what's the difference between preaching and teaching now I've seen quite a few articles that have been written about preaching versus teaching and they kind of jumped to conclusions without providing a lot of facts I've also heard a pastor labeled as being a good teacher but not a great preacher on the other hand I've even heard pastors called good teachers but not necessarily good preachers however at the exact same time today we will use the words teaching and preaching almost interchangeably when talking about what a pastor says on stage on a Sunday morning right so what do we mean by preaching and teaching is there even a difference and does it matter the short answer is yes it does matter it matters a lot actually so please allow me to explain what I mean this question often comes up because the Bible itself seems to imply that preaching and teaching are two different things according to the Bible preaching and teaching our partners in ministry but also different now if you read through the Bible casually you may think that preaching and teaching are being used interchangeably but there are quite a few verses where preaching and teaching our both mentioned in the same verse Matthew 11:1 says when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities now preaching cannot mean the same thing here as teaching otherwise this would be like saying Jesus went to preach and to preach and that doesn't make a lot of sense there so there must be a difference what is it and we see this again in Luke 20 verse 1 which says Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel we also read that the disciples following jesus's example every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching in Antioch Paul and Barnabas were teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also being able to teach is even a requirement for being an elder as we see in 1st Timothy 3:2 however Paul makes a distinction that elders who labor in preaching and teaching are worthy of double honor so Paul seems to be implying that all elders teach but not all elders preach there is a difference there somewhere later Paul also instructs Timothy to preach the word with complete patience and teaching now all this goes to show that the words preaching and teaching in the Bible are not just used interchangeably like today we might say either I was speaking I was preaching I was teaching or I was delivering the message and we might mean the exact same thing by those statements so what is the difference then between preaching and teaching in the Bible now before we get into the answer to that question I want to address some of the misconceptions that I see out there a lot of these things are things that I've thought before and even told people before I really study the differences here it's easy to get this mixed up first misconception is that preaching and teaching mean the same thing now as we already showed although some people think that preaching and teaching are used synonymously in the Bible that cannot be true based on how they are used throughout scripture and I won't touch on that any more because we just talked about that now the second misconception I see is that preaching speaks to the heart and teaching speaks to the mind now that sounds really good except can anyone really show me where that is in the Bible I mean preaching may touch the heart and the emotions but teaching can do that too and not all teaching is dry and boring the third misconception is that preaching is about application and teaching is about information and again this sounds good but I don't see that anywhere in the Bible after all if you think about it anyone who teaches but doesn't apply what's being taught or help people apply what they're teaching is not a very good teacher just imagine if a math teacher just told students to memorize that two plus two equals four but never really taught students why that is or how to do it just memorize two plus two equals four that would be a pretty bad math teacher wouldn't it you need to apply what you're teaching so if these common misconceptions aren't true then what is the difference now the answer lies in the original language of these words in the Bible now did you know that technically the words preaching or preach those aren't in the Bible now before you try to stone me to death for saying that okay let me explain what I mean in the original Greek that the New Testament was written in the Bible uses one root word that we translate to the English word teach and I might butcher my sayings of in Greek here but that word is Dada schoo but there are two root words that we often translate as preach and that is Caruso and you angley's oh now Dada schoo means to teach or instruct so translating forms of the word to Vasco as teach teacher teaching that's accurate and that's exactly what it means but things get a little more complicated with translations for forms of the word preach since there are two different Greek words for that the first word K reso means to announce proclaim or make known and the second word you angley's o which actually has a similar construction as the Greek word for evangelism you Angele own means to proclaim good news or announce good news or proclaim the Gospel so Carrizo and you angle is o both have similar meanings one means to announce and the other means to announce good news so what does this tell us in the New Testament when the original authors wrote a bow teaching they meant what we mean when we say teaching instructing or educating people however when they wrote about preaching they didn't necessarily mean what we mean in English today when we say the word preach they meant making an announcement or announcing the gospel now this is the difference between preaching and teaching in the Bible preaching is proclamation teaching is education preaching is announcing and teaching is instructing preaching is making a declaration and teaching is making a disciple preaching is more along the lines of standing on a street corner and making an announcement just shouting it out like a herald for all the people to hear what you're saying and teaching is providing more detailed instructions and answers when we say preaching today what we really mean is a combination of Dada schoo Carrizo and you and ELISA preaching is both announcing the good news of the gospel and teaching what it means Jesus didn't just teach he announced good news but he didn't just announce good news he also taught do you see the difference perhaps the best way to think about this is just imagine that a representative of your bank calls you up on the phone and proclaims hey good news the bank has decided to cancel all of your debt awesome right now you'd be stunned but this news sounds too good to be true so you would probably have a few follow-up questions is this true why would the bank cancel help my debt what's in that for them when will this take effect what do I need to do to make sure that I get my debt cancelled and as you ask these follow-up questions the representative on the phone then begins to teach you about the details surrounding this good news giving reassurance that they are telling the truth and maybe they walk you through some of the steps that you must take if you would like to receive this great news now this is the difference between preaching and teaching in the Bible there is an initial declaration of good news that's preaching and then a follow-up of education that's the teaching part now imagine if the bank representative called you and he said hey good news your debts are canceled and then just click hung up to people even hang up like that anymore hey now that would be really really confusing right you would be stucked with just a lot of questions you'd be like what in the world has happened there and that's what happens when you proclaim without teaching now imagine if the bank representative called up instead and he says hello there here's what I need you to do and then he just rattled off a whole list of things that they wanted you to do and rules that they wanted you to follow again that would be really really confusing right I mean why would you want to follow these random instructions from somebody who just called you up out of the blue and started telling you what to do but that is what teaching without proclaiming is you're giving the rules the instructions the information without the good news so what we mean most often when we say the word preaching today is actually a combination of proclaiming and teaching we announce and educate and great preaching requires both you announce the good news you proclaim the gospel you decree warnings of the consequences of living for yourself and following the ways of the world and then you instruct and you educate people about what the Bible says why it says what it says and you address some of the common questions and objections that people might have in the Bible preaching and teaching are two very different things with a symbiotic relationship so here's the bottom line today what I hope you get from this if you want to preach proclaim and teach if you want to preach proclaim and teach see preaching is proclamation and instruction it's exhortation and education it's declaration and discipleship preaching is speaking God's Word and also clarifying what the words that God spoke mean if you want to preach well like Jesus did and you got to do both and when we study the Bible and the difference between these words I believe that that is what God wants us to see if you just proclaim you aren't serving your audience well they're gonna have questions and you need to give them answers and if you just teach you aren't serving your audience well because you're digging in the details without first telling them the good news the big picture idea and that's the difference between preaching and teaching in the Bible preaching is Proclamation teaching is education and if you want to preach proclaim and teach thanks for watching see you the next one