Read The Word

PASTORAL PRAYER

Heavenly Father,

We come before You with humility and reverence, acknowledging that You alone are God, righteous in all Your ways and faithful through every generation. We confess that as a nation we have often failed to honor You as we should. We have sinned through pride, selfishness, injustice, immorality, greed, and indifference to Your truth. We have trusted in our own strength more than in Your wisdom and have often neglected Your Word and Your ways. Lord, forgive us for the many ways we have departed from Your commands. Forgive our families, our communities, our churches, and our leaders where we have failed to reflect Your righteousness. Search our hearts and reveal any wicked way in us. We thank You for Your mercy and for the many blessings You have bestowed upon the United States of America. We recognize that every good gift comes from Your hand. We ask that You would bring spiritual awakening across our land. Turn hearts to Jesus Christ. Strengthen Your churches to proclaim the gospel faithfully. Raise up leaders who seek wisdom, justice, truth, and integrity. Help us as citizens to live with humility, repentance, compassion, and obedience to Your Word. May we seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. We pray that You would heal what is broken, restore what has been lost, and guide our nation according to Your will. May Your name be honored from sea to shining sea, and may future generations know and serve You. We ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, our soon returning King, Jesus Christ. Amen.

INTRODUCTION

As we come back to 1 Thessalonians 5 this morning, we are reminded of the importance of the reading of the Word of God.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

This letter contains such important content that Paul strongly urges the elders in Thessalonica to ensure it is read to all the believers. The phrase put you under oath is a forceful way of insisting that the entire congregation hear the letter.

In the ancient Greek world, an oath often carried the idea of invoking a self-curse if one failed to tell the truth, thereby strengthening the credibility of what was said.

Oaths were commonly reinforced by calling upon a higher being, typically a deity, as a witness to the statement. In this case, Paul invokes an oath before the Lord himself.

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul is placing a solemn obligation on the church leadership to ensure that the entire church hears the letter.

The importance of the reading of the Word of God cannot be overstated, as we see through history.

It was an important part of Jewish life:

Moses required the entirety of the Law to be read every 7 years

Read Deuteronomy 31:9-13

After the Law was recovered in the Temple in the days of King Josiah, he was convicted by the Word of God and had it read to all the people.

Read 2 Kings 23:1-3

It is estimated that the Law was lost in the Temple for 100 years before it was found.

After the exile, Ezra brought the Law and read it before the assembly of people:

Nehemiah 8:2–3 ESV

So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

A few weeks later:

Nehemiah 9:3 ESV

And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

Over and over again, the people of God are brought under the instruction of the Word of God.

This was God’s plan from the start!

Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9

It was an important part of the synagogue:

The origin of synagogues is unknown, it is speculated that buildings or tents for the accommodation of worshippers may have existed in the land from an early time, and that the system of synagogues would be gradually developed. The services of the synagogue, which were at the same hours as those of the temple, consisted of:

Prayer, which formed a kind of liturgy In all, there were eighteen prayers

Reading of the Scriptures

The exposition of the portions read

Jesus read from the Law in the synagogue in Nazareth, where He proclaimed, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. (Luke 4:21)

The Apostles acknowledged that the synagogue was an important piece to the public reading of the Law.

Acts 15:21 ESV

For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.

In addition to the Temple, synagogues were the place where the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached

Acts 13:15 ESV

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

After this invitation was given, Paul stood up and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who were there.

He was invited to share more on subsequent Sabbaths, until the Jewish leaders became jealous of the large crowds

It is important to note that the gospel message is tied to the Old Testament scriptures.

This is why you can’t “unhitch” the Old Testament from the New Testament; they are sewn together with the scarlet thread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because the reading of the Word was so important in the Temple and synagogue life, the Apostles brought it into the first churches.

It is an important part of the Christian church:

Acts 6:2 ESV

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.”

There is no ministry in the church that is more important than the preaching ministry

When a man stands up to preach, he ought to always utilize the Word of God

Jesus made clear at the end of His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 7:24–25 ESV

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

Jesus’ words are meant to be heard and obeyed

Consider Paul’s call for the preached word in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

There is no greater need in our world today than the Word of God, and the reading and preaching of it, especially in the Church!

1 Timothy 4:13 ESV

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Colossians 4:16 ESV

And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

The letters from Paul, being an Apostle, were to be read among all the believers that received it

The Word of God must always be central to the life of the believer.

Around A.D. 382, Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to produce a reliable Latin translation of the Bible. At the time, Latin was the common language of much of the Western Roman Empire. Jerome translated much of the Old Testament directly from Hebrew and revised existing Latin translations of the New Testament. His work became known as the Vulgate ("vulgate" meaning "common" or "popular"), and was utilized in the church for over 1,000 years.

Over the centuries, however, Latin ceased to be widely understood, leaving many ordinary people dependent on clergy for access to Scripture. Reformers such as John Wycliffe and William Tyndale argued that the Bible should again be available in the language of the people, while the Catholic church actively resisted their efforts.

Forty years after Wycliffe’s death, the Church declared Wycliffe to be a heretic, dug up his bones, burned them, and scattered the ashes in the River Swift in Lutterworth, Leicestershire [Lestershur], England.

William Tyndale was executed for heresy on October 6, 1536, when he was tied to a stake, strangled to death by the executioner, and his body was subsequently burned.

Despite the evil practices of the Roman Catholic Church to prevent the Word from being translated into the common language, we have today in our own tongue, because of the sacrifices made by these men, the very Word of God!

Matthew Henry these holy oracles should not be kept concealed in an unknown tongue, but translated into the vulgar languages, that all men, being concerned to know the scriptures, may be able to read them, and be acquainted with them.

CONCLUSION

Do not neglect the reading of the Word of God. We are blessed to have it in our language, and are expected to hear it read and to read it ourselves.

May the Lord lead us into increasing righteousness, as we continue to follow Him deeper into His truth.