The Preacher Behind the Pulpit

God Prepares the Man Before the Message

Before a preacher prepares a sermon, God prepares the preacher. The same message can be spoken by two men, and one carries the weight of a life lived under the Word while the other rings hollow. A sermon passes through a man before it reaches a congregation, and the man matters.

Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix give a whole chapter of Power in the Pulpit to the life of the expositor, and they place it before they teach a single step of studying a text. They press the preacher's personal worship, his character and integrity, and his dependence on the Holy Spirit. Haddon Robinson's well-known definition of expository preaching makes the same point from another angle: the Holy Spirit applies the truth first to the preacher's own life and experience, and only then, through him, to his hearers.

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”1 TIMOTHY 4:16 · KJV

Paul gave Timothy two things to watch: thyself and the doctrine. A preacher can fail in either direction. He can guard his doctrine while his life drifts, or guard his reputation while his doctrine drifts. Paul wanted both watched, and watched steadily: continue in them.

The promise attached is for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. Timothy was already a saved man, and Paul is not teaching that a preacher keeps his salvation by preaching well (see Eternal Security). Paul means that a minister who keeps watch over his life and teaching is kept from the shipwreck that has ruined others (1 Timothy 1:19), and that God uses his faithful teaching to bring his hearers to salvation and keep them in the truth.