In Lloyd-Jones third lecture on Preaching and Preachers he further works toward showing that preaching is the primary task of the church. In this lecture he progresses a bit and moves toward a definition of biblical preaching while also dropping a few bread crumbs he will pick up later.
Having said that preaching is the primary task of the church, Lloyd-Jones now considers and objection; namely, cannot all of these things be done by some other method? Why not engage in a dialogue instead of just one man standing before people and talking? (Remember when this argument was gaining traction a few years back?)
In order to prove his points MLJ tells a story of his refusal to debate an unbeliever. He believed it was more a distraction than pertaining to his primary task as a preacher. He goes on to give four reasons why this is so and why he did not engage in this debate. First, because God is not to be discussed or debated. Secondly, the gospel isn’t meant to be entertaining, it’s too solemn of a thing to just merely debate. Third, those who are spiritually discerned won’t get it anyways. Lastly, what man needs is to be humbled not to be debated.
Lloyd-Jones argues that preachers ought to stick to preaching. No need for conversations or any of the new ideas about what will get people to come. True preaching will get people to come.
This begs a question, though. What is true preaching? It is defined as delivering the message of God, a message from God to those people. The Doctor imagines a man standing behind a pulpit and asks the question, “what is he doing there?” This man is delivering God’s message to God’s people. When true preaching happens those who are listening cannot be neutral. This is not a mere conversation.
He closes out the lecture by dropping some bread crumbs for the future. He makes a distinction between the sermon and the act of preaching—a discussion he will pick up later. And he also makes a distinction between evangelistic preaching and edifying preaching. Lloyd-Jones did his evangelistic preaching on Sunday evenings and his edifying (more for the church) messages were on Sunday morning.
Tweet Note for Chapter Three:
At the end of every chapter I like to put together what I call a Tweet Note. A simple 140 character or less summary of the chapter. Here is the Tweet Note for chapter three:
Preaching is giving the Word which God has given to us, it is not a mere conversation.
Quotables:
- What God does to [the lost] man is not to have a discussion with him but to make him look foolish.
- You obviously, therefore, do not, and must not, debate or discuss these matters with them on an equal standing. To do so is to deny the initial Christian postulate.
- [The preacher] is not there merely to talk to them, he is not there to entertain them.
- Preaching should make such a difference to a man who is listening that he is never the same again.
- If people can listen to us without becoming anxious about themselves or reflecting on themselves we have not been preaching.
Discussion Questions:
- MLJ refused to engage in a debate about the Gospel. Do you agree with his stance? Would you have done the debate? Why or why not?
- MLJ says, “there is no neutral point at which the Christian and the non-Christian can meet, there is no common starting point as it were.” Agree or disagree?
- How would you define preaching?
- What do you think of MLJ’s evangelistic services on Sunday evening?
- Of the tree types of preaching Lloyd-Jones mentions at the end, which kind could be improved in your preaching or in your church?
