The Heart of Preaching

By Jeff A. Jenkins

The Word of God mentions 3,237 different people by name! It is also true that there are many people mentioned in the Bible, but we do not know their names. What is sometimes confusing is that only 1,794 of these people have a unique name.

With thousands of people mentioned in Scripture, only thirteen of these received the designation, Man of God. This term is typically applied to God’s prophets. It is first assigned to Moses first in Deuteronomy 33:1.

Man of God is referenced only two times in our New Testament. In the first of these two mentions, the Apostle Paul refers to his young protégé’, Timothy as a man of God. “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). In the second occurrence, Paul speaks of the relation of a man of God with Scripture. “So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).

At The heart of preaching is a man of God who understands and cherishes his closeness with God, the Word of God, and the people of God.

At the heart of preaching is a man of God who has experienced closeness with God. It is imperative that a man of God is right with God. At the heart of preaching is a man who chases after “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness!”

Our audience will very quickly sense if the preacher has internalized this message. Conviction is more caught than taught. The preacher's sincerity will be more effective than his arguments.

The world's message to the preacher is clear:

The world's message to the preacher is clear: "Show me that you are redeemed, and I will believe in your Redeemer!" It isn’t just telling the world we are redeemed, it’s showing it by our life. Preachers must avoid the two extremes of isolation of the present world and imitation of the present world. The "holier-than-thou" preacher will not be effective any more than the "worldlierthan-thou" one.

At the Heart of preaching is a man who has experienced closeness with the Word of God. The Bible is more than a sourcebook for sermons and classes; it must be viewed as living water. As men of God, we often speak to the same audience, the audience. That being true, the audience will take on the preacher’s personality as well as his views of God, life, and the scriptures.

We must be great students who love the Word if the people are to be properly nourished. The preacher is not the inventor of the Word but merely a trustee. He must humble himself to receive it, be concerned enough to share it, and be committed enough to guard it with his whole heart.

God’s man should be bold and fearless. There is always a temptation to "water down" and compromise the message. One of the outstanding characteristics of the preaching in Acts is the boldness and fearlessness with which it was presented. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

A story is related about Hugh Latimer which illustrates the need for fearless preaching. Hugh Latimer was preaching once before Henry VIII, he was overheard to say to himself as he mounted the pulpit stairs: 'Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! You must take care what you say, for the great King Henry VIII is here!' Then for a moment, he paused and was heard to add, 'Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! You must take care what you say, for the Kings of kings is here!' (Perry, Biblical Preaching, p 185).

It is natural for the preacher to be fearful in view of difficult situations. Paul felt the same when he went to Corinth, but he still preached the Word. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power” (I Corinthians 2:1-5). He did not compromise or make excuses. He simply preached the truth in love!

At the heart of preaching is a man who has experienced closeness with the people of God. Paul believed that the opportunity to preach the Gospel was a gift from God, but it was for others. Listen to his words of grace to the Ephesians. “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you” (Ephesians 3:1-2).

I am arrested by those two huge little words, “FOR YOU.” May God help every one of His men to understand the weight of that statement. It must never be about us; it always for the Lord and for others. It is important for us to know the people, love the people, and live with the people, so that preaching can really minister to the people's needs.

Sometimes preachers tend to "scratch where the people do not itch!" Being with people during the heartbreaks of life (death, desertion, loss of job, emotional breakdowns) develops an empathy for people.

We have a feeling Savior and His men will also feel and understand those to whom we preach. “Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mere and find grace (Hebrews 4:14-16).

James Steward ties together the attitude that the preacher should have toward others. “Unless something of the evangelist's life-blood goes into his quest for souls and into the word he brings them from the Lord, the quest remains fruitless and the word devoid of delivering power” (Heralds of God, p. 199).

Some preachers have plenty of degrees, but no temperature! Brothers, we must never get to the place where we trust our training or our experience more than we trust God! “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (I Corinthians 4:7). “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (I Corinthians 1:9).

May God help us never forget that at the heart of preaching is a man of God who has experienced closeness with God, His Word, and His people.

By Jeff A. Jenkins, tji@thejenkinsinstitute.com

Preaching from the Heart

There are two inescapable truths about the heart of preaching.

First, the heart of preaching must be Christ himself, for there is no good news to proclaim apart from our Savior.

And second, the heart of preaching must come from our heart if it is to have its intended effect. Although sometimes the message transcends the flaws of the messengers, most of our fellow human beings will not accept as true for them a life that is evidently false in us.

Preaching Christ both purely and personally is the great task before us as Christians. Accomplishing that task will naturally result if three things are true.

First, the Gospels should be so much the object of our study and thought that the words and actions of Christ become a permanent part of our own minds. Paul told the Christians at Rome to be ‘transformed” by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). Using the same verb, Paul told the Corinthian Christians that we are “transformed” by “beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The verb translated by the ESV and many