Preaching Conveys God’s Intent

Over the years, one of the most common objections I have heard against expository preaching is that it can seem dry and boring. I must confess that this complaint is not altogether unfounded. Most of us have probably listened to a supposedly "expository" sermon that more than lived up to that description. In some cases, this "dryness" may even be intentional. Seeking to avoid tendencies of our modern age toward emotional manipulation and sensationalism, we find ourselves trying to expunge all traces of emotional appeal from our sermons. While we may have accepted our role of proclaiming God's message in a text, we often become fixated on getting a passage's content correct and neglect to consider and urge the kind of response that God intended. However, teaching that focuses on answering the "What?" without addressing the "Why?" does not complete the task of proclaiming God's message.

God has not communicated to mankind so that men might have more knowledge. Rather, when He revealed Himself and His will to men, He also insisted that men respond in humility, faith, and, ultimately, love. This expected response was a theme of the book of Deuteronomy and its repeated appeals to obey and love God. God had revealed His power, His holiness, His covenant faithfulness, etc. so that His people might "do all the words of this law." (Deu. 29:30). We are told that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," precisely because it goes beyond mere knowledge and reflects the ordering of our wills and our lives by the truth God has revealed concerning Himself. Christ urged His listeners not just to hear His words but to do them. Those who failed to respond to His words and put them into practice were "foolish" and like a man who builds a house upon the sand (Mat. 7:28). And of course, New Testament believers are urged to be "doers of the Word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). Throughout the Scriptures God's message to man includes the demand for a proper response of the heart and will.

Paul's letters illustrate this expectation of a response to God's truth. Although he wrote many rich passages steeped in valuable doctrine, Paul was not content just to point out the truths. Instead, he faithfully moved from the "do you not know...?" teaching sections to the "therefore..." applications and ramifications. And this expectation was not only for the specific doctrines he was explaining to his readers. The apostle held that "whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction" with the expectation that it would produce encouragement and stimulate hope (Ro. 15:4). When he gave Timothy the directive to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all... teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2), he did not do it because of a personal preference in ministry style. Rather, he urged the young pastor to preach in these ways because he was convinced the very Scriptures themselves were designed for such things (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Paul also understood that the average listener is not inclined to listen well (2 Tim. 4:3). So, while he did encourage Timothy to be faithful in declaring true doctrine, he did not want Timothy to be content with being a detached teacher. He called him to preach in a way that conveyed the urgency of a proper response to God's revealed truth.

All these examples from Scripture lead us to conclude that we cannot separate the message of a text from its transformational intent any more than we can separate faith from obedience. To communicate God's full message, we must convey both the content and the intent of a biblical passage. This need is present even if we consider ourselves to "be more of a teacher than a preacher." Regardless of what word we might use to describe our style, we are not "neutral" proclaimers of the truth. Pastors are not journalists or scientists who should strive to report the facts with indifference or impartiality. We are to be like ambassadors who plead (2 Cor. 5:20), motivators who urge (1 Tim. 6:2), leaders who rebuke (Titus 1:9; 2 Tim. 4: 2), relatives who encourage (1 Tim. 5:1), laborers who gently correct (2 Tim. 2:25) and elders who warn and admonish (Acts 20:31). We are shepherds tasked with the responsibility to convey God's truth in its fullness and promoting the change that the Scriptures intend. This will demand that our emotions convey the emotions of the message, and that the intent of our sermon reflects the intent of the passage.

Of course, this call to invest emotionally in our preaching comes with a warning. We are not to preach for the transformation that we want to see, but that which God intends through the text. We must carefully "listen" to the tone of the passage and try to reflect that same tone in our sermons. Whether the text is one of encouragement or rebuke, praise or lament, the tone and intent of our sermon should be shaped by the tone and intent of the text. If we do this well, we will be faithful stewards of God's Word and partners in God's purpose to shape the minds and hearts of our congregations.