Many think of Martin Luther primarily as a reformer. However, he thought of himself first and foremost, as a preacher. John Ker wrote, “Preaching was the center and spring of his power; by preaching he moved Germany and then Europe, till he shook the Papal throne. Melanchthon was a scholar and theologian, Calvin was a theologian and an exegete, Cranmer was a religious statesman; Luther was great in all those respects, but still greater as a preacher.” What can we learn from Luther the preacher?
- Preach Frequently
Luther preached thousands of sermons in his lifetime, many at the town church (as opposed to the castle church) in Wittenberg. He preached so often because the people of the town wanted to hear him and because he and his contemporaries understood his doctorate in theology to be a call to teach the Word of God to the whole church. So, Luther would often preach two to three times on Sunday and frequently during the week. In his book History of Preaching, O. C. .Edwards notes that many times Luther would preach four times a day.
Keep in mind there were no “programs” at his church. The gatherings were focused on worship and preaching. John Piper explains:
“On Sundays there were the 5:00 A.M. worship with a sermon on the Epistle, the 10:00 A.M. service with a sermon on the Gospel, and an afternoon message on the Old Testament or catechism. Monday and Tuesday sermons were on the Catechism; Wednesdays on Matthew; Thursdays and Fridays on the Apostolic letters; and Saturday on John.”
This schedule probably changed as he taught on other books, but this is one schedule we have recorded.
Walther von Loewenich said in his biography, “Luther was one of the greatest preachers in the history of Christendom …Between 1510 and 1546 Luther preached approximately 3,000 sermons. Frequently he preached several times a week, often two or more times a day.” Edwards said that number was low, and it is more likely that Luther preached 4,000 sermons in his lifetime.
Luther knew the “burden” of preaching. He was a family man and according to Muesser’s work on Luther’s preaching, Luther often spent one hour in devotional studies with his six children. Nevertheless, preaching was the order of business at his church. Luther was not the pastor of the church in which he preached. Johannes Bugenhagen was the pastor from 1521 to 1558 but Luther’s schedule shows how rigorous his preaching schedule was. Meuser wrote:
“Never a weekend off—he knows all about that. Never even a weekday off. Never any respite at all from preaching, teaching, private study, production, writing, counseling.”
Luther was also devoted to catechetical preaching. In order to teach children the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the theology of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, he would give ten sermons over a two week period, each day at two in the afternoon. These were then used for his Shorter and Larger Catechism. Luther was convinced that preaching the Word was the only way to evangelize and disciple and was one of the first to preach to children.
In short, because Luther knew the power of God’s Word, he was primarily committed to preaching the Word. He knew it was the means through which God primarily called His elect, sanctified them, and therefore saw preaching as the most solemn duties. This is why he often preached 4-5 times a week. Not all of your messages will be as good as your Sunday message, but a short message for children or youth or a mid-week teaching is not supposed to be the same as a Sunday sermon. Put most of your effort into the Sunday sermon, but look for other times to preach the Word.
2. Preach the Main Idea of the Passage
Over time, Luther developed a unique method of preaching. The Germans called it, schriftauslegende Predigt, or “Scriptural sermon,” what we might call “expository preaching.” Instead of preaching about every word in the text sequentially in the sermon (as was done in patristic homilies), he would discover in his own exegetical preparation what he called the center of meaning, the heart point (herzpunkt), the big/main idea or kernel of the passage.
He would preach a passage verse by verse, or perhaps summarize a story in the Gospels, but always with the main point, the kernel in mind. To give an example, he began a sermon based on John 11, the raising of Lazarus, with these words: “Dear Friends of Christ. I have told you the story of this Gospel in order that you may picture in your hearts and remember well that Christ our God, in all the Gospels, from beginning to end, and also all writings of the prophets and apostles, desires of us nothing else but that we should have a sure and confident heart and trust in him.” The sermon then went on to focus on that big idea.
In order for the Gospel to spread the masses, Luther spoke a good deal about simplicity in preaching. In his collection of after-dinner remarks, Table Talk, he said, “In my preaching I take pains to treat a verse of Scripture, to stick to it, and so to instruct the people that they can say, ‘That’s what the sermon was about.’”
3. Don’t Try to Impress People / Use Everyday Language
Luther insisted that preachers use common language. They must be simple and direct. He explained:
“Cursed be every preacher who aims at lofty topics in the church, looking for his own glory and selfishly desiring to please one individual or another. When I preach here I adapt myself to the circumstances of the common people. I don’t look at the doctors and masters, of whom scarcely forty are present, but at the hundred or the thousand young people and children. It’s to them that I preach, to them that I devote myself, for they too need to understand. If the others don’t want to listen, they can leave…we preach in public for the sake of plain people. Christ could have taught in a profound way, but He wished to deliver His message with the utmost simplicity in order that common people might understand. Good God, there are sixteen-year-old girls, women, and farmers in the church, and they don’t understand lofty matters.”
He also said Christ’s simplicity was a model for preachers:
“When Christ preached He proceeded quickly to a parable and spoke about sheep, shepherds, wolves, vineyards, fig trees, seeds, fields, plowing. The poor lay people were able to comprehend these things.”
Old writes, “Luther’s ability to teach Christian doctrine in a pictorial and imaginative way is one of his greatest assets as a preacher…Luther is at his best an expository preacher.” Luther usually preached from an outline. He was known for having a conversational style that was engaging. He used many rhetorical features such as direct address and dialogue. His preaching was so engaging he often preached to hundreds and thousands of people, which was not common in his day.
4. Preach Jesus Christ as an Ambassador of Christ
Luther also felt strongly that his preaching was actually Christ preaching through him. Jesus said, “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16, cf. John 13:20; Matt. 10:40). Luther stated:
“Now let me and everyone who speaks of the word of Christ freely boast that our mouths are the mouths of Christ. I am certain indeed that my word is not mine, but the word of Christ. So must my mouth be the mouth of him who utters it.”
Luther was so committed to the objective and sufficient truth of Scripture, that on one occasion, he said that he thought he saw a vision of Christ. But because he felt so strongly that he needed no new revelation, that the Scriptures are sufficient, and that the true Christ only appears through Scripture and faith, he said that the devil was up to his old tricks again.
For Luther, sola scriptura was also solo Christo. Since the essence of both the OT and NT is Christ, the truth of Scripture is in what promotes Christ as the soteriological key to interpretation. His belief that Christ as the Word speaks in the words of Scripture led Luther to call the church a “mouth house” (“not a pen-house”) that must confess and proclaim Christ.
Luther once said, “If I could today become king or emperor, I would not give up my office as preacher” (quoted in Mueser, 39). Preaching the Word of God is the highest of all callings. He was also emphatic that preaching must be done to the glory of Christ and for the upbuilding of the saints.
5. Remember that Jesus Saves through His Word
Preaching is the main vehicle through which God saves. God engenders faith through the proclamation of His Word and saves the elect through the same. Luther said, “The Holy Spirit, ordinarily, gives such faith or his gift to no one without preaching or the oral word or the gospel of Christ preceding, but …through and by means of such oral word he effects and creates faith where and in whom it pleases him (Romans 10[:14ff.]).” He went on to say:
“For one should not quit simply because so few are changed for the better in hearing the preaching of the gospel. But do what Christ did: He rescued the elect and left the rest behind. This is what the apostles did also. It will not be better for you.”
Luther believed that hearing the Word preached planted the Word in the Christian:
“The Word is the channel through which the Holy Spirit is given. This is a passage against those who hold the spoken Word in contempt. The lips are the public reservoirs of the church. In them alone is kept the Word of God. You see, unless the Word is preached publicly, it slips away. The more it is preached, the more firmly it is retained. Reading it is not as profitable as hearing it, for the live voice teaches, exhorts, defends, and resists the spirit of error. Satan does not care a hoot for the written Word of God, but he flees at the speaking of the Word.”
He believed that Christ and salvation are conveyed through the preaching of God’s Word.
6. Pray Much before You Preach
Luther says that the biblical way to study the Bible will be saturated with prayer and self-doubt and God-reliance moment by moment: “You should completely despair of your own sense and reason, for by these you will not attain the goal…Rather kneel down in your private little room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God through His dear Son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding.”
In one of his prayers, Luther said:
“Dear Lord God, I want to preach so that you are glorified. I want to speak of you, praise you, praise Your name. Although I probably cannot make it turn out well, won’t you make it turn out well?”
One of Luther’s favorite sayings was, “To have prayed well is to have studied well” (Dargan, 388).
Summary
To understand Luther’s view of preaching, consider his comments on his role in the reformation:
“In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon Germany; indeed, I could have started such a game that even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have been? Mere fool’s play. I did nothing; I let the Word do its work.”
Various historians note that his last words were in relation to preaching. When his sons and friends arrived at his bedside after suffering a heart attack, his friend asked him, “Reverend father, do you stand by Christ and the doctrine you have preached?” Luther replied “Yes” and then breathed his last breath (Hill, History of Christian Thought, 190).
Luther was only a Reformer because he was a preacher.