And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.
(1 Thessalonians 2:13, ESV)
If you missed part 1 of this brief series, click here. In the first installment, we looked at ways to prepare well for receiving the Word with delightful corporate devotion (Acts 2:42). This blog will aim us toward healthy reception of the preached Word when gathered together, primarily on Sunday mornings.
Quite simply, receiving the preached Word well is a matter of approach. There are, then, at least four components of approach that beg our attention:
1. Approach the preached Word with prayerfulness.
At Providence, each sermon is preceded by the preacher offering a prayer. I assure you this is not just filler because the preacher could not supply the word count required for a 45 minute sermon. Rather, it is because we all need the Lord to bless the proclamation of His Word, even the preacher. Following the example of Paul, godly preachers labor for the increased knowledge of God's people, recognizing its intended potency in producing godliness (Titus 1:1). This is what godly preachers are after: changed hearts and transformed lives. As the preacher prays, then, we should be engaged in his prayer. We should echo his call for assistance in learning rightly that right application might follow.
This state of prayerfulness is accompanied by expectancy, for how can we pray fervently for the Lord's help in receiving His Word but not expect the help to arrive? We serve a great God who delights to give His people good things from His Word. It is by the Word that we are consistently fed (Matthew 4:4) and matured into the likeness of Jesus (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The mindset of prayerfulness in our reception of the Word should reverberate the cry of the Psalmist: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).
2. Approach the preached Word with reverence.
This component is quite visibly displayed in the posture of God's people receiving the proclaimed Law from the lips of Ezra (Nehemiah 8:1-8), but the opening verse of this post (1 Thessalonians 2:13) commands from us the same heart posture--one of great reverence. When we sit in our chairs in the auditorium and the preacher asks us to open our Bibles to a particular passage, we must entertain the reality that we are about to intake the very inspired and inerrant words of God--not the oft-wavering words of men. This is a great privilege and we should delight in the freedom we have to do so. As we open the Scripture together, we must inaudibly express gratitude to the Lord for the opportunity before us. It's not just about flipping pages; it's about heart preparation.
3. Approach the preached Word with discernment.
No matter how good and right the preaching of God's Word sounds, we must approach all sermons with a discerning ear. Like the Bereans, we should eagerly receive the Word and examine what we hear in light of Scripture (Acts 17:11). This does not not mean we should flip every "stone" of illustration and commentary in hopes of finding fallacies. The Scriptures always stand resolute; the preacher of God sees dimly the glories of our great God (1 Corinthians 13:12). Our glory is to seek the Scriptures that we might learn rightly that lives would be conducted in a worthy manner (Philippians 1:27).
4. Approach the preached Word with Great Commandment zeal.
It would do us good to often reflect on Matthew 22:34-40 before hearing sermons. We intake the Word in order to output the Word in action--to love God more accurately with all we are and to express that love to others. This means we must actively receive the Word. Just as the preacher is actively communicating God's Word to God's people, so God's people need to actively interact with the data being presented. It might even be a good idea to jot down and answer on a notepad these questions while listening to the sermon:
How does this message/text call me to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind?
How should my affections and actions change as a result of what I am learning?
But we should not stop there--Jesus didn't. He attached the necessity of loving one's neighbor to loving God. Perhaps, then, we should jot down and answer this question:
Prayerfully and discerningly, how will I engage others with the truths of today's message? In other words, how can I love God more by loving those around me in the ways prescribed by today's text?
Being engaged while the Word is being proclaimed is a practical way to avoid zoning out. Our times together in the Word are vaporous. The opportunities we have to weekly open God's Word in freedom are not expendable. We should treasure every occasion, knowing each opportunity is a training session for loving God and others with meaningful and biblical accuracy for the glory of God.
Next up: what to do once we have received the preached Word.