The Key To Effective Preaching!

One of the things that attracts people to churches is effective preaching.  Usually this means a preacher does a good job of helping people to understand the bible passage, injects some humor, tells a good story, and then ends with an application for daily living.  While none of this is bad it does not necessarily mean it is effective preaching? 

Why? Let's find out ...

Acts 14 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the gospel.

So how does this passage describe effective preaching?  Paul and Barnabas (note it is both of them not just Paul) spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.  Effective preaching equals people coming to faith in Christ.  The word "preaching" means proclamation.  It is a public act of declaring something to be true.  And the content of preaching is the Good News about Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. 

We can assume the content of Paul and Barnabas' preaching was the same as we heard in the previous chapter.  To the Jews they proclaimed Jesus was the Messiah that had been prophesied about in the Old Testament.  To the Gentiles it was a message of hope and that they too were included in the Good News.  The message of grace was for all people regardless of their religous background.  

But not everybody received the message of grace.  Even with the signs and wonders that accompanied the sharing of the Good News, some were angry with the apostles.  Notice they "refused" to believe.  Their hearts were hardened. Not only did they refuse to believe, but they began to persecute John and Peter.  But God protected them by showing them the plot and they escaped to preach in another city. 

So we might say effective preaching is..

1. Where all people of all backgrounds and religious beliefs (including atheists) hear the Good News.  The gospel radically includes everyone, a message that needs to be heard today with all the division in our country and world. 

2. Effective preaching leads people to faith in Jesus.  The main goal of a sermon is to proclaim who Jesus is as truly God and truly man so that people will turn to him in faith and receive forgiveness.  This is not only true for new converts to Christianity, but all Christians who still need to hear the Good News every week.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God all the time, and we need to be reminded that we are saved and delivered by Jesus.  In hearing and receiving the Good News through the Word (Sermon) and Sacrament (Holy Communion), we are sent out each week as those redeemed by Christ and set apart to share this same gospel with others. 

3. God accompanied their preaching with signs and wonders.  We don't see much of this in the church today.  The signs and wonders the apostles did gave validity to the message and drew more people to come to faith.  Some would say that this kind of power was only available to the early  church, but I would beg to differ.  Why does the church need any less of God's power today to draw people to Jesus?

Though usually it is the pastors who preach the Gospel and proclaim what Jesus has done each Sunday, that doesn't mean that each person can't proclaim the gospel any day of the week.  We are all called to share the Good News about Jesus.  As you focus on Jesus and what he has done for you and all people, HE WILL make your preaching effective as he draws people to His saving love.  

In the end effective preaching has one thing in common it leads people to saving faith in Jesus.  And God uses us to deliver the message.  Paul says to the early church of Christians in Rome, "

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Romans 10:14