The Preacher's Portrait: Five New Testament Word Studies

By John Stott

Convinced that knowing the Word of God is fundamental to preaching, John Stott here presents brief studies of five New Testament metaphors that characterize preachers: steward, herald, witness, father, and servant. In the course of these five studies, Stott discusses the message and authority of preachers, the character of their proclamation, the vital necessity of their own experience of the gospel, and their motives and moral qualities, particularly humility, gentleness, and love.

A biblically faithful portrayal of what preachers are supposed to be emerges from Stott’s reflections —as he says, “a portrait painted by the hand of God himself on the broad canvas of the New Testament.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781467448109

John Stott

The Revd Dr John Stott, CBE, was for many years Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, and chaplain to the Queen. Stott's global influence is well established, mainly through his work with Billy Graham and the Lausanne conferences - he was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. In 2005, Time magazine ranked Stott among the 100 most influential people in the world. He passed away on July 27, 2011.

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Editor’s Preface

It is no small matter to be asked to work on a book by one of the best-known evangelical writers of the twentieth century, particularly when there are many who are eager to protect his legacy. Accordingly, I approached this task with considerable trepidation, as well as with considerable interest.

As I worked on this book, I became increasingly aware of the major cultural and linguistic shifts that have taken place since it was first published in 1961. Preachers and authors who were well known at that time are largely forgotten today. Moreover, partly as a result of the work done by leaders like John Stott, the location of potential readers of this book has shifted. Now, many of them are in the Majority World, and so we can no longer assume that they will be familiar with the culture of the British church or with Western history. The English language too has changed in the past half-century. It has lost some of its elegant phraseology and now aims to move more directly to the point, in shorter sentences.

To accommodate these changes, I have deleted or modified references and quotations that may baffle twenty-first century readers and have shortened or straightened out sentences. I have also modified pronoun use as there are many readers today for whom he and man do not function as generic pronouns when applied to all of humanity. My goal was to remove anything that might come between the reader and the truth that John Stott so eagerly sought to convey. At no point, however, have I modified John Stott’s meaning or the substance of the rich biblical teaching he provides.

All changes were made with the approval of the executors who were appointed by John Stott before his death to oversee his literary legacy. I am grateful for their encouragement and diligent support for this project. Our shared goal has been to extend the blessings of John Stott’s ministry to new generations and to continue to work to extend the kingdom of our Lord and Master. May God the Father bless this work, and may the Spirit apply it to our hearts, whether we are preachers or those who are blessed by the ministry of preaching.

ISOBEL STEVENSON

Senior Editor, Langham

Partnership

Author’s Preface

This book does not deal with preaching techniques or with problems of communication—although I do not doubt that there are methods of preaching that need to be learned and that communication is vitally important when the gulf between the church and the secular world is so wide that few bridges are left between them. What this book is concerned with are the words used in the New Testament to describe preachers and the task of preaching. Studying these words will give us a clearer view of God’s revealed ideal for preachers, what preachers are and how preachers are to do their work. So I shall be considering preachers’ message and authority, the character of the proclamation they are called to make, the necessity of their own experience of the gospel, the nature of their motive, the source of their power, and the moral qualities that should characterize them, notably humility, gentleness, and love. This, I suggest, is the preacher’s portrait, a portrait painted by the hand of God himself on the broad canvas of the New Testament.

I do not pose as an expert on this subject. But as God in his grace has called me to the ministry of the Word, I am deeply anxious to conform my ministry to the perfect pattern he has given us in the same Word.

J. R. W. S.

October 1961

Introduction

What a Preacher Is Not

Before looking at the five words that are used in the New Testament to paint a preacher’s portrait, we need to consider some words that are not used. Failure to do this may result in accepting wrong answers to the first important question that confronts every preacher: What shall I say, and whence shall I derive my message?

A Preacher Is Not a Prophet

Christian preachers are not prophets in the same sense as the prophets in the Old Testament. That is, they do not derive their message directly from God as an original revelation. Today, the word prophet is sometimes used loosely. A person who preaches with passion may be described as possessing prophetic fire, and a preacher who can discern the signs of the times, who sees the hand of God in the history of the day and seeks to interpret the significance of political and social trends, is sometimes said to be a prophet and to have prophetic insight. But these are not the most important characteristics of the Old Testament prophets.

In the Old Testament, a prophet was the mouthpiece of God. When God appointed Aaron to speak the words of Moses to Pharaoh, he explained this arrangement to Moses in these words: See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet (Exod 7:1, 2). Earlier, God had said, You shall speak to him [Aaron] and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He shall speak for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God (Exod 4:15–16, RSV). These examples make it plain that the prophet was God’s mouth, through whom God spoke. Similarly, in describing the prophet like Moses who would arise, God said: I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him . . . He shall speak in my Name (Deut 18:18, 19, RSV). Prophets did not speak their own words or in their own name; they spoke God’s words in God’s name. This is why the Old Testament often introduces prophecies with phrases like the word of the Lord came unto . . ., Thus says the Lord, Hear the word of the Lord, and the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The last occurrence in the Bible of this formula the word of God came unto refers to John the Baptist (Luke 3:2). He was a true prophet.

The key characteristic of prophets was not that they foretold the future, nor that they interpreted the present activity of God, but that they spoke God’s word. As Peter put it, For prophecy [that is, true prophecy, as opposed to the lies of the false prophets] never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:21).

The Christian preacher, therefore, is not a prophet in that sense. Our task is not to communicate a direct and original revelation we have received from God. Our task is to expound the revelation that has been given once for all. Although we may preach in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not inspired by the Spirit in the sense in which the prophets were.

It is true that Peter says that whoever speaks should do so as one who utters oracles of God (1 Pet 4:10, 11). But the oracles referred to here are not new revelations but the Holy Scriptures, of which the preacher is a steward (Rom 3:2).

Now it is true that there were prophets in the New Testament church, men like Agabus (Acts 11:26; 21:10) and women like the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8–9). Indeed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost enabled all believers, men and women, to receive the gift of prophecy according to God’s sovereign distribution (Acts 2:17–18). And it is clear that men and women were exercising this gift in the churches Paul planted (1 Cor 11:4–5).

However, there are some significant differences between the word of the prophets recorded in the canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament and the gift of prophecy in the church in New Testament times (and as it is exercised in some churches today). First of all, it seems that the New Testament gift was mainly exercised as a way of bringing an encouraging word to believers when they met for worship—a word that was most probably based on the Scriptures. Paul says that the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort . . . [and] . . . edifies the church (1 Cor 14:3–4). Thus New Testament prophecy was somewhat similar to what we would call biblical preaching. However, it seems that this was not confined to a single leader but could be done in turn by any member of the gathering (1 Cor 14:31). This seems quite different from the way Old Testament prophets functioned.

Second, and more important, the word of prophecy in the New Testament church was not granted the same infallible, authoritative status as the Scriptures, as would have been done if it had been regarded as coming directly from God. On the contrary, Paul insists that whatever any prophet in a church says must be weighed and tested by the others. It should not simply be accepted merely because somebody claims that it is a word of prophecy (1 Cor 14:29–32). Do not treat prophecies with contempt, Paul warns, but immediately he adds, but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind evil (1 Thess 5:19–20). Paul knew that some words of prophecy could be a genuine blessing from God, but that some could be manipulated for evil ends. Thus prophecies needed to be tested. That surely remains true in today’s church. And it applies to all preachers. Congregations have the responsibility to test what preachers preach—even if they claim a prophetic gift.

For that reason, no preacher has the same status as the Old Testament prophets. No preacher can say, Thus says the Lord, and claim that every word he or she speaks after that is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God on the same level as the Bible itself. Rather, listeners must receive a preacher’s words in the same spirit as the Bereans, who, after Paul had preached to them, examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11).

A Preacher Is Not an Apostle

Second, the Christian preacher is not an apostle, in the same sense as the New Testament apostles of Jesus Christ, including the apostle Paul. Of course the church is apostolic in the sense that it is built on the foundation of the apostles’ doctrine. Given that the word apostle refers to one who is sent, the church is also apostolic in the sense that it has been sent into the world to preach the gospel. But missionary church-builders and

Reviews for The Preacher's Portrait

[trbixby · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent read. Stott considers the preacher as a steward (a preacher's proclamation and appeal), a herald (a preacher's message and authority), a witness (a preacher's experience and humility), a father (a preacher's love and gentleness), and a servant (a preacher's power and motive). There is one chapter for each portrait. The book is very expositional in nature which is what makes it so profitable. Stott gives a very careful and enlightening exposition on specific texts that portray the man of God in the "portraits" listed above. In his chapter on the witness, Stott shows from John 15 how Christian witness is borne before the world, to the Son, by the Father (the Father is the chief witness), through the Holy Spirit and the Church. In this same chapter he also gives a very helpful explanation of how Christ is our advocate in Heaven, while the Spirit is Christ's advocate on earth (p 68). Particularly enlightening was his explanation of the Trinitarian aspect of preaching from 1 Corinthians 1-2 (in the chapter on "servant"). Preaching is to be the Word from God the Father, about God the Son, empowered by God the Holy Spirit. I found this chapter especially helpful in tying together the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians into a comprehensive, yet laconic statement on the Christian ministry of preaching. I would highly recommend the book as very instructive and stimulating to the mind for any man in the ministry. The fact that it is John Stott (an evangelical Anglican who is now cozier with the Catholics than those in the "high church" and heirs of the Tractarian Movement) is troubling. I suggest trying to forget who the author is. If that doesn't work, remind yourself that God uses earthen vessels, some of which are down right muddy. (It may also be helpful to know that this is the Stott of 1961, not of today.) I liked this book because I learned so much from this book--about specific passages of Scripture. It is certainly not another rehash on preaching. It is a well drawn, artistically written portrait of what God's preachers ought to be.