How can anybody preach the gospel of Christ crucified and not feel moved by it? Other preachers are all fire and no light. They rant and rave in the pulpit. They work themselves up into a frenzy like the prophets of Baal. Every sermon is one long, fervent, even interminable appeal. But the people are confused as to what they are being urged to do because there has been no exposition before the appeal. It is a safe rule to insist on no appeal without an exposition and no exposition without an appeal. 

John Stott’s chapter on preaching in his book, The Living Church, contains some very helpful insights about preaching. In this chapter, he gives five “paradoxes” of preaching. Here’s how he introduces the chapter:

The contemporary world is decidedly unfriendly towards preaching. Words have largely been eclipsed by images, and the book by the screen. So preaching is regarded as an outmoded form of communication, what someone has called ‘an echo from an abandoned past’. Who wants to listen to sermons nowadays? People are drugged by television, hostile to authority and suspicious of words.

In consequence, some preachers lose their morale and give up. Either they lack the heart to keep going, or they transmogrify the sermon into a sermonette or a little homily or something equally unsatisfactory. My task in this chapter, however, is to try to persuade preachers to persevere, because the life of the church depends on it. If, as Jesus said, quoting Deuteronomy, human beings live by the word of God (Matthew 4:4), it is equally true of churches. Churches live, grow and flourish by God’s word, but they languish and perish without it.

Here are Stott’s “paradoxes of preaching.” He said, “Authentic Christian preaching is…

both biblical and contemporary
(relating the ancient text to the modern context);

both authoritative and tentative
(distinguishing between the infallible word and its fallible interpreters);

both prophetic and pastoral
(combining faithfulness with gentleness);

both gifted and studied
(necessitating a divine gift and human self-discipline);

both thoughtful and passionate
(letting the heart burn as Christ opens to us the Scriptures).

I especially thought his fifth “paradox” was helpful. I’ll share it below. Enjoy!

Read More