The Foolishness of Preaching

I walked into a park on my lunch break recently and felt led to speak to a man.

I sat with him and began a conversation about the weather (as all British people do). After a while, I drifted into the main purpose of our conversation, Jesus.

He sat upright and said to me, “You look like you have a decent job, why then do you indulge in this foolish talk?” I got really excited when he used the word “foolish” and proceeded to let him know he had just quoted the Bible. He looked even more perplexed.

You see, he wasn’t the first to say preaching was foolishness. Paul said the same thing. Preaching cannot be understood by the natural man. For the message of Christ is foolishness to the natural man, but to those who are saved, it is life!

So why then do we preach to unbelievers if we know preaching is foolishness to them?! God has exposed the foolishness of the world’s wisdom time and again by using it to bring glory to Himself.

“If God used the wisdom of man to win souls, then man will attribute the salvation of souls to himself.”

Man had the opportunity to recognise the existence of God. The invisible things of God right from the creation of the world were clearly seen, even his power, being understood by the things which he made visible to us, so humanity would have no excuse. But even when man saw the things which God made visible, he chose not to recognise the God who made them visible. He changed the truth of God into a lie, and began to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator.

Man became vain in his imagination, coming up with excuses as to why the visible things were being shown to us. Our foolish hearts became darkened. While we professed ourselves to be wise, we became fools. We changed the glory of God into an image in our heads by supporting it with unproven research.

So God in his wisdom was well pleased, that through the foolishness of preaching, and the message being preached, he will save those that believe.

God has never been in the business of using the wisdom of the world to show off his glory. He selects the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things to shame the things that are strong, the insignificant, the despised and even the things that are nothing, to shame the things of value, that no man may boast in his presence.

No wonder Proverbs tells us that the man that wins a soul is wise (Prov.11:30). Preaching is the most highly rewarding foolish thing you could ever indulge in.

Cheers to all those who indulge in the Foolishness of preaching!