Purpose of Preaching

While my wife and I drove on an interstate in central Texas, we passed a church with a large banner that read, “Home of the 15-minute Sermon.” Around the same time, a preacher visiting from India told me that many denominational services he attended had replaced preaching and hymn singing with DJs and dancing to loud music. These changes raise a simple question: why does preaching the Word matter?

Preaching Obeys God’s Will

Preaching stands at the heart of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19–20). Paul charged Timothy: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:1–2). Paul also pressed the necessity of preaching with rhetorical questions: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? … So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:14–17).

Preaching Convicts People of Sin

All people share two realities: sin and death. Scripture says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Sin put Christ on the cross in our place (1 Peter 2:24), and only the gospel provides the remedy: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Before someone will seek salvation, that person must recognize personal guilt. Preaching that never confronts sin, is not gospel preaching. An older preacher once summarized the task this way: “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” When people see sin for what it is—ugly and defiling—they begin to see why they must turn from it.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus, the apostles, and Stephen called people to repentance (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:36–38; 7:51). They did not minimize guilt; they exposed it so sinners would seek mercy. When Simon tried to buy apostolic authority, Peter rebuked him: “Your money perish with you… Repent therefore of this your wickedness… For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:20–23).

Preaching Points People to Salvation

Preaching exposes sin and then explains how to respond to God. If tornado sirens sounded while you were visiting a hospital, you would not only want a warning—you would want clear directions to safety.

God’s Word purifies those who obey it: “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). And when preachers proclaim Christ, they also proclaim baptism. When Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian, the man responded at once: “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:35–36).

Preaching Proclaims Christ

When Philip preached in Samaria, people believed his message “concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ,” and men and women were baptized (Acts 8:12). Christ-centered preaching announces the facts of the gospel—Christ’s death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3–4)—and it proclaims what those facts mean: his reign and kingdom (Acts 2:30; 8:5, 12), his sinless life (1 Peter 2:22), his miracles (Acts 2:22), his ascension, and his promised return (1 Th. 4:14–18).

Preaching Builds Up the Saints

Christ gives evangelists to the church to strengthen believers and equip them for ministry. Paul wrote that Christ “gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13).

Preaching Has Power

Paul told the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). The New Testament word translated “power” is dynamis, from which we get the English word dynamite. The gospel carries God’s power to bring salvation to a hard-hearted, stubborn world.

God often uses a single sermon to move hearts to obey the gospel. Peter’s sermon on Pentecost led about three thousand to respond (Acts 2:36–38). Philip’s preaching moved the Ethiopian to be baptized immediately (Acts 8:35–38). God also opened Lydia’s heart through the message, and she and her household obeyed (Acts 16:12–15). Later, an earthquake and a midnight message brought salvation to the Philippian jailer’s home (Acts 16:25–34).

God’s Word still works when preachers faithfully preach it. God promised, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Is. 55:10–11). A good sermon is not measured only by Sunday delivery, but by Monday obedience.

by Daniel R. Vess