Preaching / Teaching¶
Matthew Henry on 1 Timothy 4:11-16¶
Command and teach these things. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scriputre, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Men's youth will not be despised, if they keep from vanities and follies. Those who teach by their doctrine, must teach by their life. Their discourse must be edifying; their conversation must be holy; they must be examples of love to God and all good men, examples of spiritual-mindedness. Ministers must mind these things as their principal work and business. By this means their profiting will appear in all things, as well as to all persons; this is the way to profit in knowledge and grace, and also to profit others. The doctrine of a minister of Christ must be scriptural, clear, evangelical, and practical; well stated, explained, defended, and applied. But these duties leave no leisure for worldly pleasures, trifling visits, or idle conversation, and but little for what is mere amusement, and only ornamental. May every believer be enabled to let his profiting appear unto all men; seeking to experience the power of the gospel in his own soul, and to bring forth its fruits in his life.
matthewhenry¶
Spurgeon on 1 Thessalonians 1:5¶
"Degrees of Power Attending the Gospel"
The farmer who labors must himself also first be a partaker of the fruit. Before Ezekiel delivered to the people the prophecies which were written in the roll, the voice came to him, “Son of man, eat this roll,” and he did not only take it into his mouth, where it was like honey for sweetness, but it descended even into his bowels, and mingled with his innermost self. We must ourselves feel the weight of that burden of the Lord which we proclaim to others, or we shall not be ministers of the apostolic sort, but rather shall be descendants of the hypocritical Pharisees who bound heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, upon other men’s shoulders, but were not willing to touch them with so much as one of their fingers. The apostle Paul could with peculiar propriety, call the Gospel his own. On the road to Damascus he had singularly experienced its mighty power. And afterwards, in trials oft, in difficulties many, in experiences varied, in temptations furious, he had made each truth of Scripture his own by having tasted its sweetness, handled its strength, proved its comfort, and tried its power. Do not think of preaching, young man, until you have truth written on your very soul. As well think of steering the Great Eastern across the ocean without knowing the first principles of navigation. As well think of setting up as an ambassador without your country’s sanction, as to dare to intrude yourself into the Christian ministry unless the Gospel is first your own.
No amount of training at Oxford, or Cambridge, or anywhere else, no extent of classical or mathematical teaching can ever make you a minister of Jesus Christ, if you lack the first necessary, namely, a personal interest in salvation by Jesus Christ. What! Will you profess to be a physician, while the leprosy is on your own brow? Will you attempt to stand between the living and the dead when you are yourself devoid of spiritual life? The priests of old were touched with the blood upon their thumb, the toe, and the ear, to show that they were consecrated everywhere. And none among us must dare to exercise any office for God among His people till first of all we know the cleansing, quickening, refining, sanctifying power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be our Gospel before we may so much as think of aspiring to the high and holy office of the Gospel ministry.
But this alone is not sufficient. The Christian minister, if he would imitate Paul, must be very careful of his manner of life among the people. He must be able to say without blushing, “You know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” Unselfishness must be our prominent attribute, all must be done for our people’s sake. And then, we must in our lives show the truthfulness of our unselfish professions. O God, how much of grace is wanted that Your servants may be clear of the blood of all men, and make full proof of their ministry. We are not appointed to stand as motionless way-posts to point the way with lifeless accuracy and unsympathizing coldness. This many have done, and while showing the road have never moved one inch in it themselves —such men shall have terrible judgment at the last.
spurgeon¶
Spurgeon on seven stars in Jesus' hand¶
What do you see in Christ’s right hand? Seven stars; yet how insignificant they appear when you get a sight of his face! They are stars, and there are seven of them; but who can see seven stars, or, for the matter of that, seventy thousand stars, when the sun shineth in his strength? How sweet it is, when the Lord himself is so present in a congregation that the preacher, whoever he may be, is altogether forgotten! I pray you, dear friends, when you go to a place of worship, always try to see the Lord’s face rather than the stars in his hand; look at the sun, and you will forget the stars.
spurgeon¶
Spurgeon on preaching with love¶
Sermon My brethren, we that preach the gospel, you that teach it in the Sunday school—you will always find your greatest power to lie in love. There is more eloquence in love than in all the words that the cleverest rhetorician can ever put together. We win upon men not so much by poetry and by artistic wording of sentences, as by the pouring out of a heart’s love that makes them feel that we would save them, that we would bless them, that we would, because we belong to them, regard them as brethren, and play a brother’s part, and lay ourselves out to benefit them.
spurgeon¶
Spurgeon on Ezekiel 3:17¶
sermon It seems to me, brother, that if the Lord has opened your eyes you have become a seer, and when you have become a seer, and can see, you should also become a watchman, and watch for the good of the church of God, and for the salvation of souls
Can we let sinners perish? Can we permit our own kinsmen to go down into the pit? No, not if our prayers, and tears, and earnest teachings can rescue them. Jesus Christ in mighty love has died to save sinners, and He must be honored for His glorious deed of grace—can we suffer His name to be trailed in the mire? Shall He still be despised and rejected by human hearts? Shall even the members of our own family refuse His gentle sway? No, not if our testimony may help to honor Him, nor if our earnest pleadings may gain Him a throne in some human heart.
We feel glad to think that Christ’s battles are not such as require strength of muscle and bone, nor do they need great mental capacity. Even the appointed watchman is set only to warn the people, he has not to charm them with eloquence, nor to electrify them with novelties of oratory, he is simply to warn them, and the plainest language may suffice for that. Surely it is a grave mistake of the present period that men think their preachers are bound to be oratorical and poetical. Why is such startling ability to be flaunted if the object is to warn a sinner to flee from the wrath to come? I fear that my brethren are forgetting their real errand, and are laboring to dazzle those whom the Lord sent them to warn.
I. If we would be found really useful and serviceable for our Lord and Master, THE EAR IS TO BE DISCIPLINED.¶
It is well known that no man is fit to command who has not first learned to obey, and assuredly no man is qualified to teach who has not first of all found pleasure in learning.
Beloved, there be many who are willing to begin winning souls who had better first commence learning Christ. “Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” was spoken to men who had been for some time with Jesus, and had learned of Him. For others who were to be called, it was provided that after baptism they should be taught, that in due season they also might go forth to instruct the nations.
The great thing, I believe, with a successful winner of souls is to hear God’s truth from God’s own mouth. What do I mean by this? I mean that a second-hand message is sure to be weakly delivered. A brother repeats a story which somebody else has told to him! how cold it gets in passing from hand to hand, he who first saw the fact told it with far more life and energy. What you need to do, brother, is to tell the message as God Himself has told it to you by His Holy Spirit.
Sitting down with the Bible on my knee, I say to myself, “This is no common book which lies before me, there is an inspiration here, not the inspiration of Milton or of Shakespeare, but divine inspiration, this is the language of the Eternal, as truly so as though I now saw Sinai on a blaze, and heard out of the thick darkness these accents ringing with trumpet tones, and with the deep thunder of Thus says the Lord. When we thus consider, we are in a right mood to hear the Lord’s word, and to speak it to others. We must own and feel the majesty of the Gospel, and be conscious of its power, or we shall not rightly warn men.
It is poor work to preach a Christ you never knew. It is terrible to talk of bread you have never tasted, of living water you never drank, and of joys you never felt. The husbandman that labors must first be a partaker of the fruits.
II. Secondly, THE TONGUE IS TO BE EDUCATED.¶
And to what end is the tongue educated? I answer, first, to be able to deliver an unpleasant message. Any man’s tongue is swift in telling good things, at least it ought to be, or else where is humanity? We are glad enough to tell you glad tidings of good things, but he that is to be useful must be willing to speak unpleasant things.
Brothers and sisters, are you ready when you meet with careless people to tell them truths that will be unpalatable to them, and when they are awakened are you willing, in God’s name to try and beat to pieces their refuges of lies, to tell them plainly of the mistakes that they are so fond of, and point them to the only way of salvation? You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men. 🔥God will never bless us if we wish to please men, that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and break theirs in the hearing? If not, you are not fit to serve the Lord.
The man should be full of emotion, not moved by anger, but by a sacred passion which arouses him and makes the people feel that he is in awful earnest, carried out of himself, not delivering set phrases and words from his mouth outwards, but speaking from his inmost heart.
It is just so when you come fresh from talking with God, the truth is vividly realized, awe is upon you, and holy zeal and sacred ardor inflame your breast. If you dwell away from God you do not feel the value of the Gospel message, or the weight of men’s souls. The grandest of all truths lose force when they cease to be realized facts, but their power returns when we come again under their actual influence. When the voice of Jesus’ love is still ringing in your ears, then with a deep awestruck solemnity your whole soul is poured forth at your mouth, and you speak as pleading with men that they would yield to God and accept His great salvation. The tongue must speak when the ear is tingling with the message of the Lord.
You may not all be called to the work of prophesying as ministers are, but you are all called by some means to warn men of the wrath to come and lead them to Christ, and I want you to feel that God is at the back of you when you warn sinners.
Let us begin to weep, for weeping, perhaps, may be the fittest beginning of a higher life, as it was the beginning of our natural life. Let us cry unto God, let us watch for opportunities, and as they come let us avail ourselves of them, if by any means we may save some. We dare no longer fritter away life.
I am glad that you read your Bibles, but how is it that you feel so easy when you have read your chapter every day? Do you think you will get salvation by Bible reading? Alas, you are in error. You must go further than that, you must go to Christ Jesus Himself.
spurgeon¶
Maclaren on Mark 1:22¶
The unostentatious manner of Christ’s beginning is noteworthy. He seeks to set Himself in the line of the ordinary teaching of the day. He knew all the faults of the synagogue and the rabbis, and He had come to revolutionise the very conception of religious teaching and worship; but He prefers to intertwine the new with the old, and to make as little disturbance as possible. It is easy to get the cheap praise of ‘originality’ by brushing aside existing methods. It is harder and nobler to use whatever methods may be going, and to breathe new value and life into them. Drowsy, hair-splitting disputations about nothings and endless casuistry were the staple of the synagogue talk; but when He opened His mouth there, the weary formalism went out of the service, and men’s hearts glowed again when they once more heard a Voice that lived, speaking from a Soul that saw the invisible. Mark has no mission to record many of our Lord’s sayings. His Gospel deals more with deeds. The sermon he does not give, but the hearer’s comment he does.
This new Teacher would startle all, as an eagle suddenly appearing in a sanhedrim of owls. He would shock many; He would fascinate a few. Nor was it only the dissimilarity of His teaching, but also its authority, that was strange.