The Ministry of the Mystery: What Good Is Preaching?

In Ephesians 3:8, the Apostle Paul declares: Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. We often hear the word “ministry” today; we hear it used in every imaginable way and hear it used to describe every conceivable Christian activity. In fact, it seems like there are more “ministries” today than one would think even possible. But God has given one primary ministry of the Church in this age. This ministry is the one that will produce real growth and development in believers. This ministry is one that must never be replaced. This ministry is called: preaching.

Preaching is something that has been in recent years totally misunderstood. Many Christians, not to mention preachers, ironically enough, do not know what preaching really is, despite the fact that no ministry is spoken of more in Scripture but emphasized less in the present day. This fact continues to amaze me after thirty years of ministry. How can something so evident, so obvious, be so ignored?

One word translated preach in the New Testament is the powerful Greek word kerussō. Paul used this word in his parting challenge to Timothy. He told him that in the face of apostasy (II Tim. 3) there was only one thing to do: Preach the Word (II Tim. 4:2‑4). This verb literally means “to announce or to publicly herald.” The noun form kērux (I Tim. 2:7; II Tim. 1:11; II Pet. 2:5) refers to the Imperial Herald who represented the emperor or king and announced his wishes. This word is formal, grave, serious, and authoritative. It is used of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostles and teachers. The herald was not like an ambassador who might “negotiate;” he was a representative of the king and would simply announce the king’s decrees. The words of the herald were to be listened to, for to ignore his words would be to ignore the king’s words, and to abuse the herald was to abuse the king. While this word is sometimes used to refer to others besides the full‑time preacher, it is not used of public preaching and teaching by anyone other than the full‑time preacher. As we’ll study in 4:11, this further challenges us that only called, qualified, trained, and ordained preachers should preach.

The word in our text, however, is the Greek euangellizō, “To proclaim good or joyful news.” This word—along with the noun form euangellion—is used abundantly to show the proclaiming of the Gospel by God’s chosen vessels. And, as one might think, it is never used for anyone other than full‑time preachers and angels.

What, then, is preaching? Put simply: Preaching is the exposition (i.e. detailed explanation) and application of God’s Word from the preacher to the people.

The expositions that you read in this column were taken right from messages preached on consecutive Sunday mornings. True preaching not only explains God’s word according to: (1) the original language, (2) Scriptural context, and (3) historical setting, but it also (4) applies that truth to Christian living, showing us what God demands from us. To shorten our definition even further, true preaching is the presentation and application of Truth.

To apply our definition, there is absolutely nothing more important, or even equal in importance, than preaching. I want to be loving and do not wish to offend, but it must be made clear that there is nothing equal to preaching. Regardless of what nationally famous Christian leader might say to the contrary, the Biblical fact is that preaching is God’s chosen method of proclaiming His Truth.

There are countless things today, however, that are being used to replace preaching: films, comedians, dramas and plays, so–called “Bible studies” that consist of people just sharing their feelings and opinions of what a given Bible text says to them, Christian music concerts, crowd pleasing personalities and activities, panel discussions and debates, various church programs, and many others. But the Word of God is plain in showing that preaching must never be replaced, nor does it need man’s ideas and programs to supplement it. J. Sidlow Baxter writes in his excellent book, Rethinking Our Priorities: “Preaching . . . is the gravity center of the Christian pastorate.” By implication, without preaching we shift the weight of ministry and become unbalanced, our whole “center of gravity” has shifted to something else. We’ll continue these thoughts next time.