Question: What is the best technique to use when preaching to an unbeliever?
Answer: Avoid sugar-coated eloquence in your preaching: The mark of a faithful preacher is one who faithfully preaches the full counsel of God and who does not depend on eloquent speech. He does not shrink from preaching things that may sound unpleasant to the ears of his hearers, nor does he use all kinds of worldly entertainment to make church more appealing to unbelievers. Rather, the faithful preacher depends on the Holy Spirit to move and to save those who are his. Consider what Paul says in 1 Cor 1:17, “ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
Why would eloquent wisdom empty the cross of its power?
Until a preacher/evangelist understands this, he has not grasp the essence of effective biblical evangelism. In contrast to all the worldly gimmicks used in modern day evangelism, we read: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (c.f. 1 Cor 1:31) The person who accepts the Lord’s teaching concerning this has “the mind of Christ.” (c.f. 1 Cor 2:16), while the one who disagrees with this is given a rebuke by the Apostle Paul–effectively asking him who he thinks he is to instruct God concerning effective evangelism (c.f. 1 Cor 2:16)
1 Cor 2:14-16 (ESV) The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
In preaching the full counsel of God in its plainness, the preacher moves not “in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (c.f. 2 Cor 5). In direct contrast to the seeker-sensitive movement, the Apostle Paul taught that sugar-coated preaching of eloquent words, empty the cross of its power. (c.f. 1 Cor 1:17). In short, if you want to avoid making false converts, and if you want to be faithful in preaching the word of God; if you want to be an effective evangelist pleasing before God; and if you want to see God move in the Spirit to convict hearts, preach the full counsel of God in its plainness. The Lord will save those who belongs to him, and the Spirit will convict hardened hearts. Remove unnecessary gimmicks in your preaching and focus on the word. The modern day preacher only has a short amount of time to teach a whole list of biblical truths. Use that time wisely. Preach the word with clarity and as plainly as possible, and pray that the Lord moves in power to save those only he can save. Do not water down your sermons, but preach the deep things of God. It is the Spirit who illuminates the eyes and ears of your hearers and give them understanding, not you.
There is also a popular trend to limit the preaching of a sermon to only three points. In some churches, they now limit this to one point! These preachers claim that if we teach more than three points in a sermon, people are not able to absorb what is being taught. To be an effective preacher and communicator, they say, a preacher should limit his sermon to only three points. How tragic. By those standards, we must conclude that Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets must have been the worst preachers. They preach ten… even twenty point sermons. Preach the word in its entirety. It is the Lord who brings understanding to them, not you. And if the Spirit so wishes, he is able to cause your hearers understand everything you preach to them, and cause them to remember it all, and even reveal truth to them through your sermon that you might not have thought about. Three point sermons are nothing more than a disguised attempt at manipulating the sermon with eloquent wisdom. No. Seek to preach the text in its entirety to the best of your ability. It is God who gives understanding and discernment of his word. You want to know how to move in the Spirit? Begin first by getting rid of all these gimmicks. Trust the Lord to illuminate their minds. Preach the word plainly, and the pray.
This my friend, is the most important lesson an evangelist/preacher must learn. Preach the full counsel of God in its plainness. Sadly, this simple truth is one of the most neglected teaching in evangelism/mission course.
Consider what the Apostle Paul says on this very subject:
1 Cor 1:17-25;1 Cor 2:1-5 (ESV)
1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
A man after God's own heart 
Thank you for writing this… I am bothered in a good way by these lines ..
” Remove unnecessary gimmicks in your preaching and focus on the word. The modern day preacher only has a short amount of time to teach a whole list of biblical truths. Use that time wisely. Preach the word with clarity and as plainly as possible, and pray that the Lord moves in power to save those only he can save.”
Hoping that I would let this conviction be converted into obedience and action.
I have a question too – 3 point and 1 point sermons should not be the aim of the preacher. But does it not help the people to remember one point and then apply it to their lives rather hear 12 points and not apply any?
I think it is the duty to convey one main point for the sake of application and bearing fruit for his church community. What do you think…
Marg, in my opinion, people will remember more points if you give them 10 points and they only remember 3, rather than you give them 1 point that is so drawn out that if they forget what it is, they remember nothing. Even if they remember it, it is only one point. As it is for one point sermons, ask the congregation the next week what the sermon was about the previous week. Chances are, many will forget what that one point is. With 10 points, they might at least remember a few points here and there depending on which point impacts them the most. I know I am going against the tide here, but I do believe that teaching multiple points and having them remember only a few that is relevant to thems is more effective than teaching one and having them remember only that one. But this is just my personal opinion. With one point, you really do not cover much ground… and there is only time to cover so much in one year of preaching. 52 weeks…. 52 one point sermons a year… and we wonder why our churches are so shallow. And besides, it is not only the one main point that is important. If a church wants to go deep, it cannot only teach one main point a week. There is much depth that needs to be covered. There is so much truth that people need to learn.
I know this is controversial, but I would insist that theology is more important than application. The implication of a text is more important that its application. A person with the correct theology/implication will be able to apply it in any situation they encounter. No preacher is going to be able to give his congregation all possible application scenarios. I am not saying that it is bad to give applications. It is good, and often it is something to be commended. But very often, I find that we emphasize applications far too much. Some would even go to the point of saying that if a sermon does not have application, it is worthless. But look at how seldom Jesus and the Apostles teach application. They may (but not always) mention an application here and there in passing, and then they move on. Very often, they end their teaching without any practical application and just teach on the theology (implications). The worst thing a congregation can do, is to remember the application, but not the theology behind it. Such a congregation is stuck with only repeating that action in that one instance. It becomes a form of tradition after a while.
Ever hear of the term Moralistic Therapeutic Deism? This is a description of modern American evangelicalism. Church goers in USA grow up living a lifestyle that is outwardly moralistic, but their minds remain as worldly as ever. To me, this is the result of a church having been fed a diet of sermons that emphasizes application over theology. I am surprise that so few pastors out there are making the connection between Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and the method of instruction found in the typical evangelical pulpit.
The goal of a preacher is not to emphasize application (though there is nothing wrong with application per se), but to teach the congregation new truths from the bible (theology/implication). The preacher’s goal should cause his congregation to develope a mind that is conformed to the image of Christ–and when they have a Christ-like mind– a mind that thinks heavenly things, the applications will naturally come regardless of whether the preacher mention it from the pulpit. Some people have a real problem if there is no application at the end of a sermon. I have a real problem if a preacher is preaching application without challenging the mindset of his hearers.
Even from a purely pragmatic perspective, unless a preacher is digging out new treasures of truth from the scripture that the congregation has never heard of before, they are going to find the sermon to be of very little value apart from being another reminder on how they ought to behave. But if a preacher brings out a teaching from the text that makes the people go, “Hey, I never saw that in the text before”… or if he brings out a teaching from the text that challenges his people to correct their thinking and to conform their minds to a more heavenly perspective of the world around them, chances are, they will remember it better. So let us go deep and let the Holy Spirit give understanding to whomever he wills. I am not saying we should not strive to be a good communicator, but that we should not be afraid to give the congregation more content than they are able to handle in the hope that they only take home a portion of that. God will reveal to each individual what he wants each of them to take home from that sermon. Our job as preachers is to provide the content, not limit the content.
A good example is Heb 5 where in the last 3 verses, Paul laments that his listeners are spiritual infants who need milk and not solid food. His congregation is unskilled in the words of righteousness. They are unable to eat solid food. How did Paul remedy this situation? In Hebrews 6, he begins by saying, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.” His solution to curing the spiritual infancy is by leaving the spiritual milk behind – which he will teach if in future if God allows, and to begin to give their spiritual infants spiritual meat. In Heb 7, he goes on to teach these people how Jesus was of the order of Melchizedek! Rich theological implications/theology, and in Heb 8, how this leads to Jesus being of a better priesthood of a new covenant! His solution to spiritual infancy, is to teach them deep spiritual truths. And he continues building doctrine upon doctrine upon doctrine. Very little application in there. Just rich theological truths. If the church wants to grow deep, that is what we need to do–not take one verse from that whole sermon and spend half an hour giving applications and illustrations about that one point.
I think we have a lot to learn from how Jesus and the Apostles preach.
In any case, the point of my original post here is that 1 Cor 1:17-18 makes it clear that focusing on eloquent wisdom empties the cross of its power; and it is my contention that deliberately limiting the preaching of a text to one point or three point betrays an appeal to do just that. The question we have to ask is this, “Why does eloquent wisdom empty the cross of its power”. When we grasp the theology/implication behind Paul’s statement in this verse, we gain an insight into what biblical preaching should be like in contrast to the conventions of our day. The application of this truth will follow accordingly and will impact our entire view of Christian ministry and preaching.