We All Need Preaching To

John 3:10

This past Wednesday night I was sitting on the front row of our church as another preacher in the church was speaking. He was preaching about King Hezekiah from II Kings. As he presented the message, he pointed out some things that I had never noticed. It was true to the text and boy when he started making his points my brain began jumping all over the Bible making other connections. I really enjoyed the message. His points were true to the text and plain to see, but it took someone else to help me see the text from a different perspective.

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Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

John 3:10

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In John 3, Jesus is talking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus. As a Pharisee, he strictly lived by the law of Moses. Nicodemus was also a member of the Sanhedrin. Think of this like the supreme court of Israel at that time. There were 70 members of this court and Nicodemus being a member of this is significant because most of the members were Sadducees from the ruling class. The point is, He knew the law very well, or so he thought.

As Nicodemus heard the teachings of Jesus, he knew he had a lot of questions. This is why he arranged the meeting with Jesus at night. He did not go to the meeting to interrogate Jesus, but rather to enquire. He wanted to understand the teachings of Jesus. However, as he begins to question Jesus, he gets confronted with a question also, "are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?"

At first, this can seem rude? Jesus was not asking to be rude. He needed Nicodemus to understand that there were some things Nicodemus did not understand about the Word of God, and he needed to pay attention. Even though He was a teacher, Jesus pointed out that he was lacking some knowledge and understanding of God's Word.

Just like Nicodemus, we all lack knowledge and wisdom when it comes to God's Word. This is why listening to preaching is so important for everyone. The preacher may be preaching a particular passage but his perspective is different and he might emphasize a different part of the text. Suddenly we see a part of the text illuminated that we have never noticed before. We gain a deeper knowledge and more wisdom. What a blessing that is. Other times, it could simply be a reminder of something that we have let slip from our thoughts. Regardless, God uses that preacher to increase our wisdom.

Father, I thank you that we can continue learning from preachers who view scripture from a different perspective than we do. I thank you that there are depths to your word that we can never exhaust. There is always something new to learn and there is always and greater riches to mine.