Our church started a new series on the book of Galatians. I am writing the series with 4 other preachers. It is a great book and it highlights one of my favorite topics ever…grace. That being said, Galatians has proven challenging to preach and write. I think there are a couple of reasons for it:

  1. Complicated Back Story. The back story, specifically the circumcision debate of the New Testament, is absolutely critical in understanding the book of Galatians. I find myself having to go over the back story each week and it feels a bit repetitive and redundant.
  2. Paul’s Personal Defense. In the first couple chapters of Galatians Paul is defending his standing as a church leader and apostleship. Because Paul is addressing a specific attack/criticism, he writes assuming everyone knows what he is talking about. The people living in Galatia did, but the churches in Decatur, IL in 2019 are left to surmise. Based on history and the book of Acts we have some pretty good ideas what he was defending himself against. Even so, these early texts in Galatians are hard to preach because they are so personal to Paul and hard to apply to the lives of others.
  3. Unfamiliar Issues. Circumcision is not the issue for us that it was for them. There isn’t anyone advocating that you have to be circumcised in order to be a Christian. So the task of the preacher is to try and make an unfamiliar issue a familiar one by drawing a modern day parallel. This is very challenging in the book of Galatians.

I have found that Galatians, so far, has exposed a few things in me as a preacher:

  1. The need to be engaging. I find myself worrying that the history lesson in each sermon, the back story, won’t be interesting for people to hear. If a sermon is not engaging, is it a good sermon? This question is a year round struggle for me as I preach.
  2. The need to be funny. I like to be funny, but to be honest, I think I like to be funny for me. It helps me to feel more comfortable and at ease while I am preaching. A few sermons in this series have felt a bit more academic than funny and it makes me ill at ease. If a sermon isn’t funny, is it a good sermon?
  3. The need to be relevant. I am a practical applicator by personality and nature. In other words, I like to draw out those parallels from the first century to modern day. I find that fun. Galatians is stretching me on this front and I am thankful to have 4 friends writing with me and giving me their insights. If a sermon is not relevant, is it a good sermon?

Here is the truth: the primary task of the preacher is not to be engaging, funny, or relevant. The primary task of the preacher is to be faithful to God and His text. These are His words for His people. His letter. I am called to deliver the mail.

This amazing thing happens through the faithfulness of the preacher: the Holy Spirit works through the text to change and transform people. In this day and age preaching should not work. Our culture is so media and image driven, spoken word should not work. Yet it does. I can tell you it doesn’t work because of the wit and charm of the preacher. It works because of the faithfulness of the Spirit.

I think its okay and good to apply the text, use humor, and be relevant but these must not overshadow the preacher’s primary responsibility…faithfulness to the text. Be faithful and watch what God does with His words.

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