Christian preaching has seven essential notes. All sermons should have these notes. The list is modified from J. Dodd Jackson: 'The Message and the Man', the 1912 Hartley Lecture. This is a Primitive Methodist work, and these were the essentials of Primitive Methodist preaching.
1. Authority or certainty. The preacher must believe the message that he is proclaiming, and he must believe it to be the Word of God and not merely a matter of opinion or conjecture. He has to be able to say "Thus says the Lord."
2. Accusation: That is to say that the preacher proclaims the broken Law of God as he faces a congregation of sinners. Like Nathan before David, he says, "You are the man."
3. Pity: The preacher proclaims the law, not because he hates people, but because he loves them. He wants to wake them up so that they may cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" There must be love for people in the pulpit.
4. Idealism: The preacher is not a cynic, he points to the new heavens and the new earth, to justice and mercy in an unjust and unmerciful world. But in all this he centres in Christ.
5. Edification: The preacher is not just speaking to unsaved people, he is also preaching to Christians, and seeking to build them up in the faith. The Gospel is for everyone.
6. Cheer: Finally, the preacher repeats Christ's words, "Be of good cheer," as he proclaims the Gospel. The Gospel is what encourages and cheers, it is the reason why we can rejoice, because Jesus has died for us, lives for us, and is coming back for us.
7. Passion: The preacher has to be in earnest about what he is preaching. He has to be a man who is excited about the message that he has to proclaim.
Additionally, the preacher must be himself. Spurgeon referred to this as 'eccentricity', when the man is the man that he really is, and doesn't put on another personality in the pulpit.
We have a message to proclaim - and we need to proclaim it. |
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