Jesus was a rotten preacher...

...and He probably would have flunked seminary.

Today I was reading an essay about sermon preparation. Here’s the conclusion:

“Sermon preparation is a five-step process that includes selecting a text, studying the text, developing proper applications, organizing the sermon and preparing for sermon delivery. The preacher begins by selecting a text that relates to the spiritual needs of the audience. A careful study uncovers any timeless principles contained in that text. If a principle is relevant to the audience, the preacher must develop appropriate applications based on that principle and then verify them by personal experience. The material is then organized into an outline that captures the results of prior study and articulates them in terms that everyone can understand. Lastly, the preacher practices sermon delivery to optimize oral communication of the message.”

I read it and a bunch of red flags jumped out. How do we determine whether a text is “relevant to the audience?” What does “personal experience” have to do with truth? Is it really possible to articulate truth “in terms that everyone can understand,” since truth is apprehended by faith and not discerned by the natural man?

By these standards and expectations, the Sermon on the Mount (and most of Jesus’ other teaching) was a beastly failure. He often seemed to have no central thesis, His points did not move logically and topically, He tended to skip around, and a lot of times His answers to people's questions seemed to have no relevance whatsoever.

Most shocking, He spent His ministry talking right over people’s heads, which is unforgivable in Christian circles. People couldn’t understand what the heck He was talking about and He was constantly misquoted and misunderstood. (Nothing really changes.) He was frustrating to listen to. No wonder His poor disciples finally said with relief, “Lo, now you are speaking plainly and not using a figure of speech.”

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1 Corinthians 2

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,

“THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.