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 Expository Preaching Blog #22 – “Do I Know More Than God?”

Many of my blog posts are born out of frustration and negative experiences. This is another one of those blog posts. On a recent morning I sat in a Sunday service of a nearby church. It was the first time I had ever attended there. They were concluding a yearlong series from the Book of Hebrews. Great I thought, it is expository verse by verse through the Book of Hebrews. Maybe the rest of the year was expository but this morning sure wasn’t. Then the preacher took the last 5 verses of Hebrews and demolished them.

I had listened to the senior pastor on line for a couple of sermons and he did pretty well. It truly was expository preaching. Not very dynamic but he kept to the text. The Sunday we attended the Student Pastor was finishing up the yearlong series on the Book of Hebrews. He did not preach what was in the passage. He did not preach God’s Word but he preached his own words. Instead of preaching on “Jesus Christ … that great Shepherd of the sheep” he spent much of his time on himself and earthly shepherds (pastors) and their role and his experiences. This passage is not talking about earthly shepherds at all so why was he? This is what I mean about sticking to the text. Don’t preach what is not there and do preach what is there.

I do not understand how preachers say they preach the Bible when they make it all up. They preach what they think the Bible stays instead of what the Bible truly does say. If Jesus was physically listening to most preaching, He would say “That is not what I said!” God says it the way He says it. Nothing more and nothing less.

They create their own outlines. They make their own points. They say what they want to say not what God says. Who can say it better than God Himself? Who has more authority in life and from the scriptures than God does? God is God. God is holy. God is omniscient. God is perfect. God is eternal. No human can say any of those things about himself. Man is human. Man is a sinner, totally depraved. Man is totally limited both in knowledge and understanding. Man is sinful. Man falls short everywhere he turns. God is mighty, true and the bread of life. Why would we preach moldy crumbs when we have the Words of Life from the creator of the universe? How can we do any better than to preach Jesus Christ, died on the cross, buried in the grave, risen for the grave and coming again?

When a man distorts God’s Word and changes it for his own words, he is putting himself above God. He is saying that he knows more than God. He says that he can say it better than the way that God said it. Really? I would be afraid of preaching my own words in place of God’s Word.

I am passionate about expository preaching. I am committed to preaching the Bible the way that God wrote it by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How or why can we do anything else? Preach the Word. Be instant in season and out of season. May God help us!

 

Rev. David Johnson

Former Pastor

First Baptist Church of Austin, MN

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