I have been asking: what is preaching?
I admit I am oh-so-guilty of over-commenting on preachers - I know something is wrong with me. Therefore, in trying to get my bearings back, I started listening to Carson’s Primacy of Expository Preaching. He gave these lectures at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors in 1995. There are three lectures and I am just midway through the first one.
I knew that preaching is hard work. But after listening to just a small part of these lectures, I am now convinced that preaching is more than hard work, and calling it “work” does not even give it justice.
Preaching is a simultaneous appeal to the heart and mind of the church.
Preaching is to convey the very image of Scripture that must reduce us all into a state of awe and worship.
Preaching is the task of holding up Scriptures as a mirror that make us squirm in our sins.
Preaching is power, holy power, that is with an authority bound up with the fact that it is God’s message – not merely content or God-forbid manner, presentation or style.
Informing, persuading, appealing, inviting response, encouraging, rebuking, instructing in righteousness, are but the immediate goals of preaching.
The ultimate goal of preaching is nothing but the glory of God.
pearlie
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