “What on the planet are you doing with these individuals?” It’s a great query for each pastor to ask of his ministry. Paul knew precisely what he was doing: “I’ve made myself a slave to everybody, to win as many as doable,” he wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV), and in Philippians 3:10, he declared his want to “know him and the ability of his resurrection.” Pastors want that type of readability. If the person behind the pulpit drifts, his congregation will drift with him.
It’s doable to remain near the Phrase of God however drift from the God of the Phrase.
Capitulation
Compromised preaching usually means forgetting that the first objective of the pulpit is to place women and men in proper relationship with God. It’s to mistake the central work of preaching for making individuals completely happy, seeing their lives built-in, enhancing their situations, and so forth. The pastor is to show hearts, not tickle ears. He’s to information sheep, not entertain spiritual professors and individuals. “Realizing the worry of the Lord,” Paul says, “we persuade others” (2 Cor. 5:11). That’s the cost.
Energy in Preaching
Whereas these pitfalls will hinder efficient preaching, avoiding them is just half of the equation. The important thing to preaching is to evangelise Christ and Him crucified. Solely in proclaiming the excellent news of Jesus will the minister discover the ability to vary hearts and remodel lives.
Paul understood this. Writing to the Corinthians, he reminded them,
I, after I got here to you, brothers, didn’t come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or knowledge. For I made a decision to know nothing amongst you besides Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:1–2)
Paul confirmed as much as Corinth empty-handed, in a way—no eloquent speech, no philosophical musings, simply Christ proclaimed “in weak spot and in worry and far trembling” (v. 3). Why? “In order that your religion won’t relaxation within the knowledge of males however within the energy of God” (v. 5).
The first objective of the pulpit is to place women and men in proper relationship with God.
Little question, pastors will in some unspecified time in the future succumb to 1 or a number of of those preaching pitfalls. However it’s when the minister is weak that Christ is proven to be sturdy (2 Cor. 12:10). The ability of the Gospel is discovered not within the energy of the one preaching however within the one who’s being proclaimed: Jesus Himself.
On this method, there’s an inherent energy within the pastor’s weak spot. Regardless of the numerous perils of preaching, the ravines that run alongside our method, on the excessive path of obedience is the promise that God’s highly effective Phrase will go forth from those that faithfully, humbly, and unwaveringly preach Christ from the pulpit.
This text was tailored from the sermon “The Pulpit: Its Powers and Pitfalls” by Alistair Begg.
