Top 7 Bible Verses About Preaching

Top 7 Bible Verses About Preaching February 20, 2016

Here are seven Bible verses about preaching.

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is an imperative command, much like a parent commanding their child to get out of the street immediately, so when we read this command of Jesus, it is not negotiable. There is no Plan B. To not be His witnesses is to live in disobedience to the Great Commission. Another crucial part of this commission is to make disciples of all nations by teaching them what Jesus taught the disciples. Today, that is found in the New Testament, and so that they would have no question about having the authority to do it, Jesus said “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to” Him so we have His authority and His command to pronounce the gospel to all people, even if it’s right next door.

First Corinthians 9:16 “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”

When the word “woe” is used in the Bible, it is a term for sure judgment or impending doom (Rev 8:13; 9:12; 11:14; 12:12), so the Apostle Paul said he was compelled to preach the gospel, for he had no other choice. Paul knew that God declared “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:15-16) and it is an inescapable call, like Jonah’s.

Romans 1:14-15 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”

Paul was specially commissioned to go to the Greeks or Gentiles, meaning anyone that wasn’t a Jew but he was also commissioned to preach to Israel too and the reason he may have been eager to go to Rome was so that he could reach Jew and non-Jews. To Paul, it didn’t matter. When he was chained to Roman guards, he witnessed to them. When brought before Caesar, spoke of Christ. When dragged off before the Jewish council, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. He was relentless because he was “eager to preach the gospel” to everyone “who are in Rome.”

For-I-am-not-ashamed-of (1)

First Corinthians 1:17-18 “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Paul apparently baptized some but that was not why God called him. The Corinthian church was deeply divided as Paul wrote “each one of you says, I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul” (1st Cor 1:12-13)? Paul knew it took the Word of God with the Spirit of God to make children of God.

Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from.”

How many of us have kept silent when we had the opportunity to witness for Christ? I know I have committed this sin of omission. To be ashamed of Jesus is a serious place to be as Christ said “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). I think Jesus means continual, ongoing denial of Jesus and His message, not just those times when you’re silent, otherwise we’d all be hopelessly guilty and live in fear of being denied before the Father by Jesus.

Mark 16:15-16 “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Most everyone knows John 3:16 but most stop there and don’t read John 3:18 which says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” and John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” These are very much like Mark 16:16 but the point is we must warn those who reject the gospel that they are presently condemned unless they repent and believe. Later, just before Jesus ascended up to heaven, He told the disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) so not only do they have Jesus’ own authority to be His witnesses but they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.

Romans 10:14-15 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

The Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 which says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns” and how true that is by what the mention of “the feet of him who brings good news?” The idea is when messengers brought good news, they could tell by the way the messenger was walking; if he had a skip in his step it must have been good news but for those messengers who brought bad news, you could tell from a distance that he was bringing bad news. The main point Paul is making is how can they hear the gospel unless they are sent and how can they be saved if they do not hear it? The obvious answer is that they cannot. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Mark 10:17).

Conclusion

Paul’s says to Timothy, and he says to all preachers and teachers of the Word of God, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2nd Tim 4:1-2) and the reason is “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2nd Tim 4:3-4). I believe that time has come.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.


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