The Preacher Preached but Nobody Came

  I remember a phrase from my Bible College days  - “The Preacher Preached but nobody came”. 

    It was emphasized to remind all of us Bible College “wanna be preachers” that preaching and teaching God’s Word can lead to feelings of isolation, inadequacy and failure. I am thinking about now as I have the privilege to mentor seven fabulous future church teachers and leaders.  It goes something like this:

1. A teacher spends quality time praying, studying and preparing to teach.

2. The teacher gets super excited because he has discovered a great Biblical truth.

3. The class begins but the majority of chairs are empty.

4. Class ends.

5. The teacher feels a sense of sorrow. How the lesson could have blessed so many if only they would have come. 

     Noah must have felt it when he preached for 120 years but no one listened. Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet”. He preached to the people of Judah for over 40 years pleading and warning them of their sins. It didn’t end well for Judah. In the case of Isaiah, God explicitly told him that the people wouldn’t listen.  Nevertheless, Isaiah preached! But the nation largely ignored him. They didn’t want to be in that Bible class. And of course there is Jesus.

     Jesus shared the story of the rich man and Lazarus. In the story, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his family of Hell. Abraham responded in Luke 16:31 - “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Jesus preached to 5,000, but many just walked away. No time to learn from Him. 

     Finally, when a disciple named Stephen was sharing the Word of God, the religious leaders literally stuck their thumbs in their ears so they wouldn’t hear (Acts 7:57-58 -  At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, ⁵⁸ dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.)

     So how did the prophets, the disciples and Jesus respond to the proverbial classrooms filled with empty chairs.  They just kept preaching and teaching, preaching and teaching, preaching and teaching! The Apostle Paul summed it up best: 

2 Timothy 4:1-5 - In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

      This text has kept this old pastor afloat during those feelings of isolation, inadequacy and failure.  I choose to not complain about the empty chairs - I am too busy thanking God for the occupied ones. 

     If you are a Christian and you have read to this point, I want to give you a word of encouragement.  If you are not in a weekly Bible Study - Get in one! Preferably at your church as that is your fellowship.  However, if your circumstances don’t allow that,  get in a good Christian Bible Study anywhere you like. Just do it! You will be a source of fellowship for your teacher(s) and you will be blessed as there is wisdom in the counsel of many. 

Love in Christ, 

Pastor Bob