Piper on preaching

Last August, John Piper preached to his church, Bethlehem Baptist, from 2 Timothy 4, about the primacy of preaching. As he drew towards the end, he said - or should that be preached ...

“Preach the word! Preach the whole, inspired, all-profitable Bible.
“What is preaching? The word here, “preach”, is the word “herald.” It’s not teaching, it’s not conversing, it’s not sharing, it’s heralding.  Heralding, before there was internet, or television, or radio, or telephones, telegraphs, was what the town crier did to bring messages, for example, from the King.  And it would sound like this:

“Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! The King has a message for you - from the royal scroll, with the imperial seal. All of you who have hated the King, belittled the King, conspired against the King, are hereby instructed and invited and compelled by the King, at the cost of your life, to appear before His representative and lay down the arms of your rebellion. And if you will lay down the arms of your rebellion, and you will swear fealty to your King, he will, because of the sacrifice of his Son, on that day pardon all your treason and all your discountenancing of his glory.  And, at a time appointed by his counsel, he will come to you, and he live with you, and he will adopt you into his family, and you will receive every conceivable blessing in his treasures. Thus saith the King!”

"That’s heralding. It’s not teaching. Oh, it’s got teaching in it.  We call it in Bethlehem expository exultation. It’s a preacher loving what he has seen and being so thrilled with it that he just [exclaims], 'Do you see what the King has for you?'