44 - What is Genuine Preaching?

In Colossians 1:28, Paul tells us what it means to truly preach Christ. Today many churches claim to preach Christ. Some have the right to say that, because they are preaching the genuine Christ in the way that Colossians tells us He must be preached. But many other churches and preachers, many bearing the label “Evangelical” – or even “fundamental” or “Bible-believing” – fail to preach Christ according to God's prescribed pattern.

In many churches, there's no preaching at all. There's a “conversation” – the big fad in many churches today. At least the man up front is honest enough not to pretend to be preaching. But the “conversation” is all about what man thinks about spiritual things, not about what God's Word says.

In other churches, there's story-telling. The pastor spins out a yarn or a fable and tries to present some kind of moral application. But nobody ever tells you how to be truly saved or how to please Christ.

In still other churches you'll find a psychological presentation instead of preaching. I talked recently with a man who goes to an Evangelical church. He said, “You know, much of the time I don't feel like I'm in church. I feel like I'm in a rehab meeting. The pastor tells me how to do three things or ten steps that are supposed to help me deal with my problems. But none of it comes from the Bible. It's just psychology.”

Paul tells us that the genuine preaching of Christ is vastly different from all these things. Colossians 1:28 contains four propositions about genuine preaching, and they form our focus on this week's broadcast.