My wife often buys me T-shirts she thinks I might like. One of my favorites has the word Sermonator on the front. Most people will recognize this as a play on the title Terminator, a famous 1984 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the movie, the Terminator is an efficient and brutal killing machine.
One early morning, I was wearing that shirt when I went for a walk in a local state park. I approached two women who were walking ahead of me. When I attempted to pass them on the left, I startled the one closest to me, and she jumped, not expecting a strange man to appear on the trail behind her at 6 a.m.
I apologized as I passed her, assuring the ladies that I was just an old man out for a morning walk. I was not a murderer lurking in the woods, and they had nothing to fear. They breathed a sigh of relief, and we shared a laugh as I went on my way.
I continued my walk and, after about forty-five minutes, made a U-turn to return to my car. After another twenty minutes, I met the two ladies again. This time, they were coming towards me. As I approached, the lady I had scared an hour earlier walked in front of me and stopped me. She said, “If you are not a murderer, why are you wearing a shirt that says ‘Terminator’ on it?”
I immediately realized she had misread my shirt because my right arm had obscured the S. I exposed the letter, revealing that my shirt said Sermonator, not Terminator. I explained that I was a pastor of a small church in town.
The three of us shared another laugh. The woman I scared said, “Now, that is a relief. A Sermonator could never be a Terminator!”
That’s a funny story. It’s hard to imagine an old, retired Army guy who pastors a small Southern Baptist church as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s murderous cinematic Terminator. The lady on the trail expressed that sentiment. A preacher is not a murderer. I was right after all.
But those who made the Sermonator T-shirt had a different point. It involved a play on words. The guy wearing the shirt was no cold-blooded killing machine. But he was a “killer” preacher. His messages would cause sinners to repent and unbelievers to believe. His words were strong and could not be ignored. The preacher wearing that shirt would not relent. Like the Terminator, he would never give up, but would keep coming at you with the truth. He was ready 24 hours a day. In short, he was a preaching machine, even if he was old, bald, overweight, and slow. Viewed from that perspective, the lady on the trail was right: A sermonator could never be a terminator.
But in another way, she was wrong. In Romans 6–8, Paul discusses a life that leads to death. It is one that is lived in the power of the flesh, focused on what the individual can do in his own power. A Christian can live that way. Paul calls it living carnally. The believer who lives that way will experience death (Rom 8:6a). Paul tells the believers at Rome: “If you live according to the flesh, you will die” (8:13a). They will experience the loss of their works, lack of communion with God, and might even die physically under the Lord’s discipline. Words can kill.
The alternative is to live by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than to focus on keeping a list of commandments. That leads to peace and life (8:6b). That is what it means for the believer to live (8:13b).
If a preacher preaches false doctrines, he is a machine of death. He can encourage people to look to their own power and flesh for assurance of eternal salvation. He can tell them that in order to find any measure of comfort in that regard, they should examine themselves to see whether they sufficiently keep the commandments. He can tell his congregation that good works are necessary to enter the kingdom of God. That sermonator is a terminator.
A preacher of the Word who teaches that eternal life is a free gift that can never be lost is one who deals in life. He tells people to rely on the power of the Spirit to bring forth His life-giving fruit in them, thereby transforming them into the image of Christ. That sermonator is not a terminator.
Every believer is a sermonator. What kind are you?
