Jesus Christ as a Preacher -- By: C. I. Scofield

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 100:400 (Oct 1943)
Article: Jesus Christ as a Preacher
Author: C. I. Scofield


Jesus Christ as a Preacher

C. I. Scofield

[Editor’s Note: A hundred years ago one of America’s finest and noblest Bible teachers was born. To commemorate the centenary of Dr. Cyrus Ingerson Scofield’s birth, it has been deemed fitting to reproduce a brief message from his ministry here. The following sermon appeared many years ago in pamphlet form, though without notice of either publisher or publication date. This much information, however, is supplied: “Sermon preached by Dr. C. I. Scofield at the First Congregational Church, Dallas, Texas, on the ordination of Mr. Luther Rees, June 1, 1892.... Text-’Never man spake like this man’ (John 7:46).” Central American Mission, a work of faith which Dr. Scofield and his Dallas pastorate founded, has preserved the faded pages of this message. In consequence, Bibliotheca Sacra is indebted to the Mission for the material being reprinted. Consultation of the recent volume detailing the Mission’s life (And in Samaria), a span of 50 years, will reveal the fact that Rev. Rees was one who labored side by side with Pastor Scofield. As Bibliotheca Sacra goes to press, it has just been discovered that the August, 1929, number of Serving and Waiting reproduced this same message.]

“Never man spake like this man.” This was the testimony, you will remember, of the officers of the Sanhedrin who had been sent out to arrest our Lord. They returned without their prisoner, and with only this statement: “Never man spake like this man.” It was their excuse for not having accomplished their mission. There was something in the words of Jesus; there was something in the grace of His words, and in their power, that made it impossible for them to lay impious hands upon Him at that time. Dear friends, it will always remain true that never man spake like this Man. You may know everything, but standing alone in every manner of excellency Jesus is not more separate from the mass of men by any other of the manifestations of that excellency than by the supreme beauty and power of His preaching. We may never hope to attain to it in its fullness, and yet, for that very reason, that preaching must always be the supreme model. It must be, even while it remains inaccessible

in its perfection, the ideal after which every true preacher must strive.

The simplicity of Christ’s method of preaching invites, it seems to me, the study of one who would seek to know how to preach; or, from the standpoint of the hearer, would seek to know what preaching is according to the mind of God. Certainly the Christine standard has been very widely departed from in the history of the church, and never m...

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