Proclaiming the Word

Titus 1:3

January 8, 2006

 

In the mid-19th century, J. W. Alexander, Presbyterian preacher and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, mused on the lack of understanding of God's Word by the Christians of his day. He wrote that the knowledge of the Scriptures possessed by "that of the Scottish peasantry of the last generation" far surpassed that of his own day. He explained the reason: they, "from very infancy, were taught to follow the preacher, in their little Bibles, as he expounded in regular course." He further makes this recommendation. "If long habit had not prepossessed us, we should doubtless agree at once to the proposition, that all the more cardinal books of Scripture should be fully expounded in every church, if not once during the life of a single preacher, certainly once during each generation; in order that no man should grow up without the opportunity of hearing the great body of scriptural truth laid open." And then he reflects, "There is something beautiful in the very idea of training up a whole congregation in the study of the holy Scriptures" [Thoughts on Preaching, 236-237].

 

But that was 150 years ago. What would Alexander think of our own day? He wrote from a time that had witnessed periods of spiritual awakening in America. Villages and cities flamed to life with the preaching of God's Word. There were problems and distortions, issues that Alexander addressed, yet compared with our own day, their grasp of Scripture far exceeded our own. A recent Barna report contends, "American Christians are biblically illiterate. Although most of them contend that the Bible contains truth and is worth knowing, and most of them argue that they know all of the relevant truths and principles, our research shows otherwise."[1] Much of the blame has been laid at the feet of sensory overload as Americans have access to more sights and sounds imaginable. Some might point to the busy lifestyles, on one hand and the increased recreational pursuits, on the other. I do think that all of these things have a part in American biblical illiteracy. Yet ultimately, it boils down to two issues: the failure of the pulpit to proclaim God's Word and the failure in the pew to put up with it. Every generation has a responsibility to proclaim, hear, and heed the gospel of Christ. God is pleased in every generation to reveal Himself through the proclamation of His Word. Yet every generation is one step away from spiritual darkness when the Word is not proclaimed and obeyed. How is the preaching of God's Word so significant for our day?

 

I. The timeliness of proclamation

 

Have you ever considered that Adam did not know what Abraham knew, and Abraham did not know what Jacob knew, and Jacob did not know what Moses knew concerning the living God? With every generation, step by step, the Lord revealed Himself to men. Revelation progressed through generation after generation until God the Son became one of us, lived among us, died on our behalf, and rose from the dead. Everything from Adam onward pointed toward God's final and complete revelation of Himself in His Son. Everything from the apostolic era to the present-day looks back to the revelation of God's Son. The revelation of Jesus Christ and the good news He brought to sinful men has been described as "the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints" (Col. 1:25). Paul's comments, as he introduced his letter to Titus, affirmed this.

 

1. God's providence

 

The Apostle had described his own life purpose to Titus, that of furthering "the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life." Faith, knowledge, and hope for the people of God kept Paul going through dangers and difficulties. We considered in our previous study that this faith and knowledge of the truth rested upon the hope of eternal life, demonstrated by the use of the preposition "upon" (epi). Further, this hope of eternal life rested upon the promise of the God who cannot lie. "Before the ages of [chronological] time," as the literal rendering would have it, God promised to Himself that He would grant eternal life to His elect people. Then came the fall in the Garden and the first indication of this promise in Genesis 3:15, the certainty that the Son of the woman would crush the serpent's head, while the serpent, would bruise His heal. That which was hidden in the mind of God from before the creation was now slowly being revealed. Just a snippet was shown at that point, yet Paul declares, that all along the way, "at the proper time [God] manifested, even His word."

 

The use of two words translated as "time" in verses 2-3 is instructive. First, is the word chronon, translated as "ages" in verse 2 but a word that indicates chronological time. Before chronological time existed, God promised eternal life for His elect. The second word, kairois, translated as "time" in verse 3, indicates an event or a period of time or a point of time. "At the proper time," or at its own significant, eventful time, God took action to reveal Himself and the answer to His promise made before time. Here's the point that Paul makes: God determined the points of revelation that would take place along the way until at just the right time, He revealed Jesus Christ. Every detail of divine revelation follows the guiding hand of the Sovereign Lord. His providence or governance of the affairs of history includes the revelation of the gospel.

 

So in God's providence, Jacob's generation had only a few inklings of how God would redeem sinners. Moses' generation had more, yet what they had was incomplete apart from the revelation that we have in the New Testament. Then, in the unfolding purposes of God, "When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal. 4:4-5). Though Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel preached the good news, they did so with limited understanding, looking for the day when God would fully reveal the gospel-His good news of redemption through His Son.

 

2. Continuity through the ages

 

And so it continued; what began as the first indication of the gospel in Genesis 3:15, continued with promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, foreshadowed in the tabernacle in the wilderness and the sacrificial system established by Moses, looked for by David, and foretold by the prophets, "at the proper time [God] manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior." Paul's use of this title to refer to God, "God our Savior," indicates His saving purpose in the grand work of revelation. God made the promise before time began and now revealed His redemptive mercy in the gospel. As John Stott put it, "In this way the world-wide preaching of the gospel throughout the historical process is the bridge which spans the two eternities of past promise and future fulfillment" [Guard the Truth, 170]. A continuity from eternity past to the vastness of the future through Christ is joined together in the timeliness of gospel proclamation. Every gospel sermon is a link with God's promise of eternal life, His securing it through the death and resurrection of Christ, and its enjoyment now and throughout eternity.

 

II. Mystery of proclamation

 

That puts gospel preaching, true gospel preaching, in a category of its own. We are moved by great orations. Patrick Henry's ability to persuade and motivate moved American colonists from a position of fear and complacency to action. Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" speech inspired Britain to persevere in the early days of WWII. Ronald Reagan's speech before the Berlin Wall challenged a revolution in Eastern Europe and brought an end to the Cold War. Yet as wonderful as those and other speeches are, and as great of an impact as they have had on their generations, gospel proclamation stands alone. It remains an oddity to the world. The Greeks thought it to be foolishness or moronic, yet "God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). Why does the world still look at gospel preaching as odd, even foolish? I realize that some have preached foolishly! They have distorted the gospel message, delved into legalism or theological aberration, and not appropriately represented the gospel message. I have heard some foolish sermons. I have no doubt that I've preached a few myself! But foolish sermons and the foolishness of preaching are totally different. God "at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior."

 

Paul uses the word kerugma for "proclamation." It came out of the Greek world in which kings and princes all had their heralds (kerukz) who represented them before their subjects, who spoke with their authority, and who had the responsibility to accurately relay their commands, wishes, and dictates. The heralds had no room to ad lib or offer their own opinions or water down the message. In an exacting way, they were to relay the message of their lord to his people.

 

Gospel proclamation does not differ. The heralds or preachers of the gospel have the same responsibility to relay the message of their Lord to His people and to those He would call to Himself through the gospel. And that is a continuing mystery of divine providence!

 

1. Special content

 

Gospel preaching is narrowly defined. Paul calls it quite simply, in this case, "His word." Every commentator that I read agreed that the context of how it was used, and Paul's meaning in this phrase is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not simply the Bible in general that is intended, as important as that is, rather it is the centrality of the gospel of Christ to all of Scripture. That was Paul's point of his own ministry. As a Pharisee, he had certainly been involved in studying, interpreting, and teaching the Old Testament Scriptures. But he had failed to see the focal point of Scripture as the revelation of Jesus Christ. Because he detached the revelation given to Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah from Jesus Christ, he could study, interpret, and teach the Scripture as an enemy of the gospel! He failed to see that the grand aim of Moses in the Law, David in the Psalms, and the prophets in the prophetic books pointed toward "the proper time" when God made known His eternal promise through Jesus Christ. He was a faulty Bible teacher. He had lots of knowledge, lots of information, and could impress hearers with his grasp of the law and prophets. But he failed to see that the mystery of God's revelation centered on Jesus Christ. As the writer of Hebrews explained, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" (Heb. 1:1-2).

 

Gospel preaching sees Jesus Christ as the focus of all biblical revelation. God's Word has not been given to us to aid our pursuit of healthy, happy lives. It has not been given to enable us to achieve success in business and the world. It has not been given to help us have a good self-image. It has not been given for the development of leadership strategies. We may find help in all of these things in the Bible-and that's fine, yet we can do so and miss the whole purpose of God's revelation. We can come up with biblical principles for living and laws for society, yet still be lost in our sin and under the wrath of God.

 

Here is precisely the great danger in our day. So much of the focus in pulpits centers on helping people to better themselves at home, in the workplace, and in society. There's nothing wrong with that if you are a civic club or a social agency. We have many socially adjusted, healthy self-imaged, and successful people who claim to have reached their particular strength through the Bible, and all the while have missed Christ. That's why Paul when writing to the Corinthians stated, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." He further explained, "My message and preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:1-5). He could have given them healthy rules for living in a dangerous city or the wise guidelines for happiness; instead he preached Christ crucified to them. He gave them the gospel. His instructions to them in practical areas of church life, family, and relationships maintained a Christ-centered focus. The challenge is no different in our own day. We preach the mystery of divine revelation when we preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead on behalf of sinners.

 

2. Unique event

 

Consider the enormity of Paul's statement. All God has been pleased to reveal concerning Himself and His saving work through His Son was "at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior." It is "in the proclamation" or the preaching of God's Word given to the apostles and prophets and preachers of that early era, and passed on through the centuries by proclamation, that God continues to make Himself and His will known. "Proclamation" of the gospel stands as the unique means that God has given to manifest or make clear His saving work. One writer put it, "Preaching is not a lecture on the nature of God's kingdom. It is proclamation, the declaration of an event" [TDNT, vol. III, 710]. That event is no less than the entry of God's Son into the world and His redemptive work at the cross. Every gospel sermon is an event that declares the supremacy and necessity of this "event."

 

Preaching styles differ as much as the personalities and backgrounds of gospel preachers differ. Yet true biblical proclamation maintains its continuity through the Christ-centered exposition of biblical texts. The preacher is a herald who has one primary responsibility, that of letting the text of Scripture speak with clarity and power. J. I Packer has explained, "The true idea of preaching is that the preacher should become a mouthpiece for his text, opening it up and applying it as a word from God to his hearers, talking only in order that the text may speak and be heard, making each point from his text in such a manner 'that the hearers may discern how God teacheth it from thence' (Westminster Directory, 1645)" [God Has Spoken, 28]. That's why it is a unique event. God is speaking to people through biblical proclamation as His Word is opened and expounded. Every gospel sermon is an encounter with the living God. So it must be taken seriously from both pulpit and pew. The gospel preacher must not use the pulpit to entertain his hearers or to impress them or to browbeat them or to draw attention to himself. He must deliver the message from God. Those in the pew must come prepared to hear from God through the weak, frail human vessel that delivers the message of God "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:4).

 

III. Stewardship of proclamation

 

Paul was emphatic: "in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior." The weight of such responsibility never left the apostle's thoughts. God had entrusted to him, and others, the manifestation of His gospel. We see this worked out in a series of questions that Paul asked the Romans after explaining the invitation of the gospel for all to believe. "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?" And then he gives the declaration, "Just as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!'" (Romans 10:14-15). Both pulpit and pew therefore have a stewardship when it comes to gospel proclamation.

 

1. God's calling

 

God's calling came to Paul, here described by the proclamation which was "entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior." God's command to him to preach the gospel constituted the divine call. "How will they preach unless they are sent?" Paul asked. In other words, how will one so weak be able to bear up under the weightiness of proclaiming the message of God? How can he accept such responsibility unless it has been given to him by the living God? Day after day, week after week, and year after year he bears the weight of gospel proclamation. Only that consciousness of the call of God sustains him. That call changes everything in his life. "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of," wrote Paul to the Corinthians, "for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Cor. 9:16). "Failure to obey that call would result in his suffering serious chastisement," explains John MacArthur. "The severest judgments are promised on unfaithful ministers (James 3:1)" [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Corinthians, 210].

 

God's call is both a burden and a comfort. The burden is found in the heavy responsibility of living and proclaiming the gospel. The preacher is on a mission from God. He answers to the One that sent him. So, as one explained, "If there is no sending, the preaching of Christ is propaganda, not mission" [TDNT, vol. III, 713]. The comfort comes in the midst of difficulties, trials, and opposition in knowing that God has set you apart to bear this responsibility and with His calling also come His grace to fulfill it.

 

2. Messenger's responsibility

 

The proclamation was "entrusted" to Paul, as it has been to others through the centuries. In this entrusting by God came the necessity of faithful proclamation or heralding the message of the gospel. Paul was not preaching himself, as he told the Corinthians, but "Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5). The issue is not the preacher and the extent of his gifts but the Word of God being faithfully expounded. "A preacher is not a reporter who recounts his own experiences. He is the agent of someone higher whose will he loudly and clearly makes known to the public" [TDNT, vol. III, 713]. Here is precisely where we run into major issues in the present day. Some preachers maintain their pulpits by the strength of their personalities or their ability to manipulate their hearers or by adopting the latest clever techniques in communication or by grandstanding and showmanship. The trust given by God demands reliance upon the power of the Word proclaimed rather than personal cleverness and ingenuity. Bryan Chapell offers some pointed comments that explain this.

Ultimately preaching accomplishes its spiritual purposes not because of the skills of the preacher, but because of the power of the Scripture proclaimed. Preachers will minister with greater zeal, confidence, and freedom when they realize God has taken from their backs the monkey of spiritual manipulation. God is not relying on our craft to accomplish his purposes. God certainly can use eloquence and desires efforts befitting the importance of our subject matter, but his Word itself fulfills his agenda of salvation and sanctification. The human efforts of the greatest preachers are still too weak and sin-tainted to be responsible for others' eternal destinies. For this reason God infuses his Word with spiritual power. The efficacy of the message rather than any virtue in the messenger transforms hearts [Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 18].


3. Hearer's accountability

 

That leaves us with one last consideration. If God has chosen to reveal His gospel by means of proclamation through the human instruments that He has entrusted with this responsibility, then how are those who hear the Word proclaimed to respond? It is for the faith of those chosen of God, for their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, all built upon the hope of eternal life (vv. 1-2) that God has given us preachers of the gospel. So we cannot take hearing lightly. God has spoken through His Word. We cannot neglect this with impunity. Let us hear Him and obey.

 

Conclusion

 

Preaching carries no less responsibility now than in the 1st century; nor does hearing and heeding. Let us make the most of gospel preaching by receiving the word in readiness to follow Christ as Lord.

 

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