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PREACHING SKILLS
The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God
Basing Ministry on the true foundation of faith
John Piper

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Editor's note: On July 13, 1980 John Piper preached the following installation sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. It speaks well to the current PreachingToday.com article theme of Authority in Preaching.

"In coming to you brothers and sisters, I come proclaiming to you the testimony of God, not according to excellence of word or of wisdom. For I decided not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and this one crucified. I come to you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. My word and proclamation are not in persuasive words of human wisdom but by the demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God!" (1 Cor. 2:1-5)

I would consider my life well spent if I could preach and live and die like the apostle Paul, who wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. In these words I think we get a glimpse of what a preacher should aim at in his work and how he and his people can be sure to hit this target.

W. A. Criswell, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, was asked one time by a man who had a business across the street: "Dr. Criswell, I thought you were the pastor of a Baptist church. How come all your people carry prayer books to church on Sunday?" Criswell smiled and said, "Sir, we are Baptists and those are Bibles, not prayer books."

Baptists the world over have a reputation of urging every man and woman to read the Bible for themselves, and I want to preserve that great tradition. If I could choose a symbolic sound that Bethlehem Baptist Church would come to be known for, you know what it would be? The swish of the pages of 500 Bibles turning simultaneously to the morning and evening texts.

The reason is this: the source of my authority in this pulpit is not my wisdom, nor is it a private revelation granted to me beyond the revelation of Scripture. My words have authority only insofar as they are the repetition, unfolding, and proper application of the words of Scripture. I have authority only when I stand under authority. And our corporate symbol of that truth is the sound of your Bibles opening to the text. My deep conviction about preaching is that a pastor must show people that what he is saying was already said or implied in the Bible. If that cannot be shown, it has no special authority.

My heart aches for the pastor who increases his own burden by trying to come up with ideas to preach to his people. As for me, I have nothing of abiding worth to say to you. But God does, and of that word I hope and pray that I never tire of speaking. The life of the church depends on it.

Dr. Criswell gives an admonition to pastors which I think is right on the money, and I take it as a great challenge. He says:

When a man goes to church he often hears a preacher in the pulpit rehash everything that he has read in the editorials, the newspapers, and the magazines. On the TV commentaries he hears that same stuff over again, yawns, and goes out and plays golf on Sunday. When a man comes to church, actually what he is saying to you is this, 'Preacher, I know what the TV commentator has to say; I hear him every day. I know what the editorial writer has to say; I read it every day. I know what the magazines have to say; I read them every week. Preacher, what I want to know is, does God have anything to say? If God has anything to say, tell us what it is.'

So let's look at 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Paul had spent about 18 months in Corinth on his first visit there. Now he writes his first letter to warn the believers against basing their faith on the wisdom of men instead of on God's power. One of the ways he does this is to remind them of what his aim was in first coming to them and how he came. First we'll talk about the aim of Paul's (and our) ministry.

Verse 5: Paul's aim—his purpose—was that "your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Paul stated it again and again: "I was given the grace of apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations" (Rom. 1:5). The aim of Paul's life is the aim of mine. And it should be the aim of every pastor, every seminary intern, every Sunday School teacher, and every believer who speaks to another person: to beget and build faith.

But it was possible in Paul's day and I believe it is rampant in our day—in churches and TV and radio—to try to build faith by calling attention to the wrong things. This has a devastating effect on the mission of Christ and the church, as I think we can see by looking more closely at verse 5.

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	Average Rating:  by 2 members. (Members, please login to rate this item.) Clark Phillips   (Registered User) Posted: July 20, 2009 The emphasis here is apparent. Unless we fully rely on the inerrancy of God's word and recognize that these are His very words to us both generally to the Church Body, and specifically to each believer, the message will not be fully His to Us. I am reminded of time and time again in the Book of Revelation when the Angel of the Lord is speaking to John about what Jesus is saying to the seven churches in Asia Minor, and repeatedly admonishing this, "Let He who has an ear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches". Robert Daniels   (Registered User) Posted: July 24, 2009 Great sermon with a true reliance on God working through the simplicity of preaching God's Word. One weakness with a western hemisphere bent. Most Christians around the world do not have a copy of their own Bible to turn to in the pew or at home. Leafing through the Bible pages doesn't guarantee hearing the Lord well, though all sermons must be based on God's inerrant Word. I think the heart and ears of the preacher and congregation are more critical than inspecting chapter and verse.