Why Preaching Matters (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

The message you are about to hear, Why Preaching Matters, from First Thessalonians 2 .13, was preached at the Redeemer Bible Fellowship in Central Point, Oregon, on February 2nd, 2025. Unfortunately, due to technical issues, the audio quality is less than ideal.

There is also a couple of minutes where the video dies and restarts. We apologize and pray the content is still a blessing to you.

Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Topic

Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of the Lord today. We thank you for giving us another opportunity to come and to hear your word and to be encouraged and challenged and shades are molded by it.

We pray that as we come to this passage, we come to esteem this morning, the importance of preaching work. We ask that even as preaching is happening,.

This will be a work, opening eyes and preparing our hearts.

To receive all that you have for us.

While in all this, I have to pray for another heritage church. I want to take this morning to pray for the church I was at this weekend, Texas Heritage Reform Church.

Thank you for Pastor Ron, Pastor Matt, your leadership there.

Thanks for your blessing on the ministry of your word there.

And this weekend, their conference.

We just pray for that congregation, Father.

Just tremendous opportunities being in a college town. Thank you for your goodness to them and two churches coming together successfully to merge as one.

Thank you for just the love and the unity I got to see firsthand there.

There's camaraderie in gospel ministry between their two pastors.

Friend, bless the work there. Pray for Brother Ossie Q who is preaching the word there in this morning that he would know your blessing is. Your word goes forth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We pray that for them.

We pray for your blessing here now. Some thumbs to your word. And we ask you in Jesus name and for his sake, you know.

Please be seated.

Why Modern Voices Want to Replace Preaching

I'm beginning to wonder if preaching itself shouldn't be mostly a bad thing. After all, the best parts of the New Testament are the stories. The ones Jesus told and the ones about him. I read that on Friday morning.

Some of you were following me on social media. I had, yet again, another terrible account experience.

In my frustration, I texted the Lord Friday. I was like, I'm done with the United Airlines.

And then I realized, no, this happens with every airline.

Just maybe I'm wrong. But I was preparing this message and I was looking up some stuff.

And I came across that quote I just read.

If you're wondering, that doesn't sound like Fofie.

Well, it wasn't, obviously.

But this was a blogger, actually a rather popular blogger,.

So I did a little digging.

He was basically saying, essentially, preaching is boring.

Can't we get rid of it?

It was another article I read.

This was a different author. Now we're covering a different part of the world. But the author was making the point that maybe we would be better served if we just got rid of preaching entirely. This is what they had to say.

Quote, I read another article.

Excuse me.

So I read this article.

It was an alternative speech.

This is what they said. Quote, do less talking and show more short videos. Or have someone else get up in the middle to share an example of how they applied a particular teaching.

This is another point they made.

Question whether exegetical Bible teaching is as important as Bible application to life and ministry and the just accordingly. Instead of a 30-minute sermon, have two or three 15-minute spots. One Bible teaching, one practical skills by someone other than the pastor who has those gifts, and one testimony or reports for a ministry group.

It's another alternative they had.

Cut the sermons of 15 to 20 minutes and then divide the congregation into small groups to discuss how they will use this teaching to do the mission of God.

It was another thing they said.

Divide the congregation into groups and have them discuss and report back with the pastor doing impromptu teaching via comments. And this is a vital application they gave. Do more teaching in smaller groups.

In particular, practical ministry teaching can be done in the different ministry teams. This was the conclusion to the article that they gave. In summary, maybe use sermons, and they actually highlighted the word me, maybe use sermons where you have a visiting teacher who has something original and worthwhile to say to the needs of the congregation and is only visiting for a short time.

But avoid them, sermons, as much as possible for day-in, day-out teaching and discipleship.

I've got one more.

This is the third author. Although effective, impassioned preaching is occasionally able to stir some hearts and bring some response, this is quite rare. Preaching rarely brings long-term change in individual lives.

The average church attendee hears a sermon a week amounting to about 2 ,500 sermons over a 50-year church life.

Actually, 2 ,600, but that doesn't mean being veteran enough.

Yet they typically, he goes on, can't remember many of those sermons and would number on one hand those sermons which had had significant impact on their lives. From my experience, the most effective way to bring change to lives is not through listening to sermons, but through participative Biden study in a mutually encouraging and challenging, and a few more, but I will spare you the torture of what I had on Friday morning sitting in Denver Airport.

What are we to make of sentiments like that? Is preaching really an outmoded relic of an era that has been and gone? Do we need to get rid of this, what I'm doing right now? Someone standing up front, opening the Bible, daring to say, I know what this book means.

Do we need to get rid of that and replace it with something else? Well, obviously, if you've been at Redeemer for a minute, I'm going to use a phrase that I know Americans don't use.

It's a very distinctly British phrase.

I think all of those people could. Go do what? Go do what?

When we say that back, what we mean is, I think you guys have a similar expression.

Go take a hike. Like, yeah.

Go take a hike.

Go do what? I'm sorry.

I asked the question. It was interesting. Like I said, I can be very patsy when I open it. You know one thing I did notice with all these articles? No, one quotation from Scripture. Not one. You ought to be afraid of this.

I say it all the time.

The Bible was conspicuous by its absence.

Amazing.

Why are you behind me on your message on why preaching matters? Well, we infest ourselves with all the news we are, and regular service will resume next week. But as we were in, remember our last message, chapter 4, verses 11 through 16?

I got to verses 12 and 13. And I, as some of you know, if you didn't know this, how do you do this? I go back and listen to the sermons.

And so I went back and I was listening to it.

I was like, hmm.

Especially the inter

In fact, turn that whole thing off.

Let me just remind you.

It wasn't all seven days ago.

First, Timothy chapter 4, and verses 13 to 14. Actually, 13 and 15, excuse me. So verse 13, remember what Paul says? Until I come, he tells Timothy, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.

Verse 15, practice these things. Be committed to them. Remember our son last week? Literally, be in them so they can profess the evidence to all. As I was listening to the message last week, I was reflecting on these verses.

I was like, I might need to take an extra week here. I kind of drilled down on this, but why does Paul tell Timothy to give attention to this? Why does Paul tell Timothy that he's to practice these things?

He is to be literally in them, absorbed by them. If I can put it real simply, like I have a whole speech there. Why does preaching matter?

Let me just, I'll tell you from what I think.

I have a feeling that the preached word is one of the most critical things in the life of a church. Quite frankly, I wish I could care less. I really wish I could care less what modern people think about this God-ordained work of preaching His word.

Preaching matters. Preaching has mattered since Jesus was on the earth. Have you ever thought about this? Have you read it a few weeks ago? Jesus constantly says, I need to go to all these other villages and preach because that is why I came.

It takes a lot of arrogance to think that you know better than Jesus. Preaching has mattered since Jesus was on the earth. Actually, when you trace the history of God's people, every time a major move of God's spirit happens, we tend to use the single term revival to speak of that reality.

Every time revival breaks out, whether on a mass scale or even on a localized scale, in God's sovereign goodness and purpose, every time that happens, you know what's somewhere in the midst, not too far?

The preaching of Oha.

From the day of Constantinople to the day of the period since, every time the spirit of God has done a word in the people of God, reviving them, that has happened because the word was being preached. So preaching matters.

It's mattered since Jesus was on the earth. It's mattered since the beginning of the church. And I love you even more today. Yes, we may not be in a day of revival. We may be in a day of trouble and challenge.

But if anything, that was preaching all the more important, doesn't it? Quite frankly, when I read someone say that preaching should be abandoned, I think it's their opinion that should be abandoned. Because if we are truly honest, when the Bible, this book that we say is the word of God,.

If we're honest, preaching matters.

Now, I just so happened to think Paul would agree. I think Paul would agree that preaching matters. But enough is a great deal, actually. And since preaching matters, I want to show you that Paul would agree with that statement by bringing you to just one verse.

First Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.

So, have that verse open in front of you.

That's basically what we're learning to count this morning. Now, we're parachuting into verse Thessalonians. So, for a moment, I need to build out the context just a little bit. The church in Thessalonica might be the clumsiest to a perfect church we have in the New Testament.

Of course, we all know there is no such thing as a perfect church. What's the line go? There is no perfect church.

And if you join it, it won't be perfect anymore.

So, the reality is that there is no perfect church.

But, as far as we can tell, the church in Thessalonica is probably the least problematic of all of them. There's no major heresy that's being accepted by the congregation, like the church in Galatia or the church in Colossae.

There's no major lapse in Christian living like the Corinthians over and over and over again. There are no divisions in the body, like even a church like Philippi, which is actually not that bad either.

But Philippi has two ladies, at least, who were on the same page. As far as you can tell, the church in Thessalonica didn't have a whole lot of problems. They were a great church. They were a young church.

In fact, they were incredibly young when Paul has to abruptly leave them. And Paul recognizes that though he can't be treasured with them, he can still disciple them through his writing. So he writes them this letter.

And as you come to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, really, starting in chapter 1, Paul is thanking God for the evidences of grace he's seen in them. And he's also going down memory lane a little bit. Did you catch that as we're reading chapter 2?

He's going down memory lane and reminding them of when he was with them, the kind of ministry that he conducted.

The ministry in Thessalonica had its challenges. He says as much.

See, isn't that interesting?

So he's honest. He says, you know, we had a rough go of it. It wasn't all, shall we say, sunshine and roses. It wasn't all pleasant ministry. It was kind of challenging. He said, but nonetheless, the power of the Spirit of God, we were emboldened to preach the Gospels.

He made God was gracious and gave his blessing to that preaching.

And so as a result, he could be thankful.

That's why he starts with verse 13.

This is why we constantly thank God. The fact that the word had come to them and the power of the Spirit and the blessing of God, he could say as a result of that, brothers and sisters, I am thankful for you.

But he's thankful for something in particular in this verse. And I want to unpack the thing that he's thankful for this morning. Because as we unpack his reason for being thankful, he's going to, as it were, drop some gems for us about the ministry of the Word, the public ministry of the Word, and why that public ministry matters.

Paul clearly says that he faced a lot of opposition in his desire to minister to the Word of God. And it's interesting that I would argue that those of us who would be thankful in the public ministry of the Word, we face the same opposition in our day in the face of so much opposition to preaching.

Why should you be convinced that preaching matters? This morning, I want to do something a little bit different from my usual style of preaching. Normally, as you guys know, I give you a big idea up front and then we unpack that big idea.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to flip it. I'm going to give you the big idea at the end. What I'm going to do is I'm going to look at this verse. I'm going to follow Paul's logic in the verse. And at the end, I'll give you the big idea.

The big idea will make sense because you've been able to follow Paul's logic. So for this morning, we're going to flip the usual order of things. I'll give you my big idea at the end, not the beginning.

So you have to really create your deck and listen a little bit this morning. Because it might just hit you up where you weren't expecting. For the rest of our time this morning, I want you to very simply follow Paul's inspired logic as to why, as we learn why preaching matters.

Paul has a logic in this one verse that if you follow it carefully, it should ask, it's not just ask as you read, it should answer the question, why does preaching matter? There are a few steps in this logic.

Preaching as God Using Men to Speak

Step number one, simple one. Preaching is God using men to speak. That's a good place to start. Preaching is God using men to speak. So again, look at the verse. This is why we constantly thank God. Because when you receive the word of God that you heard from us, you welcome it not as a human message, but as it truly is a word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

This is you receive the word of God that you heard from us. That's an interesting way to put that. I mean, Paul was a human being. He was a man of the slight human eye. God did not send an angel. God did not cause some new celestial event to rapt us as soldiers.

God used a very ordinary means to get his word to his people. He used a man. And so that Paul came with some sort of special spiritual language to try to get his message. But no, he just spoke in regular grief that they would have understood.

There was a humanity to this, if you will. There was an earthiness to this. God was using, in lots of ways, a special man. Paul was very, very special. But he is a man. God didn't send, like I said, he didn't send, you know, heaven's version of Superman, basically.

No, he just said, a man. One of the great things about preaching, one of the interesting things, one of the unusual things about this thing of preaching, is that it is God using men to speak. I mean, think about it for a moment.

Have you ever thought about the audacity of this thing we do call preaching? I mean, think about it. For a moment. I know many of us have been in church for a long time, and so we all have church brain.

I haven't either. For a moment, try and think I could do it Christian for a second.

Go to your... Maybe you should try this at speed. I don't know.

Go to your... Those that are non-Christian that you know well. And tell them, at least once a week, I believe that God speaks through a man from his word. Chances are, he or she might think you're crazy.

Like, do we need to go get the guys from the phony farm for you?

Well then, what do you mean?

Well, Chris, just as presumed, first of all, the person you're speaking to actually believes God exists. Let's just assume somebody, at some sense, believes that God exists. May not be the God of battle, but let's just presume we're talking to a non-Christian.

I believe that, at least once a week, I hear God speak through a man.

It sounds insane, doesn't it?

Now, put yourself in Phil's shoes. Let's say I went up to somebody and said, I believe that every time I study the passage and I've done the work, depending on the spirit to give life, to help me understand the book that he gave.

Every time I stand up, I believe I'm speaking for God. That would be the audacity level just goes up about like 100 on that coin. I mean, it's not by the height of audacity. But it's pretty close for any human being to get up in front of those people and say, these are God's words to you.

But here's the thing. That's the claim the Bible makes about those who preach God's word. In fact, this passage I'm waiting to see turned to would be 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. So we're in verses 2.

You'll hear 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy. You'll hear Titus. You'll hear Philemon. You'll hear Hebrews. You'll hear James. And then you'll hear 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Peter was talking to the church about how it should conduct itself as an end time people.

And in verse 10, get with me.

That's 10.

Peter says, just as each one has received a gift, use it. The gift, gifts there is a reference to an assignment, a place of ministry. As each one has received a assignment, a place of ministry, a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the very grace of God.

But look at verse 11. He says, If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God's words.

As I said before, I'm a KJV baby.

I love how the King James Bible puts this verse in verse 11.

1 Peter 4 .11 says,.

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. That picture of the oracle of God. When Peter used that language, his audience knew exactly what that was. Because there was a very famous person in the ancient era who spoke the oracle at Delphi.

She had what was known as the serpent spirit. And actually we now know that she was basically like on an astrotrip 24 -7. Now visually they would actually have fumes of what we now know to be homogenics that would basically induce her into the state pretty much all day.

This woman, the oracle at Delphi, she was known as the one who spoke the very words of the gods. In fact, military generals would go to Delphi and try to get an answer. Are we going to win this thing?

How should we do this? She was that big a deal. And Peter pulls that language and says, listen, forget Delphi. Anywhere the word of God is being preached, the person who preaches to preach like they are being God's oracle.

But again, Peter doesn't say if God speaks. He says if any man speaks. You should speak as the oracle of God. Calvary comments on this. He says, Let him reverently in God's fear and in sincerity perform the charge committed to him regarding himself as engaged in God's work and as ministering God's work and not his own.

God has been pleased to bring his word. We'll talk more about this in just a moment. He's been pleased to bring his word to people through people. And it should be a humbling reality beyond words for myself or for any faithful preacher that we get to be God's means of getting his word to his people.

Preaching is God using men to speak. And as God uses men to speak, it produces a particular kind of response. So again, look at verse 13. This is why we constantly thank God. Because when you received, he says, as you accepted the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as a humanness, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you.

I would have zeroed in on that word received. I think that's the second part of Paul's logic here. So the first part of Paul's logic is that God is using men to speak.

It's the second part of his logic.

Preaching Comes with God's Authority

Preaching comes with God's authority. That preaching comes with God's authority. I get that from this word received. It's actually a fairly important word in your New Testament.

In fact, you hear me use it every Sunday.

So first previous chapter 11, when we come to the Lord's table, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

Same word.

In fact, Paul uses it explicitly for the gospel message itself. So same message, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received. Same word. This word received carries this idea of formally accepting a message as carrying authority.

Formally accepting a message as authoritative. Paul says that when the Thessalonians heard him preach, they didn't just hear it as Paul was preaching. They realized that Paul was the human instrument.

But there was somebody backing Paul's words. Paul didn't just come with a mere sharing. You'll sometimes hear, you've been in ministry long, you've probably heard people say this. Like, I'm going to preach, I'm just going to share.

I want to be gracious and say, okay, I guess we all use language differently. Let me not be too harsh about that. But there is a sense in which preaching is not a mere sharing. I said this last week, that our culture struggles with authority.

Especially when somebody else has to be authority. We saw it just this week.

I had a lot of free time, unexpected free time, Thursday or Friday, sitting in Denver airport.

And so what do you do when you have time to kill? Even me who likes reading, I can only read so much. At home after a while, I need to give my brain a break.

So what do you do?

If you're me, you scroll Twitter.

The great bastion of wisdom, common sense.

Codex, yeah, it's codex.

Well, I wrote it.

So I'm on Twitter. Actually, no, this was yesterday.

So I wrote Twitter.

I don't see your video.

Some of you may be soldiers. Those of you who are very politically aware are no chance of being soldiers. A group of senators, either senators or congressmen, how else do we get them?

Anyway, okay, a group of representatives.

They go up to the offices of the Department of Education and demand to be let in, I guess.

I forget what that government is.

It's called the one that's been to the outposts of everybody for wasting money. Anyway, I guess they were doing work in there, and they closed the doors and not let anybody in. And so these folks woke up.

And, of course, cameras are there because, you know, they always take the camera off, I guess.

And I went and watched it, and I just laughed.

I thought it was hilarious. This one guy comes out, and they basically, like, send, I forget the name. Maxine Waters, that's it. So I was barking at this poor guy, like, let us in.

Like, you're impeding us from doing your official duty. They want to do your official duty. They just want to go in.

I hear the part of them, you know, this guy didn't look cool at all.

Like, he was about average height, average build.

And he just stands there, like, sorry, I'm going to let you in. Like, you don't have authority to be.

I walk away, and, you know, Representative Waters thought she was going to clout her.

Says, show me your ID. Well, okay, I had to pull it out.

And, of course, she just kind of, she dies.

At least he swats it away seamlessly.

But the guy just stands there, unmoved. Why can the guy stand there unmoved? Because he has authority. He himself maybe wasn't that impressive. But he was given an assignment to ensure nobody gets in.

And the authority that came with the assignment meant that sorry, Representative Senator, man from the, okay, you're not coming in. That was, I applaud him for his rightful use of authority. He didn't try to physically handle anyone.

He didn't try to get aggressive. He just stood there and said, I'm going to let you in. But why would they think that they can bully this man, basically? Why? Because as they saw it, he has no authority.

Could it be? So think back to those quotes I started. Could it be that our culture struggles often with the idea of preaching because we don't like the idea of authority? Could it be that we struggle with preaching because this idea that I can't just choose to listen or not listen to this is a struggle for us?

If I can get back to those quotes I started our time with this morning. Did you pick up on the current that kind of connected all of them?

Maybe he missed it.

Let me make it a bit more explicit. In all of those quotes, preaching was viewed either as having only human authority or no real authority at all. That's why one of the authors could say, well, most people can't avoid having the sermons that truly move them.

I'm using a logic that might help. How many meals have you eaten in your life? How many meals have you eaten in your life? You probably can't count them all. Do you remember every meal you've eaten? I mean, I remember some because they were terrible.

I remember some because they were really good.

I was in Lubbock yesterday afternoon.

Went to a barbecue place. Wasn't feeling too great, so I didn't eat too much. But the meal I didn't eat was excellent.

I'm very repentant of that.

I'm going to the Shepherd's Pub for the last time tomorrow.

That's my favorite Chinese place on the planet.

Call me. These are meals you remember. But do I remember every single meal? Can I tell you what I ate two days ago?

No.

Can I tell you what I ate two weeks ago?

No.

Two months ago?

Two years ago?

No.

Have every one of those meals had an effect on me for good or for bad? Did the effects depend on whether it was memorable or lacking?

No.

Food does what food does. In fairness, I think I'm thinking maybe a little harsh at the beginning on those thoughts.

Maybe a little.

Because actually, their comments make some sense. If, this is a big if, their comments make some sense. If you believe that you and your thoughts as an individual are basically equal to any other person around you, if there is no external authority who gives backing to anybody's thoughts, if all our thoughts are just that, our thoughts, well, why would I want to come to church and listen to somebody else tell me what they think the Bible means?

You start to think about the logic of this, and it starts to make some sense. Why not skip this and just have the spiritual equivalent of a focus group? Why not get rid of the whole listening to one man explain the Bible and just have a nice, safe, uncontroversial discussion that you can take or leave?

I mean, why wouldn't we do that? Well, here's why you can't. Because God has designed his word to come from people, and when his word is coming from people, it comes with his authority. So you see this in the ministry of Jesus, remember?

And of the servant of the mouth? Matthew 7, 29, it says that the people were astonished at his teaching. They were amazed at his teaching. Why? Because he was teaching like one who had authority and not like their scraps.

Now I can hear one of these bishops say, hold on, hold on, hold on.

They're not paid by pay.

You, sir, are not Jesus. Of course, Jesus had authority. He's the son of God.

Okay.

Tactics 3 .15 pauses proclaim these things, encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard. Where does the preacher's authority come from? Does it come from the fact that he went to the right school?

Does it come because he's connected to the right people? Does he have authority because he has a winning personality and he can bend people to his will? Can I point you to that actually biblical authority comes from knowing God and from knowing his word?

You see, the preached word has no authority in itself. The preached word only has authority when it is mediating God's word or when it is mediating God's word. Do you notice how Paul describes his preaching twice in this verse?