What is the End or Telos of Preaching?  

Pastor, have you ever considered what the ultimate goal is for your preaching every week? To be honest, amid the weekly pressures of ministry, it’s easy to forget why we preach. That’s why I want to encourage you in this short article by considering what God intends to accomplish through our preaching every week.

The end goal of preaching is the glory of God and the formation of his people into the image of Christ (Col 1:25-29). As John Piper notes, preaching aims to magnify the glory of God by proclaiming his excellencies from Scripture: “Therefore, if the glorification of God is the ultimate goal, preaching will seek to be as effective as it can be in clarifying the people’s understanding of the glory of God and enflaming their hearts to love it.”1 Preaching magnifies the glory of God by proclaiming the person and work of Christ. Again, Piper is helpful here, as he writes about how preaching glorifies God: “Preaching aims to present Christ in such a way that a spiritual ‘seeing’ happens—a seeing so powerful that hearer-seers are transformed into the same image.”2 In other words, preaching results in the glory of God and the formation of his people when it centers on Christ.

As Jesus told the disciples in Luke 24:27, all the Scriptures testify about him and find their fulfilment in him. Furthermore, Paul reminded Timothy that it is the Scriptures that made him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 3:15). Therefore, since all the Scriptures center on Christ and faithful preaching is that which proclaims the message of the Scriptures, preaching results in the glory of God by heralding the message about Jesus so that people may be reconciled to him and conformed to his image. Thus, the end goal or telos of preaching is to glorify God as people encounter, worship, and obey the crucified and risen Christ through the preaching event.

Thus, the end goal or telos of preaching is to glorify God as people encounter, worship, and obey the crucified and risen Christ through the preaching event.

So, what does this mean practically? First, preachers should proclaim the God-intended meaning of the text. This application follows from a progressive argument about the nature and purpose of the Scriptures: 1) The Scriptures are divinely inspired and therefore are the words of the living God; 2) God continues to speak through the Scriptures by means of the Holy Spirit; 3) The purpose of the Scriptures is to reveal Christ and conform believers to his image; 4) God has appointed pastors to explain and apply the Scriptures to his people; 5) Through preaching, pastors function as stewards and heralds who proclaim the Scriptures to God’s people. Taken together, these arguments demonstrate that the preacher’s message is given rather than invented. While the sermon itself can take various forms, the preacher’s task is to unfold God’s message for God’s people. He does this through faithful exposition and proclamation of the biblical text, bringing the message to bear on the congregation’s lives. In so doing, he glorifies God through his preaching.

Second, preachers should preach in a manner that reveals Christ as the center of the sermon and the fulfillment of the Scriptures. As previously noted, Jesus himself taught that all the Scriptures are about him. Therefore, our preaching should also center on him. This means that the preacher should proclaim Christ in a way that is faithful to the text; while also pointing hearers to either the person or the work of Christ as revealed in the text. He should do so because it is through Christ that God manifests his glory and completes his plan of salvation.

Third, the preacher should commit to God’s glory as the goal of his life and preaching. The reality of God’s glory is the ultimate end of all things. Therefore, the preacher’s overriding desire is to glorify God in every aspect of his life, including his preaching ministry. The preacher aims to please God rather than men. He does so by helping the congregation see the glory of God revealed in the Scriptures and by stirring their hearts to adore it. As the preacher gazes upon the glory of God throughout his life and study, he proclaims God as the subject of his sermons and compels the congregation to marvel at God’s glory for themselves.

As the preacher gazes upon the glory of God throughout his life and study, he proclaims God as the subject of his sermons and compels the congregation to marvel at God’s glory for themselves.

In summary, God is glorified by working through preaching to form his people into further Christlikeness. The preacher who commits to remain faithful to the text, proclaim Christ, and glorify God with his life and ministry, will fulfill God’s purpose for his ministry.  Pastor, be encouraged and don’t overcomplicate it. Each week you get to participate in a task that will pay dividends unto eternity. It doesn’t get any better than that! So, be diligent in your study, glorify God with your life, and go proclaim Christ this week!

1 Piper, Expository Exultation, 202.

2 Piper, Expository Exultation, 83.