The Necessity of Preaching

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Call to Worship — Psalm 117
• Prayer of Adoration
• Confession of Faith — Third Commandment (Westminster Shorter Catechism)
• Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 30:1–15
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymn — Holy Spirit Living Breath of God
• Sermon
• Hymn — Be Thou My Vision
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24–26

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Sermon Title: The Necessity of Preaching

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1–4

I. The Command to Preach God's Word

A. Paul charges Timothy with solemn solemnity, calling God and Christ Jesus as witnesses — 2 Timothy 4:1

1. The Greek word for "charge" carries a judicial flavor, as in giving testimony before a judge
2. Christ will judge the living and the dead; part of that judgment falls on preachers regarding faithfulness to the Word

B. The tight connection between what Scripture does and what preaching does

1. 2 Timothy 3:16 — Scripture corrects, rebukes, reproves, and teaches
2. 2 Timothy 4:2 — Timothy's preaching is to reprove, rebuke, exhort, and teach
3. The preached Word is the Word of God (cf. Second Helvetic Confession: "The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God")

C. Preaching is the primary means by which God draws and sharpens his people

1. Romans 10:14 — faith comes by hearing; God's means is preaching, not merely distributing Bibles
2. Galatians 3:1 — Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified before the Galatians through the preaching of the gospel

D. The preacher's task is to deliver the King's word to prepare the people for the King's coming

1. James 3:1 — teachers will be judged with greater strictness
2. Timothy's ministry is to be dominated by the one breathed-out Word of God, not by his own many words
3. A preacher is not giving a TED talk or motivational speech; he is causing the Word to bear down upon the souls of God's people

II. The Constancy of Preaching God's Word

A. "In season and out of season" — Timothy is to preach consistently and continuously — 2 Timothy 4:2

1. Ulrich Zwingli began the Reformation at the Great Minster in Zurich on January 1, 1519, by introducing lectio continua preaching — continuous, expositional preaching through whole books of the Bible
2. This tradition of preaching all of Scripture, book by book, is the pattern held to at the church

B. The verbs of verse 2 — reprove, rebuke, exhort — are all connected to discipline

1. Every sermon is an act of discipline; formal church discipline (e.g., excommunication) is only one expression of a broader reality
2. Faithful preaching will at times cause discomfort; the goal is holiness, not comfort
3. As Luther said, we are simultaneously sinner and saint; preaching kills off the old man and puts on the new

C. The balance: "with complete patience and teaching" — 2 Timothy 4:2

1. Faithful preaching is not relentless hellfire and brimstone
2. 1 Timothy 1:16 — Paul received mercy so that Christ might display his perfect patience; a preacher must not contradict Christ's patience toward sinners
3. Reproving and rebuking must be carried out with grace and mercy swimming through the preacher's veins

III. The Challenge of Preaching God's Word

A. A future and present reality: people will not endure sound teaching — 2 Timothy 4:3–4

1. Already present in Ephesus: 1 Timothy 1:3–4 — Paul urged Timothy to charge certain people not to teach different doctrine or devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies
2. This will intensify as redemptive history moves toward the day of judgment

B. Sin always seeks to rationalize and intellectualize itself

1. People accumulate teachers to suit their own passions — they want intellectual cover for sinful desires
2. This is how evil comes to be called good: sin gathers teachers to rationalize it

C. Itching ears — a love of the new, innovative, and culturally current — 2 Timothy 4:3

1. The world's model of success demands constant innovation ("adapt or die")
2. The church's model of success is counter-intuitive: faithfully telling the old, old story generation after generation
3. The church is called to embrace her beautiful strangeness — her worship, her confessions, her hymns, and especially her preaching should not look like the surrounding culture
4. Reproving, rebuking, and exhorting will never be cool — but it will always be the primary means by which God draws, edifies, and prepares his people
5. Gene Edward Veith: "Only a church which resists being merely of one generation can be relevant to them all"

D. The irony of relevance: the church is most relevant when she refuses to chase relevance

1. The Lord's Day should give the congregation a taste of holy strangeness distinct from the common reality of Monday through Saturday
2. Faithfulness to the preached Word prepares God's people for the coming of the King who will judge the living and the dead