In his acclaimed work, Living By the Book,
Bible professor Howard Hendricks writes of a certain time he overheard one
person complaining to another about a teacher they had both just listened to.
The complaint was that “He didn’t do a blessed thing but explain the Bible”.
That complaint is revealing of the impression
people have of the work of preaching and teaching.
The job of a preacher is not to take a verse
of scripture and ‘run away’ with it; or try to make a message out of it through
some convoluted, mystico-philosophical extrapolations. The job of a preacher is
to draw out the life-giving truths that are already in those words of
scripture.
It is unfortunate that some persons of the
pulpit feel there legitimacy is threatened if they are not able to whip up some
unique twist or bent to a Bible passage. They want to have a reputation as the
man or woman of Rev, which is slang for ‘special revelation that no one
else has thought of’. A cursory look at the heretics of church history shows us
that they all started with this penchant.
I am of the opinion that only someone who
isn’t intimate with the Bible will bother to whip up Revs from it. We
already need an eternity and a half to exhaust the treasures of God’s Word, why
on earth would anyone want something ‘new’. Ps 119:96 says there’s a limit to
everything human, but God’s commandment is “exceedingly broad.”
So when a preacher is handed, for example,
“John 3:16” as their anchor text, they should, like the Psalmist, cry out, Open
my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Ps 119:18).
Rather than resort to gimmicks and metal gymnastics, like trying to point out
“the philosophical and prophetic significance of the numbers 3, 1 and 6”.
Such fake Revs have a tendency to
excite the mind but carry no attendant power to change lives. James, our Lord’s
brother and leader of the early Church has a message to such preachers and to
US as well:
“Wherefore lay apart all
filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. – Jas 1:21
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not
miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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