In his book Preaching with Confidence, James Daane tells of an amusing incident. He says:

As I entered the pulpit one Sunday morning, a small boy whispered to his mother, “There's God.” After the service, the mother related the incident to me with obvious amusement. I, too, found it amusing. But reflecting on the incident later I was reminded of the mysterious words of Jesus, “He who hears you hears me” (Luke 10:16). In the sober light of these words the faulty religious perceptions of a small boy reflected biblical truth in a way that the amusement of his mother did not.¹

Dr. Daane goes on to say, “A preacher is not God, of course.”² I am sure we would all agree to that. Nonetheless, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's Directory for the Public Worship of God says, “In the sermon God addresses the congregation by the mouth of his servant” (art. 3, sec. 3).

The Bible at the Center⤒🔗

One of the things stressed by the Reformers of the sixteenth century was the concept of sola Scriptura.

They translated the Bible into the language of the people and put it in their hands. At the same time, they put the pulpit (instead of the sacraments) at the center of the church's worship.

The Word of God is one of the means of grace, and they understood, in the words of the Shorter Catechism, that:

the Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation (Q. 89).

For Martin Luther and John Calvin, nothing was more important than the preaching of God's Word. ³ In this they were recovering the perspective of the apostles, especially Paul.

We live in an age when once again preaching is falling on hard times. Evangelicals have expended a great deal of energy defending a high view of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, but have failed in large measure to combine it with a high view of preaching. The terms preach and preacher have fallen into disrepute. People say, “Don't preach to me.” All too often there is good reason for this. Far too many Christians, including ministers, regard the sermon as just another message with no special authority. The preacher is not seen as having a message to declare and the authority to say “Thus saith the Lord” – to call upon people to repent, to believe, to obey. The pulpit is just another platform or lectern, and all too often it is a private stage upon which to perform in an entertaining fashion.

A Message from God←⤒🔗

The First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians is one of the earliest of his writings. In it, he writes to the young church in Thessalonica about the preaching he did in that city. In 1:5 he declares,

Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

In chapter 2 he relates that he had come to Thessalonica from Philippi, where he had been beaten and imprisoned for preaching. Yet he had boldness in God to proclaim the gospel to the Thessalonians amid much opposition (2:2). In verse 4 he adds,

Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak.

Paul did not see himself as some religious leader who had thought up a new system to proclaim. His message was from God. Furthermore, his message had God's stamp of approval. God had set him apart for this task.

Verse 9 is important, for there Paul reminds the Thessalonians, “We proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” Here Paul uses a New Testament term for preaching. Preaching is proclaiming the gospel. Paul sees himself as a herald – an official spokesman for God, the King. He was sent out like heralds of old to cry, “Hear ye! Hear ye! This is the king's law, what he expects of his subjects.” The herald never gives his own message. He is the spokesman for the king. He proclaims what the king has decreed. All this brings us to verse 13, which is the key passage for our consideration. Paul says,

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

Effective Preaching←⤒🔗

In Acts 17:2-9 we read of Paul's ministry in Thessalonica. There was a synagogue of the Jews in that city,

and according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ'  (vss. 2-3).

Paul was proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, and he was using the Scriptures – that is, the Bible of his day – to set forth this message. There were people in Thessalonica who were persuaded and who believed. So effective was the preaching of Paul and his companions that the Jews were jealous and caused a riot. They claimed that these men had upset the world with their teaching.

What does Paul say about his preaching in Thessalonica? He says that the believers “received from us the word of God's message” – but he goes even further. He says they received it “not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Paul's preaching was effective, not because he was a great religious expert or because he had some special religious experience to share, but because men heard from him not the words of man, but of God. His preaching was “an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation” (Shorter Catechism, Q. 89).

Can we have men who will turn the world upside down today by their preaching? Some will say that Paul could preach the way he did because he was an apostle. Indeed, Paul was an official eyewitness of the resurrected Lord. He was one of the foundation stones of the church. He wrote books, such as 1 Thessalonians, which were inspired. They are the Word of God. We can see how Paul's preaching was not the words of man, but really the words of God.

It is true that modern-day preachers are not apostles. They are to build on the foundation of the apostles, with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, but they do not have the same apostolic authority. Nevertheless, the modern-day preacher still has the authoritative Word of God. He does build on the foundation that has been laid, but he builds not with his own wisdom or his own religious ideas. Rather, he builds with the authority of God's Word, and when he declares that Word, he speaks for God. True preaching cannot be severed from the Word of God. The preacher declares, “Thus saith the Lord.” As long as he stands on God's written Word, as long as he faithfully expounds that Word, he can and should expect those who hear in faith to hear God's word for their life.

How will the church find and train such preachers? Only as she holds before her sons the high calling of being spokesmen for God and as she demands from her preachers not dialogue or sharing or religious drama, but true proclamation of the Word of God.