Distinction Between Preaching and Christian Teaching

The distinction between preaching and Christian teaching is crucial to spiritual development. Much of the sterility we have in our churches can be reduced—and thus we would have more fruitful churches—if we have a clear knowledge of the distinction between preaching and Christian teaching.

Why is this so? Why do we need to know the distinction?

Because these two activities have different goals and have different ways of attaining those goals. It is like feeding infants and adults. You do not feed them with the same food and in the same way. Infants are usually fed with milk which they suck from their mother’s breast or from a bottle. Adults are fed with solid food which they take by their own hands.

But in most of our churches those who are not yet even spiritual infants, because they have not yet actualized their faith given in baptism (as in most Catholic churches), or because they have not yet accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior (as in Evangelical churches), are most of the time given solid food by Christian teaching. What these not-yet-spiritual infants need is preaching, not Christian teaching.

On the other hand we have many churches where the pastor keeps on preaching to a congregation of long time Christians already, spiritual Christians. And he still preaches to these Christians. What these Christians need is not preaching, but Christian teaching. They have already grown as Christians. What they need is spiritual nutrients, not the seed of God so that they can be born again. In some of these churches they have even called their main service as Preaching Service.

Distinctive Goals of Preaching and Teaching

The goal of preaching is transformation, while that of Christian teaching is conformation. The purpose of preaching is to transform the listener so that he or she becomes a child of God from being just a human being. He or she is transformed from a life of sin to a life of holiness from God’s point of view. He or she becomes a new creature. He or she leaves his or her old life and burns the bridge leading from it in such a way that even if he or she wants, he or she can no longer go back to that old life.

The goal of Christian teaching is conformation to the image of Jesus. The new creature now becomes more and more conformed or configured to the image of God as revealed in Jesus. The listener to Christian teaching is already a child of God. He or she now grows as a child of God and Christian teaching makes him or her more like his or her parent God. This is the purpose of Christian teaching.

The Distinctive Means of Preaching and Teaching

And the means to achieve these two different goals also differ although they both use words and images.

In preaching the means is by announcing the good news of Jesus Christ, what Jesus did for the listener, especially in his suffering, death, burial and resurrection. By listening to this announcement the person is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit of his or her sin and turns to Christ as the only one who can solve his or her problem of sin.

In Christian teaching the means is by showing the person of Jesus to the listener so that he or she gazes upon him and becomes more and more conformed to the image of Jesus. Moralizing is not basic to Christian teaching and yet most of our Christian teaching is a discourse on morality, how the Christian is to behave in himself/herself and in the world.

Distinctive Effects of Preaching and Teaching

In preaching we experience the power of God, ushering us to eternal life. In Christian teaching we experience his wisdom, enabling us to think, speak and act like Jesus. And the Apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the power and wisdom of God. It is all the work of Christ. The preacher and the teacher are only ministers of Christ.

Let preaching be done for those who have not actualized their Christian life, those who have not yet really accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their life. But let Christian teaching be done for those who are already actualized or professed Christians. In this way lives are transformed and transformed lives are more and more conformed to the life of God in Jesus, thus turning our world upside down as the Apostles did during their time.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

The ministry of prayer leads us to the written Word of God. Both prayer and the written Word of God are directed to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. These three, prayer, the written Word of God or the Bible, and preaching, are the chief means in our spiritual development. We now discuss what vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching is.

Meaning of Vigorous Preaching

First of all, the preaching that we need for our spiritual development is one that is vigorous. We mean by this that this preaching is full of energy because the preacher has put his whole mind and soul to it. It has a force. It has the anointing of the Spirit of God.

This does not mean that the preacher has to shout or has to have a big, resonating voice. It does not mean that he displays all kinds of gestures. He may speak quietly and slowly and even perhaps read from a prepared piece, but we can notice and feel that his words have power. From where does this power or energy come?

It comes from a deep conviction that he has been appointed by God to declare his works. It comes from a long time of prayer and study over the Bible. Study and prayer: these go together. If he merely studies the Word of God he may be a Bible scholar, an exegete, a Bible interpreter, but not a vigorous preacher. He prays as he studies the Word of God. He converses with God over his written Word.

This kind of preaching is in contrast to what we hear today in our pulpits. Preachers nowadays usually give an explanation of a passage of scripture or an event. They may engage in expository preaching which is a word by word explanation of a Bible passage. But it is all explanation. It is not vigorous preaching of the wonderful works of God. Sometimes the feeling suggested is that the preacher is detached from his explanation. It is as if he wants to say, "This is my explanation of this passage and this is how I think you should apply it. Now take it or leave it."

What Is Urgent Preaching?

Secondly, the preaching that we need today is one that is urgent. The action needed is something that cannot be postponed. It will not wait for tomorrow or the following week. It is an action that is going to be done now, not later, here, not yonder.

The matter is so important that it is to be addressed to now. It requires immediate action. And the listeners sense this urgency.

Preaching nowadays in general does not have this sense of urgency. Because it is an explanation of a passage or of a principle or method to do to improve one's life, the action called for is one that can wait until an opportunity presents itself where the principle or method can be applied. This is later.

In contrast, genuine preaching is urgent. Do it now, or you will miss the whole show.

How Preaching Is Life-Changing

Thirdly, the preaching that we need today is one that is life-changing. It is not just mind-changing, a change of opinion, or a change of character among the listeners. It changes the life of the listeners by just their listening. They do not have to go out of the church or auditorium in order to implement something that the preacher told them to do. By the very fact that they are listening to this sermon, their lives are changed, not just for the better, but changed from one level of life to another, from the level of human life to the level of divine life, or from one degree of divine life to another.

And how is this done? By the preacher proclaiming the wonderful works of God among the listeners.

He does not provide the listeners with a list of things to do to improve their lives. Instead he tells them what God has done to their lives. And when they listen and if the Spirit so moves them, they believe in what the preacher says, then their lives are changed. The wonderful works of God are made actual in their lives there and then. If the preacher tells them that God saved them in Christ by his cross and resurrection and they believe, there and then this salvation becomes theirs, without their coming forward to profess publicly that they receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

Today's preaching usually does not instantly change the lives of the listeners. It expects that the listeners leave the church first and do what the preacher tells them in his sermon to do. For example, after listening to a sermon on God's commandment, parents leave the church to love their children. Children leave to obey their parents at home.

Such a sermon is not preaching. It is an advice on how parents are to love their children and how children are to love their parents. It is not genuine preaching.

A Sample of a Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

If you say that you cannot find this kind of preaching in your churches, go to the Internet. There is a lot of vigorous, urgent, life-changing sermons in the Internet. Here is a good example from the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, although it is read by a contemporary speaker, not Spurgeon himself, because his voice was not recorded during the time when he gave his sermons. This particular sermon is entitled "The Best of Masters." Click the word "Play" after the title "The Best of Masters". Here is the URL of that sample http://tinyurl.com/thebestofmasters. Click that URL to listen to the sermon.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How the Spirit Leads Us to Listen to Effective Preaching

The reason why the Spirit of God leads us to a deeper experience of prayer, to a fresher understanding and appreciation of his written Word and to exposure to effective preaching is that he wants to develop the real Christ in us. This is spiritual development at its best. It is not we developing ourselves. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are here only describing how he does this from what we have learned from God's Word and what we have experienced so that we can flow, as it were, with his force, just as a sailboat sails with the force of the wind if the driver of the sailboat knows how to position the sails.

The Spirit of God leads us to an attentive and obedient listening to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. This is effective preaching. It is not a preaching which tells us what to do, as most preaching in churches does today. It is a preaching which by itself changes the lives of the listeners.

The Pattern of Our Usual Preaching Today

If you listen to the ordinary, usual preaching today in churches, Catholic or non-Catholic, Protestant or non-Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist or name what have you, you would notice the following pattern. The preacher would start from a story, anecdote, or a passage from the bible or an introductory statement about his preaching. Then he would expound a principle or two. Finally he would give an application which he expects his hearers would put to good use in their lives.

Depending on the talent of the preacher he can make his sermon as entertaining as possible, spraying it over with insights and even jokes. The people stare at the preacher if he is really entertaining, then leave the church afterwards refreshed and blest, as they say. They are then encouraged to return the next week and give again their tithes or love offerings.

If the preacher is not that entertaining, then the listeners may be led to an early nap.

But this pattern is still there: introduction, expounding of a truth or principle, application, exhortation to do the application.

In this kind of preaching if the listeners do not change, do not improve, do not grow in their spiritual life, it is their fault. This is because they are already shown by the preacher how they are to profit from God's Word or truth but they fail to apply what the preacher told them.

The Kind of Preaching the Spirit Gives

This is not the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God gives his people. The preaching that the Spirit of God gives is an effective preaching. By the very preaching itself people are changed. They do not have to go out of the church to apply what the preacher said. Right there in their seats or as they stand if they are not seated, they are changed. This is called vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

And this is the kind of preaching that we lack in our churches. This is the kind of preaching that the Spirit gives us. And this is the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God leads us to listen to. How does he do this?

The Spirit's Way in Giving Us His Preacher

The simple answer is that he, the Spirit of God, provides the preacher who will preach the way to do so. He first leads him to a deeper experience of prayer. We already discussed how he does that. Then the Spirit leads him to the written Word of God. We also discussed that already. Then the next is he emboldens this preacher to preach the fruit of his prayer and of his study of the Word.

To be able to have a deeper experience of prayer the preacher is led to be convinced by the Spirit of his inability to preach well. If he refuses this conviction by the Spirit he cannot give to us the kind of preaching that the Spirit wants us to listen to.

And this is the sad experience we have in the churches. Most of our preachers, if not all of them, are convinced of the opposite: that they can preach well. Their years of training in the seminary either as future pastors or future priests have sunk into their consciousness giving them the confidence that they can preach. If they persist in this conviction, that because of their training and experience, they are able to preach well, the Spirit of God cannot use them to give to the people his kind of preaching, the vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

The reason why they cannot preach effective preaching is because they do not have a deeper experience of prayer. And they cannot have a deeper experience of prayer if they think they are able to preach well. They can only have a deeper experience of prayer if like Isaiah they cry, "Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips."

Then to be really led to the written Word of God, a person needs to be ignorant or confused in his understanding of this Word. Unfortunately most or almost all of our preachers, whether priests, bishops or pastors, think that they are not ignorant and they are not confused in their understanding of the Word of God. They think they really know it well. Their years of training in the seminary, pouring over the Bible, studying its texts and the different interpretations of Biblical scholars and their own reflections have led them to believe that they are able to understand God's written Word.

When these preachers are convinced that they can understand God's written Word, either because they studied it or because God enlightened them on it, the Spirit cannot use them to do effective preaching. They will only at best be able to preach principles and application with appropriate illustrations and insights that tickle the ears and minds of their hearers but such preaching cannot transform the lives of those hearers.

So, if we ask again how the Spirit lead us to listen to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching, the answer is that he does this by providing us with a preacher who is thoroughly convinced of his inability and unworthiness to preach God's Word and also thoroughly convinced of his ignorance and confusion about this written Word. And from time to time he does provide us with these preachers, like Peter the disciple of Jesus, Paul the Pharisee, Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Charles Finney, etc. The names are too many to list.

Effective preaching is one that changes the lives of the listeners by their mere listening. Because the Spirit himself comes with power to change them.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

A Primer on Spiritual Development (Part 10)

Yesterday we answered the question why despite its relevance to the different areas of our life, spiritual development has not been given due emphasis in our personal development. Today we discuss how the seed of the spirit is sown in us, how it is conceived and born in us.

23. You said before that the spirit begins as a seed in us and this seed is the word of God. Can you elaborate on this, particularly how the seed of God’s word is implanted in us?

Yes, as we learned in number 12 of this Primer, the spirit has a seed, just like the plants, animals, and human beings. And this seed is the word of God and also the seed of the kingdom of God within us. This seed is normally planted in us through preaching. As the Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church of Vatican Council II says, “The chief means of the planting referred to is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

(These discussions are from a Christian perspective because I am a Christian, but I do not exclude the possibility that writers of other faiths can also express these truths using their own Scriptures and beliefs.)

It is most wonderful that we find similarities between our physical world and the spiritual world. This enables us to learn of spiritual realities through physical realities, those that we see with our eyes and perceive with our other senses.

In the physical world the seed of the human being comes from the human male. The egg is in the human female. The egg is fertilized by the seed or sperm of the male. In a similar way the egg of the spirit is already in us. It waits to be fertilized by the seed of the spirit, which is the Word of God, and which is planted in us by the preaching of the Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ.

When the Word of God is preached to us, we notice a certain attraction to that Word. This is the moment when the Word is implanted in us. Just like in the physical body when the sperm fertilizes the egg, conception takes place, so also in the spiritual world when the Word of God is planted in us by preaching, if we receive this Word with open heart, conception of the Word begins in us. That is why Augustine the Bishop of Hippo in his Sermon 293, 3, said: “we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.”

After a certain time of gestation this Word is brought forth as spirit, our spirit, just as in our physical body after more or less nine months a human being is born.

But in the world of the spirit the gestation is not measured by the same number of months. Each has his/her own unique length of gestation of the Word in him/her. Some may even take years after the conception of the Word before the spirit of that person is born.

24. How do we know that the spirit is already born in us?

We know this when we are already able to understand the Word of God and are able to pray with meaning. Some Christians say that this birth happens during baptism. Yes, to a certain extent it happens there, but it happens there as a mystery, as a hidden act of God through the ministers. We have to actualize this when we grow.

Here are beautiful words from Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, in his Letter 31: “But through this wonderful blending the mystery of new birth shone upon us, so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Notice what Leo says, “spiritual birth”. Our first birth is physical birth. Then when the Word of God has been conceived in us and born in us, we undergo this spiritual birth. We are born as spirit.

Thus the spirit is born in us. As Jesus said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Tomorrow our topic is how the spirit in us grows and matures.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.