The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 2017
I Corinthians 2:1-5
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
What makes for a good sermon? When I was at Seminary I worked at a Ben Franklin store. The manager of the store was a man by the name of Chuck. Chuck was a very devout Roman Catholic. We would talk about religion on a very regular basis. One day Chuck told me that he really liked the homilies (sermons) of their new young priest. When I asked him why, he said that they never knew what the priest was going to do! He always did something different as he was preaching and everyone waited to see what the priest was going to do this week! I have a relative who left the Wisconsin Synod to join the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America). One of the reasons they left the WELS is because they loved Pastor Marie’s sermons. I was told that Pastor Marie was not “chained” to the pulpit like most WELS pastors. She wandered around the congregation while she preached. One Sunday Pastor Marie had a Nerf bow and arrow with her. As she wandered around the congregation during her sermon she would stop and “shoot” one of the members with a Nerf arrow. When I asked what the sermon was about they said, “I don’t remember— but it sure was a lot of fun!”
What makes for a good sermon, my friends? There are always some members of the congregation who would say that a good sermon is a short sermon. There are always some members of the congregation who would say that a good sermon is one that captures their attention and then holds their attention from beginning to end. In many churches today there are people who say that a good sermon is a sermon that outlines for you exactly what you need to do to become a “better” spouse or a “better” parent or a “better” friend or a “better” person. Back in the days when I didn’t know how much I didn’t know about preaching a good sermon, one of the professors who tried his best to teach me how to preach said to me on more than one occasion, “Mr. Lockman, a good sermon is a sermon that sticks to the text you have in front of you. So preach your text!”
What makes for a good sermon? While you, the members of the congregation, may have your own ideas and your own opinions as to what makes a good sermon and while I, the pastor of the congregation, may have my own ideas and my own opinions as to what makes a good sermon, in the end it is the Lord God Himself who determines and defines what makes a good sermon. Today as you and I continue our sermon series on God’s will, let’s study these inspired words of our God under the theme: God’s Will for His Pastors— Preach a Good Sermon! How does the Lord determine and define a good sermon? Our text gives us two answers to that question. First, a good sermon from God’s perspective is defined by the contents of what is being preached. Second, a good sermon from God’s perspective is determined by the goal of what is being preached.
A good sermon from God’s perspective is defined by the contents of what is being preached. That truth comes out very clearly when the Holy Spirit led Paul to write the opening verses of our text, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
God’s people in Corinth were living in a culture which prized philosophers and orators. They were undoubtedly very accustomed to having traveling preachers sweep into town and try to impress them with their eloquent speech and pique their interest with supposedly superior wisdom. Then there was the apostle Paul. Paul did not sweep into town and try to awe the Corinthians with “eloquent” or “high-sounding” words. Paul did not try to convince the Corinthians that he possessed a “wisdom” that was “superior” to every other philosopher they had ever heard.
Well, then, if Paul’s preaching did not center “eloquence” or “superior wisdom,” then what were the contents of the sermons Paul preached? Paul’s proclamation to the Corinthians, Paul’s sermons to this congregation centered on the most important content of all! Paul says, “I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.” Another way to translate the Greek here would be, “I proclaimed to you the mystery of God.” Yes, my friends, Paul’s sermons revealed to the Corinthians the “mystery of God.” And what exactly is the “mystery of God”? While the Bible gives us a number of answers to that question (For example, see Romans 11:25-27; I Corinthians 15:51; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 1:25-27) here the Holy Spirit has Paul emphasize two things. The “mystery of God” that Paul revealed to the people of Corinth centered on— “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
From God’s perspective a good sermon is not determined by how “eloquent” the preacher might be. From God’s perspective a good sermon is not defined by how “wise” the preacher appears. No, my friends, from God’s perspective a good sermon is determined by how clearly the preacher enables you to see Jesus— who He is and what He has done for you! A good example of this comes from my professor at Seminary. He told us about a young preacher, fresh out of Seminary, who went out of this way to “dazzle” God’s people with his sermons. He thought he was doing very well until one day, he got up into the pulpit and found a note. On the note were the words of John 12:21, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” While the young pastor’s sermons may indeed have been “dazzling” they did not point God’s people to “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
As mortal sinful human beings who will one day stand before the judgment throne of the Almighty and hear Him proclaim where you will spend eternity you need your pastor to preach sermons which very clearly proclaim to you that Jesus is both your true flesh and blood Brother and the eternal Son of the living God. You need your pastor to preach sermons which very clearly reveal that Jesus is the Christ, the Promised Messiah, this world’s only Savior from sin. You need your pastor to preach sermons which remind you over and over again that no matter how horrible your sins might be, the Son of God was willing to be crucified (pointing to the cross) to completely pay the debt of sin that you owed to God. Yes, my friends, a good sermon from God’s perspective is determined and defined by the contents of what is being preached. A good sermon from God’s perspective is a sermon that enables you to see exactly who Jesus is and precisely what Jesus has done for you.
Does this give the pastor an “excuse” for being lazy in his sermon preparation or sloppy in his sermon delivery? Does this mean that instead of taking the time to write a new sermon every week I could simply download my sermons from one of the many websites that offer sermons for sale? Not at all. The good Lord expects His pastors to use the gifts He has given them to present to you who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for you in a way that applies to your life and that ties in with what is going on in the world around you. In short, a good sermon from God’s perspective takes a great deal of work on the part of the pastor!
The second aspect of what makes a good sermon from God’s perspective is determined by the goal of what is being preached. This truth is brought out here in our text when Paul says, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
The apostle Paul was keenly aware of something that pastors today would do well to remember— when a pastor is preaching he needs to make sure that he gets out of the Holy Spirit’s way! Why? Because of his own sinful pride a pastor is tempted to want people to be impressed by his sermons. His style, his delivery and his “insights” can sometimes take precedence over the power of God the Holy Spirit. Either consciously or unconsciously the goal of the sermon then becomes gaining a following for— the pastor! He becomes the focus— and God’s people suffer. Why do God’s people suffer if the focus is on the pastor? Because there is no pastor who is smart enough or strong enough or good enough to save you for all of eternity!
That’s why the goal of a good sermon is for the pastor consciously strives to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit. The goal of a good sermon is to keep you focused on “a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” The goal of a good sermon is to make sure that your faith does not rest on “men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” Since our sermon series on God’s Will includes a comparison of “men’s wisdom” and “God’s wisdom” we won’t touch on that subject here today. But, what exactly did Paul have in mind when he talked about a “demonstration of the Spirit’s power” and how does that tie in with preaching a good sermon?
Look at it this way, my friends. Only God has the “power” to convict you of your sins. That’s why a good sermon will always contain the message of God’s powerful holy Law. If you are wandering away from your Lord, if you are living your life in a way that brings tears to Jesus’ eyes, if you are becoming comfortable or confident in your own righteousness, a good sermon will not only remind you that God sees and hears and knows every single one of the sins you have committed, but a good sermon will remind you that one day God Himself will hold you accountable for each and every one of those sins.
Just as God is the only One who has the “power” to convict you of your sin, so also only God has the “power” to assure you that through faith in what Jesus the Christ has done for you, your sins are forgiven! That’s why a good sermon will always contain the sweet, simple, powerful and glorious message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the guilt of your sin, if you are feeling unworthy of God’s love a good sermon will not only remind you that God’s agape love for you is unconditional and unbounded, but a good sermon will remind you that no matter how heavy the burden of your sin and guilt might be, your crucified and risen Lord says to you, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…for your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29). I good sermon will point you to both the cross on Calvary’s hill and to the empty grave in the garden so that you can see how your crucified and risen Lord lovingly holds out His nail-scarred hands to you and says, “Take heart, (My child); your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2).
And since only God has the “power” to strengthen you and to guide you and to protect you as you journey through this spiritually dark and dangerous world on your way home to heaven, a good sermon is a sermon that encourages you to turn to your Lord and to trust in your Lord every single day of your life.
What makes for a good sermon? Is a good sermon a short sermon? Is a good sermon a sermon that “wows” you? Is a good sermon a sermon that shows you how to become a “better” person? No, my friends. A good sermon from God’s perspective is a sermon whose contents are centered on “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” A good sermon from God’s perspective is a sermon whose goal is to make sure that your faith does not rest on “men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” That’s why God’s will for His pastors is— Preach a good sermon!
To God be the glory!
Amen
