The Grace Discipleship Group

This is the sixth lecture by D. A. Carson in the series called “A Light Introduction to Biblical Interpretation.” This is a continuation of his 5th lecture. Please make notes for yourself and send Murray a copy. Feel free to post additional comments or questions in the comment section of this lesson.

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As you read the Scriptures, you will want to share with others the things God is teaching you. This lesson’s article is again by John Piper. May the Lord use it to your benefit. Please leave a comment following your meditation on these words.

Herald the Word of God

II Tim. 2:2; 3:16 – 4:5

Why not simply read the Bible? Would that not honor the Bible more? Why stick in a human messenger? Why not simply have a discussion? We could pose some questions and do some word studies. Why does Paul exhort Timothy to “preach the Word”?

Why does the “Word” occupy such a prominent place and why does this particular means of handling the Word occupy such a prominent place?

The Prominence of the Word –

If we go to John 1:1, we see the prominence of the Word. God the Son is Word. He is not music or drama. He is Word.

2 Tim. 4:1 - Paul realizes that there are many distractions and many obstacles and many temptations to make this seem less important than it is. So he leads into his command with the five introductory intensifiers.

Notice the five things in verse one that intensify this command:

1. “I solemnly charge you;”
2. “in the presence of God;”
3. “and of Christ Jesus” (both the Father and the Son have a great concern in this matter);
4. “who is to judge the living and the dead” (the stakes are raised to life and death, and beyond life and death to final judgment. We are called on to deal in more than life and death — the eternal judgment of Christ and not just in your earthly state, but much more in the eternal state;
5. and by his appearing and his kingdom . . . — that is, “I solemnly charge you… by the appearing and the kingdom of Christ.” That is a remarkable reinforcement of the charge. It must mean that the ministry of preaching has a lot to do with what happens at the appearing of Christ in glory. At that appearing you, will be called to account. Were you faithful to this charge?

Now that He has our attention, (for it is evident that these next three words are important) He then says, “PREACH THE WORD.” So that is my message to you. “Preach the Word.”

To unfold the command we will ask first, what the “Word” is and second what it means to “preach” it.

What is the Word? We can see two clues in the immediate context.

First, in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” This is immediately followed by the command, “I charge you to preach the Word.” So it is fitting to say that the Word to be preached is first the Scriptures that Timothy grew up on, the Old Testament. When you preach, preach the inspired Scriptures. The “Word” of 4:2 is the “God-inspired Scripture” of 3:16 – God’s written revelation of Himself to us.

Don’t miss the simple fact that the word “Scripture” means simply “writing” or “letter.” This means that the Word of God has come to us in a written form — in a book. Which means that your preparation for preaching will be in large measure book work. You must find your preaching in a book. It must not be dead. It must not be bookish. But it must be book-derived. Book-faithful. Book-saturated. Book-balanced. It must be Spirit-given, Spirit-shaped, Spirit-carried and Spirit-delivered. But the Spirit inspired the Book and broods over the book and lives to exalt the Christ of the Book. So preach the Word, that is, preach the Book.
This Word will be central in worship for God reveals Himself to us in His Son – the Word; and God makes His Son known through the written Word. If worship is a communion with God in reverence and awe, and this God manifests Himself to be reverently known and worshipped and enjoyed through the Word, then it is a given that this Word, through which we commune with the living God, will be central in worship.

Worship is a response to the work of God, as well as the Word of God in history. What has He done in history? What are His deeds today, and what were His deeds in history? How does He do His works in history? He does them by His Word. (See Heb. 11:3 – His first work in history – to create a history was done by His Word, and He has done it that way ever since!) All the works of God are done by the speaking of God … “Let there be…” “Let that be…” God speaks and they are.

When Jesus was in this world in flesh appearing, He spoke and the seas were calm. He spoke and fevers went away. He spoke and demons fled. He spoke and sins were forgiven. He spoke and the blind received their sight. He spoke and Lazarus came forth. Is it not remarkable that as He stands before this tomb of a man dead for four days, and ponders by what technique shall he raise him from the dead, that He speaks to him! “Lazarus, come forth!” And the Word begets life! (1 Peter 1:23) It still does today; if you talk with the Word of God. The works of God today and in history are performed by the Word of God.

See 2 Tim. 3:16-17 – the Word is profitable… for every good work.

The second clue that we can see about “the Word” in these verses is in 2 Timothy 4:3 which gives the reason for preaching the word: Preach the Word, “FOR the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” So the Word to be preached is “sound doctrine.”

Now what does this “sound doctrine” refer to? 2 Timothy 1:13 gives us the answer: “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me.” Sound doctrine in 2 Timothy 4:3 refers to a “standard of sound words” transmitted to Timothy by the apostle Paul. “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me.”

Notice two things: the word “standard” or “pattern,” and the phrase “from me.”

There is a “standard” or a “pattern” of sound teaching. This means that in the early church there was developing a body of fixed doctrine (or teaching) under the care of the apostles that was being faithfully passed on from church to church. That’s what “from me” indicates in 1:13. Paul delivered his authoritative “standard” of truth.

To put it most simply and relevantly, this “pattern of sound words” or “sound doctrine” is what came to be recorded in the New Testament. Just as with the Old Testament, we needed to have the apostles’ doctrine written down to preserve it from corruption — that is, to keep it “sound,” to keep it healthy.

So the answer to our question is that the Word is the writings of the Old Testament and the writings of the New Testament. God’s word to you this afternoon is to “Preach the Word.” That is, preach the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Know this book. Make this book the main dwelling place of your mind. On every question, ask, what does the Bible say? Meditate on this book day and night. Take the word given to Joshua (1:8) for yourself: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

The Word awakens faith, and ever saint needs to have their faith awakened on a regular basis. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Rom. 10:17) That is not just an evangelistic text.

The Prominence of Preaching –

Now we ask, Why does Paul say to PREACH this word? Not just teach it. Not just read it. Not just share it. Not just memorize it. But preach it. What does that mean? And why is this so important that there should be five intensifying phrases leading up to this command?

Preaching (kerussõn) is different from teaching. In 2 Timothy 1:10-11, Paul says, “[Christ] abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.” That is, I was appointed for three tasks: heralding or announcing the Truth as a preacher, composing, preserving and transmitting the authoritative pattern of Truth as an apostle, and explaining and applying the Truth as a teacher.

So preaching is not just explaining or teaching. Preaching is heralding. Preaching is what a town crier does when there is a message from the king.

He gathers a group of people and says, “Here ye, hear ye, be it known to you today that by royal order of his highness, the king, there will henceforth be granted to this town an imperial watch of one hundred soldiers to protect you from the rebel bands who plunder the king’s subjects.”

And a cheer goes up among the people. (Those are the Amen’s of the congregation.)

And he continues, “Furthermore be it known to you that the cost for this protection shall be born not by taxation but by the beneficence of the king from his royal treasury!”

Again cheers! (Amen!)

“Moreover, the king would have you know that he loves you, his loyal subjects and will use all his royal counsel and power to defend you and supply your needs.”

Again cheers. (Amen! Amen!)

“And lastly he sends through me his royal blessing. Blessed be the people whose trust is in the king!”

Cheers. (Amen!)

Preaching is more than teaching. It is, exultation in the Word. “Preach the word,” means “exult in the word.” That is, announce it and revel in it. Speak it as amazing news. Speak it from a heart that is moved by it.

There are two reasons why this kind of speaking in the church is so crucial. One is that the subject matter is infinitely important. There is no other organization on earth that deals in matters of eternal life and eternal death — matters about God and his Son and his Spirit, matters about salvation and judgment, matters about the life that pleases God or displeases him. In other words, no other group of people, besides the church, gathers regularly to deal in such tremendously important realities. This means that there is a form of speech that is fitting as part of that gathering that fits the greatness of that truth — namely, preaching. So the first reason for preaching is that the nature of the Truth calls for something more than mere explanation or discussion or conversation.

The other reason why preaching is so crucial is that our hearts yearn for the truth to come to us in ways that highlight the worth of the truth. In other words, not only does the magnificence of the truth call for a heartfelt heralding and passionate exultation, but our hearts call for this too. Our hearts will not be drawn out to worship if someone just dissects and analyzes the worth and glory of God but does not exult in it before us. Our hearts long for true preaching. Some of us don’t even know that is what we are missing. Like children who grew up in homes where mom and dad never exulted in anything. They never rejoiced or praised or verbally admired and treasured anything. They were always flat and unenthused (except when they got angry). You couldn’t tell if anything really moved them deeply and positively. So the kids grow up not knowing what they are missing. That is what many people in the church are like who have never tasted true preaching.
Jonathan Edwards’ quote: “God glorifies Himself toward the creatures in two ways: one, by appearing to their understanding, the other by communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself. God is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.”

We must see Him in order to savor Him, or we are just emotionalists. And we must savor Him when we see Him or we insult Him.

God exists to be worshipped — to be admired and treasured and desired and praised. Therefore, the Word of God is written primarily to produce worship. This means that if that Word is handled like a hot-dish recipe or a repair manual, it is mishandled. And the people will suffer. The Truth of God begs to be handled with exultation. And our hearts yearn for this and need it. Something in us starts to die when precious and infinitely valuable realities are handled without feelings and words of wonder and exultation. That is, a church starts to die, without preaching.

But, of course, this assumes something massive. To treasure the Truth, and to love the Truth, and be impassioned about the truth, and to exult in the Truth, you have to know the Truth. So it’s not enough to say that preaching is exultation. We must also say it is “expository exultation.” It is exultation in the Truth of God’s Word. And the exultation is in proportion to the Truth delivered.

In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul tells Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” This too is part of preaching. Preaching is handling accurately the word of truth. In other words you can never twist or exploit the Word in order to increase the emotional response of the people. Preaching is not exultation without exposition of the Word. Nor is preaching exposition of the Word without exultation. One error cuts off the head. The other rips out the heart. In both cases the victim dies. No heart. Or, no head. You’re dead. And so is preaching. And not too long after, the church.

We need to take the Word and explain it – give the sense of it – and by your very demeanor and your very engagement, your very heart and the overflow of your own delight, you exult over the Word before people. Then they learn how to understand it and to savor it and rejoice in it.

So the command of the Lord is, Preach the Word. Keep your head on (exposition) and keep your heart alive (exultation). Handle the precious living Word of God accurately. And come to your task week after week and do expository exultation. Don’t out-exult the Word. And don’t under-exult the Word. There is enough glory in the Word that you need add nothing artificial. Just eat it until your heart is deeply and truly satisfied and then serve the same banquet for your people.

Martin Luther was one of the great preachers of all time. He explained the need for preaching like this:

Because heresies threatened the living apostolic message, it had to be recorded in a book to protect it from falsification. Preaching reverses this process of conservation again, allowing the Scriptures of the past to become the tidings of the present. . . . The Gospel has been committed to lifeless paper; fresh words can transform it into glad tidings again.

Scripture turned into glad tidings — that is what happens in expository exultation. If the Lord wills, there are many years in front of you and many trials. You will be tempted in many ways to give up preaching. Satan will lie to you that it is not a great thing. Or that you could devote yourself to something more significant. But when that happens go back to 2 Timothy 4:1-2 and listen to the apostle. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word.”

Then you will rise up and say with Martin Luther, “If I could today become king or emperor, I would not give up my office as preacher.”

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