What Gives You the Right to Preach?

What gives you as a preacher the right to stand up at least once a week for, say, half an hour and claim to speak on behalf of God? Not even the president of the United States boasts such authority. No one thinks a math teacher or literature professor deserves this privilege.

As preachers, we draw our authority not from superior knowledge, political power, or rhetorical flourish. We draw it from God’s Word alone. “Preach the word,” Paul told his young disciple Timothy, the pastor in Ephesus; “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

As we rediscover church amid this pandemic, we’re looking for divine authority and not merely human wisdom. We have more than enough human wisdom today. Self-help books dominate bestseller lists. Podcasts promise a better you. So a church that offers human wisdom meets stiff competition. Why listen to a local pastor instead of subscribing to a YouTube channel? Why get up on Sunday morning instead of watching the news programs featuring powerful politicians?

We get up and gather with the church weekly because that is where we go to hear from the divine King—his good news and his counsel for our lives. The best preachers don’t make you marvel at their own skill. They show you God’s glory as seen in his Word. And when you see God that way, you want as much of him as you can get.

Collin Hansen, The Gospel Coalition