Preachers come in great variety, and that's a good thing. "It's a good thing that all of us are not exactly like any one of us!" quipped one attendee (Charles Hodge, perhaps) at a preacher's dinner at Harding University's lectureship. In my preacher training program, there was a general spectrum. Some of us were drawn to social interaction. And, some of us (like me) were drawn to study. I believe that God probably found a place of useful service for most of us, and carefully suited us to various assignments in the Kingdom.
I for long had misplaced a quote by Jesse P. Sewell (1876-1969). It was a framed quote given to us by Harding's School of Biblical Studies. It reads:
My attraction to the quote lies in Sewell's recognition that true preaching forces a choice, a decision, and culminates therefore in either life or death (2 Cor. 2:14ff.). His emphasis is purely evangelistic. And the insight helped me in a formative way to frame more precisely my role as a preacher. Safely outside of that frame will be the modern "fluff-preachers." They speak to crowds for obviously different motivations, and listening to them would not prompt any listener to a decision that would tend them toward Heaven or towards Hell. What the fluff-preacher offers is simply not gospel, so it lacks the power to move people that way.
I also appreciate Sewell's insistence on an authority set upon the gospel preacher's ministry, and authority not given by any person or group of persons, but by Christ Jesus himself. That authority results from the preacher's relationship to the Lord in which the message is actually "God's word" and the activity of preaching is an act of obedience to the Crucified One, and truly places the gospel preacher "in Christ's stead"--that is to say, the Gospel preacher is encountered instead of Christ, and yet Christ Jesus is no less present in the encounter. On more than one occasion, the apostle Paul made this insistence that what he preached was not his message and did not originate with him (1 Thess. 2:13, 4:8; Gal. 1:11-12). His audience heard God as Paul preached. Like His Lord before Him, Paul spoke as one with authority. The gospel preacher does the same.
In contrast, the fluff-preacher has no authority. He is not preaching God's word, and to listen to the fluff-preacher is by no means the equivalent of listening to the Lord. Much as Satan has no legitimate authority, but has entered a position of authority only because people have given to the devil what is properly due to God, the insipid audience of the fluff-preacher is the only basis on which authority may be claimed. But, when the blind lead the blind, they both are destined for the Pit. The devil and the fluff-preacher are empowered only by people.
I also appreciated Sewell today for his steady voice and clear understanding as I heard news of yet another "mega-church pastor" inflicting great damage on people while claiming to be a preacher. I'll gladly and gratefully lend my ear only to a gospel preacher.
I for long had misplaced a quote by Jesse P. Sewell (1876-1969). It was a framed quote given to us by Harding's School of Biblical Studies. It reads:
A gospel preacher is a man, redeemed by grace through faith, standing in Christ's' stead, by his authority, and in obedience to his command; proclaiming, illustrating, making clear and urgent God's word; so that responsible men and women may accept it unto life; or reject it unto death--all of this; because he loves God, Christ, the Church, and the souls of men.As definitions go, Sewell's has much to commend it. While there are and should be preachers of many varieties, it would nonetheless be valid to say that each and every one of them should be, indeed must be, nothing less than what is set forth here. And a great many who mount pulpits would rightly be scrutinized as being less than gospel preachers--even if they should act the part, keep a Bible on the podium, and claim authority for themselves. Less than this, and he (or she) is not a gospel preacher.
My attraction to the quote lies in Sewell's recognition that true preaching forces a choice, a decision, and culminates therefore in either life or death (2 Cor. 2:14ff.). His emphasis is purely evangelistic. And the insight helped me in a formative way to frame more precisely my role as a preacher. Safely outside of that frame will be the modern "fluff-preachers." They speak to crowds for obviously different motivations, and listening to them would not prompt any listener to a decision that would tend them toward Heaven or towards Hell. What the fluff-preacher offers is simply not gospel, so it lacks the power to move people that way.
I also appreciate Sewell's insistence on an authority set upon the gospel preacher's ministry, and authority not given by any person or group of persons, but by Christ Jesus himself. That authority results from the preacher's relationship to the Lord in which the message is actually "God's word" and the activity of preaching is an act of obedience to the Crucified One, and truly places the gospel preacher "in Christ's stead"--that is to say, the Gospel preacher is encountered instead of Christ, and yet Christ Jesus is no less present in the encounter. On more than one occasion, the apostle Paul made this insistence that what he preached was not his message and did not originate with him (1 Thess. 2:13, 4:8; Gal. 1:11-12). His audience heard God as Paul preached. Like His Lord before Him, Paul spoke as one with authority. The gospel preacher does the same.
In contrast, the fluff-preacher has no authority. He is not preaching God's word, and to listen to the fluff-preacher is by no means the equivalent of listening to the Lord. Much as Satan has no legitimate authority, but has entered a position of authority only because people have given to the devil what is properly due to God, the insipid audience of the fluff-preacher is the only basis on which authority may be claimed. But, when the blind lead the blind, they both are destined for the Pit. The devil and the fluff-preacher are empowered only by people.
I also appreciated Sewell today for his steady voice and clear understanding as I heard news of yet another "mega-church pastor" inflicting great damage on people while claiming to be a preacher. I'll gladly and gratefully lend my ear only to a gospel preacher.
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