Hard Preaching

Hard Preaching

Chris was only half-kidding when he said, “Pastor,  you were like Jonathan Edwards, dangling us over the pit of Hell.” The comment caused me to reflect on the sermon I had preached. I thought to myself,  “If only I could approach the preaching power of Edwards!” 

Yes, the text was hard to preach and hard to hear!  Based on the story of Achan, found in Joshua 7, whose disobedience to God’s directive cost Israel a victory and led to his death as well as the deaths of 36 soldiers, it brought a core lesson about the open consequence of secret sin. An individual who sins in secret brings harm to his community.  This is not an isolated idea in the Bible.  Many passages bring the same concept – that we are tied together, our blessings shared, our sins rippling out into family and congregation with often devastating results.  What a joy for me to bring the sermon home by going to the Cross, the place where my sins, your sins – our sins – are forgiven,  the curse lifted by the gracious gift of Christ Jesus.

Some preachers might enjoy making their congregations feel guilty. I am not one of them. The caricature of fundamentalist preacher, long on emotion and short on education, waving his hands, shouting about the wrath of God, his face reddened with exertion, is never far from my mind.  I realize there are little congregations scattered across the land who don’t feel they have been “in church” unless they hear a tirade from an angry man!  I am neither angry, nor in need of venting my frustration with this present world.  Never the less, there are times when hard preaching is required.

Jesus loved people intensely. His Presence was encouraging and people who were bruised and broken by life came looking for Him.  Can you find more inviting words than these? “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29, NLT)  However, He was capable of taking the Truth to those who refused God. He spoke uncompromisingly to the Pharisees who trusted in their own goodness, challenging them to look inside, to see that polishing the outside of the cup was not enough! He told them that Hell awaited them unless they repented. Hard preaching, indeed.

At the end of his life, Paul wrote to Timothy and urged him to preach the whole truth even when the crowd turned away. He said, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:3-5, NIV) Are you capable of hearing the truth?  Can you move beyond the initial emotional responses to process the challenge, to invite the Spirit to do His work?

Truth, even the hard things, transforms us.  Jesus said that ‘knowing the truth will set you free.’  Here’s a word from the Word. Let it encourage you to live in the truth, even when it’s a hard one to face.  "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:19-21, NIV)