Some preachers are clowns.
Their is a story of a festival big top that was filled with people prepared to see a circus. Unknown to the crowd, a fire broke out behind the scenes and began to spread quickly.
A circus clown was told to run out to the main arena and tell the audience about the fire so they could escape.
The clown quickly raced out from backstage and began frantically telling the crowd about the fire.
But instead of believing the clown, the people just began to laugh at him.
The more the clown screamed at them to leave before it was too late, the more the crowd laughed at him.
In the end, most of the people died in the fire because they didn’t believe the clown.
But can you really blame them? Who takes a clown seriously?
These days, so many churches have teaching pastors whose priority seems to be making the congregation laugh at their messages.
It's not uncommon for humor to be injected throughout most sermons, with jokes, amusing videos, and more being used to keep attendees chuckling.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I like to laugh as much as the next person and am not advocating a dry, soulless style of preaching.
What I’m saying is that pastors need to be careful about using the pulpit as some kind of Netflix comedy special.
Humor injected at certain points in a message can serve the speaker’s purpose very well when intelligently used. The fact is, there is likely no more significant and vital job than that of the teaching pastor and no greater address given than the one in which God’s Word is proclaimed.
I wonder how many pastors today feel that same sense of obligation?
Today’s preachers want to be liked, thought of as winsome and hip, and see the use of comedy in their messages as one way to bring about the end result they desire.
That’s too bad because it’s not what they’re called to do.
“The preacher who brings the message people most need to hear will often be the preacher they least like to hear.” The pastor who relies on comedy as the main meat in his messages will quickly come to resemble a clown in the minds of his congregation.
Entertaining? Yes.
But let him try and talk earnestly about sin, its consequences, Hell, eternal separation from God and see what happens. No one (who needs to) will be moved to act.
They’ll just sit there and die in the fire they can’t see because they’ve been trained to not take him seriously.
Though you’ll find a depth and convicting bite that comes only from God’s Holy Spirit.
No humor, just God’s truth.
Surely you know of preachers who are more like clowns than prophets. A clown’s job is to entertain, to make the crowd feel good for a while, to help them forget their problems and needs.
The Danger of Being Funny in the Pulpit.
If there could be one word that summarized our culture, it would be “superficial.”
We live in a juvenile, adolescent, immature, superficial society.
People live for escapism and entertainment.
They spend billions each year experiencing larger-than-life sensations at amusement parks and movie theaters in order to avoid having to think about more profound issues like moral accountability and the inevitability of death.
Immaturity does not transform its taste buds overnight. In many ways, developing a hunger for biblical preaching is an acquired taste.
Therefore, the people of God must be taught to revere the truth; they must be tutored by expository preachers to appreciate the proclamation of the Word of God.
They must be, in a word, trained to grasp the seriousness of Scripture.
The problem is that many preachers have turned into comedians.
A growing number of churches have replaced their pulpits with stages.
Though many pastors know that the Bible is no laughing matter, they are weekly tempted to accommodate their messages to meet their congregation's felt-need for humor and entertainment.
Many pastors were raised in such a light-hearted version of cultural Christianity that “being funny” is a hard to shake habit.
A growing number just can’t resist the ongoing temptation to feed their congregations holy humor.
Unfortunately, the badge of clerical comedy has become their trademark.
In contrast to this growing trend in evangelicalism, we see the Bible emphasizing an utterly different perspective when it comes to finding humor in the presentation of biblical truth.
A weighty seriousness defines the Scriptures.
From the account of creation to the vision of the Apocalypse, the Bible is first and foremost a serious story.
There is nothing inherently funny about sin, salvation, or sanctification.
There is nothing humorous about the price that had to be paid in order to overcome darkness with light and triumph over ruin with redemption.
There is nothing laughable about Heaven and Hell, Satan and demons, suffering and sacrifice, or fire and fools.
True, anthropomorphically speaking, God is said to have laughed in the Old Testament (Ps. 2:4; 59:8), but never as an expression of amusement due to some unexpected twist in a punch-line.
No, God in the Old Testament only laughs at the sad absurdity of those who believe they will escape His wrath, but never because He thinks something is funny.
The profound themes revealed in the Bible are no laughing matter.
Yet, all that said, there still is a necessary place for laughter in life.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says that “There’s a time to weep and a time to laugh.”
There is a time for humor.
Laughter and wit are both common graces granted to us so that we can enjoy the ironies and absurdities of life.
There are many appropriate moments when laughter (and the humor that fuels it) can be a profound blessing, especially to those who are going through prolonged trials.
“A cheerful heart is a good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22). Therefore, even sermons can occasionally contain humor.
It’s not that humor should always be avoided in preaching. Yet, because the superficiality of our culture is in such dire opposition to the seriousness of the Scriptures, it is important for pastors to know that there are at least three dangers connected to humor in the pulpit.
Humor can demean the dignity of the pastor.
One of the most important characteristics of both an elder and deacon is the attribute of dignity (1 Tim 3:4; 08).
Men who are to oversee the church are to be known as dignified, respectable, and sober-minded.
The reason this is so vital is because pastors can inadvertently demean the dignity of their role in the church for the price of a laugh.
Too much humor (or the wrong kind) lessens the gravitas of the pulpit; it paints the pastor as a clown, a silly man, and sometimes an egomaniac. Inordinately calling attention to one’s wit is a self-promoting and prideful practice that distracts attention away from the message onto the messenger.
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