Preaching to Christ

When we look at someone entrusted with the Word of God, with the teaching of something so important, what do we see? What should we see?

In our society, in our modern world, we think of preachers and teachers in light of the examples we have seen in the men that stand behind the pulpits and teach their version of Scripture. But is that what we should see?

Paul was, in my mind, the greatest preacher that ever lived. He set a standard for us that all preachers should strive to reach. If you could write out what a preacher should act like, what would you write? What would you put down as the requirement? What kind of man would he be? What would you expect of him?

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:17

If a man…a teacher…a preacher…is to teach the Truth of Christ what sort of sincerity should we see in Him? Should he not handle the Truth that he has been entrusted with in so much awe and reverence that we can’t help but see the sincerity of his faith?

Sincerity of faith was the measure by which Paul distinguished the apostles from the ‘peddlers’. When I look to Paul’s teachings I can’t help but see a man that gave up everything for the faith he had. So much so that he said…

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2

He even gave up his own knowledge. He lived and died for Christ. He held the Truth of Christ in such esteem that his very life was lived for that purpose.

How great it would be to have preachers and teachers today that walked in the example set by Paul!

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard a preacher say ‘they taught us in seminary’. In all honesty, who cares what they taught in seminary? I’d much rather have someone that can see and understand all of the Truth in Scripture sit with an open Bible and teach straight from it then have a hundred well educated men trying to teach me anything.

As Paul stated, ‘many’ men peddled the word of God in his day. How many more peddle Him today?

‘Many’ men peddled the word of God while Paul was ‘sincerely’ teaching Christ. Those men weren’t just sharing the gospel, they were selling it to anyone that would listen and in so doing they corrupted the message that was being shared. And they did it all for their own benefit. No matter how much they may have claimed otherwise…to sell Christ is to corrupt the Truth of Him. It is to dirty the pure Truth that He represents and make it something that can be traded and sold at the whim of man.

It takes the gospel that Christ himself gave His life to teach to His people and dirty it with the greed of man.

Paul knew this. So much so that he made a clear example of those that ‘peddle’ Christ and those that ‘sincerely’ share His message. There was definite distinction between the two that he pointed out. These were men that would sell the Truth of Christ for their own gain. Paul saw the truth in these men. He saw what they stood for. Saw what they were doing. And he knew the difference between their purposes and his.

The Lord see’s those same distinctions. He knows the hearts of the men that teach and preach His Word. He knows if they do it from a pure heart out of service to Him or if they do it for their own gain. Being ‘called by God’ doesn’t mean they aren’t in it for the money. Would those same people that have been ‘called by God’ continue to preach if they had no paycheck? Would they continue to preach if they faced prison or death for speaking of Christ? Only the Lord knows.

But if someone is preaching out of a sincere desire to share the true Christ…we should see in them a sincerity that will stand up to the test of Scripture. They should speak Truth and only truth. It should come straight from the pages of the Bible and have nothing of man’s ideas added into it. It should be truth and nothing but truth. It should be the Christ of the Bible not a Jesus they made up in their minds.

If the Jesus he speaks of is nothing but love…ask him of the wrath Jesus unleashed in the temple in Matthew 21:12-13.

If the Jesus they teach wants only to bless people and give them what they want…ask why it was that Christ himself wasn’t given what he wanted when He asked God to take the cup from Him before He was crucified.

Imagine a preacher that preached for no one but Christ. How different would His message be if the only listener was Christ? Anyone preaching should do so as if they are preaching straight to the Lord because the only listener that matters is Christ. And He is listening.

I’ve known people that get all dressed up to go to Sunday services, have a relative that does this and says often that they need to get dressed for Jesus. To this I want to ask…is the only time Jesus sees you when you walk through the doors of the ‘church’? If He’s the one you’re dressing for is He only within the walls of the building they’re visiting? If you’re truly dressing for Jesus shouldn’t you dress as you would want Him to see you all the time?

Should someone preaching or teaching God’s Word not do the same thing? Should they not speak and teach as if the only person in their audience is Christ? And if they did would their sermons not be so much richer, so much more edifying than anything they preach to man?

Oh, how different the sermons would be, how different the preachers would be, if they were preaching to Christ alone.