I’ve been preaching for decades. I’ve read scores of books on preaching. I’ve studied preaching with Dr. Haddon Robinson, a leading homiletician. And yet I still consider myself a middling preacher.
I can relate to what Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote: “I can say quite honestly that I would not cross the road to listen to myself preaching.” I can also relate to Charles Spurgeon’s humorous quip: “If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons it would be a righteous judgment upon them, and they would soon cry out with Cain, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear.’”
I remember one time when I was particularly discouraged with my own preaching. I thought the problem must be with my delivery. I consulted a mentor, and he got me thinking about other possibilities. It turns out that the problem wasn’t with my delivery, although that could be improved. The problem was with my adoration.
I began to shift my attention more to Jesus. I didn’t just explain and teach the text; I began to adore my Saviour in my preaching. I remember sitting down at the end of my sermon, a time when I usually fought feelings of discouragement. The more I made of Christ in my sermon, the easier I rested when I was done preaching. “That may not have been the greatest sermon,” I remember thinking, “but I adored Christ, and the Spirit seemed to help me.”
Preaching is both a skill and an art. No one piece of advice will cure every sermon’s problems. At the same time, I think almost every sermon could benefit from greater admiration of Christ.
The best preaching I hear explains the text clearly, communicates its big idea, and relates it to the audience. But that’s not enough. The best preachers stand in amazement of Jesus as they preach the text. They can’t get over God’s beauty and grace, and that God would choose to love people like us.
The Apostle Paul provides a good example. We often think of Paul as an intellectual, carefully unfolding his arguments. I always enjoy when Paul interrupts himself with adoration, breaking midway throughout a sentence in an outburst of worship in response to some great truth that’s ours in Christ.
I saw an example of this last week as I listened to a sermon by Ray Ortlund. I began by trying to learn what I could from Ortlund’s preaching skills, but soon became distracted by a greater subject: the Jesus who does all things well. I felt like I was staring at the text with Ortlund, amazed at the grace and glory of Jesus all over again.
John Piper calls this expository exultation. It’s what all good preaching should aspire to be, and it’s what every church needs.
I may not be anything more than a middling preacher, but I can stand before my people and exult in Jesus. The more I do this, the less my weaknesses in preaching seem to matter, and the more the Spirit seems to work in my preaching.
Preachers: allow the text to lead you to Jesus, and rejoice in our Saviour as you preach the text to your people.