The most important moments of our era occur when God’s Word is proclaimed
Preaching has always been the minister’s greatest opportunity and responsibility. History shows that preaching is a barometer of the life of the Church. When the preaching has been dynamic, the Church has been strong; when it has been insipid, the Church has been weak. P. T. Forsyth wrote in Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, “It is, perhaps, an overbold beginning, but I will venture to say that with its preaching Christianity stands or falls.” And Emil Brunner, in one of the most audacious claims made in our nuclear space age, said that “where there is true preaching, where, in the obedience of faith, the Word is proclaimed, there, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, the most important thing that ever happens upon this earth takes place” (Revelation and Reason).
Both in the world and in the Church today, much preaching is considered trivial and irrelevant. The basic cause for this tragic condition must be our lack of a vital theology of preaching. Strong and effective preachers in every age have believed greatly in preaching. If the minister gives the gavel of primacy to any other hand in the senate of his interests—counseling, liturgy, visitation, group therapy, administration—his preaching will inevitably decline in power and relevance.
Thus one of the most pressing needs in the Church today is to formulate a theology of preaching. Helmut Thielicke’s plea is that “everything depends upon our gaining some standards for that which is ‘Theme Number One’ of the church—our preaching” (Encounter with Spurgeon). What might some of these standards be?
Protestants stand in the heritage of the Bible, and any theology of preaching must be anchored there. In the New Testament, seven Greek words, each translated “preaching,” share a truth that must enter into a vital theology of preaching.
1. Euaggelizō originally meant to bring or announce good news. Later it came to mean the good news itself, or the good news preached, as in the description of the work of Philip in Samaria: “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (Acts 8:12, RSV). A theology of preaching must capture the concept that preaching is the act of announcing the good news of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom.
2. Kataggellō is translated “preach” in the King James Version and “proclaim” in the Revised Standard Version. It is a heightened form of a simple verb that means to announce. Kataggellō means to tell thoroughly and to proclaim with authority, as one does who is commissioned to spread official news among other persons. The word is used in the vivid portrayal of the arrest of Peter and John in the temple after they had healed the lame man: “… the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:1, 2, KJV). This “proclaiming with authority” implies that preaching has an authority behind it greater than the force of a man. Martin Luther, feeling the pulse of the Reformation to be preaching, declared, “In a word, if one would praise God to the uttermost, one must praise His Word and the preaching of it; for it is God’s Word, and the preaching of it is His.” And Karl Barth wrote: “Real proclamation as this new event, in which the event of human language about God is not set aside, but rather exalted, is the Word of God preached.… The Word of God preached now means … man’s language about God, in which and through which God Himself speaks about Himself” (The Doctrine of the Word of God). A powerful theology of preaching must see preaching as a proclamation of the Word of God with authority—nothing less than the authority of God himself.
3. Kērussō is to cry to proclaim as a herald. The kēruka is the herald. In the Homeric age, the herald partook of the character of an ambassador. He summoned the assembly and kept order in it, and had charge of arrangements at sacrifices and festivals. The office of heralds was sacred and their persons inviolable; therefore they were employed to bear messages between enemies. In later times, their position as messengers between nations at war was emphasized. Thus kērussō means to proclaim peace to warring peoples as the herald sent by God; as Paul declared, “… but we preach Christ crucified.… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 24, RSV). Preaching thought of as the proclamation of a herald implies a call and commissioning to preach. Karl Barth’s powerful words in God in Action are, “This is that ‘other’ factor which makes one a minister of the Word, in contrast with all other ever-so-respectable examples of mankind … Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, as the Lord of the Church, as eternal Son of God in the midst of our temporal existence—He it is who calls, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 24, RSV). No one and nothing else.” A vital theology of preaching must include the concept of the herald of God declaring the truth of the One who has called him.
4. Laleō means to talk, discourse, or assert something. It is used in contrast with or as a breaking of silence, voluntary or imposed. It was reported of Jesus that when “many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door, he was preaching the word to them” (Mark 2:2, RSV). Preaching is more than dialogue gone mad; it is a spontaneous assertion.
5. Parrēsiazomai strictly means to use boldness, to speak openly and fearlessly, to be utterly free in one’s speech. It was thus that Barnabas described Paul before the Jerusalem leaders, “how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27, RSV). It is in this sense that Bishop Gerald Kennedy describes preaching: “Headline stuff blaring forth the news about a Man, a Life, a Way, an Answer.… Preaching is not going from door to door to sell a book on home remedies, but standing on a street corner shouting ‘Extra!’ ” (God’s Good News).
6. Plēroō means to fill or made full, and was Paul’s description of his preaching before the Romans when he reported, “… so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Rom. 15:19, RSV). Apparently, Paul took it as his God-given task to fill the Roman world to overflowing, to fill it up and over the rim, with the Good News concerning Jesus Christ.
7. Parakaleō is translated “exhort” in the King James Version but “preach” in the Revised Standard Version’s interpretation of Paul’s injunction to Timothy: “Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). Parakaleō is a compound of para, to the side of, and kaleō, to call or summon. It means to call to one’s side to help. Preaching in this sense is preaching the Word in exhortation and with encouragement, not just so it can be studied and understood but as a challenge to action.
A theology of preaching, if it is going to be true to the New Testament, must include the basic ingredients suggested by all these words. There must be a note of “good news” that is “proclaimed with authority” by a “herald sent by God” who “asserts something” “openly, fearlessly,” and “fully” in order to “strengthen, challenge, and exhort” others to Jesus Christ. Such a theology will tap the deep wells of faith for the drought of our twentieth-century preaching, will convict us in our lethargy, and will challenge us to action.
The Greek mathematician Archimedes, in the third century B.C., made a statement that has been quoted many times: “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum strong enough, and single-handed I can move the world.” Joseph Conrad, however, answered him by saying, “Don’t talk to me of your Archimedes’ lever.… Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.” The “right word” needed by American churches today is “preaching,” preaching based on the “right accent” of a dynamic theology of preaching. With it, we can still move the world for Jesus Christ.
When Silas and Timothy arrived in Corinth, after traveling from Macedonia, the stirring account is that when they found Paul, he was “occupied with preaching” (Acts 18:5). This is the call to American pastors in this day of crisis and need: Be “occupied with preaching”!
Wife Charts A Sermon
That “a preacher’s most severe critic is his wife” is no empty truism; she has listened to enough sermons to be a master of constructive criticism.
Recently my wife “doodled” a road map of my sermon while I was preaching. After dinner she presented me with the facts: every detour I had taken, every curve and bump. Here are the labels she used:
Your Trip This Morning
Start. Introduction. You began too slowly, seemed uncertain which road to take.
Detour. Left the subject completely!
Bumpy Road. Had difficulty in expressing yourself.
Long Straight Stretch. Needless exposition; this section was monotonous, a few miles too long.
Back Track. You repeated yourself.
Too Many Curves. In trying to explain your point, you wound around too many Bible characters.
Breathtaking Scenery. Climax of the sermon. Most scenic part, but you covered it so fast we missed much of the beauty.
Destination. Conclusion. Like a frantic search for a motel. You finally found it and tumbled into bed completely exhausted. What a trip!—Jerry W. Hopkins, assistant to the president, John Brown University.
