The Listener’s Guide to Preaching (2)
or The Art of Hearing
What is Preaching?
Like the Dutch word “gezellig,” preaching is hard to define. But, as I’m so very often reminded, you’ll know it when you feel it, or, in our case, hear it. I know that’s a poor definition of preaching, but I think you get my point. The basic definition of preaching is the heralding of the good news. (Rom. 10:13-15) I could quote 20 different definitions from twenty different authors, I suppose. There are probably as many definitions of preaching as there are emphases.
So what is it? What’s the je ne sais quoi of preaching that makes it preaching?
I answered this question myself long ago. I decided that true preaching and Florida sunsets go hand in hand. They are both indescribable. But for two very different reasons. A sunset is God’s imagination on display (Ps. 19); true preaching is the mysterious proclamation of Emanuel, God with us. (Mat. 1:23) Yet both, for different reasons, have no adequate words. I suppose that’s why Christ’s riches are called “unsearchable” (Eph. 3:8) and “pass knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), and why God’s gift is “unspeakable.” (2 Cor. 9:15) No human language is deep enough to describe the indescribable, be it concerning God’s depth of artistry or how He saves a soul. (Ps. 19:1) (Eph. 3:8) Oh, we try to describe it. And we should, for a variety of reasons we wont get into now. But let’s be honest: even the most beautiful photo, or the cleanest recording of the most powerful sermon, can’t recapture the original. You must be there personally to grasp their inborn powers. So, in God’s eyes, the average preacher can do as much kingdom work as our favorite world-class preacher. Why? Because God’s preaching means, are lively means. For the present listener. (Hebr. 4:12) (WCF 25.3) Preaching is not static, it’s alive (Hebr. 4:12), present, and active. (1 Cor. 2:16)
This means that when a sermon is being preached, it has spiritual qualities about it that can’t be excised from the moment. Its original power is time-sensitive. It has an expiration date, so to speak. Want proof? How many of us have heard a sermon from years ago that moved us then but not so much now? Or how many of us listened to a sermon that a friend sent us from his minister only to find it so-so? In part, it’s because recorded sermons and, to a lesser degree, written sermons are preaching leftovers. It was a meal made for another family by a different chef. Does the LORD still use these sermons? Yes, it may still taste good and nourish you. But even then, it’s not what it once was. Why? because it was served hot at a different table made from local ingredients. And that’s where its lasting savor belongs: in the mouths of the people it was prepared for.
If you have a preacher of your own, listen to him. You can hear others but listen to him. He is the sent messenger from Jesus to your ears. Hear Him. (Lk. 9:35)
Four Corners
In his monumental lectures on preaching at Westminster Seminary in 1969, Lloyd-Jones said, “I will tell you what preaching is by telling you what it is not.” That about sums it up, to me. Preaching is outright mystifying. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.” (1 Corin. 2:7) So be it.
That’s not to say that there are no general guidelines to follow. Dr. Beeke has an excellent article on experiential preaching that I would commend to you, as well as one giant book!
But as a writer for The Listener’s Guide to Preaching, my focus is on you. As listeners, we might compare preaching to a four-cornered house.
Corner 1: Preaching should be text-bound
Corner 2: Preaching should be flowering
Corner 3: Preaching should be enlivening
Corner 4: Preaching should be personal
Text-Bound Preaching
Here, I mean regular, old-fashioned preaching. There’s a time and place to talk about the importance of systematic, thematic, or catechetical preaching, but this isn’t it.
When I say that regular preaching should be text-bound, I mean that both the preacher and the hearer become willing captives of the Word of God. More precisely, they both become listeners to the immediate text(s). The text then becomes the garden, the canvas, or the bakery of the sermon, depending on your perspective. Its structure is made of the “stuff” of the text and other passages that are close to it or talk about it. All of the texts’ elements are made up of sections, slices, chunks, and fractals of itself. Think of the text as the Home Depot of sermon supplies, and its supporting passages as Sherwin-Williams Painting Co. As such, the text opens the viewscape, builds up knowledge, reveals its main truth, and hopefully highlights things both old and new in itself…if the preacher is paying attention. (Mt. 13:52)
So the text is primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Also, a text should never be a pretext. A pretext passage is where, like a cliff diver, the preacher uses a text to launch into the deep pool of personal musings and never returns to it. I’ve been transfixed by preachers pitching and rolling, twisting and somersaulting into a splashless landing from a pretext. But when the show’s over…crickets. Nothing for the listener to grab onto in the text. Nothing to take home from the text. Every now and then, pretexting works despite its flawed methodology. The LORD can strike a straight line with a crooked stick. (Luther) Yet most of the time, consistent pretext preaching leads to cold sermons from a shallow repertoire that don’t help the listener or preacher grow (2 Pet. 3:28) Here’s a better idea. Since the text already comes with a preinstalled message, dig it out. Your minister should show it off in all its gilded light (as we will see next). There’s far more in any given passage than he will ever find.
Truth in the inner parts begins with text-bound preaching. (Job 38:36)( Ps. 51:6)
Flowering Preaching
Flowering preaching is when the passage’s context, doctrine, and application open up like petals. (Lk. 24:27) Not only is the text set forth as the centerpiece of the sermon, but the curtains of context are occasionally drawn to give the lay of the spiritual land. Only then should the main text be supported by similar texts that draw attention to its theme by giving it texture and color through commentary. As a result, flowering preaching shows us that our hearts have been in cardiac arrest since the dawn of time (Rom. 5:12) (Rom. 6:23) and, at the same time, lavishly distributes the remedy for all its ills. (Ezek. 36:26) (Is. 45:22) The ability to “flower” a text is a gift truly bestowed on precious few. Others of us have to work quite hard for it. At any rate, flowering a text goes beyond rote hermeneutics or the science of preaching. It prepares the listener for holy adventures with God by informing, illuminating, and moving the will.
Ministers should foster this method, and hearers should pant after it.
Enlivening Preaching
Preaching that enlivens is two-directional. Usually, it begins with the preacher and transfers to the hearer. He is, after all, the bearer of good news. Still, I have experienced my heart being set ablaze by my congregation’s singing just before the sermon. What a blessing when the Spirit rekindles the preacher’s cold heart by the praises of His people! (Ps. 22:3) So, it’s not always the minister who is enlivened first. But usually.
However, both the preacher and the hearer are aware of it when it occurs. The Apostle says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebr. 4:12) That’s enlivening in the hands of the Spirit! And when the living Word animates the preached Word, the Spirit will take it and awaken us to listening. At that very moment, something almost tangible flies back from the pew into the pulpit, which heartens the preacher, who heralds out again in his next ministering thought. “Deep calleth unto deep,” so to speak. It’s beautiful. Enlivening preaching is the romantic banter between hearts aflame, which makes any gospel dinner delightful. And the preacher can sense it. At times, it’s strangely palpable.
One final word here. Enlivening preaching is not necessarily loud or animated. In a performance-driven age, we’re not looking for entertainers. (1 Cor. 2:4) Sure, John the Baptist preachers are out there. More power to them! There are, however, many more John the Beloveds, quietly laboring in love on their Patmos’. My beloved mentor and pastor, the late Rev. D. Beattie, used to say to me, “Christ has ever sustained His church with blue-collar preachers. Jerrold, you will never be an Owen or a Whitefield. Consider yourself blessed to live, preach, die, and be forgotten.” Back then, I thought a sarcastic, “Thanks!!” Today? Truer words have never been spoken. Words that comfort my soul.
Enlivening preaching is simply text-bound preaching that genuinely emotes. And that can come from almost any personality type.
Enlivened listening does the same.
Personal Preaching
Personal preaching has everything to do with what our forefathers called “experience.” Ah, the crown jewel and diadem have finally arrived! Let’s all just pause for a moment and take it in, shall we?
Yes, we love experiential preaching. If it’s text-bound. Experiential preaching is not preaching the heart of the hearer, the experience of the minister, or the miracle of someone else’s. These may be brought in carefully as supporting elements. Personal preaching brings the text to life! When that happens we encounter the power of the text in our hearts. Under the preaching of the Word applied, we might all leave with the same heart message (at times), or, what’s more likely, we might individually treasure different parts according to our needs.
Personal or experiential preaching is vital. It stains spots crimson on the hearer’s conscience, not easily washed out. Experiential preaching is nothing more than the lasting scent and savor of the Lord upon my heart. Which reminds me, if the sermon is compared to a meal, and the meat-and-potatoes are the text, the application’s not the gravy—it’s the marinade. It lies all over the outside, and deep inside the text. That’s why ministers are to labor in word and doctrine (1 Tim. 5:17) You should long to hear marinated preaching. Here is where some preachers are tempted to disconnect from the page and go places they shouldn’t. I repent for every time I’ve done it in the past! Because the text will bear its own applicatory fruit. Hello, full counsel of God’s Word! Who knew the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” had hermetical wisdom?
But let’s remember our first corner: we should be looking for text-bound preaching. Here’s a bit of boring logic. If preaching should be “text-bound,” and application is preaching, then the application should be text-bound too. In other words, personal preaching arises organically from the passage and rests on the hearer. Indeed, the passage was chosen for a reason. And whatever the reason, all streams of its application should flow from the text into the river of Christ’s Person and Work (Ps. 46:4) (Joh 5:39); (Joh 6). This can be as practical as everyday family dynamics (Eph. 5:27) or as ethereal as the new birth (John 3:6). In other words, every constellation of application should orbit around Emanuel. This is where it becomes personal. We are listening when we are pricked to the heart, considering some aspect of Christ’s dying love. (Acts 2:37)
Before we move on, I also want you to know that when something in the sermon comforts, bothers, alarms, or makes us happy because of Christ, even in the slightest, we are hearing His voice. We’re listening to His words. That’s an unfancy way of saying we’re experiencing the applying work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, all preaching should be text-bound, flowering, enlivening, and, most importantly, personal.