Rules For Preachers

Introduction

Yeah, sorry, Tim, I wasn’t much help. Sometimes when the song leader texts you and says, What’s your sermon for Sunday? And I reply, I say silently to myself, good luck with that. Sometimes the lessons just fit perfectly into some songs, and sometimes it’s a challenge. Sometime soon I’m just going to text the song leader and say, What are your songs about? And I’ll make a sermon in regard to that. You know, sometimes we preach sermons to the entire group, that they’re broadly applicable. But other times we find it necessary to preach lessons targeted to specific portions of our audience, maybe the parents or to the children or to single people. This morning’s lesson is just such a lesson that’s targeted to a specific audience, a very specific audience.

I’m just preaching to Greg this morning. Lesson of simply entitled Rules for Preachers. There are really about four books of the New Testament that seem targeted to preachers. First and 2 Timothy and Titus, obviously, are Paul’s inspired epistles to younger preachers. And in that, he targets them and tells them how they need to do their work as an evangelist. 2 Corinthians is a similar book, but in 2 Corinthians, Paul is not instructing someone else. He is really defending himself as a preacher of the gospel. The book of 1 Corinthians, you’ll remember, was a scathing rebuke of the corrections that needed to be made at Corinth. And possibly because of that scathing rebuke, some in Corinth had begun to disparage Paul. And so Paul feels it necessary in part of 2 Corinthians to come to his own defense.

And in so doing, he explains a little bit about the work of a preacher. And so I’d like for us to go through just a few of the rules for preachers that Paul talks about in the book of 2 Corinthians. If you’re not a preacher, this is not a time to take a nap. These lessons and these rules really apply to all Christians. It’s just that Paul is applying them to himself as a preacher of the gospel. But as we go along, I think you’ll see that these are lessons that are applicable to a much broader audience. We get your New Testaments and go with me in the book of 2 Corinthians as we look at some of these rules. We’ll start in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

1. Live the Simple Life

The first rule is simply this to live the simple life. Notice what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 12. For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly toward you. Paul says, I and those who are working with me conducted ourselves in simplicity. You know, we usually use the word simple in two different senses in modern-day English. Number one is we talk about simplicity or simple being easy to understand. We appreciate that in preaching, don’t we? Something that’s easy to understand. I had a lady, I think she was trying to compliment me one time. She said, I like your preaching.

You’re so simple-minded. I hope I know what she meant. And so we use that word in simple as the easy to understand. Sometimes we use the word simple in regard to kind of a modest life.

They don’t have a lot of this world’s luxuries, a lot of fancy stuff. They just have a little small house, one little small older car, just a few belongings, and we say of them that they’re living the simple life. Neither of those two usages of the word simple is really what Paul has in mind here. Paul has really a third definition or a third meaning of the word simple. Simple is maybe since simplicities may be best defined by looking at its opposite as used in this context. Its opposite would be duplicity.

They put on a front or a face to some people, but they’re leading this double life. Or the other sense of duplicity is the person who’s always up to something. Do you know somebody like that? That, that if they pay you a compliment or they do you a favor, you’re thinking, uh oh. What are they up to? What do they want? This person doesn’t just hand out compliments. This person doesn’t do favors unless they’re up to something. That’s the idea of duplicitous. But Paul says, as a preacher of the gospel, I lived my life in elegant simplicity. In other words, Paul said, What you see is what you get. I don’t have a hidden agenda. I’m not working some kind of scheme or plan. When you see Paul, you see the real Paul.

In simplicity and godly sincerity. The gospel should always be handled that way. Whether it’s in the proclamation of the gospel, there should never be any hidden agenda. Everything should be on the upfront. And whether we’re talking about the preaching of the gospel or the living out of the gospel in our lives, simplicity. How much purer and better and nobler and easier our lives would be if we just lived simple lives. Of what you see is what you get. I remember the old adage that if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.

Paul said, that’s what we’re doing. We’re handling it in simplicity and in godly sincerity. Look at a couple other passages in 2 Corinthians where Paul emphasizes this. Chapter 2 and in verse 17, he says, For we are not, as so many peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. We are not peddling or adultering for gain the word of God. Paul says, why am I preaching the gospel? Am I up to something? Am I trying to build some kind of scheme? Is this an attempt to get famous or to get rich? Paul said, no. I’m just preaching the gospel. Because Christ put this upon me and because I want to lead souls to Him.

2. Understand the Job

Not peddling, but in godly sincerity. One other passage in chapter 6. And in verse 3, he says, we give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed. We give no offense. If there is a veiling, we heard in our Bible reading this morning, if there’s a veiling in the gospel, it’s not going to be by me, Paul says. Because we’re just simply preaching the gospel. We’re just simply living good, godly Christian lives, and that’s it. And so the first rule is simply live the simple life. The second rule is found in chapter 2, beginning in verse 14, and that is simply to understand the job. What is the role or the job, if we want to use that term, of a gospel preacher?

What’s the job or the role of any Christian who tries to share the gospel with anyone else? You know, we live in a results-based mentality. If something doesn’t work by our scheme, then it must be scrapped and started over. Odds are any piece of software that you’re using right now has some number larger than one at the end of it. Because they’ve improved it. They fixed it because it wasn’t working properly or wasn’t working good enough, and so now we have a 2.0 or a 3.0. Microsoft and Apple have even run out of numbers. They have to come up with names for them now because they’ve upgraded and changed that software so many times because it wasn’t getting the results that they deemed as being fitting or necessary.

That doesn’t necessarily fit. When we talk about the presentation of the gospel, understand what our task is. Look in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, that through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. Let’s pause there. He says, God always leads us in triumph. Does Paul mean every time I preach the gospel, everybody that hears it responds positively to it? That’s a naive view of Paul. We understand that from the book of Acts, that exactly was not the case, was it? But he says he always leads us in triumph, and we are diffusing the fragrance of Him in every place. He is saying, my job is simply to put the scent out there, diffusing the fragrance.

And notice his illustration here, beginning in verse 15. For we are to God, the fragrance of Christ, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing. Paul understood that the gospel was always going to have dual effect. Those who are saved and those who are perishing. To the one, verse 16, to the one, we are the aroma of death to death. And to the other, the aroma of life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? Paul says we’re diffusing as a preacher of the gospel and as every Christian who’s trying to share the gospel in some way. He says, we’re diffusing the fragrance of Christ. To some, that’s a sweet smell. Some commentators have suggested that Paul had a particular event in mind in this illustration.

In ancient times, in first century times, when kings or countries would go to battle, they would come back, if they were victorious. They would come back and the streets would be lined for a parade, really, a celebration for that victory. And the streets would be lined with an aroma. There would be flowers, incense would be burning. They said that the smell was so thick that you could sometimes literally see it through the smoke of the incense. And here would come those victorious soldiers in the front of that parade. Can you imagine what that smell smelled like to them? That strong aroma of those flowers mixed with the incense. That would have been the sweet smell of victory to those soldiers, wouldn’t it? But in the back of that parade would be the captives, the losers who are being brought back to serve as slaves under their victors.

That same scent would have been repulsive. And Paul says, that’s the gospel. To some, it’s the smell of life. And to others, it’s the stench of death. But Paul says our job is simply to diffuse the aroma. Now we can’t take this too far. We can’t say, oh, well, then it doesn’t matter. We’ll just drive through Orlando and just throw Bibles out our windows like the newspaper boy and say, we’ve diffused the aroma. No, there still must be some tact, some thought given to the presentation of the gospel. But Paul says our job is simply to preach the gospel. He would tell these selfsame Corinthians that he planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

3. Remember the Focus

And the ability of a good and honest soil to be able to incorporate that into their lives. Our job is simply to preach the gospel. And Paul says he always leads us into triumph in that. Every time it’s preached, it does its job. Because from our vantage point, unfortunately, sometimes the job of the gospel is to condemn. And so understand the job. The second or the third rule is found also in chapter two. Back up to chapter two, verses two and three. And this is the idea of to remember the focus. I’m sorry, I have that on uh chapter three. Chapter three, verse two and three. You know, sometimes in preaching the gospel, the focus can be on getting a lesson ready and doing those kind of things and being focused.

Give you a little insight into a preacher’s life here. You know who, in my humble opinion, what member of a local church maybe struggles the most at worshiping during a worship service? I think many times it’s the preacher. Because when the song leader’s leading in song, rather than focusing on those things, we’re thinking about our lesson. Did I get that PowerPoint pulled up right? Do I have that? Should I have reversed points numbers two and three? That would have been. And during the Lord’s Supper, we’re thinking about okay, now do I have is my tie straight? Is everything, I wonder if I can get this in the allotted time. When you focused upon the details and the really the minutiae of the work, and failing to back up and look at the big picture.

But Paul says, here’s the rule, chapter 3, verse 2. You, you, Corinthians, are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read by all. You are manifestly an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is of heart. Paul says, Do I need a if I needed a letter of recommendation? You would be that letter. Not that you would write it, you would be that letter. Paul says, you, speaking to these Christians, you are what it’s all about. And we have to remember that, again, not just in the preaching of the gospel, but in the living of the gospel, that it’s about people. Don’t get so focused in upon the details, not to say that we must dismiss those details, but don’t get so focused upon the details of what you were doing and forget about why we are doing those.

Paul, I believe, was emphasizing to them as well as reminding himself of where his focus should be. Look over in chapter 6. Verse 11. He says, O Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You see the emotion just dripping off of that. Just the beginning. Oh Corinthians, our heart is wide open. The other lesson from this is as we remember the focus, that it’s upon the people to whom the gospel is preached, the people with whom we worship and seek to edify and to encourage, is don’t be afraid to let them know that. And that’s a struggle for some of us more than others. One thing I think is getting better, we talk about a lot what’s getting worse with successive generations.

I think the one thing is getting better is we’re a little bit more open with our emotions.

4. Always Try to Fight Fair

In my generation, at least where I was raised, we’re taught that was a sign of weakness among men, at least, that you didn’t cry, that you didn’t hug anybody, that you didn’t show emotions. Maybe, maybe, if you were raised in a more liberal household in North Alabama, you could do that on funerals. But other than that, you didn’t show emotion. But Paul says, our heart is open wide to you. Paul understood the focus of his preaching of the gospel, that it wasn’t just some kind of intellectual exercise that he was getting sermons together and just preaching the gospel. He understood that it was about people. And he was not afraid to show and express that emotion. The next rule was Paul said he always tried to fight fair.

Paul understood that the preaching of the gospel fit within the greater framework of the spiritual warfare that we’re all engaged in. But there were certain acceptable rules of this warfare. Turn with me now to in 2 Corinthians to chapter 10. Beginning in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, in pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into the captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. We live in the flesh, but we don’t war according to the flesh.

Now, what was Paul saying there?

Well, you could say that he was saying that there’s no room for some kind of Christian crusade, that we’re not going to use swords and spears or guns and tanks. But that doesn’t seem really to be his main point. That in the preaching and in the conversion of people, that there could be carnal methods used, not necessarily talking about true military methods, but carnal methods. Paul says we are engaged in a spiritual battle, and so this will be a spiritual exercise. This maybe plays a little bit into the idea of the simplicity of the preaching of the gospel. Are there things that we could do that might be in some sense more appealing to the fleshly, carnal side of man? And if we want to change the rules of this warfare, might therefore be more successful.

But Paul says we don’t war according to the flesh. This is a spiritual exercise. A reasonable, rational exercise in which the gospel is going to be presented in its simplicity, in its reality, this fragrance is going to be diffused, and the hearts of the listeners will be filtered by that preaching of the gospel. That’s an uncomfortable thing to accept. Is that though the gospel is for all, that song is exactly right. But not all are for the gospel. And so we don’t change the gospel. We don’t prop it up. We don’t decorate it with anything of any kind of fleshly, worldly appeal. We just preach the gospel. That’s fighting fair. One other verse, look in chapter 4. Verse 2 from our Bible reading this morning, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame.

Conclusion

Now, what were the hidden things of shame? Our minds might immediately go to salacious topics. But notice what he says the hidden things of shame that he has renounced. Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Paul says when it comes to the gospel, we’re not sneaky, we’re not crafty, we’re just preaching the gospel in its simplicity. And that’s it. The gospel. Because Paul would say again to these same Corinthians, so that your faith can be in the power of God. These are just a few of the rules that Paul said he tried to implement in his own life in preaching the gospel. And they’re really rules that we can implement in our own lives in living the gospel.

In simplicity, in sincerity, remembering what our job and our focus ought to be. And may God help us in our presentation, in our living, to do just that. Would you pray with me this morning? Our dear God and Almighty Father who art in heaven.

That you’ve communicated to mankind through so many different ways, through dreams and visions and prophecies, through prophets under your old covenant. But we’re so humbled that you would communicate to us through your Son today. And that we have His gospel. And we’ve been entrusted with that gospel to obey it and to share it with others. Father, help to impress upon our minds the way that we handle that gospel. That we would do it with simplicity. That we would have enough faith in the power of your gospel to preach it and it alone. Lead us not into the temptations of this world to seek other means to draw people to you. But help us to believe. To believe in you, to believe in the power of your gospel, and to believe in the existence of good and honest hearts that are seeking you.

Help us as a congregation that we might always uphold your truth and be willing to lovingly, patiently share it with others. Be with us the rest of this day, Father, as we worship you, we pray that you’ll be pleased by our offerings. Continue to love us. Continue to bless us and guide us through your word. All these things we pray as humbly as we know how through your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Comencemos mi anticipado.