Remembering why we preach the Bible

When a minister comes to the end of their time serving in a church, it is a time for reflection. For me, 15 years as Senior Minister of Chalmers Church in Edinburgh is coming to an end, and I find myself in reflective mood.

In his book Transforming Preaching (Christian Focus), David Jackman reminds us that the health and effectiveness of both our individual Christian lives and our corporate church communities are directly dependent on the ministry of God’s word. Prayer and the ministry of the word are the indispensable core of all Christian ministry.

This is because Christian ministry is derived from Christ and exercised under His authority, which means according to His declared priorities. Preaching and teaching the Bible was Jesus’ priority. Early in His public ministry, faced with the plight of humanity and its desperate need, Jesus withdrew to pray and resolved that preaching was his priority (Mark 1:35-39). Likewise, Jesus commissioned His apostles to preach (Mark 3:13-19). And as the apostolic age came to an end, the apostles commissioned Christian ministers to preach the word (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

Preaching and teaching the Bible is not only the indispensable core of Christian ministry, it is really hard work. The apostle Paul, affirming his commitment to proclaim Christ, describes it as exacting, strenuous work, taking all his spiritual energy (Col. 1:28-29). Writing to Timothy, who was hard pressed in his role as leader of the church in Ephesus, Paul charges him before God, and in light of the return of Jesus, to preach the word (2 Tim. 4:1-2). The charge is preceded by a lengthy explanation of how tough ministry is. A Christian minister is a soldier, athlete, farmer, workman, pure vessel, and servant of all (2 Tim. 2). If we think of this as a portrait of the Christian minister, the picture on the portrait is of a preacher or Bible teacher. In their preparation, preaching and teaching, preachers and Bible teachers are engaged in warfare, giving their all as athletes, working hard, contending in their lives for godliness that they might be useful to the Lord, engaged in sacrificial service.

One of the most significant developments in the church in the UK over the last 50 years has been the renewed commitment to expository preaching. This simply means a conviction to bring out what’s there in the Bible text, the truth and the transformational intent. Or, expressed in another way, to preach the Bible as God has inspired it – saying what God says, in the way He says it, for the reason He says it, so that God’s voice is clearly heard. That’s hard work. It takes a workman to ‘correctly handle the word of truth’ (2 Tim. 2:15). As an aside, while the case for expository preaching has been made persuasively, perhaps the next phase is to listen together to critique, so that we might do it better, particularly in the areas of application and transformation.

Over the last 15 years, I have always found it hard to keep preaching and teaching the Bible as the priority. Not because I needed convincing, just because of the relentless demands of the job. And after many years preaching, the work of preparation is as hard as ever.

There have been spells over the last 15 years when the toil and struggle, the spiritual battle of preparing to preach week after week, have been overwhelming.

A number of things have helped me to keep going. First, simple obedience to what God’s word says. Returning again and again to the Pastoral Epistles, to be reminded what God says ministry is. Whenever I do that, or teach others, it inspires me to reset. Second, sharing preaching and teaching the Bible with others in the church. In the early days that was with one or two others, entrusting them with the ministry of the word, and helping them to do it. Over time, that number has grown, as more people were equipped and encouraged to preach and teach. Third, realising what a privilege it is to be entrusted to preach. Fourth, being changed through the prayerful, and oftentimes painful, process of preparation. Fifth – and this has been the most impactful – remembering the reason God has determined that prayer and the ministry of the word is the indispensable core of Christian ministry. It’s how God changes lives. It’s how God changes the people He has given you to love, as a pastor-teacher, into the ever-increasing likeness to Christ. It’s how God changes me.

Why we preach and teach the Bible is a repeated emphasis in the apostles’ teaching about Christian ministry, because those of us called to this ministry need to hear, and take to heart, the reason ‘why’. So, for example, the charge to ‘preach the word’ in 2 Timothy 4:2 is preceded and followed by explanations of the purpose – to save and change people. In Colossians 1:28-29, Paul’s commitment to preach Christ, with the willingness to give all his energy to it, is because of what God achieves – ‘that we may present everyone mature in Christ’. What a glorious reason to keep on preaching and teaching the Bible. What a glorious and precious promise to stand on: that as we preach and teach the Bible faithfully, God is transforming us and the people we serve and love, into the likeness of Christ, an unstoppable, grace-filled transformation, that God will bring to completion in the perfection of the New Creation.