While preaching is a serious business - it is God’s means of saving lost sinners (I Cor. 1:21), a good case can be made for the use of humor in preaching. Jesus had a sense of humor, and He often used humor in His preaching. The book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time to laugh and a time to cry” (3:4). I have at least two books in my library on the humor of Jesus, one by David Redding and the other by Elton Trueblood. Dr. Larry Michael has a chapter on laughter in his book titled Spurgeon on Leadership.
Our Puritan forefathers were rather stern when it came to preaching, but C.H. Spurgeon, who has been called “the last Puritan,” was known to have had a great sense of humor which he often used in his preaching. A lady once complained to Spurgeon that he used too much humor in his sermons. Spurgeon replied, “Well madam, you may very well be right; but if you knew the number of jokes I do not tell you, and the number of things that I refrain from saying you would give me credit.”
The great evangelist George Whitfield never used humor. John Piper seems to have this view, yet he often injects humor into his sermons. Martyn Lloyd Jones had a similar view of humor in preaching. Others make a great use of humor; Charles Swindoll is a good example as are also Alistar Begg and David Jeremiah. Both Swindoll and Jeremiah offer recordings of excerpts from their sermons of their humor. A humorous story can bring light on a major point. The trick is to keep humor and gravity in balance. Humor should seldom be used for sake of humor, I think.
The great reformer Martin Luther gave nine properties and virtues of a good preacher. First, [he said] he should, “…teach systematically…[and] have a ready wit…”etc.
In his book, Lectures on Preaching, Phillips Brooks called humor one of the most helpful qualities that the preacher can possess.
John Stott, who went to be with the Lord in 2011, said, “We should press [humor] gladly into service in the cause of the gospel.”
John Ortberg believes “…humor must always be the servant of the message. If humor does nothing to forward that purpose, then the preacher must willingly jettison it from the sermon.”
Even Lloyd Jones said, “I would not dare to say that there is no place for humor in preaching, but I do suggest that it should not be a very big place because of the nature of the work and because of the character of this truth with which we are dealing.”
I think that Haddon Robbinson gives the proper balance on the subject of humor in preaching in his book, Biblical Preaching when he writes, “…the cardinal rule of humor is [that] it must serve the truth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment