The Church in America part 3: Preaching the Bible

It is time now to get back to the series on The Church in America. Last time I wrote about the role of scripture in the church from a theological standpoint. This time I want to show how practically this should be done in the local church.
The first thing I would like to do is to take a look at some verses of scripture that will help us get a Biblical view of the purpose for the scripture practically in the church. The text is found in 2 Timothy 4:1-5:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Here, we see what Paul felt was the most important piece of advice he could pass on to his "pupil", Timothy. His great advice, "Preach the Word"! Now, it does not get any less complicated or simple than that. The duty of the pastor in the church is to "Preach the Word", and we know that because this whole section of books, The Pastoral Epistles (1&2 Timothy and Titus), is written by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to tell pastors and churches what the responsibilities of the office of pastor should include. Then he gives Timothy this charge to preach the word.

Paul even goes so far as to tell why it is so important for Timothy to do this. Verse 5, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions." Is this not what has happened in the church in America today? Have people not developed "itching ears" because they want preachers and pastors to tell them what they want to hear, what will "suit their own passions"? Certainly! However, it is not that people have developed "itching ears" that is the problem though. The problem is that too many pastors, preachers and churches have pandered to these people and have forsaken the charge given to Timothy by Paul, to grow larger churches that in the end do not preach truth but whatever it is their listeners desire to have told to them. Which usually is something along the lines of "I'm okay, your okay", "How to get your best life now" or some type of "health and wealth" gospel that will send more people to hell than give them any opportunity for hearing and responding in faith to the truth of Christ.

Understand that the reason Paul tells Timothy to do this is because he had already experienced these types of people from the Judaizers in Jerusalem to the immature Corinthians to the legalistic Galatians. He knows that even in a time so close to the life of Christ that people were already finding ways to distort the true Gospel for a gospel they found more convenient or easier to hear and there by live by. But how are churches and pastors suppose to do to combat this hostility and ignorance to the Truth? "PREACH THE WORD"! Preach Christ and Him crucified. Preach with conviction and passion the Cross of Jesus. The bottom line is that somewhere along the way you will offend someone with something you are preaching whether you mean to or not. And if you are going to be offensive, you might as well offend people with the Truth of the Gospel than any thing else. Now, I do not say that to be crass or pessimistic, but I say that as the truth, and for those fellow pastors out there reading this you know exactly what I mean. Also notice that Paul even anticipates this happening, and that is why he tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1: 10-30 that the Gospel is "offensive to some and a stumbling block to others".

Finally, it is my hope that as the church and pastors get back to a more Bible centered preaching ministry, they will also get back to Expository preaching as their main mode of preaching. First, let me say to this that I know there are different styles of preachers and preaching out there today, but I feel as far as pastoring goes there is no better way to communicate the "whole counsel of God" to your people than by doing it expositionally. There may be times that God calls you to preach a more topical or contextual sermon to your people, based upon their needs or your concerns on any given Sunday, but mainly I feel we should preach more often what the Bible says about itself than what we think, feel, or assume the scriptures have to say about Christ, the church, or even culture. Secondly, I think attempting to preach expositionally drives a pastor to study his text more and his Bible more so that he can be better prepared for feeding his people. Proper expository preaching takes time and effort to get the hang of. A preacher must know his text back and forth, know the original language or meaning of the text to the best of his ability, and know what the historical and cultural implications were for the people the text was originally written to. This takes time, prayer and much consideration to do, and I think will benefit the church more when they see their pastor making a strong effort to feed them properly. Thirdly, expositional preaching gives you no wiggle room when it comes to preaching what the text says. Why was the Reformation so important? Because of a lack of faithfulness to the scripture by Rome. Why, only a few years ago, was it believed that certain people should not be evangelized based solely on the color of their skin? Because of a lack of faithfulness to the scripture by many preachers in the South. Why is it today that so many people think that it is more important to be concerned with environmental, cultural and political topics than the Gospel? Because of a lack of faithfulness to the scripture by liberal preachers in America. You see, the church in America is not in such disarray because of what is going on culturally, socially, economically, or politically; but because we have abandoned preaching the word expositionally and our people do not what God has to say about our situation today. We just have to go back to studying and preaching the Word and take it for what it says literally to see these things.

However, I know that expositional preaching is not an end all and be all for the church, yet it is a very good place to start if you are a pastor trying to make the Bible the focus of your congregation. Which is what I pray our churches would be all about: Making the Holy Word of God and the glorification of the Father our aim as we preach, sing, and pray together on the Lord's Day!