Rejoicing in the Blessing of Preaching

The Role of the Sermon in the Life of the Minister and the Believer

Good Morning,

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us that the ordinary way that men and women come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is through the preaching of the word. What sermons are and what they are supposed to do can be confusing. We all may go to conferences or attend workshops where people are telling us how to do better at our jobs, or even learning more about particular hobbies, etc… The act of having someone stand behind a mic and talk is not very odd nor is it something even non-believers would find weird about what we do on a Sunday morning.

However, as we will discover in the next several weeks there is a big difference in what a minister does in worship on a Lord’s Day morning and evening compared to what a Ted Talk speaker seeks to accomplish in his work. The first thing is who is allowed to preach. Really anyone with knowledge and experience can help you get better at business or gardening or coding, but when it comes to learning of Jesus there is an authority there that does not belong to the person talking in front of you in the house of God on His Sabbath day. No matter the ability or content there is only a few granted the right to speak for the Lord of glory to His people. More on this below.

Often at this point in our conservative circles someone will tell you that according to the Bible only men are allowed to pastors, and that is true (1 Tim. 2:11-12, 1 Tim. 3:2, 1 Cor. 14:34, Mark 3:13-19, etc..). But gender is not the real marker that separates those given to this office and those who are not. It is those who are called by the Holy Spirit do this work, and have that call confirmed by the church. Not every man is given the gifts. We need to be careful at looking at the wrong details in favor of others. The requirements of Titus 1 include “. . . hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.” These attributes are especially important to keep in mind going forward. The proclamation of salvation to the lost and the comforting of sheep must be done with each of these traits in mind, for the goal here, unlike with a conversation about sales, is that there is an eternal formation in the power of the Holy Spirit for the soul which cannot be done in any other way. Go ahead and read the quote for more:

PREACHING of the word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belonging to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed, that the workman need not be ashamed, but may save himself, and those that hear him.

It is presupposed, (according to the rules for ordination,) that the minister of Christ is in some good measure gifted for so weighty a service, by his skill in the original languages, and in such arts and sciences as are handmaids unto divinity; by his knowledge in the whole body of theology, but most of all in the holy scriptures, having his senses and heart exercised in them above the common sort of believers; and by the illumination of God’s Spirit, and other gifts of edification, which (together with reading and studying of the word) he ought still to seek by prayer, and an humble heart, resolving to admit and receive any truth not yet attained, whenever God shall make it known unto him. All which he is to make use of, and improve, in his private preparations, before he deliver in public what he hath provided.

It is interesting to me that as the Westminster Directory of Public Worship begins to speak on this central part of the believer’s life it wants to focus on how the minister is to minister to himself in the preaching of the word. I was at a gathering of several of our sister denominations in Kansas City this past week and we heard a number of staggering reports of ministers leaving the faith, let alone the ministry. My hunch is this is due not so much to new pressures of the contemporary world, but because many leaders in the church do not remember the call to preach Jesus to their own heart and they lack the spiritual foundation to truly believe what they know to be true for others as they stand in a pulpit on a Sunday. We spoke last week of the need to pray for your pastors and here we see one very important way we can do that, by seeking the Lord’s help in making sure those given the call to teach of Christ do not forget to remember their own salvation.

Related to this is another problem which needs highlighted at this point. There is a rise in the number of preachers who are being caught plagiarizing, or using things like Chat GPT to write their sermons for them, mostly because they are spending their time on other things, few of them worthwhile. The section above makes particular notice that ministers must take seriously the preparation part of their ministry and do the work necessary to not only maintain competence, but desiring to use their time in their study to feed their people with the full measure of faith in offer in the Bible. Here we see why the DPW encourages men to know Hebrew and Greek as well as spend time in prayer working for God in the heart of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of making Jesus Christ known to all. If a pastor cannot give his heart to his most central labor then he has no business standing before the sheep.

In closing, God in His grace has called men to make the preaching of the word the priority for their ministry primarily due to the fact that most of the work of instruction, counseling, and calls to repentance which lead to growth in Christ are going to happen during the time given over to the sermon in worship. In the weeks ahead as we examine preaching we will be called to pay attention to what preaching is and how we may misunderstand this work in our life, and growing in comprehension of its role in our faith, and then trust in the good news of the gospel of our Savior.

A word:

https://www.jvfesko.com/blog/2022/3/21/preach-to-yourself

Blessings in Christ,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser

Pastor, Bethany ARP Church