Teaching versus Preaching

The other day in an e-mail to a friend I was bemoaning the fact that a lot of churches in our own Reformed Tradition (multiple denominations) were not preaching Christ and him crucified consistently from the pulpit. In fact one church that I looked at was just starting a series on how to handle money, entitled "The Master's Card." In that sermon there was nothing that made it "Christian." Just a lot about not having the "Mammon Card" but the "Master's Card" in our wallets. At one point the pastor turned to 1 John 2:6 (without reading the preceding verses) and his point was that we needed to walk as Jesus walked. I could hardly believe my ears. Here is a supposedly Reformed pastor telling us to ask the question "What Would Jesus Do?" Literally, "Jesus carried the Master's Card and so should we."

I also listened to an entire three part series on "Rekindling your Marriage." Again, there wasn't much to make these messages Christian. 95% of the sermon you could hear from Dr. Laura or any other secular advice columnist. There was one point in the second sermon that the pastor told the congregation that marriage is difficult because of the "depravity challenge." YES!! We are sinners and need to hear the gospel right? No. We were told that we are sinners, but ultimately we were left in our sin, misery, and depravity challenged marriages without an announcement that Christ came to save us from all of that. At the end of one of the sermons the pastor told us that we have a marriage Counselor in our marriage living in our home, the Holy Spirit. This idea came from Ephesians 4:30 which says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." The problem came when the pastor didn't finish the verse, and didn't add the part "for the day of redemption!" That adds a huge eschatological focus on what this being sealed by the Holy Spirit means! Sure there are benefits now, but ultimately the Spirit has been given to us for THE benefit of entering into our eternal rest. The pastor referenced Jesus' promise that the Spirit would come to be our Counselor. I assumed he was talking about John 14:16. This idea of the Holy Spirit as Counselor comes from the language of the courtroom. A better translation would be Advocate - a go between for us miserable sinners and a holy and just God.

I could comment a lot more on these sermons that I listened too (I downloaded more today so watch out!), but this is not my point right now. In my discussion with my friend we were talking about what a sermon actually is and what its central message should be (Christ and him crucified). However, this morning I had a revelation (not inspired!) that I was being too hard on these pastors. I was expecting them to be preaching. But I went back and looked at their church's websites and that is not what their goal is. Here is one example of a church's stated goal:

[This church's] morning services are designed to help people, wherever they are in their spiritual journey, move closer to God. We believe that authentic, creative worship, combined with relevant, biblical teaching, energizes people to live enthusiastically for God.

Ahhhh... they want to teach, not preach!! I was surprised to find that this was very common language when churches explain what happens on Sunday Morning. In that case what they are doing is just fine and I need to lay off of them a little bit. Granted, we need to pressure these pastors to actually preach, but at least they are staying true to their word and teaching every Sunday.

This may seem just like a small semantic argument, but it really isn't. Teaching and preaching are not synonyms - they are two different Greek words with some, but little overlap. I am not going to go into a full word study, but "teaching" (greek - didasko) in the NT usually has the unambiguous sense "to teach" or "to instruct" (TDNT). Whereas "preaching" (greek - karusso) really means "to proclaim" an event (TDNT). Some NT authors actually use the term "witness" as the act of preaching because of the nature of declaring something that happened.

As long as these "teachers" are doing just that, "teaching," I cannot be surprised that the proclamation of the gospel isn't given since there purpose is supposedly not to proclaim an event that happened. Even though that is exactly what a Christian pastor is to do:

¹³For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."


¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" ¹⁶But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" ¹⁷So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Rom 10:13-17 ESV).

In closing, let me ask you to think about the sermons that you hear on a Sunday morning. Did you hear preaching or teaching? Did Christ have to die for that sermon to be true? If you do hear the proclamation of the gospel consistently week in and week out, then make sure that you thank your pastor for staying faithful to God's word. If you are getting more teaching than preaching, then you really should find a church that preaches the true unadulterated Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ because that is what we need to constantly hear as those who are simultaneously justified and yet sinful.