In 1994, Ian Gregory launched a magazine called Pulpit. It was a publication designed to keep alive Britain’s tradition of great sermons and to act as a benchmark for where to hear good ones.
The magazine would review the abilities of some of England’s 50,000 preachers, giving points to their pulpit performances calculated by anonymous visits and congregation surveys. “Like the good food guide we simply recommend on the basis of what our informants and our inspectors tell us,” Gregory said.
What makes a sermon a good one? Is it short, or is it long? Does a sermon have to entertain you? Should it always make you feel good and never guilty? Must a sermon be politically correct, or are there times in which it should risk offending the hearer?
I wonder how Pulpit would rate the prophet Jonah as a preacher. God told him to “Preach the preaching that I bid thee” (Jonah 3:2 KJV). Jehovah’s message through His preacher was, “Yet forty days and Ninevah will be overthrown” (v. 4). Certainly, this sermon did not entertain and was not politically correct. This sermon could be construed as offensive and definitely made the hearers feel guilty. Yet, more than 120,000 people repented and “turned from their evil way” (v. 10).
Jonah preached the truth. His sermon honored the Father in Heaven. It convicted people of sin as it sought to move them into a right relationship with God. That was a good sermon.
God’s preachers must still “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). After all, “Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God” (1 Peter 4:11). As “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1), we must “be found trustworthy” (v. 2), “for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
By Mark Hanstein