Ministering the Word

Introduction

Out of all the spiritual disciplines, there is one that is more passive than the others: sitting under the preaching of the word. When we talk about the spiritual disciplines of the gathered body of Christ; we mean the ones we do together with other people. These are not personal private disciplines, but more public, corporate disciplines. There are a host of disciplines that could fit into this category, but I am going to limit myself to four broad categories from Acts 2:42 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” I have mentioned that these are the four main essentials for our worship services as a church.

the ministry of the word

fellowship

the ordinances

prayer meetings

Tonight we are going to focus on the first of these spiritual disciplines of the church and that is the ministering of the word of God. In Acts 2, they continued in the apostle’s doctrine- their teaching. What was it that they taught? Matthew 28:19–20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” In our text verse tonight, Paul tells young Timothy to Preach the Word. An essential part of the church is the preaching and teaching of the word of God.

Preaching has fallen on hard times. Not a whole lot of people see any real value in sitting and listening to a sermon. They would rather have activities, fellowships, meals and the more spiritual would rather have bible studies or counseling sessions. All of these things are important and they all have a purpose; but to make preaching secondary to these things is a denial of what God has said about the value of preaching.

Preaching may also have fallen on hard times because only certain people can or even want to do it. But ministering the word within the church is not merely the Pastor’s responsibility or the Sunday school teacher’s job. Tim Keller in his book on preaching points out that scripturally there are three levels of ministering the word.

level 1- Every Christian should be teaching and admonishing one another. Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Acts 8:4 “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” At some level and in various ways, we are to be involved in teaching and counseling one another from the Word of Christ. Now you can only teach what you know; so it is important to let that word dwell in you richly, and to have the wisdom to know how it applies.

level 2- There are some believers who are specially gifted by the Spirit to minister the word though they are not pastors. 1 Peter 4:10–11 “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” This verse divides the spiritual gifts into speaking and serving gifts. Romans 12:6–8 “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.”

level 3- Those called by God to be pastors minister the word in the formal preaching setting of the church. By and far, this is the most prevalent example we have in scripture of preaching. This is going to be our focus tonight.

The Command to Preach

2 Timothy 4:1–2 “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

According to the Theological Dictionary of the NT, there are 33 different words translated as preach, but by far the most common is our word here in this passage. The normal word for preaching means to announce, to make known publically and loudly as if a herald. Preaching in this sense is not a dialogue, but is an announcement or proclamation of the word of God.

The picture is of a herald standing up on the street corner crying out “Hear ye, Hear ye…” as he makes an announcement that the king is raising new taxes. His message is bad news, but ours is good news.

When it comes to our church services, preaching must be king. Ambassador used to have a slogan where preaching is king and music is queen. Sermons have gotten shorter and shorter and some churches have even adopted merely giving a TED talk or a little study. In recent times, a man by the name of Fred Chraddock saw that people did not like the authority of the bible or the preacher, so he encouraged preachers to tell open-ended stories that invited questions; rather than preaching the word of God.

The word preach here is a command. No matter how culture changes, this is not something that we can budge on. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholic services were primarily about the Mass; so an altar was set up in the center of the stage and the bulk of the service was the liturgy of the mass. A small homily or sermon might come afterwards, but the reformers knew that the power of God was in the preaching and so the pulpit became the center stage.

The Content of our Preaching

2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

As preachers, we must make sure our preaching is solidly centered in the word of God. Paul began his epistle to the Corinthians reminding them of how he came to them. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” Paul came with the message of the cross, the gospel why because it is the power of God. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

The power of our preaching lies in the word of God. Good stories and illustrations can bring clarity to the meaning of the text, personal applications help us to live our the text; but they must never overshadow the text itself. Paul tells young Timothy, don’t give in to the temptations to say what people want to hear, to tell a neat story; but preach God’s word.

Now that message takes four forms in this passage. I am not going to spend a lot of time on them because we covered them last week in a little more detail. But not every sermon is going to have the same tone, the same purpose, or the same structure. The preacher of the word has to understand the text, but he must also understand his audience. So the message can take different forms. We will focus tonight on the four mentioned by Paul.

Reprove- to convince of error by reasoning. Not everyone is agreed that their lifestyle is wrong. Sometimes the preacher must convince from the word, of error.

Rebuke- sometimes sharply calling out sin is required. We grow used to our sin over time and sometimes we need to be awakened.

Exhort- encouraging, urging to right action.

Doctrine- teaching

The Reason for our Preaching

2 Timothy 4:3–4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

I don’t think that any of us would deny that our world is getting darker and darker. Especially as Americans, we don’t hold out a lot of hope for the future. Paul warns Timothy that a day of apostacy is coming. He characterizes this time with four descriptions:

not endure sound doctrine- People do not have the patience or the taste for solid bible teaching and preaching any more. If you want evidence of this consider how many 10,000’s of people go to Joel Osteen church. People desire a feel good message.

find their own teachers- so they literally heap up or pile up preachers who say the things they want to hear.

after their own lusts- the motivation behind this is their own lusts. They want to hear what they want to hear.

having itching ears-This phrase having itching ears refers to those finding teachers, not to the teachers themselves There is a strong desire for novelty. They want to hear something new. We should always be learning, but there is a strong tendency for people to reject hearing the preaching of things they have already heard before. We need reminding. We need deeper application of that truth to our lives.

turn from the truth- In the end, they reject the truth.

replace it with stories- and they replace it with myths or things made up by men.

Why is this the reason we should be preaching the Word? Here is a simple line for you to remember greater apostasy demands a clearer presentation of the truth. When everyone is rejecting the truth, we need to clearly continue to declare the truth. Paul told Timothy to do all this with long-suffering. (Talk about how there is a strong temptation to compromise because others are) Don’t quite. Don’t give up because people don’t want to hear the truth. With greater darkness, the light shines brightest.

Matthew 5:14–16 “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Conclusion

Listening to the preaching of the word of God can work a work of grace in your life. It can change lives when we come with open hearts seeking God to do a work. I think of some of the most memorable sermons I heard during my lifetimes. For me discouragement and depression have been my constant friends in life; but there was one sermon that started me on a path to experiencing victory over depression.

My senior year of college, I had just been through a rough breakup and I was really struggling. During Missions Conference that year, one of the mission board presidents preached a message from Lamentations chapter 3. He traced Jeremiah’s complaints about how God had treated him in the first half of the chapter, but in Lamentations 3:21 “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” Jeremiah finds a switch. As he turns it on, he finds hope. But what was that switch- this I recall to my mind. Jeremiah chose to renew his mind around the truth of who God is and to trust God’s plans. When he did this it changed his perspective and brought light in darkness, hope in despair. That sermon began my study of the topic of Lament and dealing with depression. I went on to read Martyn Lloyd Jones book spiritual depression and then Mark Vroegop’s Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy. As I studied more I found a book called a liturgy of Grief. This message changed my life.

The preaching of the word of God can do all that for you if you will let it. All those graces that the word of God provides, preaching provides those too because it is the declaration of God’s word. This past week, I came across an article by Jimmy Davis on preparing our hearts for the preaching. I want to challenge you with one more passage that he pointed out from Acts 10:33 “Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” The story of Cornelius shows us a man who was committed to hearing the preaching of God’s word. Before the preaching of God’s word it is important to prepare your hearts. Here is how Cornelius did this:

He was eager to hear God’s word- immediately- when you get ready for church on Sunday’s are you eager to hear the preaching or is it something to get done. Maybe you enjoy ever other part of the day, but not the preaching. Do you come longing to hear from God?

Gratefulness to the preacher- thou hast well done that thou art come- Cornelius was glad Peter had come. I do not say this to receive some level of respect or honor, but rather, to encourage you to appreciate the preaching. It’s not about me; its about the message.

A commitment to the community- Notice Cornelius didn’t just have a private session in his house all alone. We are all here. He was concerned about others he was gathered with. In fact, he probably invited people to come here the preaching. He valued it so much, he wanted others to hear it.

An awareness of God’s presence- before God- Cornelius knew that God would honor his word. God’s presence is experienced anytime His word is preached whether we are aware of it or not.

He was eager to obey- that are commanded thee of God- Cornelius recognized the authority of the message and wanted to obey what he heard. When you come on a Sunday, do you leave planning to implement and apply the truth you heard to your life? Are you wanting it to change you? God has a reason why you were here to hear this message.

So are you approaching the preaching with a heart prepared to hear God’s word? We have revival services coming up soon and it would do us good to begin to truly prepare our hearts for the ministry of the word.