How Then Should We Preach?
However well constructed and attractive, a car is useless without fuel. On the flip side, a motor may have fuel without being a vehicle. Likewise, preaching is a vehicle that requires fuel. God designed preaching to bring us to himself through faith in Christ. If preaching does not have the right content, then it becomes more of a motor than a vehicle, since it can no longer take us where we need to go. If preaching has the right content, yet the Holy Spirit is absent from it, then it functions like a vehicle without fuel. It is only when Spirit shapes the content and blesses the act of preaching that preaching become a vehicle to bring us to God, through Christ, by the Spirit. In 1 Cor. 2:1-5, the Apostle Paul teaches these things when he writes:
"And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."
Paul teaches us in this text that preachers must preach Christ in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. This truth both informs the content of preaching and shapes the manner in which ministers ought to preach. We learn several vital lessons here about what preaching is not, about what it is, and about the proper manner of preaching.
Preaching must not be based on worldly speech or worldly wisdom. Paul contrasted excellence of speech and wisdom with preaching Christ and him crucified. The gospel message results in a paradox. While its message is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18), it is the wisdom and the power of God to those who believe (v. 24). People cannot know God through worldly wisdom (v. 21) because when they profess to be wise apart from the true knowledge of the true God then they become fools (Rom. 1:22). This is why God chose the "foolishness" of preaching to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21). Paul's point is not that Christ is foolish. Neither is he implying that preachers should not take care to preach well or that sermons should be plain and boring. We eat food because we need food to nourish our bodies, but we also thank the Lord when food tastes good. So we should not be satisfied with boring dispassionate sermons that, technically, keep our souls alive while leaving a bad taste in our mouths. If the food we serve is good food, then we should enjoy it and help others enjoy it too. Instead, Paul is saying that preaching avoids worldly content and worldly methods because its content is the wisdom of God in Christ and its methods aims to preach the wisdom of God clearly. Though the world regards this as foolishness it is divine wisdom for salvation. Poison cooked well is poison still, but a good chef knows how to bring out the best flavors in the best foods. Likewise, God's wisdom in Christ informs the content and the manner of preaching.
Preaching must have Christ as its primary object. As the last two posts illustrated, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 and Romans 10:14-17 teach that Christ pleads with sinners through preaching and preaching aims to produce and foster faith in Christ. This is why in 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul wrote that he intended to preach nothing other than Christ and him crucified. The aim of preaching is to preach the gospel and Christ is the substance of the gospel. God made Christ wisdom from God, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption so that he who boasts should boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:30-31). "Christ crucified" is shorthand for Christ's work on our behalf. The Book of Acts frequently summarized the gospel in terms of Christ's resurrection as well (e.g., Acts 17:31). Christ's humiliation culminated in his death. His resurrection encapsulates his glorious exaltation. Preaching must proclaim "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), but it can do so only through the lens of Christ crucified and risen. Preaching Christ is both part of the definition of preaching and it determines the manner of preaching. Preaching is from Christ, through Christ, and to Christ because preaching is the primary means through which the Father brings us to himself through his Word and Spirit.
Preaching must be in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. 2:5). The Spirit's power in preaching is connected to the content of preaching. Preaching must proclaim God's Word rather than man's word. Preachers must proclaim the wisdom of God which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:6-9). These are not the hidden things of the future, but the revealed things of the present (v. 10, 13). The Spirit reveals God through Christ through divine revelation. Yet preaching in the Spirit's power involves not only proclaiming the Spirit's revelation of God in Christ. Ministers need the Spirit to work to change hearers through conversion, growth, and perseverance. They need the Spirit to enflame their own hearts with love to the Christ whom they preach as well. Through receiving the Spirit of God, believers receive spiritual things, with spiritual discernment, for the spiritual knowledge of Christ (1 Cor. 2:12-16). Preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and of power is tied inextricably to preaching Christ and him crucified. The Spirit blesses preaching Christ in order to make the hearts of believers echo what he has revealed about Christ.
This passage leads to several important conclusions about preaching. We need the Holy Spirit in order to make preaching effective. We should pray for the Spirit's blessing on the preaching and the hearing of the gospel. Preachers must cull from their sermons everything that does not pertain to the Spirit's power in preaching. Rhetoric in preaching is a means of making preaching an effective vehicle of communicating the gospel clearly in order to bring us to God. It is not an end in itself. We must filter all sermons through the goal of preaching Christ and him crucified. Preachers must preach the whole counsel of God in relation to Christ. Preaching must be done in demonstration of the Spirit and of power and preaching Christ and him crucified is the means through which the Spirit exercises his power.
