I came across an interesting comment the other day. We are often guilty of complaining that a particular pastor is not "teaching the Bible," only to hear the response that he "is always quoting the Bible." The comment was this: "There are a lot of pastors who use the Bible frequently, but never teach it."
This comment struck me as an excellent point. There is, in fact, a difference between "preaching the Bible" and "preaching from the Bible." There is a difference between "teaching the Bible" and "teaching from the Bible." Let me see if I can explain.
Have you ever watched a movie or a TV show that was "based on a true story" as opposed to "being a true story"? A "based on" movie can take great liberties with the factual predicates of the story. Often, they will simplify matters by blending several characters into one character, or by having one character do something that someone else actually did. Their goal is to tell "the essentials of the story" rather than to tell the story. Oliver Stone movies are often this type, as he twists history to make his own personal statement rather than teach what really happened.
We see the same thing in movies based on books. In "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy movies, for example, the story was greatly changed from the books. Everything happens very quickly (whereas the books allowed many years to pass). Frodo is made to be a young man, whereas he was 50 in the books. He runs into Merry and Pippin who end up traveling with him, whereas the book had them plan to travel with him because they cared about him. Entire sections of the book are eliminated. But they are great movies and it was a great set of books. They just aren't the same.
This is often what preachers do, especially "topical" preachers. Their goal in preaching is not to teach the Bible, but to teach "a truth" that they have derived from the Bible. They believe that their purpose is to teach these truths, to which the Bible testifies, not to teach the Bible itself. They often believe that the Bible itself is simply not that interesting to congregations. I once had a preacher of this type tell me that my sermons (working through texts) were like having the church watch me eat. He thought that his job was primarily about teaching people what he had already digested for them, like a mother bird feeding its young.
I often hear sermons (or parts of sermons) by a young pastor in our area on the radio. His sermons are very much this style. He jumps from verse to verse (always out of context), seeking some support for whatever idea he has at the moment. His sermons, week by week, do not add up to teaching the Bible at all, as they are each designed and presented for a single concept he deems to be important. No one listening to his sermons would have the slightest idea that scripture is composed of books (rather than verses) and that the teachings are far more basic than the sermons. They know all about what he thinks is important, but nothing about what God thinks is important.
How much easier it is for some men to teach this way. The sermons become about the pastor (and his vision of truth) more than about the word of God. People leave the sermons talking about what the pastor said, not what the scripture said. And, eventually, people become experts in their pastor's ideas, while remaining ignorant of God's glorious revelation of himself.
Let us dedicate ourselves to teaching God's word and not our words. We do not want to use scripture, we want to teach scripture. Why? Because scripture speaks to us the truth of God in God's own words. What more could we ever ask?
This comment struck me as an excellent point. There is, in fact, a difference between "preaching the Bible" and "preaching from the Bible." There is a difference between "teaching the Bible" and "teaching from the Bible." Let me see if I can explain.
Have you ever watched a movie or a TV show that was "based on a true story" as opposed to "being a true story"? A "based on" movie can take great liberties with the factual predicates of the story. Often, they will simplify matters by blending several characters into one character, or by having one character do something that someone else actually did. Their goal is to tell "the essentials of the story" rather than to tell the story. Oliver Stone movies are often this type, as he twists history to make his own personal statement rather than teach what really happened.
We see the same thing in movies based on books. In "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy movies, for example, the story was greatly changed from the books. Everything happens very quickly (whereas the books allowed many years to pass). Frodo is made to be a young man, whereas he was 50 in the books. He runs into Merry and Pippin who end up traveling with him, whereas the book had them plan to travel with him because they cared about him. Entire sections of the book are eliminated. But they are great movies and it was a great set of books. They just aren't the same.
This is often what preachers do, especially "topical" preachers. Their goal in preaching is not to teach the Bible, but to teach "a truth" that they have derived from the Bible. They believe that their purpose is to teach these truths, to which the Bible testifies, not to teach the Bible itself. They often believe that the Bible itself is simply not that interesting to congregations. I once had a preacher of this type tell me that my sermons (working through texts) were like having the church watch me eat. He thought that his job was primarily about teaching people what he had already digested for them, like a mother bird feeding its young.
I often hear sermons (or parts of sermons) by a young pastor in our area on the radio. His sermons are very much this style. He jumps from verse to verse (always out of context), seeking some support for whatever idea he has at the moment. His sermons, week by week, do not add up to teaching the Bible at all, as they are each designed and presented for a single concept he deems to be important. No one listening to his sermons would have the slightest idea that scripture is composed of books (rather than verses) and that the teachings are far more basic than the sermons. They know all about what he thinks is important, but nothing about what God thinks is important.
How much easier it is for some men to teach this way. The sermons become about the pastor (and his vision of truth) more than about the word of God. People leave the sermons talking about what the pastor said, not what the scripture said. And, eventually, people become experts in their pastor's ideas, while remaining ignorant of God's glorious revelation of himself.
Let us dedicate ourselves to teaching God's word and not our words. We do not want to use scripture, we want to teach scripture. Why? Because scripture speaks to us the truth of God in God's own words. What more could we ever ask?