P Johnson continued.... "On top of that, this is a movement that hates formal structure, so it has been resistant to any kind of definition or careful boundaries that would make its shape easy to discern or describe. It's a movement that is purposely foggy and amorphous, fluid and diverse--and most in the movement want to keep it that way.
That ambiguity is a major aspect of the emerging subculture's love affair with all things postmodern. The lack of clarity and the absence of any clear consensus in the movement is also the main strategy for self-defense against critics. No matter what you criticize within the movement, practically the first response you are going to hear is that "not everyone in the movement holds that opinion." And in most cases, that's probably true. It's a movement that loves ambiguity and diversity and despises clarity and organization.
Nonetheless, last year Brian Mclaren and a few other leading emergent figures banded together to form an actual organization called, simply, "Emergent"--also known as "Emergent Village," or (as you find it on their website) "Emergent-US." So the terminology becomes even more difficult.
Emergent--the organization, is actually different from the "emerging church movement." Until last summer, you could use the word emergent as a kind of shorthand term to signify the phenomenon itself, but now that's the name of an actual organization. And at times there even seems to be a bit of tension between Emergent, the organization, and the "emerging church movement."
According to a June 8 news release from the organization, Tony Jones was appointed "National Director" of Emergent. Others within the emerging church movement practically saw that as a betrayal of the spirit of what they stand for. So a week later, the organization issued an update on their weblog in the form of a memo to the rest of the emerging church movement. The memo said this:
Some of you read the last post regarding the recent appointment of Tony Jones as "National Director." Before the official press release was sent out the decision was made to instead use the title "National Coordinator." This felt more in keeping with both the spirit of Emergent and the overall purpose of the role.
Here you begin to see why "the emerging church movement" is next-to-impossible to define. But I hope you can also begin to get a flavor for what makes the so-called "emerging church" different from the historic churches of the past. What we have here is a large and growing subculture on the fringe of the evangelical movement that has been profoundly influenced by postmodern ways of thinking, discourse, and attitudes.
I dealt with "postmodernism" in a seminar here at the Shepherds' Conference last year and the year before, so I don't want to cover the same ground again. If you feel you are totally in the dark about postmodernism and what it looks like, you can get a CD of that message or download the transcript of it from the Internet. I'm pretty sure it's freely available somewhere on line.
It includes a partial critique of one of Brian McLaren's books, A New Kind of Christian, because that book is essentially a plea for Christians to embrace postmodernism and adapt to the postmodern way of thinking--not to fear and resist it. We need to conform our perspective and our style of discourse to the postmodern fashion, McLaren says, in order to reach a postmodern generation.
That is, I believe, the central idea that drives the emerging church movement--although many in the movement might balk at the label postmodern, and (in all fairness) many people in the movement would also want to add several paragraphs of qualifications and clarifications to make it clear that their own assessment of postmodernism would not necessarily be completely positive.
But there's no question that the movement is self-consciously and purposefully trying to accommodate or adapt to or otherwise indulge the postmodern climate of the age we live in. And that is why some of the essential features of faith and assurance that you and I might think are absolutely essential to communicating the gospel clearly and in a strong, biblical way are sometimes actually held in contempt by people in the emerging subculture. I'm speaking of features such as authority, strong convictions, doctrinal precision, clear definitions, and candor. All of those things run counter to the values prized by postmodernists.
So naturally, one of Tony Jones's first duties as "coordinator" for the Emergent organization was to write a long weblog entry explaining why the group found it necessary to have a "coordinator" and a board of "directors" and an actual staff and organization and a real, tangible hierarchy.
It honestly did not surprise me that he would feel obliged to write such a justification for the organization's existence (or that many in the movement were demanding that kind of explanation), because for the most part, the emerging church movement (like the postmodern culture it imitates) is highly suspicious of (or even contemptuous of) things like organizational charts, or structured definition, or even the idea of authority itself. Obviously, all of those things are necessary in any kind of formal organization. But if you understand postmodernism, it makes perfect sense why postmodernists would nevertheless resist the clarity and authority that comes with any kind of formal organization.
All of that is to say that the word movement is also not quite right, and even most insiders don't like the implications of the word movement. But for lack of better terminology, I'm going to continue to refer to the "emerging church movement," and I hope that for clarity's sake and for time's sake you will indulge me in that shorthand usage of three terms that really don't quite fit. (If it's a comfort to anyone in the movement, every time the expression "emerging church movement" appears in the notes I am using, I have put it in quotation marks.)
I have to say, by the way, that one of the really fun things about watching the "emerging church movement" is keeping a score card of how quickly every discussion melts down into a dispute about words and terminology. Many in the movement are recent college grads who learned the postmodernist technique of deconstruction as their primary method of interpreting language and ideas. That's what postmodernist lit teachers have been teaching for 15 years or so now. Emergent types have learned the technique well, and they use it to good effect."
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Johnson on the Emerging Church (Pt 1)
Absolutely Not!
A critical look at the emerging church movement
by Phil Johnson
2006 Shepherds' Conference
Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA
I've been assigned the impossible task of explaining and critiquing the emerging church movement in one 75-minute session. It will save some time if I start by being totally candid with you:
I don't suppose anyone who knows me expects me to be very positive about the emerging church movement. I'd love to stand up here and spend the first half hour or so listing features of the emerging church that I think are admirable. I do think there are actually a few valid and important points being made by people in the movement, and I'll get to them, but I'd rather not start there, if you don't mind.
(By the way, I realize it would be very stylish if I took the other approach. If I gave you an ambiguous review and a totally dispassionate analysis, so that when I finished you couldn't actually be sure whether I think the emerging movement is a good thing or not, that would fit perfectly with the postmodern paradigm favored by emergent types. And I'm sure a lot of them would congratulate me for it. But that would not reflect my own honest perspective, and I'd prefer just to be totally frank with you. So that's what I'm going to do.)
My goal in this hour is not to persuade people who are already sold on the emergent idea that it's a bad idea. My aim is to help conservative pastors of established churches who are committed to biblical principles by making you aware of some of the things that are going on in the so-called emerging church movement. And I hope to explain why I believe it is worth the struggle to resist these trends. Because you will invariably be confronted with pressure to embrace some of the philosophy and style of the emergent movement in your own ministries. And judging from what I know of church history--especially recent church history--it will be a difficult struggle for some pastors to resist.
About the Nomenclature . . .
Before I start to describe the emerging church movement and outline some of its main characteristics, I want to mention that there's been quite a lot of debate about what name we ought to use when we speak of this movement. For the sake of this seminar, I'm pretty much just going to refer to it as "the emerging church movement," in keeping with popular usage. I couldn't think of anything else to call it without inventing some circumlocution that would only confuse matters. So I'll refer to it as the "emerging church movement," but I want to add a long disclaimer here to acknowledge that none of those three words actually fits the thing we are describing very well.
Emerging. In the first place, I object to the implications of the word emerging. This movement is not some beautiful new butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Although people in this movement sometimes claim to represent the next great step forward after the failure of modernism, my assessment would be that what we are really seeing here is the collective dying gasp of every major modernist idea evangelicals and fundamentalists have stood against for the past century and a half.
Virtually all the literature, style, and philosophy associated with the emerging subculture are shot through with conspicuous elements of worldliness, man-centered worship, the narcissism of youth, liberal and neo-orthodox theology, and the silly, ages-old campaign to be "contemporary" at all costs.
And I hope you realize that very few of this movement's most obvious features are truly inventive. The philosophy and even some of the novelties of style are really not that much different from what was happening during my junior high school years in the youth group of the liberal Methodist church I grew up in. We had the candles and contemporary music and every kind of religious paraphernalia you can imagine--but not the gospel. Methodist church leaders, who had abandoned the gospel years before desperately sought a way to make the church seem "relevant" to a younger generation in its own language. There has always been some segment of the church or another that is desperate to keep up with the shifting fads of culture and looking for novel ways to adapt Christianity to the spirit of the age. That has been true at least since Victorian times. Spurgeon wrote against it.
Although that philosophy been tried repeatedly in various forms, it has never genuinely contributed anything to the growth or effectiveness of the church. If the pattern of history holds true, my prediction is that the emerging church movement will be dead and irrelevant even before the current generation gives way to the next generation. That's what inevitably happens to movements that are tailored to the tastes of a specific generation. At most, they have about a 15--or 25-year lifespan. So in my judgment, the term emerging will almost certainly prove to be a major misnomer in the long term--and quite possibly even in the short term.
Church. Second, questions have also been raised from within the movement itself about whether it's really appropriate to speak of "the emerging church." Brian McLaren is without question the leading American figure and most prolific writer in the movement. He said last summer that he now prefers to speak of the emerging "conversation."
That would actually be fine with me, because in some ways the movement isn't very churchlike in its attitude toward structure and authority. (I'm tempted to propose nomenclature of my own: "the emerging free-for-all," because that actually seems to fit what is happening in the movement even better than the idea of a "conversation.") But I think it's worth noting that the best-known spokesperson in this movement has indicated that even he thinks the word church really doesn't fit the movement very well.
Movement. That's not all. In some important ways the emerging subculture is not really even a movement in the classic sense. There are no clear leaders or universally-recognized spokespersons who would be affirmed by everyone associated with the emerging church. The closest to a dominant figure would be Brian McLaren, and he is so controversial and so prone to making disturbing statements that many who have adopted the emerging style or otherwise identified with the emergent movement say they don't want their ministries or opinions to be evaluated by what he says. And I don't blame them.
On top of that, this is a movement that hates formal structure, so it has been resistant to any kind of definition or careful boundaries that would make its shape easy to discern or describe. It's a movement that is purposely foggy and amorphous, fluid and diverse--and most in the movement want to keep it that way.
That ambiguity is a major aspect of the emerging subculture's love affair with all things postmodern. The lack of clarity and the absence of any clear consensus in the movement is also the main strategy for self-defense against critics. No matter what you criticize within the movement, practically the first response you are going to hear is that "not everyone in the movement holds that opinion." And in most cases, that's probably true. It's a movement that loves ambiguity and diversity and despises clarity and organization.
Nonetheless, last year Brian Mclaren and a few other leading emergent figures banded together to form an actual organization called, simply, "Emergent"--also known as "Emergent Village," or (as you find it on their website) "Emergent-US." So the terminology becomes even more difficult.
Emergent--the organization, is actually different from the "emerging church movement." Until last summer, you could use the word emergent as a kind of shorthand term to signify the phenomenon itself, but now that's the name of an actual organization. And at times there even seems to be a bit of tension between Emergent, the organization, and the "emerging church movement."
A critical look at the emerging church movement
by Phil Johnson
2006 Shepherds' Conference
Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA
I've been assigned the impossible task of explaining and critiquing the emerging church movement in one 75-minute session. It will save some time if I start by being totally candid with you:
I don't suppose anyone who knows me expects me to be very positive about the emerging church movement. I'd love to stand up here and spend the first half hour or so listing features of the emerging church that I think are admirable. I do think there are actually a few valid and important points being made by people in the movement, and I'll get to them, but I'd rather not start there, if you don't mind.
(By the way, I realize it would be very stylish if I took the other approach. If I gave you an ambiguous review and a totally dispassionate analysis, so that when I finished you couldn't actually be sure whether I think the emerging movement is a good thing or not, that would fit perfectly with the postmodern paradigm favored by emergent types. And I'm sure a lot of them would congratulate me for it. But that would not reflect my own honest perspective, and I'd prefer just to be totally frank with you. So that's what I'm going to do.)
My goal in this hour is not to persuade people who are already sold on the emergent idea that it's a bad idea. My aim is to help conservative pastors of established churches who are committed to biblical principles by making you aware of some of the things that are going on in the so-called emerging church movement. And I hope to explain why I believe it is worth the struggle to resist these trends. Because you will invariably be confronted with pressure to embrace some of the philosophy and style of the emergent movement in your own ministries. And judging from what I know of church history--especially recent church history--it will be a difficult struggle for some pastors to resist.
About the Nomenclature . . .
Before I start to describe the emerging church movement and outline some of its main characteristics, I want to mention that there's been quite a lot of debate about what name we ought to use when we speak of this movement. For the sake of this seminar, I'm pretty much just going to refer to it as "the emerging church movement," in keeping with popular usage. I couldn't think of anything else to call it without inventing some circumlocution that would only confuse matters. So I'll refer to it as the "emerging church movement," but I want to add a long disclaimer here to acknowledge that none of those three words actually fits the thing we are describing very well.
Emerging. In the first place, I object to the implications of the word emerging. This movement is not some beautiful new butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Although people in this movement sometimes claim to represent the next great step forward after the failure of modernism, my assessment would be that what we are really seeing here is the collective dying gasp of every major modernist idea evangelicals and fundamentalists have stood against for the past century and a half.
Virtually all the literature, style, and philosophy associated with the emerging subculture are shot through with conspicuous elements of worldliness, man-centered worship, the narcissism of youth, liberal and neo-orthodox theology, and the silly, ages-old campaign to be "contemporary" at all costs.
And I hope you realize that very few of this movement's most obvious features are truly inventive. The philosophy and even some of the novelties of style are really not that much different from what was happening during my junior high school years in the youth group of the liberal Methodist church I grew up in. We had the candles and contemporary music and every kind of religious paraphernalia you can imagine--but not the gospel. Methodist church leaders, who had abandoned the gospel years before desperately sought a way to make the church seem "relevant" to a younger generation in its own language. There has always been some segment of the church or another that is desperate to keep up with the shifting fads of culture and looking for novel ways to adapt Christianity to the spirit of the age. That has been true at least since Victorian times. Spurgeon wrote against it.
Although that philosophy been tried repeatedly in various forms, it has never genuinely contributed anything to the growth or effectiveness of the church. If the pattern of history holds true, my prediction is that the emerging church movement will be dead and irrelevant even before the current generation gives way to the next generation. That's what inevitably happens to movements that are tailored to the tastes of a specific generation. At most, they have about a 15--or 25-year lifespan. So in my judgment, the term emerging will almost certainly prove to be a major misnomer in the long term--and quite possibly even in the short term.
Church. Second, questions have also been raised from within the movement itself about whether it's really appropriate to speak of "the emerging church." Brian McLaren is without question the leading American figure and most prolific writer in the movement. He said last summer that he now prefers to speak of the emerging "conversation."
That would actually be fine with me, because in some ways the movement isn't very churchlike in its attitude toward structure and authority. (I'm tempted to propose nomenclature of my own: "the emerging free-for-all," because that actually seems to fit what is happening in the movement even better than the idea of a "conversation.") But I think it's worth noting that the best-known spokesperson in this movement has indicated that even he thinks the word church really doesn't fit the movement very well.
Movement. That's not all. In some important ways the emerging subculture is not really even a movement in the classic sense. There are no clear leaders or universally-recognized spokespersons who would be affirmed by everyone associated with the emerging church. The closest to a dominant figure would be Brian McLaren, and he is so controversial and so prone to making disturbing statements that many who have adopted the emerging style or otherwise identified with the emergent movement say they don't want their ministries or opinions to be evaluated by what he says. And I don't blame them.
On top of that, this is a movement that hates formal structure, so it has been resistant to any kind of definition or careful boundaries that would make its shape easy to discern or describe. It's a movement that is purposely foggy and amorphous, fluid and diverse--and most in the movement want to keep it that way.
That ambiguity is a major aspect of the emerging subculture's love affair with all things postmodern. The lack of clarity and the absence of any clear consensus in the movement is also the main strategy for self-defense against critics. No matter what you criticize within the movement, practically the first response you are going to hear is that "not everyone in the movement holds that opinion." And in most cases, that's probably true. It's a movement that loves ambiguity and diversity and despises clarity and organization.
Nonetheless, last year Brian Mclaren and a few other leading emergent figures banded together to form an actual organization called, simply, "Emergent"--also known as "Emergent Village," or (as you find it on their website) "Emergent-US." So the terminology becomes even more difficult.
Emergent--the organization, is actually different from the "emerging church movement." Until last summer, you could use the word emergent as a kind of shorthand term to signify the phenomenon itself, but now that's the name of an actual organization. And at times there even seems to be a bit of tension between Emergent, the organization, and the "emerging church movement."
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Lies (PT 2)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity must be executed and if the government caves into Western pressure and frees him they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."
The trial of Abdul Rahman has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hardline regime was ousted in 2001.
Rahman, a 41-year old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian. His trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. U.S. President George W. Bush has said he is "deeply troubled" by the case and expects the country to "honor the universal principle of freedom."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that she received assurances from Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call that Rahman would not be sentenced to death.
The trial of Abdul Rahman has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hardline regime was ousted in 2001.
Rahman, a 41-year old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian. His trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. U.S. President George W. Bush has said he is "deeply troubled" by the case and expects the country to "honor the universal principle of freedom."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that she received assurances from Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call that Rahman would not be sentenced to death.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Don't believe the lies
Don't believe the lies. The Muslim faith is not like biblical Christianity. These are not peace loving people who believe in freedom of religion. Jesus Christ is not at all like Muhammad.
I understand people (in the name of Christ) have gone against New Testament doctrine and have done horrible things. They've put a bad name on Christianity (the Crusades, etc).
Read the Koran for yourself. This type of thing (that is described below) is happening all throughout the Islamic world! Gospel-spreading missionaries are being killed left and right. Praise God for these faithful missionaries who are willing to die as martyrs for the sake of spreading a message (the good news). Christian missionaries are not terrorists they are simply seed sowers. Do not get me wrong though...these people are the mission field not our enemies.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188728,00.html
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan man facing a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity may be mentally unfit to stand trial, a state prosecutor said Wednesday.
Abdul Rahman, 41, has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws. His trial started last week and he confessed to becoming a Christian 16 years ago. If convicted, he could be executed.
Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate — both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter — said the government was desperately searching for a way to drop the case because of the reaction it has caused.
The United States, Britain and other countries that have troops in Afghanistan have voiced concern about Rahman's fate.
The Bush administration Tuesday issued a subdued appeal to Kabul to let Rahman practice his faith in safety. German Roman Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann said the trial sent an "alarming signal" about freedom of worship in Afghanistan.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam should take there four years after the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which is interpreted by many Muslims to require that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death. The state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called for Rahman to be punished, arguing he clearly violated Islamic law.
The case has received widespread attention in Afghanistan where many people are demanding Rahman be severely punished.
"For 30 years, we have fought religious wars in this country and there is no way we are going to allow an Afghan to insult us by becoming Christian," said Mohammed Jan, 38, who lives opposite Rahman's father, Abdul Manan, in Kabul. "This has brought so much shame."
Rahman is believed to have converted from Islam to Christianity while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
He then moved to Germany for nine years before returning to Kabul in 2002, after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.
Police arrested him last month after discovering him in possession of a Bible during questioning over a dispute for custody of his two daughters. Prosecutors have offered to drop the charges if Rahman converts back to Islam, but he has refused.
But prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said questions have been raised about his mental fitness.
"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," he told The Associated Press.
Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.
"Doctors must examine him," he said. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."
It was not immediately clear when he would be examined or when the trial would resume. Authorities have barred attempts by the AP to see Rahman and he is not believed to have a lawyer.
I understand people (in the name of Christ) have gone against New Testament doctrine and have done horrible things. They've put a bad name on Christianity (the Crusades, etc).
Read the Koran for yourself. This type of thing (that is described below) is happening all throughout the Islamic world! Gospel-spreading missionaries are being killed left and right. Praise God for these faithful missionaries who are willing to die as martyrs for the sake of spreading a message (the good news). Christian missionaries are not terrorists they are simply seed sowers. Do not get me wrong though...these people are the mission field not our enemies.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188728,00.html
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan man facing a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity may be mentally unfit to stand trial, a state prosecutor said Wednesday.
Abdul Rahman, 41, has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws. His trial started last week and he confessed to becoming a Christian 16 years ago. If convicted, he could be executed.
Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate — both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter — said the government was desperately searching for a way to drop the case because of the reaction it has caused.
The United States, Britain and other countries that have troops in Afghanistan have voiced concern about Rahman's fate.
The Bush administration Tuesday issued a subdued appeal to Kabul to let Rahman practice his faith in safety. German Roman Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann said the trial sent an "alarming signal" about freedom of worship in Afghanistan.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam should take there four years after the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which is interpreted by many Muslims to require that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death. The state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called for Rahman to be punished, arguing he clearly violated Islamic law.
The case has received widespread attention in Afghanistan where many people are demanding Rahman be severely punished.
"For 30 years, we have fought religious wars in this country and there is no way we are going to allow an Afghan to insult us by becoming Christian," said Mohammed Jan, 38, who lives opposite Rahman's father, Abdul Manan, in Kabul. "This has brought so much shame."
Rahman is believed to have converted from Islam to Christianity while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
He then moved to Germany for nine years before returning to Kabul in 2002, after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.
Police arrested him last month after discovering him in possession of a Bible during questioning over a dispute for custody of his two daughters. Prosecutors have offered to drop the charges if Rahman converts back to Islam, but he has refused.
But prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said questions have been raised about his mental fitness.
"We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person," he told The Associated Press.
Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.
"Doctors must examine him," he said. "If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."
It was not immediately clear when he would be examined or when the trial would resume. Authorities have barred attempts by the AP to see Rahman and he is not believed to have a lawyer.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Expository Preaching
True expository preaching.
By Caleb Kolstad (and Dr. Philip Ryken)
Many churches claim to be doing “biblical exposition” these days; sadly very few are really doing it. In light of 2 Timothy 4:1-5 this should not totally shock us. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach he word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
I am thankful for Pastor Flatt’s commitment to Word of God through his expository preaching ministry here at First Baptist Church. He has been faithfully laboring in the Word for 30+ years. Dr. Philip Ryken recently wrote an excellent article helping us understand what genuine biblical exposition really is. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring us the good news (Romans 10:15).
"Preaching the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the divinely-appointed means of bringing sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and building believers up in the gospel. How can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Rom. 10:14). At a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching, but would prefer to hear something that reaffirms their own selfish desires, we are charged with this perennial imperative: "Preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2). Although our preaching is weak in itself, we believe it has the power to transform people's lives by the life-changing work of God the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:3-5).
By expository preaching we mean preaching that is driven by Scripture and derived from its divine authority, so that God's Word is declared to God's people. It is not preaching that merely begins with a biblical text and then proceeds to communicate the preacher's own spiritual ideas or the values of contemporary culture. Expository preaching carefully and thoroughly communicates what the Bible actually teaches, exploring its context, explaining its meaning, expounding its doctrine in connection to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and applying its gospel to the spiritual needs of those who listen, exalting the glory of God. Because God's Word is supremely "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16), expository preaching is of its very nature practical." (Taken from www.reformation21.org)
By Caleb Kolstad (and Dr. Philip Ryken)
Many churches claim to be doing “biblical exposition” these days; sadly very few are really doing it. In light of 2 Timothy 4:1-5 this should not totally shock us. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach he word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
I am thankful for Pastor Flatt’s commitment to Word of God through his expository preaching ministry here at First Baptist Church. He has been faithfully laboring in the Word for 30+ years. Dr. Philip Ryken recently wrote an excellent article helping us understand what genuine biblical exposition really is. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring us the good news (Romans 10:15).
"Preaching the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the divinely-appointed means of bringing sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and building believers up in the gospel. How can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Rom. 10:14). At a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching, but would prefer to hear something that reaffirms their own selfish desires, we are charged with this perennial imperative: "Preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2). Although our preaching is weak in itself, we believe it has the power to transform people's lives by the life-changing work of God the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:3-5).
By expository preaching we mean preaching that is driven by Scripture and derived from its divine authority, so that God's Word is declared to God's people. It is not preaching that merely begins with a biblical text and then proceeds to communicate the preacher's own spiritual ideas or the values of contemporary culture. Expository preaching carefully and thoroughly communicates what the Bible actually teaches, exploring its context, explaining its meaning, expounding its doctrine in connection to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and applying its gospel to the spiritual needs of those who listen, exalting the glory of God. Because God's Word is supremely "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16), expository preaching is of its very nature practical." (Taken from www.reformation21.org)
Sunday, March 19, 2006
11 Mondays Counseling Training
I am currently taking 11 Monday's at Faith Baptist Church (FBC) in Lafeyette, IN. This is run by Pastor Steve Viars and the FBC pastoral staff. I have learned quite a bit thus far. It is great sitting in on "live counseling" sessions. Counseling is such an important part of pastoral ministry.
Faith is def. a counseling church. If you want to see a church fully committed to biblical counseling FBC is the place. Grace Community (in Sun Valley, CA) is a preaching/teaching church while Faith is a big time counseling community. The counseling center allows many opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. I think they said they have a waiting list right now with 50 people on it. They utilize tons of lay people to assist in counseling. That's another thing FBC does well.
I was surprised that Faith sells books by Rick Warren and Bill Hybels in there church book store. Their book store is primarily stocked w/counseling resources... Pastor Mark Dutton used Purpose Driven Life for one of his HW assignments which again was surprising to me.
FBC is going to build a multi-million dollar Recreation Center. I guess they got a grant or loan from the community to help pay for this Rec Center. FBC also wants to start a church based seminary.
More to come,
CK
Faith is def. a counseling church. If you want to see a church fully committed to biblical counseling FBC is the place. Grace Community (in Sun Valley, CA) is a preaching/teaching church while Faith is a big time counseling community. The counseling center allows many opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. I think they said they have a waiting list right now with 50 people on it. They utilize tons of lay people to assist in counseling. That's another thing FBC does well.
I was surprised that Faith sells books by Rick Warren and Bill Hybels in there church book store. Their book store is primarily stocked w/counseling resources... Pastor Mark Dutton used Purpose Driven Life for one of his HW assignments which again was surprising to me.
FBC is going to build a multi-million dollar Recreation Center. I guess they got a grant or loan from the community to help pay for this Rec Center. FBC also wants to start a church based seminary.
More to come,
CK
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Ligon Duncan on Grace Community Church
I spent 13 years at the church where Pastor MacArthur preaches week in and week out (www.gracechurch.org). My time at Grace Community Church was great! I learned so much about biblical ministry during my time there. I was able to serve in a variety of capacities during my tenure there as well. The church is not perfect but it is truly exemplory in many different facets. I was interested to hear Ligon Duncan's recent thoughts (see below).
"* A number of you asked to whom I was referring in my last post when I mentioned CHBC and CLC and GCC and BBC as examples of strong Reformed churches with excellent evangelistic track records. Well, CHBC is none other than Capitol Hill Baptist Church - pastored by the finest preacher-theologian-evangelist of our time, Mark Dever. CLC is Covenant Life Church, where Josh Harris is now pastoring, and where C.J. Mahaney so ably served. SGM, or Sovereign Grace Ministries is a good example of a family of churches that are superb at the practice of evangelism and emphatic in embrace of the doctrines of grace. Grace Community Church is GCC - what more need I say?! And BBC is Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, where John Piper serves. These congregations take a back-seat to no one when it comes to church health, zeal for the lost, effective witness, commitment to the great commission and joyful embrace of reformed theology."
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, was born and reared in the home of an eighth generation Southern Presbyterian Ruling Elder. A 1983 graduate of Furman University, he received an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary and studied Systematic Theology at the Free Church of Scotland College under Professor Donald Macleod. He earned the PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1995.
He served on the staff of The Covenant Presbyterian Church of St. Louis from 1984-1987, and supplied pulpits in churches of the Presbyterian Association of England, Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland while in Britain from 1987-1990. In 1990 he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), Jackson, Mississippi where he was Chairman of the Department of Systematic Theology, and the John R. Richardson Professor of Theology. At RTS he was responsible for teaching courses such as Systematic Theology, Ethics, Apologetics, History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, Covenant Theology, Patristics, Evangelism, and Theology of the Westminster Standards. He became the Senior Minister of First Presbyterian, Jackson in 1996.
.
"* A number of you asked to whom I was referring in my last post when I mentioned CHBC and CLC and GCC and BBC as examples of strong Reformed churches with excellent evangelistic track records. Well, CHBC is none other than Capitol Hill Baptist Church - pastored by the finest preacher-theologian-evangelist of our time, Mark Dever. CLC is Covenant Life Church, where Josh Harris is now pastoring, and where C.J. Mahaney so ably served. SGM, or Sovereign Grace Ministries is a good example of a family of churches that are superb at the practice of evangelism and emphatic in embrace of the doctrines of grace. Grace Community Church is GCC - what more need I say?! And BBC is Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, where John Piper serves. These congregations take a back-seat to no one when it comes to church health, zeal for the lost, effective witness, commitment to the great commission and joyful embrace of reformed theology."
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, was born and reared in the home of an eighth generation Southern Presbyterian Ruling Elder. A 1983 graduate of Furman University, he received an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary and studied Systematic Theology at the Free Church of Scotland College under Professor Donald Macleod. He earned the PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1995.
He served on the staff of The Covenant Presbyterian Church of St. Louis from 1984-1987, and supplied pulpits in churches of the Presbyterian Association of England, Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland while in Britain from 1987-1990. In 1990 he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), Jackson, Mississippi where he was Chairman of the Department of Systematic Theology, and the John R. Richardson Professor of Theology. At RTS he was responsible for teaching courses such as Systematic Theology, Ethics, Apologetics, History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, Covenant Theology, Patristics, Evangelism, and Theology of the Westminster Standards. He became the Senior Minister of First Presbyterian, Jackson in 1996.
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Tuesday, March 07, 2006
A teacher's interview
My friend Mike Johnson shared this with me,
"After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said: "Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise their self esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job. I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments. Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap. I am to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card. All of this I am to do with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, and a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps! You want me to do all of this and yet you expect me . . . NOT TO PRAY ????"
"After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said: "Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise their self esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job. I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments. Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap. I am to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card. All of this I am to do with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, and a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps! You want me to do all of this and yet you expect me . . . NOT TO PRAY ????"
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Listener’s Responsibility in Hearing an Expository Sermon
The Listener’s Responsibility in Hearing an Expository Sermon
By Lance Quinn
Pastor-Teacher, The Bible Church of Little Rock
This article first appeared as the Epilogue in Rediscovering Expository Preaching edited by John MacArthur, Jr. ( ©1992, Word, Inc.), and is used by permission. An updated, revised edition of this book, entitled Preaching: How to Preach Biblically (Thomas Nelson Publishing) is scheduled for release in July.
What responsibilities do Christians have to expository preaching?
In an age when shallow preaching is common, both shallow hearing and personal application are also common. Jay Adams has observed,
Too many laymen speak about the preaching event as if it were a one-way street, as if the responsibility for what transpires when the Bible is proclaimed rests solely on the shoulders of the preacher. But that’s not so! Effective communication demands competence from all parties.
Understanding expository preaching would not be complete without a word about the listener’s responsibilities in the expository process. Everything culminates in the hearers. The science and art of producing an expository sermon are empty efforts if no one hears and assimilates the message. Three vital principles will aid the listener who wishes to gain the most from an expository message. They are at the same time his responsibilities as well as his privileges.
ANTICIPATION
The listener must be prepared to receive the preacher’s message. Some components of anticipation to enhance the listening experience are basic and obvious, though often overlooked.
Be Personally Ready
The basic outlook of the listener must be to identify himself as the target of the message. The whole purpose of sitting in the listener’s seat is exposure to the message for the purpose of personal confrontation, information, conviction, motivation, and transformation. The hearer’s thoughts should not be concerns about how well the preacher is doing, how clever or interesting he is, or how well structured his sermon is. The listener is not there to admire or criticize a piece of oratorical art, but to be spoken to personally by God’s representative. The object of the preaching event is a change in thinking, attitude, and behavior. The hearer must prepare himself with this anticipation.
Be Physically Ready
A basic key to good listening is being in good physical condition. This depends on adequate rest, well-balanced meals, and proper exercise. Each of these varies with different individuals, but all are essential to being alert and ready to comprehend what is spoken.
People do not listen well when they are tired or hungry. Their minds drift to other things because of improper care of their bodies. On the other hand, being awake and attentive is essential for one to hear God’s message in a refreshing and dynamic way. The way one spends Saturday evening and Sunday morning, for example, will directly affect the expository exchange between expositor and listener.
Just before Jesus was betrayed, He asked His disciples to stand watch while He prayed in anticipation of the cross. Apparently they were not physically ready to comply, because Jesus “came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Matt. 26:40-41). After leaving them to pray two more times, Jesus again “found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy” (Matt. 26:43). He commented, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?” (Matt. 26:45). In a somewhat different situation, a listener does well to be alert and to watch also as he prepares to hear God’s Word.
Be Prayerfully Ready
Expository preaching can be defined as a spiritual event through which Almighty God Himself speaks His Word to the hearts of men and women so that they might know and understand His will and obey it. So prayer is an essential element in readying one’s heart to hear what God wants to communicate through His appointed messenger.
Two distinct, yet inseparable, objects summarize the format for preparatory prayer: Pray for the preacher as he communicates God’s message, and pray for the ability to comprehend what God communicates, as the psalmist prayed: “Deal bountifully with Thy servant, / That I may live and keep Thy Word. Open my eyes, that I may behold / Wonderful things from Thy law” (Ps. 119:17-18).
Scripture implores Christians to pray for their preachers. For Paul, faithful prayer by believers for those who proclaim God’s Word boldly was foundational (cf. Rom. 15:30-32; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:2-4). Spring concurs with this:
If a people are looking for rich sermons from their minister, their prayers must supply him with the needed material; if they seek for faithful sermons, their prayers must urge him, by a full and uncompromising manifestation of the truth, to commend himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:2). If God’s people are going to expect powerful and successful sermons, their prayers must make him a blessing to the souls of men!
The Puritan John Angell James declared,
Prayer is a means of assisting the minister which is within the reach of all. They who can do nothing more, can pray. The sick, who cannot encourage their minister by their presence in the sanctuary, can bear him upon their hearts in their lonely chamber; the poor who cannot add to his temporal comfort by monetary donations, can supplicate their God “to supply all his needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19): the timid, who cannot approach to offer him the tribute of their gratitude, can pour their praises into the ear of Jehovah, and entreat him still to encourage the soul of His servant: the ignorant, who cannot hope to add one idea to the stock of his knowledge, can place him before the fountain of celestial radiance: even the dying, who can no longer busy themselves as in former times for his interests, can gather up their remaining strength, and employ it in the way of prayer for their pastor.
To receive the message from God’s messenger with greatest benefit, believers must pray for their pastor’s ability to impart it.
ATTENTION
Expository preaching is and always has been God’s chief tool for producing growth in grace. Therefore, it deserves the closest attention. Though every Christian should read, study, and meditate on Scripture, God uses Bible exposition for the optimal enhancement of his spiritual growth. It is not overstating the case that preaching should be the chief means of dispensing strengthening grace in a believer’s life. Spiritual advancement, then, will hinge on how determined one is to assemble with other Christians when God’s Word is faithfully proclaimed (cf. Heb. 10:25). Adams says,
Preaching is one of God’s chief means of sowing seed and helping fruit grow: it is a way of watering and fertilizing the crop. But you must break up the hard clods that have formed in your soul over the week, turn under the weeds, and prepare the good soil to receive the good seed.
The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs has written,
In the hearing of God’s Word we profess our dependence upon God, for the knowing of His mind, and the way toeternal life . . . . Remember that you come to tender up your homage to God, to sit at God’s feet, and there to profess your submission to Him. That is one end of your coming to hear sermons.
God has called, equipped, and gifted godly pastors and teachers to preach His Word faithfully. Because He has done this, we need to fulfill our responsibility in gathering to hear what He says through his servants.
Attitudes
Confessing all known sin removes hindrances and opens one’s heart to hearing the truth (cf. 1 Peter 2:1-2). Exposure to the inspired “sword” of the Word (cf. Heb. 4:12) allows the Spirit of God to bring conviction of sin and to demand true repentance. Repentance will inevitably bring an increased desire to hear more of God’s truth and will promote more spiritual growth. Growth, then, is contingent on how much a believer allows God to teach him through His herald.
Adams writes, “Like disobedient children, people do not want to listen. Even believers, habituated in ways of disobedience, have great difficulty listening to God. . . . It has been easier for sinners to blame preachers than to admit their own reluctance to listen.”
Moses told the children of Israel in his day about the required readiness: “God says to us today, ‘Take to heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life’” (Deut. 32:46-47). Failure to measureup to this requirement as a hearer leads inevitably to shallow listening.
Actions
It is not enough to talk about wanting to hear the preached Word; we must implement these desires regularly. Nothing substitutes for regular attendance in the weekly services of a local church. Though the writer of Hebrews was emphasizing the mutual encouragement of believers among themselves, he also warned them not to forsake their corporate gathering for worship and preaching: “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25).
APPLICATION
Many contemporary critics decry expository preaching as lacking relevance and clear personal application. This kind of criticism reflects a misunderstanding of or disbelief in the inherent power of the Word of God. Since the expositor’s first concern is to clarify the meaning of the text, it may be granted that expository preaching is not driven by the same kind of obsession with illustrations and applicational formulas that characterize most topical and textual preaching. The expositor depends on the power of the text itself when rightly explained, and is assured that application of the truth in a personal and individual way is ultimately the responsibility of the listener, in concert with the Holy Spirit, of course.
Leith comments, “Calvin sought to make the biblical message clear so that under the power of the Holy Spirit it could make hearers alive to God’s presence.” How much better it is to allow God the Holy Spirit to shape and mold us into Christ’s image, rather than limiting the application of Scripture to human ingenuity! Adams suggests that the listener “constantly seek to discover God’s message in the verse or verses from which it was preached, going so far as to summarize it in one sentence. . . . Unless you can do this, it is doubtful whether you got the message.” If a listener cannot grasp the principles taught by the text of the sermon, he will fail to understand their application to his own life. If he does understand them, he will be unable to escape their specific application made by the Spirit to his own life.
When Jesus declared to His disciples, “He who has ears, let him hear” (cf. also Revelation 2-3), He was setting forth a general principle. Leith has written, “For Calvin as for Luther (‘Lectures on Hebrews’) ‘The ears alone are the organ of the Christian man.’ Hearing the Word of God makes one worthy of the name Christian.” Those who have their ears trained to hear the Word of God must take the responsibility of understanding the truth taught and applying it to their lives.
SUMMARY
What is the listener’s responsibility to expository preaching? He must prepare with the right anticipation, give undivided attention, and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, apply what he learns from Scripture to his own life. Only by these means can he maximize the spiritual benefits to himself and others with whom he will share the truth.
By Lance Quinn
Pastor-Teacher, The Bible Church of Little Rock
This article first appeared as the Epilogue in Rediscovering Expository Preaching edited by John MacArthur, Jr. ( ©1992, Word, Inc.), and is used by permission. An updated, revised edition of this book, entitled Preaching: How to Preach Biblically (Thomas Nelson Publishing) is scheduled for release in July.
What responsibilities do Christians have to expository preaching?
In an age when shallow preaching is common, both shallow hearing and personal application are also common. Jay Adams has observed,
Too many laymen speak about the preaching event as if it were a one-way street, as if the responsibility for what transpires when the Bible is proclaimed rests solely on the shoulders of the preacher. But that’s not so! Effective communication demands competence from all parties.
Understanding expository preaching would not be complete without a word about the listener’s responsibilities in the expository process. Everything culminates in the hearers. The science and art of producing an expository sermon are empty efforts if no one hears and assimilates the message. Three vital principles will aid the listener who wishes to gain the most from an expository message. They are at the same time his responsibilities as well as his privileges.
ANTICIPATION
The listener must be prepared to receive the preacher’s message. Some components of anticipation to enhance the listening experience are basic and obvious, though often overlooked.
Be Personally Ready
The basic outlook of the listener must be to identify himself as the target of the message. The whole purpose of sitting in the listener’s seat is exposure to the message for the purpose of personal confrontation, information, conviction, motivation, and transformation. The hearer’s thoughts should not be concerns about how well the preacher is doing, how clever or interesting he is, or how well structured his sermon is. The listener is not there to admire or criticize a piece of oratorical art, but to be spoken to personally by God’s representative. The object of the preaching event is a change in thinking, attitude, and behavior. The hearer must prepare himself with this anticipation.
Be Physically Ready
A basic key to good listening is being in good physical condition. This depends on adequate rest, well-balanced meals, and proper exercise. Each of these varies with different individuals, but all are essential to being alert and ready to comprehend what is spoken.
People do not listen well when they are tired or hungry. Their minds drift to other things because of improper care of their bodies. On the other hand, being awake and attentive is essential for one to hear God’s message in a refreshing and dynamic way. The way one spends Saturday evening and Sunday morning, for example, will directly affect the expository exchange between expositor and listener.
Just before Jesus was betrayed, He asked His disciples to stand watch while He prayed in anticipation of the cross. Apparently they were not physically ready to comply, because Jesus “came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Matt. 26:40-41). After leaving them to pray two more times, Jesus again “found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy” (Matt. 26:43). He commented, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?” (Matt. 26:45). In a somewhat different situation, a listener does well to be alert and to watch also as he prepares to hear God’s Word.
Be Prayerfully Ready
Expository preaching can be defined as a spiritual event through which Almighty God Himself speaks His Word to the hearts of men and women so that they might know and understand His will and obey it. So prayer is an essential element in readying one’s heart to hear what God wants to communicate through His appointed messenger.
Two distinct, yet inseparable, objects summarize the format for preparatory prayer: Pray for the preacher as he communicates God’s message, and pray for the ability to comprehend what God communicates, as the psalmist prayed: “Deal bountifully with Thy servant, / That I may live and keep Thy Word. Open my eyes, that I may behold / Wonderful things from Thy law” (Ps. 119:17-18).
Scripture implores Christians to pray for their preachers. For Paul, faithful prayer by believers for those who proclaim God’s Word boldly was foundational (cf. Rom. 15:30-32; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:2-4). Spring concurs with this:
If a people are looking for rich sermons from their minister, their prayers must supply him with the needed material; if they seek for faithful sermons, their prayers must urge him, by a full and uncompromising manifestation of the truth, to commend himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:2). If God’s people are going to expect powerful and successful sermons, their prayers must make him a blessing to the souls of men!
The Puritan John Angell James declared,
Prayer is a means of assisting the minister which is within the reach of all. They who can do nothing more, can pray. The sick, who cannot encourage their minister by their presence in the sanctuary, can bear him upon their hearts in their lonely chamber; the poor who cannot add to his temporal comfort by monetary donations, can supplicate their God “to supply all his needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19): the timid, who cannot approach to offer him the tribute of their gratitude, can pour their praises into the ear of Jehovah, and entreat him still to encourage the soul of His servant: the ignorant, who cannot hope to add one idea to the stock of his knowledge, can place him before the fountain of celestial radiance: even the dying, who can no longer busy themselves as in former times for his interests, can gather up their remaining strength, and employ it in the way of prayer for their pastor.
To receive the message from God’s messenger with greatest benefit, believers must pray for their pastor’s ability to impart it.
ATTENTION
Expository preaching is and always has been God’s chief tool for producing growth in grace. Therefore, it deserves the closest attention. Though every Christian should read, study, and meditate on Scripture, God uses Bible exposition for the optimal enhancement of his spiritual growth. It is not overstating the case that preaching should be the chief means of dispensing strengthening grace in a believer’s life. Spiritual advancement, then, will hinge on how determined one is to assemble with other Christians when God’s Word is faithfully proclaimed (cf. Heb. 10:25). Adams says,
Preaching is one of God’s chief means of sowing seed and helping fruit grow: it is a way of watering and fertilizing the crop. But you must break up the hard clods that have formed in your soul over the week, turn under the weeds, and prepare the good soil to receive the good seed.
The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs has written,
In the hearing of God’s Word we profess our dependence upon God, for the knowing of His mind, and the way toeternal life . . . . Remember that you come to tender up your homage to God, to sit at God’s feet, and there to profess your submission to Him. That is one end of your coming to hear sermons.
God has called, equipped, and gifted godly pastors and teachers to preach His Word faithfully. Because He has done this, we need to fulfill our responsibility in gathering to hear what He says through his servants.
Attitudes
Confessing all known sin removes hindrances and opens one’s heart to hearing the truth (cf. 1 Peter 2:1-2). Exposure to the inspired “sword” of the Word (cf. Heb. 4:12) allows the Spirit of God to bring conviction of sin and to demand true repentance. Repentance will inevitably bring an increased desire to hear more of God’s truth and will promote more spiritual growth. Growth, then, is contingent on how much a believer allows God to teach him through His herald.
Adams writes, “Like disobedient children, people do not want to listen. Even believers, habituated in ways of disobedience, have great difficulty listening to God. . . . It has been easier for sinners to blame preachers than to admit their own reluctance to listen.”
Moses told the children of Israel in his day about the required readiness: “God says to us today, ‘Take to heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life’” (Deut. 32:46-47). Failure to measureup to this requirement as a hearer leads inevitably to shallow listening.
Actions
It is not enough to talk about wanting to hear the preached Word; we must implement these desires regularly. Nothing substitutes for regular attendance in the weekly services of a local church. Though the writer of Hebrews was emphasizing the mutual encouragement of believers among themselves, he also warned them not to forsake their corporate gathering for worship and preaching: “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25).
APPLICATION
Many contemporary critics decry expository preaching as lacking relevance and clear personal application. This kind of criticism reflects a misunderstanding of or disbelief in the inherent power of the Word of God. Since the expositor’s first concern is to clarify the meaning of the text, it may be granted that expository preaching is not driven by the same kind of obsession with illustrations and applicational formulas that characterize most topical and textual preaching. The expositor depends on the power of the text itself when rightly explained, and is assured that application of the truth in a personal and individual way is ultimately the responsibility of the listener, in concert with the Holy Spirit, of course.
Leith comments, “Calvin sought to make the biblical message clear so that under the power of the Holy Spirit it could make hearers alive to God’s presence.” How much better it is to allow God the Holy Spirit to shape and mold us into Christ’s image, rather than limiting the application of Scripture to human ingenuity! Adams suggests that the listener “constantly seek to discover God’s message in the verse or verses from which it was preached, going so far as to summarize it in one sentence. . . . Unless you can do this, it is doubtful whether you got the message.” If a listener cannot grasp the principles taught by the text of the sermon, he will fail to understand their application to his own life. If he does understand them, he will be unable to escape their specific application made by the Spirit to his own life.
When Jesus declared to His disciples, “He who has ears, let him hear” (cf. also Revelation 2-3), He was setting forth a general principle. Leith has written, “For Calvin as for Luther (‘Lectures on Hebrews’) ‘The ears alone are the organ of the Christian man.’ Hearing the Word of God makes one worthy of the name Christian.” Those who have their ears trained to hear the Word of God must take the responsibility of understanding the truth taught and applying it to their lives.
SUMMARY
What is the listener’s responsibility to expository preaching? He must prepare with the right anticipation, give undivided attention, and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, apply what he learns from Scripture to his own life. Only by these means can he maximize the spiritual benefits to himself and others with whom he will share the truth.
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