What Should We Preach?
by Mike Schmidt
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 2, June 1995
Much has been said and written lately about preaching and teaching. Some see a “new apostasy” underway, with this departure being fueled by a change in what is being preached. Some have taken lists of topics from meeting announcements and complained that there was too much preaching on the family, drugs, alcohol, self-esteem, sex, etc., and not enough preaching of “the gospel.” What should we preach? Are we on the verge of a new apostasy?
Perhaps, but another explanation and evaluation can be placed upon the supposed shift in preaching. Perhaps some of those who complain that we ought to “go back to the Bible” should take a closer look at what God’s servants did in similar situations, rather than appealing to the homiletics of the 1940s.
Nehemiah restored the place and type of worship
It is probably unnecessary to recount the whole background of Nehemiah 8. The Jews had recently returned to the land after the captivity and began rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. They hadn’t been keeping the Law before the captivity, much less during and since. Many of them had never even lived in the land.
In the seventh month, the people gathered before Ezra the scribe, and he stood on a pulpit high above them, reading all morning from the book of the Law. When he began, the people all stood up and answered "Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands; and they bowed their head, and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8·: 1-6). (Try that in most assemblies today!) Then we have a Bible definition of good preaching or teaching. "And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly [with an interpretation]; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8). These people heard the Word. These people who did not know the commandments of the Lord, but who loved Him and wanted to do right, heard it and wept, vowing to keep it.
Malachi restored personal holiness and purity of motive
The sin of Nehemiah’s day was in forsaking the law of God with respect to worship. They were willing to do right; they needed to start doing it. By the time we reach the days of Malachi, the walls and the Temple had been restored, and the people were back to “business as usual.” On first glance, many preachers today would have left them alone - after all, they were “worshipping” correctly. God, though, gave Malachi a “burden” concerning them: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then lama father where is my honor?” They were doing the right things, but actually cheating God because their hearts did not cleave to Him. They viewed His law as a “weariness.” God called for someone to shut the doors of the very sanctuary He had commanded them to rebuild (Malachi 1:6-13; .2:13; 4:3-6). They, too, needed restoration, but restoration of a very different kind than Ezra’s day: restoration of personal holiness and purity of motive.
While this distinction between Nehemiah’s (Ezra’s) and Malachi’s preaching may not be total, it is still there; and rather than arguing about it, we need to be willing to preach “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). While denominational false teachers may be guilty of preaching only their pet doctrines and traditions, we also may be guilty that of neglecting what the people need. We blame them and say it is only what they “want,” and keep teaching what we prefer or are familiar with.
What do people need?
From 100 years ago until about 20 years ago, American society was basically religious, and a command standard of morality was accepted, if not lived by. This being the case, what needed to be preached was doctrinal purity - a return to proper doctrine and worship. Today, the issues have changed. Society is secular and immoral. People’s lives, both Christian and non-Christian, are in a chaotic shambles. Being correct about the worship of the corporate church and certain doctrinal matters is far from people’s minds, and frankly, rightly so. What they need is teaching on personal holiness and “social” sins. People today sin in the areas of home and family, sins of the heart and personal morality, and need the most help from the gospel in these areas. It is producing a harvest of immorality and depression, and people need to repent. But how can they repent of these sins if we are preaching on issues that don’t concern them or touch their weakness?
Preachers are upset when another preacher goes to a denominational church and doesn’t specifically preach about the sins of that denomination. What about the sins of the people where they preach? Will he focus on those sinners and their sins, or preach on things that are of no immediate concern to anyone there except other preachers or editors?
Some of us need to learn the lesson of Acts 2 and 17: Peter and Paul preached totally different kinds of sermons to groups with different sins and needs. To the religious Jews, Paul preached from the Old Testament; to the Gentiles, no Scripture was quoted, but Paul appealed to natural theology. Some today would chastise Paul for not preaching the “Old Jerusalem Gospel.”
It is true, of course, that true and proper worship of God will help produce orderly lives and morality; and it is also true that teaching about personal character is “doctrine,” but we can’t overlook the fact that many people need to be taught the “basics” in this area before they can worship properly.
Is it the “social gospel” to preach on matters such as the home and personal godliness? Not if that is what the people need; not if that is where the sin lies. It isn’t the social gospel unless the thrust of the teaching stops on the earth, and doesn’t point to repentance and heaven.
More people today will be lost for divorce and envy than for not understanding the autonomy of the local church, and those who don’t teach so that they can turn from sin will be held responsible.
What should we preach? Following the examples of Nehemiah (Ezra) and Malachi, Peter and Paul, we need to preach according to the sins of the day, not what others have preached in the past, or even what we may want to preach.
