Preaching with Purpose by Jay Adams

Jay Adams deals extensively with the task of preaching in his book Preaching with Purpose. He is very confident that his view of homiletics is superior to most of the views practiced by preachers across the world today. Adams says his goal is to, "develop a textbook on preaching for pastors, seminary students, and other Christian speakers that, He hopes, will make an impact in our day significant enough to change preaching substantially (p. x). The failure in the preaching which takes place across the world lies at the feet of seminaries, church leadership, and church congregations. There is too much purposeless preaching; and if lives are going to be changed, then preachers must preach the passages as God the Holy Spirit purposed them to be preached. Much of what Adams explains, I agree with; however, there are some points he puts forth that I disagree with.

I agree with Adams concerning preaching with purpose. Just as the title says, He heavily emphasizes preaching with purpose in this book. He believes that purpose is so important that it should control a preacher's thinking and actions from start to finish in the preparation and delivery of his sermons. It's vital that God the Holy Spirit's original purpose for the text is presented; and also, God the Holy Spirit's desired application of the text. I agree with Adams in his assessment of much of the preaching which takes place across the world on a week-to-week basis. There is so much awful preaching that a book like this is necessary for all preachers and teachers to consider. Many times, God the Holy Spirit's purpose for the passage and the application of that purpose isn't considered when preachers prepare their messages. God the Holy Spirit must be the foundation of our preaching; He is the author, not us; therefore, we mustn't twist His purpose, for when we do, we no longer have God's Word on the subject.

Many preachers, as Adams points out, couldn't tell one of their members the purpose of their Sunday morning message if their life depended on it. Many are professionals rather than pastors. Instead of watching out for the souls of their congregation, they are simply earning their paychecks. They ask "what works" based on the congregation's applauses, instead of asking what God the Holy Spirit expects of a pastor. On Sunday morning they preach, not with God the Holy Spirit in mind, but the applause of men in mind. Just like an automobile mechanic knows the purpose of every part of our cars, and the purpose of each repair, so should every pastor know the reason for every sentence in his sermon (p. 4). God the Holy Spirit must author our preaching; and every sentence must point to His purpose for authoring the passage; otherwise, we're just preaching powerless opinion.

Another area in which Adams succeeds is his emphasis on God's glory. He is clear in his purpose of preaching. His goal isn't to have people leaving the service thinking, "what a great message," or "what a great preacher", but to leave thinking "what a great Christ!" On page 9, Adams writes, "My purpose is to help you become a more faithful and more effective preacher of the Word so that men will not praise you for your speaking ability, but will praise only the Christ whom you preach." This hits home big time in my life due to me at one time serving under a preacher whose ministry style led to him winning the congregation to himself often times. In response to me asking him how his churches have grown in the past, he said, "Positive preaching from the pulpit usually brings them in." Now, the reality is that it may bring people in; however, if God the Holy Spirit's goal of the passage isn't positive, then how can he preach it in a positive way and still preach the text? The answer is that he can't. He has won and is winning many people to himself today as a result of his ministry (though it's not his intention); however, he is sometimes wrongly handling God's Word unintentionally as well. Faithful preachers can't only preach "positive" passages, nor can they twist negative passages to make them positive; they must seek to preach "the full counsel of God".

Continuing to agree with myself, Adams also heavily emphasizes the word of God. He points out that God the Holy Spirit spent roughly 2000 years on the Bible; and it makes absolutely no sense for Him to ignore it. Preachers must preach the Word. If God is going to change lives, then He's going to do it the way He sees fit. If a preacher is preaching the Word, then he can come with authority. Also, just as Timothy was made wise unto salvation through the Scriptures, so will those who hear God's Word from our pulpits. We mustn't tickle itching ears; we must only preach the Word.

Agreeing with Adams, Jesus is the theme of all of Scripture; therefore, He must be included in every sermon. Due to God the Holy Spirit authoring all of Scripture, it therefore must be seen as a cohesive whole. If it is indeed a cohesive whole, then each sentence must ultimately point to the theme, Jesus Christ. Growing up, many of the sermons I heard, instead of sending me running to Jesus, they sent me running to the mirror. Most of the preachers I grew up hearing, stood in the pulpit acting as if what they were preaching, they had achieved; and we needed to be like them. As Adams emphasizes, many preachers preach God's Word as a self-help book; however, this isn't God's truth. While emphasizing holiness and obedience, pastors must emphasize how salvation, from beginning to end, is by God's grace through faith in Christ alone. Too many preachers preach salvation by Christ alone at the beginning of salvation, and then teach that sanctification is the responsibility of the Christian plus Jesus. According to the Scriptures, it's Jesus alone from beginning to end.

Adams is very helpful is his statements concerning the Holy Spirit's purpose and how the introduction must relate to this. Every sermon must be preached with God the Holy Spirit's purpose for the verses being emphasized. The Introduction must point to and reinforce the Holy Spirit's purpose. Two pastors I grew up in under used to begin their messages with jokes. They would tell a joke and then say, "What does that have to do with the message, absolutely nothing." I believe much of the poor preaching which spews from our pulpits is rooted in an unhealthy view of worship. If worship is to be the time that Christians set aside to congregationally worship God; then, shouldn't He be the theme of the entire service? Should a preacher's goal be to humor the audience at any time? Of course not! His goal must be to reinforce and point towards the King of kings and Lord of lords. A pastor only points to himself whenever he uses humor without it serving a purpose in his message. Honestly, much of us pastors are cowards. It is very tempting to use unbiblical means to try and arrive at biblical ends. Using humor that has nothing to do with the message will not spur any person, lost or saved, to love the Scriptures or run to Christ; it will only spur them to applaud the preacher or to enjoy worship for the same reason they enjoy sitcoms. We pastors must remind ourselves that we're not God the Holy Spirit.

According to Adams, Conclusions are the last thing the congregation is left with; this will probably be what they remember most about the message. The goal isn't to introduce any new material when concluding; the goal is to have the congregation leave purposefully determining how they're going to apply the preached word to their daily lives. If the Conclusion is weak, as Adams points out on page 69, then it will leave the congregation with the impression that the whole sermon was weak.

Concerning God's Word, Adams recognizes that it must always be preached authoritatively. It is very easy to use the Scriptures in an illustrative way. Adams points out on page 103 that the Bible should always be used authoritatively, not illustratively. No where do New Testament authors use the Old Testament illustratively. They never pull the Old Testament out of context. God's Word must always be seen as authoritative, not illustrative for some other point, out of its original context.

Adams makes some very good points concerning the application of a message. When laying the foundation for applying the Scriptures, pastors must not only tell their congregations what to do, but they must also tell them what not to do. In order to "put on" the things of God, Christians must first "take off" the things of this sinful world. It's very easy to make vague application from the pulpit while never showing the congregation how to carry out the application. Adams uses the example of a pastor telling his congregation, "Don't just read the Bible, study the Bible". Whenever the member gets home, he sits down to study the Bible, and due to his lack of knowledge concerning the task, he can only do what he's always done, which is to read the Bible. Pastors must be willing to bust their bottoms in order to help their congregations specifically carry out the application of God's Word in their daily lives. They must not only tell them what to do, but how to do it.

Though I agree with most of what Adams wrote in this book, there are several things I disagree with. For example, I believe Adams overemphasizes the importance of the congregation whenever a preacher is determining what to preach. I believe God has given us all of Scripture for the very purpose of us understanding all of it in order to live in covenantal faithfulness to Him. To borrow from Adams quote about God the Holy Spirit spending 2000 years on the Bible, not so we would ignore it; God wrote His Word down for all Christians in all times to use to be set apart as His people. Adams believes books for exposition should be selected based on the needs of the congregation which is being preached to. I believe Adams is ridiculous when he assumes a pastor can spend enough time with his people in order to understand what they need from the pulpit. Even if a pastor was able to visit ten of his members per week, it would still be impossible for him to be psychic in knowing their "secret" sins. I believe it's impossible for a pastor to be able to understand his congregation's needs. At best, he can only make assumptions. I believe even things that the congregation isn't struggling with, need to be preached on due to our sinfulness. We must all be continually reminded. The Scriptures teach "An unguarded strength is a double-weakness". I believe it's possible to over-apply Scripture from the pulpit. Much of the application needs to be up to God the Holy Spirit. A pastor can lay the foundation for application; however, He must depend on God the Holy Spirit to specifically apply it to the congregation's lives. It is possible to be too detailed in trying to apply the Scriptures to the congregation.

Another example I disagree with is found in Adams' discussion of sense appeal. On page 87, Adams writes, "In order to move others, the preacher himself must be moved. If he wishes his congregation to experience the truth, he must first experience it when studying it and then again, when preaching it." It almost seems Adams is saying here that the sermon rises and falls on the preacher. In the Scriptures, there are several instances where God used unwilling men to bring about the repentance of others. One example is Nineveh; the greatest revival of all time was a response to the unwilling preaching of Jonah. Messengers can be replaced due to the saving power in the message itself. I do agree that the congregation needs to know that the preacher believes what he's preaching; however, their response does not hinge on this. God the Holy Spirit alone saves souls. If I want to accept the privilege of preaching the Gospel, then it's my choice; however, God can easily replace me with someone who is willing to do His will. He doesn't need us.

In Conclusion, Adams has written a great book concerning the urgent task of homiletics. Though I disagreed with some points he made, I must say that he has written one of the best homiletic books I have ever read. He is thoroughly biblical and Christ-exalting. He doesn't approach preaching the same way he would approach a political speech. His book, from beginning to end, is built on the premise that everything a preacher does while preaching, from his outline, gestures, points, illustrations, clothes, etc. is to be done in order to carry out God's purpose for writing the text for his upcoming message. Most preachers preach without considering God the Holy Spirit's reason for writing the text. God can no doubt bring revival out of ungodly congregations and in spite of prostituted pulpits; however, let us pastors take the responsibility God has given us for communicating His Word, and applying it to His people. To God alone be the glory!