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Preaching the Gospel Ted Stauffer
When God chose how to spread His message He chose teaching and preaching as the way to do this. When a man chooses to make preaching his occupation he is putting his life in God’s hands. Fame and fortune by the world’s standards will surely pass this man by. If a man treats his preaching as a job, that is probably what he will get, just a job. If he treats his preaching as a way of life, his spiritual rewards will be immeasurable. God has authorized preaching as a position in the church, Eph. 4:11-12. In the early church many of the preachers were equipped with spiritual gifts, II Tim 1:6, Acts 8:26,29. Although these gifts were special and necessary they were also incomplete, I Cor. 13:8-11. Today a preacher has the complete word of God and has everything he needs to preach and teach the word. The Bible is and must continue to be a preacher’s only basis for authority, II John 9 & 10, I Pet. 4:11. Preachers are good men and should be treated with a great deal of respect but should never be treated as infallible or think of themselves this way. We must be careful when we hear things like “my preacher says” and “my preacher believes”. We must test the spirits, I John 4:1. Politics has no place in the Lord’s church and preachers will have to preach unpopular lessons. His motives should always be pure and with a good conscience, I Tim. 1:4-5. Even the apostle Peter had problems with politics in the church, Gal. 2:11-16, so we must be on guard. We have talked about some of the things God requires of his preachers and there are many more. One requirement we haven’t talked about is he must be a Christian, which we probably take for granted. This point is made to show that most of the requirements for preachers and members are the same. We cannot depend on our preachers to do all of our work for us. Visiting the sick, home Bible studies, worship, personal work, teaching classes, etc. are duties that should be done together as a congregation working for the Lord. A preacher’s work can and should be a labor of love. If he follows the Lord’s instruction and we as members do the same, the relationship can be one of beauty and many souls can be snared from Satan and brought to Christ.
~ Ted Stauffer
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