Monday, 29 June 2009

• "The Glory of Preaching"

  
  

  At another public lecture, I had the privilege of hearing Darrell Johnson speak on the topic "The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God's Transformation of the World". It was an awesome lecture....warms the blood and makes me want to "go tell it on the mountains, over the hills and everywhere"...that a new Kingdom has come and is at work restoring all that has broken. I shall try to summarize but I don't think I'll do the lecture justice so best if you download the mp3 for five dollars and listen to it yourself. Anyways...here we go:

   

  He starts with this statement --

   

  "When a human being,

        open Bible in hand,

            stands up before a group of other human beings,

                 and says what the Living God is saying in a particular text,

                       something happens.

   

  "When a human being

   (imperfect, broken, multi-motivated, sinful-in-process-of-being-made-whole),

       open Bible in hand,

            stands up before a group of other human beings

            (imperfect, broken, with all kinds of needs, bombarded by many voices, under many demands, sinful-in-process-of-being-made-whole),

                 and says

                 (however imperfectly, inadequately, yet as faithfully as possible)

                      what the Living God is saying in the text to which the Bible is opened,

                           something happens

                           (something transformative)."

   

  And the question is why....why does transformation occur when the Word of God is preached?

   

  I was introduced to the "Preacher's Syllogism":

  1. When the Living God speaks, something always happens (God spoke the universe into being, at Christ's word, the winds and waves stilled)
  2. When the preacher speaks GOD's speech, God speaks (Preaching of the heart of God IS the word of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. The Bible is the word of God.)
  3. When, therefore, the preacher speaks, something always happens

  Again...why? Any given text from the Bible is describing a certain reality of the work and person of God. Speaking God's reality as He speaks it in His word is like opening a portal into His reality (a reality vastly different from our own). This lets the reality of God's world/kingdom into our reality and, because God's word is powerful, it transforms things in our reality. Preaching His word helps people explore and begin to live the alternate reality the text speaks about....and in the reality they are continuing to enter further into.

   

  The Word, the Bible, which is also Christ (the Word in flesh), makes five things happen when we are brought into the new reality of God's kingdom:

  1. We encounter the Jesus of the text, (The transforming power of God's word is attained by staying in the text until Jesus is encountered.)
  2. where He speaks news, good news, (News about what God had/is/will be doing in Christ. News of what God had/is/will be doing that we don't need to do...or that we DO need to do. Good advice without God's news is powerless to change anyone...which is why much of our North American preaching is ineffective in changing lives. If the Gospel isn't preached then Gospel living won't happen.)
  3. which causes a shift in world view, (God's word should give us a new set of glasses to view the world in...changing the way we used to view the world.)
  4. calling for a new step in "the obedience of faith", (it's a call for people to TRUST HIM and not live in any kind of independence from God. All the laws and commands boil down to this point. Any sermon that tells people to depend on self will never bring transformation.)
  5. which He Himself enables us to take.

  Jesus preaches the Kingdom is near. He teaches what the Kingdom is like. And he heals because that IS the Kingdom. He is the Servant of the Lord who takes the sins of the world upon Himself and who brings healing/restoration/rescue/release to human souls. This ministry of His is still continuing today and so we who stand in Christ, get to participate in HIS ongoing ministry to the world. We're not doing things FOR Him...but are doing things WITH Him.

  What's exciting is that this is something all who stand in Christ can participate in. It's not limited to those whose career includes preaching in the job description. We will be in situations where we have the opportunity to speak God's word in the presence of our classmates, coworkers, family, friends and strangers. We get to participate in Christ's ministry when we're invited to, either by another person or by the Holy Spirit. And ultimately, God/Jesus does the transformative work....not us so we don't have to worry about the outcome.

  So when we, with open Bible in hand, stands up before other human beings, and says what the Living God is saying in a particular text, something happens....something transformative.

  "And that is the glory of preaching."

   

   

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