Ranting is Not Preaching

Ranting is Not Preaching




A few years ago, Dr. Chuck Kelley gave me this “Torah Pointer.” It is used for the reading of the Torah, indicating the sacredness of the text. Dr. Kelley gave this to me to illustrate this simple charge: “Keep your finger on the text when you teach and preach.”

I was thinking about his gracious gift, as I was preparing to preach on this passage:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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. For 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.

2 Timothy 3:14-4:4 ESV

Timothy is being urged to keep his finger on the text, as he continues in the ministry of the word.

The opposite of this, of course, is to get away from the text.

And that seems to be quite popular. It was then, and it is now.

So what is preaching? Preaching is saying what God has said in his Word, and declaring what God has done in Christ. When the Word of God is truly preached, the voice of God is truly heard. In contrast, when the words of man are at center stage, then the words of man are heard (though often mistaken for the Word of God).

Ranting is not preaching.

Ranting may be entertaining. It may get you on Youtube. It may even get you a large podcast following. But it isn’t preaching. Preaching is rooted in the text.

What I’ve observed of late is a fashionable trend among a lot of popular preachers, to go on these thirty-minute rants about issues like manhood, church planting, Calvinism, the president of the U.S., or how to dress.

While we need to apply the text to a given congregation, does this mean we just use a verse to jump into some agenda of ours? No. That’s not preaching. I have one word for the ranters out there: Keep your finger on the text when you teach and preach. And I will try to do the same.

God has not called us to rant, he has called us to preach the word – faithfully, consistently, pastorally, patiently, and theologically.

Prosperity gospel preachers and other false teachers use the rant method, and this same method seems to be employed by others, but they don’t get called out because they are orthodox theologically.

Let’s remember that the thirty-minute rant is dangerous. Why?

  • It is dangerous because you lose authority when you leave Scripture.
  • It is dangerous because you are feeding the flesh of people. Every generation has people who want to find teachers to “suit their own passions.”
  • It is dangerous because it feeds the cult of personality movement in our culture. People come wondering, “what will he say this week?” instead of preparing to hear a faithful exposition of Holy Scripture.
  • It is dangerous because it disregards our holy mandate as preachers and teachers. We will be held accountable for how we’ve handled the word (James 3:1, Heb. 13:7,17).
  • It is dangerous because we don’t want people putting their faith in man’s wisdom but in God’s Word.

May God raise up a new generation of faithful, responsible expositors of Scripture who keep their finger on the text, as they teach and preach.

  • Tjay

    Is this a rant?  For argument’s sake;  you started with a scripture, but only referred back to it one time.  This article would definitely “suit the passion” of anyone who thinks to much ranting goes on in the church.  To take this stand may be counter-culture, but counter-culture is still a culture and people may be drawn to your inflammatory stand rather than the actual scripture behind it.  The above sentences deal with your first three bullet points.  Would you please explain where the line is drawn between a rant and a word from God, which I assume is what is written above.  Is there a limit on how many words a speaker can use to explain a written word?  Does the “suit the passion” only refer to “worldly” passions or does a passion like the above stance on how Christians should act also count?  Should we be wary of speakers that make outlandish or inflammatory statements (b/c Jesus was both outlandish and inflammatory)? 

  • Dbales

    Thank you brother for the preaching of the word in Hattiesburg, MS. I miss it!

  • Brothersnowball

    Tjay. This is not a rant. It is a blog post. A blog post is not a sermon. A blog post is not preaching. It is a very good blog post. For argument’s sake, your argument is invalid because your categories are confused. Jesus was preaching, not blogging. Outlandish and inflammatory are not the same as ranting, either. Tony was blogging, not preaching just now. While he is still responsible to proclaim truth in everything he says and writes, the preacher is doing something different when he stands in the pulpit. Otherwise, we could just read our blogs or books or articles from the pulpit. Tony, perhaps another blog post about the need for nuance and subtlety and context is needed. May your tribe increase.

  • Pat Hall

    So I guess there’s no way to look at a text of scripture and apply it to our surroundings, our age, or anything else.  I knew dress would be mentioned somewhere in there.  I understand the rantings of our day and the abuse.  But I also understand the “just preach Jesus” of our day and whatever you do, don’t apply the scriptures to where we live or what you see as a man of God.  I guess most of the great preachers of times gone by just didn’t know what was going on.  There’s more than one type of preaching style, I guess your’s is exposition of course.  many great men of God also were topical preacher.  taking a text and speaking biblically to the issue at hand.  And most bible preachers were also topical preachers. 

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