The Importance of Biblical Teaching
Mike Johnson
The Bible emphasizes that it is essential for our teaching to be in a very bold and straightforward manner, and preaching must be in strict compliance with the Bible. The early church received a great deal of teaching, and the Bible describes the instruction done then and that which is necessary today.
Note what Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:20-21 in his farewell message to them. He said, “…how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Later, he said he was pure from the blood of all men because he had not failed to declare to them the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27).
In Jerusalem, the Jewish rulers were threatening the early disciples for preaching God’s Word. They prayed to God that He would grant unto them “boldness” to speak His Word (Acts 4:29).
Later, Paul told a young preacher (Timothy), in 2 Timothy 4:2, he was to “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” He also told him he was not to preach anything contrary to sound doctrine (I Tim. 1:10), and he was to take heed to himself and to his doctrine (I Tim. 4:16).
Many years before, God told Jonah, he was to go to Nineveh and preach “the message that I tell you.”
Today, we must preach the message, straightforwardly and clearly, revealed in the Scriptures to a lost and dying world.