If the Apostle Paul Were To Preach A Sermon Today

If Paul were to bring us a message, what would it sound like?

Would he begin by looking over the crowd thinking “How can I get them to make this message personal and be able to apply it to their circumstances?” Or “What is their takeaway going to be?” Or “How can I make this message relevant and attractive?” No. These would not go through his head.

Paul’s message would sound like his message does in the book of Romans, or Ephesians, or Colossians, or Thessalonians, etc. But Why? Because the Holy scriptures do not change. Their message has not changed from the first century until now.

Though many disagree, the correct way to preach a sermon is to communicate what the scriptures actually say. And what I mean by that is to seek to communicate what it has always said. If a pastor will communicate the scriptures according to their grammatical and historical context, then the Holy Spirit will do the rest. For it is the Holy Spirit’s job to apply scripture to someone’s circumstances. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the message personal and relevant. The preacher’s job is to tell the truth as it has always been told. The preacher does not have to create an attractive sermon or design a 3 or 7-point message.

If a pastor will simply tell the truth as it is written, then congregations will receive the Word as it was originally meant to be received. Also, pastors need to stop making messages personal or for personal application. Why? Because the Bible was never a personal/individual book. As much as we love reading our Bible at home, it is not meant to be received as a message only for or uniquely for or individually for me. Just consider the first 1800-1900 years of Christianity. Scripture was a “community message” long before it came into everyone’s home. From the beginning, scripture was meant to speak to communities gathered. This way everyone was on the same page! And everyone heard the same truth. And everyone was called to submit their lives as Christians under the same authoritative Word of God.

The Holy Spirit designed the Bible to be read a certain way and to communicate the same truth to each person. The Holy Spirit wants the Body-of-Christ united in its understanding of scripture. Once we understand what the scriptures communicate according to their historical and grammatical context, then the Holy Spirit is free to apply scripture appropriately to our individual lives. The reason I say “appropriately” is because if we don’t “rightly interpret” scripture in the first place, we will wrongly discern what the Holy Spirit is saying through it personally. You may desire to argue this point. But if you honestly assess history, you will recognize that many cults and human traditions were formed due to individuals failing to understand the grammatical and historical context of the scripture. And this will always lead to incorrect interpretation and application.

If I were given the freedom to preach a sermon, meaning without being told how it had to look, I would simply do my job of preaching the truth and allow the Holy Spirit to do His job of driving it into the heart.