Preach the Word – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: The pastoral ministry is all about feeding Christ’s sheep. Jesus and his Church have given pastors the privilege of distributing the means of grace publicly. Pastors preach God’s Word and the administer his sacraments as God’s representatives and in the name of the church. (See Augsburg Confession 5) We can believe that, when a pastor does these things according to God’s Word, it is God himself speaking to us, baptizing us and giving us the body and blood of Jesus himself with the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Of all these acts, the one a pastor does most often is preaching.

The New Testament uses several words for preaching, almost all tied to what a herald does. The main word used is κηρύσσω (Kerusso) — to announce, make known, proclaim. (2 Timothy 4:2) Preaching is all about delivering a message from God. That message is mainly the good news of salvation won for us by Jesus on the cross. But it also extends to the whole counsel of God.

Pastors preach not only on Sunday morning during a worship service, but also anytime someone needs to hear from God’s word. It may be urging them to repentance, or may be assuring them that God forgives them for the sake of Jesus Christ. During a worship service, a sermon is much more formal than that. Most often a sermon takes the message in a passage read earlier, it explains those truths to God’s people, and urges them to believe these words. It is not about teaching, presenting all kinds of facts to be remembered. It is not entertainment, helping people to escape from their day-to-day lives just for a little while.

Preaching is all about changing the lives of those who hear the message. It does not do so because of the pastors skill, his inspiring insights, or how hilarious is jokes are. The point of a sermon is to bring the message that God put it in the scriptures to people. It’s all about changing lives, and strengthening the faith of those who hear. You may remember the words of a talented speaker for a long time. But a sermon is God’s gift to you. It contains the Gospel, which gives you his grace. It is the very words of eternal life.