Expository Preaching Blog #47 – “God Doesn’t Clone, God Creates”

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No one understands the mind, heart and thinking of a pastor unless they are a pastor. It is a unique role and a unique position and responsibility. They have a different and distinct view of their church and their congregation that no one else has or can comprehend. A pastor is always thinking about his church and his congregation. As he prepares a sermon that is on his mind. But any honest pastor should realize that every member of his congregation is different. He should also honestly understand that he knows little about each member. He only knows what that member allows him to know.

In this understanding he needs to stop and realize that God has never created two totally identical people. Everyone sitting in a service listening to him preach or teach is different from the person sitting next to them in the pew. God does not clone people, God creates people. Therefore one size does not fit all and your message is but one message for dozens or hundreds or thousands of people. How do you prepare a sermon that can meet the needs of all the listeners at one time? You can’t but God can.

This is why we must preach God’s Word, verse by verse and thought by thought. My words are limited finite human words. But God’s Word is unlimited, supernatural, word of deity. Our words never come close to the words of God. That is why we must, absolutely must preach His Word and not our words.

Jesus taught the 12 apostles. Jesus taught 100’s of disciples. Jesus preached to thousands of people. He spoke differently in different settings. In the small group of apostles He taught intimate things and explained His large discourses. In the larger groups He spoke of His heavenly father and the kingdom of God. He often quoted Old Testament scriptures and explained those scriptures. On the road to Emmaus He taught the scriptures. In Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost Peter preached much from the Old Testament. He used the Old Testament to show who Jesus Christ was and why they needed to believe on Him. In the Book of Romans Paul recalls many times passages from the Old Testament.

My point is this. Every person is totally different from every other person. How do we teach and preach to such a diverse group. It is by teaching and preaching the Word of God verse by verse and thought by thought. We have no way of having an accurate knowledge of what is needed in any size group, but God does. His Word is supernatural like no other book in the world. We have the Holy Spirit who will teach and bring us into all truth. It is not our words but it is His words. God has created all kinds of distinctive people but God has also created the Word of God for those same people. We just need to preach it and teach it until Jesus Christ returns for His own.

 

 

Rev. David Johnson

Former Pastor

First Baptist Church of Austin, MN

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