“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-5, English Standard Version
Sometimes we forget that the purpose of our preaching is simple: to proclaim “Christ and him crucified”—to make God known to people, and to point those people toward Him, not ourselves. We forget that the power of the Gospel rests not in our words but in the Word of God, His story, and in the movement of His Spirit.
We too easily become enamored with the sound of our own voices, and in doing so we get in the way of the very message that we’ve been sent to preach. We try so hard to come up with new and compelling material that our sermons often end up relying on our ideas, our assertions, and our anecdotes more than they do the Scriptures. We try to shoulder the weight of having all the right things to say; we attempt to bear the burden that God’s Word is supposed to carry. And when we persist in that for too long, and when we forget whose Gospel it is that we preach, our tone becomes flippant, irreverent, and prideful, and we cease to remember the lasting impact that our words carry. We often fail to speak the simple truth.
When we become tired of the simple truths, leaders and congregations begin a cycle of mutually influencing one another to itch for something that sounds new and striking and revelatory, rather than something that is scripturally-grounded and verifiable. I think this is the problem Paul had in mind in 2 Timothy 3:4. And while topical teachings and sermon series can speak deeply into the relevant issues of our day, without diligence, too much focus on them with too little emphasis on biblical exposition and exegesis can lead to the aforementioned problem.
Where this constant hunger for newness exists, novelty for the sake of novelty will be preached. And so the validity of what is shared will begin to go astray, scriptural foundation will erode, clarity will deteriorate, and the ability for Christ’s Church to be edified by the standard of his written Word will dwindle.
If we aren’t vigilant to discern the “why” behind what we share as Christians and especially as leaders, pride and ego will cause us to be more intrigued with the sound of our speech than concerned with making sure that our words are truthful, simple, and understandable.
Paul’s example in the first and second chapters of 1 Corinthians (and also chapters three and four) is a clear demonstration of the need to put the weight of what we preach on God Himself and His Word, not our ideas or how eloquently we can deliver them. In the quoted passage above, Paul goes so far as to say that part of his purpose in preaching the Gospel in its simplicity is so that “faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” That’s heavy.
Prior to this section from ch. 2, Paul writes this in 1:17: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (ESV, italics added). It seems he was concerned that the delivery of his message could actually become a hindrance to the message’s content. That’s a sobering thought, and one that I think the Church needs to meditate on for a while.
We don’t want to get in the way of God having the fullness of His glory, and we certainly don’t want the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus to not have centerstage in the drama of faith because we are overly concerned with what people think of us and how we sound in a moment.
I am not exempt from this problem, nor do I speak about it with any sense of condemnation. I think it is because I know this struggle so well personally that God has spurred in me a desire to speak to it. So, I can empathize with other leaders who wrestle with it. In fact, in writing this article, I found myself doing the very thing that I am wanting to correct: resting on my own wisdom and ideas rather than looking back to the Word and asking the Holy Spirit for guidance, inspiration, and direction (see Proverbs 3:5-6). God’s method of correcting me often seems to come through realizing that what He has given me to say outwardly is for me to embrace internally first.
In many ways, I am an academic at heart. I love language and the beauty—even art—of carefully selected spoken language; i.e., oration, phonaesthetics, and rhetoric. I also love the incorporation of philosophy and psychology into preaching. But I have had to be reminded before, in my own preaching, that those elements should point people toward God, not be the focus themselves. When they are the focus, our sermons begin to sound more like Ted Talks, motivational speeches, and excerpts from self-help books than they do sermons. And those things are important and needed: contemporary science, neurology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and general encouragement can beautifully bolster and attest to ancient truths of the Word. They just don’t require the Gospel, and Jesus is the most important piece.
Consequently, my love of words has caused me on many occasions to say something and, upon reflection, realize that I was compelled more in that moment by my ego or insecurity than by the desire to build-up and encourage a friend.
Complexity of expression, not always but often, is driven by a desire to impress. So, a practical way for all of us, not only leaders, to test the intention of our messages is by the simplicity of what we share: Was it simple? If it was complicated, was it necessarily so? If yes, did we share our message with the intention of impressing our listener or listeners, or was our intention to empower them with knowledge they didn’t have before? Are we willing to position ourselves as both learners of the message and sharers of the message? The humility to recognize our ongoing need for the reception of knowledge is an important precursor to professing it.
The difference between good and bad teaching moments lies in whether or not we speak with the intention of empowering our audiences with explanation or creating a division of status between ourselves and others through “what I/we know and you don’t.”
If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a phrase or two in a sermon that left you scratching your head, saying “huh?”—and not because of the phrase’s theological heaviness but because of its ambiguity. Pseudo-profound phrases have become another indicator to me, both for myself and others, that the delivery of what is being shared is more important than the content of the message. Some of the worst examples are the short, punchy phrases that are left unexplained as if the sheer punchiness of the statement is supposed to impart some kind of value. Overused rhyme or alliteration is often how these statements take their form. Rather than saying “God’s catalyst for creating character is always caught in chaos,” maybe we should say that “God can use the storms of life that we endure to increase our character.” The first statement is wordy, scripturally unverifiable, and its potential for application is unclear. The second is both biblically sound (see Romans 5:3-4) and a collective, experiential truth.
The real danger of flippant and irreverent speech and, further still, not remaining faithful to the truth, speaking half-truths, asserting opinion as fact, or not giving a disclaimer when we shift from what we know about God to what we don’t know, is the strong potential for people’s perception and understanding of God to be negatively impacted. And our words, spoken in a brief moment, can reside in the minds and influence the thinking of the listener for days, months, years, and even decades. This is true for all people and the words that we share, not just leaders. However, it’s especially important for leaders to be cognizant of this issue because of the harsher and stricter standard by which they will be judged (see James 3:1-2). I think this is the case because of the authority and weight that their words carry in particular.
Luke commended the Berean Church for searching the scriptures to make sure that what Paul and Silas were teaching was true (Acts 17:11). For a speaker to utter flippant and irreverent speech on behalf of God and not have the words be held to biblical accountability by the listener is among the worst of combinations that I can fathom.
Conclusion
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV
Our lack of adherence to this instruction is at the heart of irreverent and flippant speech in the Church. So we must ask ourselves, are we leaning on our own understanding, or are we leaning into and trusting Him for all of the inspiration, guidance, and direction of our words?
Do we really want the weight of what we preach to rest on us? On our ideas, our thoughts, and our stories? Or do we want the weight to rest on God and His living, active, and breathing Word? (See Hebrews 4:12.) When we give back to Him the burden of truth that He alone can rightfully carry, we relinquish from ourselves the real weight of preaching, and in doing so we take tremendous pressure off ourselves without neglecting the responsibility of the message He has given us to share.
We must be more concerned with who God is and what He has to say than with self-interest, self-promotion, or church branding. Our hearts and messages must be more motivated by others encountering our living and loving God than the satisfaction of our own egos in our desire to be heard. Reverence and humility should be the mark of that in our words.
My hope and my prayer is that we would learn to value His approval more than the approval of man; that we would be filled with His agenda of the kingdom and not our own; that we would relinquish control and remember to look to the One who first called us to be our ongoing source of inspiration; and that we would simply make “Christ and Him crucified” the unchanging centerpiece of the Gospel that we preach.
Photo:
Unnamed stained glass, Har Haosher Church, Sea of Galilee, 2016.
References:
Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2011.
I agree with this, Christian! I know Jason always says that if he’s not nervous at some level when he gets up to preach, then something is wrong. He wants to feel the weight of what he is teaching so that every word reflects God and that he doesn’t get in the way. I hope many pastors read this and are convicted to speak only the words of God and not try to insert their own wisdom for their glory like can so often happen. Thanks for this.
Thanks for your feedback, Heather! That is something I have always loved about Jason’s preaching–the weight of importance that he knows he carries in those moments. I wish that weight was understood and carried by all those preaching the Gospel. As you said, I hope this piece does in fact get others to speak only the words of God and not those that serve our own egos. I’m glad you found the writing meaningful! And sorry for the late response!
Much appreciated. I have heard some mumbling about how the charismatic church is devaluing the scriptures and choosing instead emphasize their own personal experiences (ie. “The Lord put something on my heart”…or “I feel led to say this or that”, etc etc). I’m not sure if this is exactly what you were getting at here, but it’s a complicated conversation about scriptural accuracy, interpretation, inspiration of the Holy Spirit, etc etc. Thanks Christian keep writing!
Hi Jason! Thanks for your comment. I think the conversation about the movement and inspiration of the Holy Spirit today and not overvaluing that by devaluing the Scriptures is a complex and important conversation, I agree. However, what I have in mind here is the current common trend of fixating more on our ideas and stories/anecdotes from the pulpit as opposed to a thorough teaching of the Word of God, whether through topical teaching or biblical exegesis. In any case, thanks for reading, and forgive me for the very late reply!