Continued...

If you're a bit intimidated by it all, you're in good company. Who wouldn't be, with all that's been happening in the ministry lately? Whenever a group of preachers gets together, it seems that the main topics of conversation are lamentations about burnout, pressure, workload, critical church members, and the like. Yet when I listen to people in the pew, I hear another side to the story: the observation that far too many pastors lack the "minimum daily requirements" of professional competence. Now add to that all the unreal expectations when the local pastor is compared to the glamorous and successful media ministry stars, and you have a recipe for inadequacy among those in the ministry, and for a sense of foreboding among anyone contemplating the call to preach.

While it is not easy to remedy the problems of pastors already in the ministry, some simple "preventive reflection" may help those pondering entrance into the ministry. I've written this essay for anyone asking questions like these:

• What does it mean to be "called," and how do I know if I am?
• Why should I consider the ordained ministry? Can't I serve my Lord and Savior effectively as a layman?
• I get nervous praying at men's Bible study; I get the cold sweats making a five-minute "speech to inform." I don't know if I could ever preach a sermon.
• I'm thinking about just being an ordinary pastor. I don't want to be a professor of theology. Why do I need to attend three or four years of seminary, and study Greek and Hebrew?

Obviously, not all of the possible questions are covered in this list, but you get the idea. I hope to help you sort through the pitfalls and keep a clear focus on the important issues you must face as you consider whether God has called you to the gospel ministry.

I've divided this essay into four areas: the priority of preaching, the meaning of ordination, "calling" to the ministry, and the whys and wherefores of seminary training. In each case, I'll walk you through the issues with Scripture as the guide to our understanding and as the norm for our practice.

PREACHING: WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

By this point, you may be wondering about the heavy emphasis on preaching in preparation for the ministry. This will be especially true if you belong to a church whose worship is long on liturgy and short on the sermon, or if you hear preaching that is just plain long (but short on biblical quality!), or if in your experience, preaching is pleasant religious talk-nice, but not necessary. You should know that I, as a Reformed pastor, view preaching as the throbbing pulse of the ministry. Unless a minister preaches, in my estimation, he's not doing his job, and he's probably not doing much worth writing home about, period. If he preaches, he'd better do it well, or he's quenching the Spirit and shriveling the faith of God's people. I hope you catch such a vision as you read these pages, because I believe the Bible teaches that there is no task assigned to the New Testament church and to her pastors that is more compelling than preaching the gospel. Miss this and you lose sight of the character of the church, the key to evangelism, and ultimately the means to salvation itself!

Let's look together at how Scripture views preaching.

Old Testament Foundations

Preaching, as we know it in the New Testament church, had its roots in the work of the prophets of the Old Covenant. A preacher ought to feel goose bumps at the exalting cry of Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

The prophet certainly isn't talking about pretty feet, feet lacking corns, bunions, calluses, and stubbed and bloody toes. He's talking about preaching, about the wonderful messenger-feet that carry the Word of the Lord to God's people.

That's how the Old Testament portrays the prophets: heralds of the Word of the Lord. Official messengers of the King Almighty, the Word they bear brings life to all who receive it in faith, but judgment and curse to all who reject it. Listen to what God says in Deuteronomy 18:18-19:

I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

This description of the prophet as the bearer of God's life-or-death Word is personified nowhere more clearly than in the ministry of Elisha. In 2 Kings 2:19-25, after narrating the transfer of the mantle (symbolic of commission to prophetic office) from Elijah to Elisha, the inspired writer describes the first two episodes in the ministry of Elisha. The first, healing the water of Jericho, certifies Elisha as the bearer of covenant life. The second, cursing the boys of Bethel, authenticates him as the bearer of covenant curse. So closely does God identify His life-giving Word with His prophet that Elisha's dry bones renew the life of a corpse hastily thrown into his tomb (2 Kings 3:20-21)!

The same point is made strikingly in the book of Jonah. Here we meet a prophet who will not go down in history for his enthusiasm, but who understood full well the power of the prophetic Word to bring life. Commanded by the Lord to go to Nineveh (the capital city of Israel's dreaded foe) and "preach against it," Jonah turns tail. After Nineveh repents, Jonah explains why he had been loath to preach in the first place:

O, Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love… (4:2).

Jonah knew that God's Word can bring life even to man's enemies. Trouble was, he didn't want Israel's enemies to live!

One more example. In Ezekiel 37, we read that the Spirit of the Lord transports the prophet Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones. There, God assigns a surreal task:

Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!"…So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them, and they came to life…(vv. 4, 10).

The point? The preaching of the Word is the breath of life!

To summarize: in the Old Testament, preaching was called prophecy. It was a life or death matter: when heard and obeyed, life and blessing followed; when rejected, alienation and death resulted. And make no mistake about it, God's Word never fails. As the rain and snow make the earth bud and flourish, so the word that goes forth from God's mouth:

It shall not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isa. 55:11).

Preaching and the Ministry of Jesus

When we turn to the Gospels, preaching looms even larger. Picking up where the Old Testament left off, Jesus believes preaching is so pivotal to His ministry that Matthew 4:17 declares simply: "Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.' " Later, when explaining the parable of the sower, key to understanding the modus operandi of His kingdom, Jesus asserts: "The farmer sows the word" (Mark 4:14). Again, preaching.

Even more forceful is Jesus' summary of His commission: "Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages-so I can preach there also. That is why I have come" (Mark 1:38). The people were electrified. Not because they were daunted by religious leaders: daily the streets were full of scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law that were so conspicuous in Israel's life routines. But never had they heard such preaching and teaching!

The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching-and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him" (Mark 1:27).

The people knew that Jesus was presenting Himself as the prophet who had been promised in Deuteronomy 18. That hit hard. And just as conclusively as in the Old Testament, His Word demonstrated its momentous power. Throughout the Gospels we read that Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick, even raised the dead. All by the power of His Word alone, all to announce the arrival of His kingdom, all to declare that the "Hallelujah Chorus" must now be sung:

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15b).

Preaching and the Apostles

The life and death urgency of preaching doesn't end with Jesus' earthly ministry, but lies at the heart of His commission to those who are to carry His Word to the world after His ascension. He prepared them for that mission while they traveled with Him on earth. In Luke 9:1-2, we read of Jesus giving the twelve "power and authority…and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." And, as in a series of concentric waves spreading across a pond when a stone plunks into the water, yet another "wave" of messengers is commissioned in Luke 10. Here, the seventy-two are sent to every town and place with the stirring reminder: "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me" (v. 16). The Cornerstone has made His splash in the fullness of time; wave after wave of preaching now rolls to cover the earth with the gospel.

Nowhere is this focus of the apostles' mission more clear than at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. After His resurrection, and immediately before His ascension and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, Jesus explains His redemption blueprint:

This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:46-48)

Did you catch that? Here is the plan of God's strategic offensive in a thumbnail sketch: first, Christ suffered humiliation; next, Christ rose in exaltation victory; finally, Christ continues His work, through the church, by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness. That's why He calls His disciples "witnesses": it is a word of commission, not of description. Empowered by the Spirit, they are to preach, to bear witness to His name, and thus continue His redeeming agenda.

This, then, is the story of the book of Acts. The Lord Jesus advances the cause of His kingdom through the preaching of the Spirit-filled church. Preaching is the ongoing saving work of Christ. The apostles go "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth," preaching in all the languages of the peoples, bringing salvation to all who repent and believe (1:8).

And nothing shall stop the invasion of Christ's Word into the realm of the kingdom of darkness. Paul even describes his imprisonment as triumphant, bidding us to remember Jesus Christ:

This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus… (2 Tim. 2:9-10).

Paul spells out the paramount import of preaching in his letter to the Romans. Preaching is redemptive; the preaching of Christ may even be said to save! He writes of his desire to preach in Rome (1:16), and affirms vigorously: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…." Later in the same letter, he fleshes out this saving function of the preaching of the Word as extensively as anywhere in Scripture:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?….Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:14-15,17).

Is it any wonder that Paul sees his own ministry as a holy and divine commission?

Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me (1 Cor. 9:16-17).

Preaching and the Church Today

The point of this trek through Scripture, you'll recall, was to understand the life-and-death redemptive importance of preaching. Christians often speak of "saving faith." If you grasp what Scripture says you must really join me in speaking of "saving preaching." And only if you do will the idea of a "call" to the preaching ministry make any sense to you. Only then will you deal biblically with a sense of calling in your life.

I began the last section by comparing the preaching of Christ, the disciples, and the church to concentric waves created by the splash of a stone in a pond. I traced this redemptive program through the Gospels, Acts, and on into the inspired writings of the apostle Paul. Don't overlook the next wave! It contains the apostolic commission to the pastors of the church of Christ in all the generations that followed.

When Paul writes to young pastor Timothy, he warns him of the wickedness of "the last days" and reminds him of the character and value of the inspired Scriptures to address God's people in those days (2 Tim. 3:16). Close on the heels of those words he adds this command: "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus…I give you this charge: Preach the Word…!" (4:1-2).

Abundantly clear, and not limited to Timothy, either. It is a charge to preachers of every age. That this is so is evident from his description of the end times, a description that appropriately addresses every generation since Christ's ascension, and will until he returns. Such is the meaning of "eschaton" or "end times" (3:1-5). It is equally evident from the close connection between preaching and the inspired Scriptures. Now as then, the way God will have his people equipped and preserved is the way of the Word of God, the preaching of the text of Scripture! That is as true of formal pulpit preaching as of more intimate Word-based instruction (cf. Acts 20:20, where Paul refers to preaching and teaching "publicly and from house to house"). Scripture proclaimed and applied is the tool of God's grace. Sermons are to be tied to the text with strong cords.

Peter, like Paul, comprehends this power of preaching. He is bold to claim that regeneration-being "born again"-is a function of God's Word. And he too links that Word with preaching:

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God…And this is the word that was preached to you (1 Peter 1:23,25).

The ministers of the Lord dare not forget this compelling truth. Unless they remain faithful to the words of Scripture, preaching them as a matter of life and death in this godless age, both "publicly and from house to house," they will risk both the survival and the service of the people of God, and obstruct the salvation of the lost.

* * * *

This brief review of Scripture has had a single purpose: to convince you that God thinks preaching is much more important than most people do. For God, it is not just verbal "filler" in a Sunday worship service. Neither is it the sharing of one's experiences designed to inspire and stimulate those of others. Nor is it a nicely organized talk, complete with PowerPoint slides, intending to inform people of "10 ways to become more spiritual." (I never found a text in Scripture that contained 10 practical ways to do anything!) Rather, the words of the preacher are to echo the words of his text, and, when faithful to that text of Scripture, contain "the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes." As Paul writes elsewhere:

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel….For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:17-18).

You'll need to contend with that whether or not you are called to preach. If you are, tremble! What you will declare with your lips is the redeeming energy of God Himself. If you are not called to preach, assigned instead to join God's people as they hear faithful preaching and give it fleshly form in their obedience, take that task seriously too. God's Word brings life or death. Remember the sobering words of the apostle, admonishing preacher and hearer alike:

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

Who indeed?

Continue to The Badge of Ordination.