Preaching and the word

For the sake of his body, they must know. Number two, by means of the word. Paul was a minister, a preacher with the task to make the word of God fully known, warning everyone, teaching everyone with full wisdom that on that great day he could present them before the king mature in Christ, grown up in every way into him.

Buser: a new church's primary need is more Bible.

The great commission is the mission of the church. Hudson Taylor said it well, the great commission is not an option to be considered, but a command to be obeyed. The Lord Jesus Christ has commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all the nations.

H.B. Charles: the Great Commission is the mission of the church.

Without a doubt, personal evangelism is a crucial element of disciple-making, but it does not usurp the primary, definitive, and central role of biblical preaching in the church's local and global disciple-making effort. What kind of preaching mobilizes the church to fulfill the Great Commission?

What kind of preaching mobilizes the church?

The bottom line is ultimately expository preaching is not a style of sermon. It's a view of scripture. What a man truly believes about the Bible will inevitably be exposed by how he preaches. One who believes that the Bible is the inspired infallible inerrant word of God will simply preach the word.

Expository preaching is a view of Scripture.

is to pray for them. That's following what we see in Acts 6. I think that's what we're seeing here as well. These men were teaching the word of God, and therefore they were, as it were, God's mouthpiece to the people. The Bible drove the teaching and worship and practice and understanding of sending that this church had.

Master: Antioch's prophets and teachers were God's mouthpieces by teaching the word.

And that ministry is characterized by, in his regular exposition of Scripture, in his lectures on the Old Testament Scriptures, in his writing of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, a vision for churches to be planted all over the known world. And so, as he ends his lectures, he prays, and where he catches up the exposition, he prays that the gospel will go to the ends of the earth.

Ferguson on Calvin's daily exposition and its missionary fruit.

These were instructions to Christians and preachers and local churches and missionaries about what we're to do. We're to go, we're to make disciples, we're to baptize, we're to teach them to obey. Jesus said, all that I have commanded you, not all that is essential for salvation, but all that I have commanded you.

Dever: “teach them to obey all that I have commanded.”

Would you submit to it? Many churches are cautious here. Well, scripture can be sufficient without it being specific on anything we might wonder about. I mean, people can imagine things, they can read them into the Bible, and that's certainly true.

Is the Bible sufficient for how we organize the church?

Your preaching is the means by which the sovereign Lord has ordained to bring his people. He's enlisted you as the instrument by which he brings them. By sounding the good shepherd's voice in the proclamation of his gospel. He must bring them. They must come. But we must fetch them.

Mike Riccardi: preaching is how the Good Shepherd brings his sheep. They must come, but we must fetch them.