Q & A Why is preaching necessary?

Q & A Why is preaching necessary?

Acts 8:4 εὐαγγέλιον - denoting the act of proclamation; as denoting the work of evangelization; as denoting the content of the message as an offer of salvation

Romans 10:14 κηρύσσω - official acitivy of a herald; make known extensively, tell everywhere; in a religious sense, denoting proclamation of a sacred message

If a person calls on the name of the Lord they are saved.
How can a person call on one they have not believed in?
How can a person believe in one thy have not heard of?
How can a person hear unless someone preaches to them?
How can a person be preached to unless the preacher is sent?
Faith comes from hearing and hearing only comes by the word of Christ.

Luke 4:43
Here Jesus has been teaching in Galilee and now he was in Judea. The geographical change indicating a coponent of preaching that the other word we will look at captures. That is the idea of an extensive covering of every territory.

Acts 6:2
In this passage the twelve have to make some qualitative decisions about the use of their time. There is a mandate to proclaim the good news, and the twelve’s time is being taken up with the day to day routine of feeding the widows.

They do not diminish the importance of serving the widows, in fact they highlight the importance of that ministry by appointing the first deacons to minister to those needs so that the preaching of the good news would not stop but continue on.


Acts 16:10
On the second missionary journey, Paul, Timothy and Silas receive Holy Spirit direction on the location in which they are to make a proclamation of the good news. They encounter Lydia, a merchant and thus influential person in Philippi, and the Lord opens her heart to pay attention to what is said and she believed, he whole house believes and is baptized.

Romans 15:20
Once again the concept of proclamation is to make known a message as an ambassador of a royal figure to the territories belonging to the royal leader.
It is interesting to note the tone of this command to preach, proclaim, to a king’s people his message to them when these people do not yet know they are under his rule.
In essence, Jesus is saying through the command to preach that these peoples are already his. And they are, for he is their creator and savior whether they know it yet or not, and thus the need to tell them.


Matthew 12:41
Here Jesus shows us some of the intended meaning of this call to preach. Jonah told of the Lord’s intention and the offer to repent. And the people responded to the message.

Titus 1:1-3
Paul says here that the preaching he does is resulting from the command of God to go and proclaim what has been show from his word (Scriptures). It is this preaching that brings that message to light.

2 Timothy 4:2
Here Paul instructs Timothy, the pastor/teacher at Ephesus, to preach the word in all seasons. This is a mandate to not neglect the proclamation of the gospel among his own people and, when needed, correct patiently while teaching them.
His reason is that the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching and will go and bring to themselves teachers that will suit their still fallen passions and will wander off into myths.


So, what is preaching?

1. Preaching is an act of boldly announcing royal news
a. Preaching is a divine mandate resulting from Jesus command to make
disciples. Therefore, people must have this message communicated to them
because they do not know.
b. Preaching is a bold act because it requires us to inform people of something
they do not yet know or understand.
1. Preaching is a strategic work. In our context this is a much harder work
because our activity includes much clarifying in order to bring
understanding to ingrained vocabulary.
a. In Rome, GA preach by defining terms using the biblical text
b. In Rome, GA preach by knowing the various beliefs of Romans
2. Preaching requires intentionality and that is bold

2. Preaching is an activity that must be contextualized
a. The message never changes
b. The message needs to be communicated in the terms of the hearers so
that there are no barriers, humanly speaking, to the message.

3. Preaching is a super natural activity
a. Preaching is an activity that all Christians can engage in that has the dynamic
component of Holy Spirit activity to open blind eyes, resurrect cold and dead
hearts and remove centuries of idolatrous behavior.

4. Preaching is an activity that requires a response
a. Preaching produces either faith or hardness (passively or actively)
b. It is the preachers job to understand what the hearers response is
c. It is the preachers job to treat each person they way they need to be
treated because each person is different and will not always respond the
way others do.

5. Preaching is an officially licensed activity of the church
a. Preaching is not reserved for church leadership only.
b. Preaching is mandated for all Christians.
c. Preaching is not a special call to ministry, but a privilege of all Christians
inside their vocations thus making their vocations holy.

6. Preaching is exhaustive in it’s scope
a. Preaching must not be contained to the preacher’s immediate context only.
b. Preaching must have urgency to it.
1. Preachers must seek audiences that have not heard now not later. The
call is global and local.
a. Thus, our vision:
For the glory of God we will build the church, both local and global, by being and producing radial followers of Jesus Christ.