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Preaching and Teaching Like Jesus

The publisher Merriam-Webster announced recently it has taken the rare step of fully revising and reimagining one of its most popular dictionaries with a fresh edition that adds over 5,000 new words.  The 12th edition of “Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary” comes 22 years after the book's last hard-copy update.

Languages are dynamic.  New words are added as culture changes, or as technology advances.  Some words drop out of use and are forgotten.  Other words don’t change, but new meanings and usages are added.

The word “gay,” still means jovial or lively; although our current culture uses it euphemistically to mean something else.

Another example.  I’ll never forget the look of shock and horror on my teen-aged kids’ faces when I told them I needed to put on my thongs before we walked to the beach.  How was I to know that thongs were no longer footwear?  The approved language was now “flip-flops”, which I thought referred to pandering politicians.

But even though language is dynamic, there are some words which have stood the test of time and have the same narrow meaning today as they have had for centuries.  One of those is the word, “Truth.”

In Webster's 1828 Dictionary, "Truth" is defined as conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, has been, or shall be. It emphasizes the importance of honesty and fidelity in speech and action.

Nearly 200 years later, the current Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “Truth” the same way, although it adds more granularity by listing the nuances in its usage.  Interestingly, it also states that when capitalized, it refers to God.

When one is speaking the truth, it means they are describing reality.  They are describing things as they are.  No pretense. No prevaricating.  No waffling.  No quibbling.  Just presenting objective reality.

So, when Jesus says to his disciples in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (NKJV) he is describing things as they are.  And, contrary to what the Ozark Mountain Daredevils sing, the way to heaven doesn’t come by way of raising a ruckus.  It comes by believing that Jesus is the Son of God, who takes away the sins of the world.  That’s objective reality.

We are mindful of the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 4 to speak the truth in love.  As a result, Truth often gets watered down, even to the point that it is no longer Truth.  We prize kindness over veracity.  We are concerned about hurting the feelings of friends we love.  I’ll go further and say many of the people attending churches in America are more interested in leaving church after Sunday worship feeling good rather than feeling convicted. 

What an exciting time for the Church.  God is turning the hearts of young people away from that chaos and toward Himself.  And the pastors and ministry leaders we are training at NBC are the men and women who will nurture these young people in the Christian Faith.  That places a tremendous responsibility on us to teach the word accurately and to demonstrate the life-changing, sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

NBC has been training pastors and ministry leaders since the fall of 1967.  Our graduates have been faithfully proclaiming the gospel throughout the world and accomplishing important work for the Kingdom.

I take God at His unchanging word.  When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, I believe Him.  And when Jesus said, “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”, I take that as a promise that He is both able and willing to fulfill.  I’m also confident that so long as NBC continues to teach Truth, with love, God will continue to entrust us with the equipping of His called-out ones.

Let us, as faculty, staff, and students, not succumb to worldly pressures that tempt us to dilute Truth in our teaching and preaching to tickle the ears of our listeners.  Jesus never wavered in speaking Truth.  Yet His words brought comfort as well as conviction.  With Him as our example, and guided by Scripture and the Holy Spirit, let us fulfill our calling of teaching and preaching Truth in love.  And let us not be afraid to wear thongs in a flip-flop world.

- Rev. Miles Trumble serves as the Director of Senior Ministry Integration courses at NBC.