Rev. Martin Geluk. Trowel and Sword, July 1995.
Preamble: In this, the final instalment of “The Place of Preaching in the Church”, Martin ties all four parts together with conclusions that should be compulsory reading for all RTC students, all ministers, all elders and every CRCA member sitting in the pews; and in truth, every Christian, regardless of church affiliation. To illustrate, the following is a sample of what he has to say: “So preaching is a serious business and listening to preaching is a serious business. We don’t come to church to hear a ‘nice sermon’. Nor do we come to hear a dynamic speaker gifted with marvellous oratory. And we don’t come to hear what the speaker might have to say on this or that subject. We come expecting to hear the word of Christ.” If any person has any doubts about why they attend church services this article, and this series of articles should dispel those doubts for all time. Read it! Share it! Take it to heart and let it be your guiding light all the days of your life.
The Place of Preaching in the Church (4)
So far we have considered three observations which we believe rest on Romans 10:14-15, and its context. First, that the aim of preaching is to have people call on the name of the Lord for salvation; secondly, that preaching is the church’s most important calling; and in our last article we dealt with a third observation: that the church should resist human substitutes for preaching. We now offer our last observation.
The Word is the means through which God speaks. It is a sad thing that so much confusion has been created in Christian circles about how God speaks to us. We hear well-meaning Christians say that God spoke to them personally and directly. Some claim that if God so wishes He can still have His people prophesy today.
Some of these claims are not mere trivial issues. Those who believe that God still speaks outside and in addition to His written Word are sincere and genuine Christians and it is their conviction that Scripture itself teaches that this is what we can expect God to do. But the confusion and the disagreements that face us because of this belief are also partly caused by careless use of certain words and this, of course, makes for unnecessary misunderstanding.
For example, a Christian reads a passage in the Bible and the Holy Spirit might make him see the truth of that passage for the first time. That believer may then say to someone else: ‘The Lord said to me the other day that …’, and goes on to say whatever it was. Now if the person hearing this believes that God still actually speaks today like He did many years ago to Abraham or Moses or the apostle Paul, or other New Testament prophets, then he will be most impressed and keen to hear what message the Lord gave to this Christian believer making the claim. However, if a Christian does not believe that God speaks like this anymore but now only through the word of Christ, which he considers to be the Scriptures, then such a Christian will not be excited by the claim and will merely conclude that the person claiming that God spoke to him is either repeating something that God has already said in His written Word, or is imagining that God spoke to him directly.
If Christians repeat something that is already in the Bible, then it prevents confusion when they make that clear. If what they want to say is not straight from the Bible but something that logically follows from the Bible’s teaching, then they ought to humbly preface their remarks by something like: ‘I believe that Scripture is teaching us …’, and leave room for others to also examine the Scriptures, to see if that view is in keeping with biblical teaching.
Many in the historic Christian church have held that the only way God speaks, after the last NT apostle died, is through the written Word. They believe that the Reformation Confessions hold to this. They believe this is what Scripture itself teaches. God does not give direct, personal messages anymore, except those which are the word of Christ in the Word of God written. The Bible is sufficient and gives all we need to know in order to call upon the Lord for salvation. The Bible provides the Christian church with all she needs to know in order to preach the Word and let its light shine on all of life.
Now preaching the Word is, of course, not limited to the sermons you hear in church on Sundays. Preaching is proclaiming the Word of Christ and wherever that is done according to the truth of God’s Word there it is the Word of God. Preaching, therefore, can also take place in a radio or TV broadcast, by way of the printed page, and so on. But where possible Christians should come together for worship and there hear the Word of Christ.
But what we want to stress here is that preaching is the proclamation of God’s Word. It is to proclaim Christ, it is to minister His word to the listeners. The preacher must try his utmost to let the Word speak. It is the mighty and powerful Word of God that must be heard. Therefore, the preacher must make sure that he understands the passage, or the text, as God means it to be understood. He must harmonise the passage or text with the rest of God’s Word. He must explain the Word correctly, and the application he makes to today’s situation and to peoples’ lives must also be in keeping with the Bible’s overall teaching.
All this requires that the preacher understands something of the original languages the Bible was written in. He must know of the situation when the Bible book was written and why and to whom. The preacher must have a good grasp of biblical doctrine because truth is not many things unrelated but truth is one thing. The preacher must also understand something of how people think and live in today’s world, so that the message he draws out of the Word is relevant, meaningful, and timely. Indeed, there are many things required of the preacher in order to have Christ speak through him. To regularly preach sermons that truly proclaim God’s Word takes hours and days of serious and prayerful preparation every week again.
So preaching is a serious business and listening to preaching is a serious business. We don’t come to church to hear a ‘nice sermon’. Nor do we come to hear a dynamic speaker gifted with marvellous oratory. And we don’t come to hear what the speaker might have to say on this or that subject. We come expecting to hear the word of Christ. Preaching is not lecturing, it is not entertainment, nor is it giving a devotion or a meditation. We do our devotions and meditations at home or at the Bible study. When the preacher is in the pulpit, then he is to preach. Preaching is a forthright proclamation of the Word of God.
We come to church to worship God and worship is our response to God speaking to us. It is to hear Christ. We come to listen to Him and to call on His name. If Christ does not speak, if He has not been heard, then it has not been preaching. The listeners must know for sure that it was Christ who said to them: ‘…come to me and I will give you rest, … repent and believe; … your sins are forgiven … go in peace.’
From this it follows that the preacher has really no message of his own. He is Christ’s ambassador. He is nothing more than the herald of Christ. An ambassador must deliver the message as given to him by the one who sent him. He is not there to give his personal opinion, his own view of things, or his own philosophy. He may do that at the Bible study, in a discussion meeting, or in his research, just like everyone else may do that.
But when he gets up to preach, then it must be the gospel of Christ. He dare not give stones for bread because God holds him accountable for the way he represents Christ in his preaching. If he cannot say with his preaching: ‘Thus says the Lord.’ then he had better not get up to preach, for not being a true ambassador for Christ will get him into serious trouble with God.
How important for the church, therefore, to have the Word of God preached in its worship services. The task of the elders of the church is to watch over the preaching. They are responsible, with the preacher, that not the word of men but the Word of Christ is heard. The elders, therefore, must also know the Word. They must be diligent students of the Word. They must encourage the preacher or put restraints on him if he strays from the truth. An elder has a most responsible task. They are the watchmen on the walls of Zion. The church that gives up on its oversight of the preaching is a church that is no longer vigilant. And preaching that is no longer the Word of God is like salt that has lost its flavour and therefore worthless.
Finally, who is going to get up and preach? Can just any Christian do it? Was it Christ’s intention that every Christian be a preacher? Preaching is not the same as witnessing. All Christians are called to witness in word and deed at the right time and the right place, depending on what God has given the Christian to do and with what gifts. In our witness we may give our opinion, and reflect on our knowledge of Scripture, as we seek to be true to Christ’s gospel. But as we said a moment ago, preaching is much more than witnessing.
The command to preach the gospel was not given to every individual Christian but to the apostles and through them to the church they represented. God entrusted His Word of truth to His church. It is the church’s task to preserve, interpret, and preach the Word. The church fulfils this calling through the ministry of the Word. The church calls the preacher and sends him forth to preach. It gives him the authority to do so.
In the tradition of the Reformed Churches the hand shake the elder gives to the preacher at the opening of the worship service means: ‘As the God -ordained elders in this church we give you the authority to preach the Word of God.’ And the handshake at the conclusion of the service is to say: ‘On behalf of the elders of this church we have accepted the preaching as the Word of God.’
It stands to reason, therefore, that the church has to make sure that preachers have been adequately trained. The church has the authority to take away the right to preach when the life and doctrine of the preacher is an offence to the gospel of Christ.
People have gone preaching without being sent and have argued that where they were there was no church to send them, or the church was corrupt, or the church just failed in its task. All that may well be the case. But the fact remains that the church of Christ must reform itself and send preachers to preach, for Rom. I0:15a makes it clear that they cannot preach unless they are sent.
The place of preaching in the church, then, is most important and the church that neglects it does so at its own peril. But what a blessing when the church guards the gospel well, and what a blessing to the Lord’s people when they may receive regularly the much-needed spiritual food from Christ. We all know that one sermon may come across better than another and one preacher is better at preaching than another. And sometimes it is not the fault of the preacher but our listening was not as it should have been. But thanks be to God when the Word of Christ is preached and heard. His Word is a lamp to the believer’s feet and a light for his path. It’s the Christian’s spiritual food and the believer must return to it regularly and faithfully.
Martin.P.Geluk
T&S Revisited 
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