By Monte Shanks
Dr. Monte Shanks is an Asst.
Professor of NT at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
The Difference between Sermons
and Messages
Last Christmas I got the best
backscratcher ever! It is made of aluminum, it has a rubber
handle, and best of all it is retractable!
Consequently, it takes up very little space in my desk, which is a big
draw back with a lot of other backscratchers.
Most backscratchers are long and awkward, so people inevitably put them
in out of the way places where they are usually forgotten and lost. Consequently, many backs go unscratched,
which is a problem since people love to have their backs scratched. A lot of today’s pastors are in the business
of back scratching. Pastors are called
to be heart surgeons, but regrettably, a lot of us have turned into backscratchers. There are several reasons why pastors become backscratchers. One of the main reasons is that some
congregations won’t tolerate a pastor who is passionate and has conviction, so
over time some pastors learn that they better start scratching backs or lose
their “jobs.” When this realization
occurs some pastors simply keep their cushy jobs, while the good ones leave and
find real ministries. Some pastors are backscratchers
because they like being liked, so it comes naturally to them. Others are backscratchers because they think
it’s their job to mesmerize and entertain their congregations. These pastors are essentially showmen. They aren’t really backscratchers per se, but
rather they are ear ticklers. Nevertheless,
the impact of their sermons is functionally the same, hearts are not renewed and
spiritual arteries remain clogged.
Many backscratchers appear to
be very successful because their churches are often filled with a lot of “listeners.” So the question is this: how can you tell the
difference between a backscratcher and a pastor how knows God, understands His
word, and applies it to our modern lives?
A good test is to look at their impact on the hearts of those who hear
them. In other words, are people
convicted and are lives changed. We can
see this kind of impact from the messages of great preachers in the Bible. Look at Jesus, he once preached a message
that caused so much consternation that the audience in the synagogue grabbed
him and led him to a cliff in order to demonstrate the effects of gravity (Luke
4.28-29). Luke actually documented that Jesus’
audience was “filled with rage” by the things that Jesus had said. In full disclosure I must confess that I’ve
never preached a message that had that kind of impact, so I’m preaching to
myself here as well. I guess you can say
that Jesus wasn’t much of a backscratcher.
Then there is Stephen, in his very last message he gave an exceptional survey of the entire Old
Testament that ended with him proclaiming the truth that his very audience had crucified
the very Messiah that they confessed to be waiting for. And what did they do? The promptly carried him out of that same
meeting and stoned him. I guess you
could conclude that he didn’t tickle many ears.
The passage actually describes their dispositions as being “cut to the
quick” (Acts 7.54). A lot of people, however, don’t really know
what that means; in today’s vernacular it would be like saying that they were
“shot through the heart.” And then there
is Paul, he once gave a message where the audience was quiet and listened
intently, they were hanging on his every word you could say—that is until he
spoke of God’s mandate to share the gospel with everyone, it was at that point
that a riot broke out (Acts 22.22-25).
The text states that after Paul told them about the great commission
that those in attendance literally threw their coats down and started throwing dirt
in the air. Now I’ve preached people
into comas, but I’ve never started a riot.
But not Paul, what he said pricked their hearts so much that they began
acting like a bunch of crazed chimpanzees.
The Roman soldiers present were so stunned that they immediately began
preparing Paul for a scourging. I’m not
convinced that they even fully understood why they were about to scourge Paul, they
only knew that something bad had just happened and something had to be done
about it. So in typical Roman fashion
someone had to be beaten and everyone knows that scourging a single person is a
lot easier than beating an entire mob. Again,
I’ve never been threatened with a whipping for anything I have said in a
pulpit. Someone may have wanted to punch
me, but I never knew about it, so who knows.
The point is that Paul wasn’t in the ministry so that he could scratch
backs and tickle ears; he was gunning for hearts.
I bring up these 3 events not
because they are good examples of well-groomed “sermons,” but because they are
excellent examples of impactful “messages.”
And there is a difference between the two. The difference is that same as the difference
between Cicero and Demosthenes. There is
a famous quote concerning these two great ancient speakers, which loosely goes
like this: “When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, ‘How well he
spoke.’ But when Demosthenes had
finished speaking, they said, ‘Let us march!’” And that is the point,
isn’t it? Are we supposed to be about
sermons or messages? A sermon is what a
pastor prepares and then speaks to a listening audience. A message is when spiritual shepherds have
the guts to proclaim the truth about what Lord desires to do in the hearts of
those who are actually “hearing” the word of God. And if people hear God speaking to their
hearts through your message, then people will
be brought to a point of decision.
Sometimes they will weep, or repent, or worship, or be strengthened, and
then they will serve; and if not, then they will begin picking up stones. Either way, they will not have had their backs
scratched or their ears tickled. And
isn’t that what the church needs? The
church doesn’t need more backscratchers, it needs more heart surgeons.
