Preaching & The Audience Being Preached To...

**Athanasius** · 10-16-2003, 06:41 PM

OK, here's the deal. This is the essay that I'm turning in for my homiletics course tomorrow. Any last minute critiques? Thanks...

Edit: Updated with better grammer, courtesy of Luke.

The preacher’s main purpose when entering the pulpit is to illuminate the Word of God in such a way that will make those things which are culturally difficult for the modern hearer to understand understandable in the modern tongue and cultural idiom. In addition to this we are to bring to the forefront those things in the text which are most important in light of the whole of the Word of God. It is then essential that we do not meet the text in some kind of way that we try to twist out some application for the “modern man”, but instead are faithful to it and the rest of Scripture. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (ESV) Since the Bible attests to its own sufficiency in teaching, let us not go beyond the actual instruction given here. Let us unpack the text we are given, and examine it through the lens of the gospel, as this is the paradigm we are given through which to view all of God’s revelation. But let us not go beyond that in our preaching so as to tickle the ears of our hearers.

What is needed is a view of the audience that transcends beyond just the surface of life to the very essence of personhood, one that encompasses every member of your congregation, regardless of belief, lifestyle, gender, or other element that is not common to the experience of the hearers. On this level, Craddock’s homiletical construct is helpful, in that we should first look at our congregation as a group of “unknowns” (Craddock, 1985, pp.86-90). However, Craddock’s view breaks down when he suggests that we need to listen to the suspected listener’s perceived wants and desires, which in most cases would only be our own ideas as to what the “modern man” might like to hear, and then to preach to those desires “...their marriages, their studies, their jobs, their world through the lens of Scripture and theology...” (Craddock, 1985, p. 89, emphases mine). Shortly after this sentence, Craddock’s construct truly falls apart, because of his desire to be so relevant to the audience as to not offend them with their own sin. His statements in the 3rd paragraph following the above quotation:
“If these listeners can leave the service with no sense of having been put down; if their self-worth has been affirmed and restored; if God’s love and grace are seen as available realities; if they are convinced that repentance and trust are acceptable to God; if there is more awareness of other persons and more hunger for covenantal life; then even strangers will likely say to the preacher, ‘You understand us quite well’” (Craddock, 1985, p.90)
His statements show the fatal flaw in his rationale to preaching to man’s own perceived needs. They exclude sin. His theology of preaching seems to be one of affirmation with no real preaching of the fact that “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV).

If we are to preach in a truly universal context we need to address the universal truths that are evident in every single human being’s life. So, since it is clear that all mankind is sinful...let us start from there. As such, not every single person who hears the sermon will feel as if there is “no sense of having been put down...affirmed” for especially those in the congregation who have yet to come to faith, the weight of their depravity should be felt heavily. To them, if not regenerate, the cross is said to be “folly” (1 Corinthians 1:18) and even an “offense” (Galatians 5:11). When Craddock suggests that we seek to preach to “their world”, he forgets that “their world” is most likely one that isn’t in line with the teaching of Scripture on what the real world truly is, and that is a world decimated by sin where men are at enmity with God and will do anything to hide from him (Romans 1-3).
In his book, “Preaching and Preachers” Dr. Lloyd-Jones tells a story of preaching at Oxford, where after a sermon of clear biblical exposition and gospel application the wife of the principal came to him saying:
“...do you know that you are literally the first man I have ever heard in this chapel who has preached to us as if we were sinners...all the preachers who come here, because it is a college chapel in Oxford, have obviously been taking exceptional pains to prepare learned, intellectual sermons, thinking we are all great intellects. ... The result is that we go away absolutely unfed and unmoved. We have listened to these essays and our souls are left dry. They do not seem to understand that though we live in Oxford we are nevertheless sinners.” (Lloyd-Jones, 1971, p.126).
In this example, Dr. Lloyd-Jones had no prior experience with the hearers, but was still able to preach to their must basic human attribute, sinfulness, and along with it a free offer of the gospel to restore that. This also shows that in any case, even amongst those who are considered to be “masters” of the Word, the gospel is needed every time they meet it.

We must however, as Craddock rightly says in his book Preaching, look at our own congregations. These are the same people that we shop with, live next to, and with whom we share a locality. We know their names, and in many ways, we know the best about them, but we also know the depths of their depravity. In this context, our preaching can be filled out with illustrations understandable by the people with whom we share so much in common. However, to then allow the pew to the control the pulpit in this case is also fatal. If we allow familiarity to breed some kind of co-dependent relationship where the preacher no longer has to preach the simple gospel from week to week, we kill these people we love.

As we survey our congregations, we see a group of people sealed by covenant: the children who may have not come to faith, firm believers, those who are questioning, professionals, blue-collars, intellectuals, housewives, intellectual housewives, elderly people, widows, newlyweds, and on and on. To preach to one person in that congregation is a very dangerous thing, as you are then preaching in an exclusivist way. To preach in this manner is to cut off the life that the Scripture gives, teaching a personalized morality that is tailored only to a segment of your church. In this way, we can see why there has been a rise in “boomer churches”, “gen-x churches”, “rich churches”, “black churches”, etc. In some ways, it is a good thing to have affinity groups within the church, but follow the realities that Paul gives about this religion we say we profess. And within it, we find no room for “special congregations” that only allow one part of the covenant people in because the message is so contextualized that it means nothing to those not within that niche. Churches which exist solely for the needs of a small niche group are not Biblical churches, nor are they a helpful “innovation”.

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

Colossians 3:11
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (ESV)

Both references are very relevant to the question at hand, especially as they reside in letters written by the Apostle Paul to congregations of believers in the New Testamental church. The Colossians verse is especially relevant to my argument, as it within the context of how we are to relate to each other within the context of the congregation, as we can see from the context it is given in. In this case Paul is expounding on the commonality of all mankind within Christ, as well as laying the elemental groundwork for Christian worship within that construct.

Colossians 3:11-17
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (ESV)

The Bible teaches us that our churches are a culturally heterogenous group of people homogenised by a common faith. They are also homogenised by their common humanity, and the conditions and state in which this humanity exists. Thus, because this faith is expressed through covenant (see O.P. Robertson’s Christ of the Covenants for more information on the covenantal nature of the Christian faith) which also binds us to each other, along with the triune God, we must not look at any of our congregation as deserving something less than a “relevant message”, something that will transform them, affect them, and touch them.

So, we have determined that contextualization to “niches” in our audience is a dangerous practice, and rather unbiblical. However, we do have to deal with the more general context into which we preach. One of the cries of the Reformation fathers was “In the language of the people”. As preachers, we can never lose sight of this very simple (but important) phrase. There are things that are common to the life of all of one’s congregation. In most cases the local church will have a congregation that speaks the same language, gets the same television channels, is influenced by the same general surroundings. This is where audience contextualization must start. Here we must learn how to take theological words and ideas found in the Bible and present them in the language of the people. In today’s culture, phrases that so many pastors and preachers throw around go right over the heads of their hearers. Terminology is a wonderfully concise thing for the theologian and scholar. However, it is dangerous and derisive when thrown at a congregation that does not understand them. There are many pastors who use terms like “imputed righteousness”, “eschatology”, and other even more complex terms without batting an eye. This is an area where contextualization is extremely important. It does not mean that we should throw in for a wholesale abandonment of the rich language of Christendom, as many “contextualization gurus” would recommend that we should (See Leonard Sweet’s SoulTsunami). It does, however, mean that whenever we use these terms, we need to explain them. Every time, not just that first time, because the doors of our churches continue to bring new people in who need to understand the terminology as well. Not to mention our own congregation’s need to hear these terms again, to reinforce the deep truths behind them.

In a similar vein, Scripture does have many stories and cultural ordinances that seem very foreign to the modern hearer. In this area, the preacher’s duty is to explain these things, always first in light of the text’s own cultural context. For, even if we relate the text into the immediacy of the current hearer, we do them a great disservice by not interpreting the situation into which it was first given. We also encapsulate the timeless truth of scripture into an artifact, and by doing so it becomes merely a one-time application from our mouths instead of a one-time communication of truth that the Holy Spirit can continue to use and apply through His power into the believer’s life. Although we can take a particular “relevant” principle derived from the text into the present that day, without the historical grounding, it cannot move forward as the times and situations of the current hearer do. Furthermore, the preacher runs the risk of only giving one side of the passage, and leaving the hearers with a lopsided, and sometimes untrue interpretation of the text. The greatest problem, however, is that applying a text in such a fashion usurps the Holy Spirit’s role in the application of gospel truths to the believer’s life (1 Cor. 2:10-14, John 16:13).

Therefore, we must look to a much more simple form of preaching. One that does not so strive to make the text “relevant” to a subset of our local culture, but one that seeks to speak into the whole of our local culture and times that we live in. Our local context determines the language we speak in, what minor illustrations we use to illuminate hard-to-comprehend passages, and almost nothing else. Our sermons, because of the true catholicity of the church, must always be relevant to all of the congregation. What is relevant to all mankind? Simply put, the gospel. We are called “Ministers of the Gospel”, let us then preach the gospel.

Our hermeneutic for applying God’s Word should always be the gospel. The gospel is relevant to every man, woman, and child in our congregation. The gospel is the food on which Christians must feast to continue in their growth.

In every sermon, the clear understanding of God’s commands, and our lack of ability to fulfill them must be preached. In every sermon, the clear teaching of God’s grace, and our need to receive it daily must be preached. For if we do not preach the gospel, we have failed. We have failed our congregation, in not giving them timeless (yet contemporary) application, we have also failed in our duty, for which we are trained and paid to do:

1 Cor. 9:14-16
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. (ESV, emphasis mine)

When we approach our congregation for the preaching of God’s Word, let us not forget who our audience is. Our audience, sharing in a common humanity, is a group of sinners who are desperately needing the word of the gospel to be preached to them. The gospel can never be drunk fully, not to be visited again. No, it is the food on which we feed, it is the truth that brings us to life and sustains us.

Martin Luther was once quoted when a member of his congregation came in and said, Pastor, why is it week after week you preach to us the gospel? We've read your books, we know you to be a brilliant man. Why do we never move on? When do we get past this, on to something else? And he said, Beloved, because week after week, you forget it. You will never be without your need for the gospel, so I will never cease to preach it to you.”

Some of our congregation may desire more “practical advice” on how to live their lives. An easy “10 Steps to the Victorious Christian Life” or a five-week series on “How to be a Good Father and Husband.” The answers to all these sorts of questions lie solely in a true understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only that, but if we focus on just the “husbands” in our congregation on a given Sunday, we leave three-quarters of our congregation sitting at the table watching us spoon feed only a small group. However, if we exegete a particular passage (Ephesians 5:24-25) we can bring out not only the true teaching on how men are to treat their wives, but the bigger picture of the gospel in Christ’s love for His Bride. If we exegete the passage properly, we bring the timeless words of scripture forward. If we allow Christ’s gospel to be our hermeneutic, we have applied it in a way that will affect every member of the congregation. If we refrain from adding our own “interpretative application” we believe that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the clear and relevant exposition that has just been received, and will apply it to the specific areas in the believer’s life.

Therefore, when viewing our audiences, see them in just the same way that we see ourselves, as sinners in desperate need of just the crumbs that fall from the table. God has seen fit to give us a banquet in the gospel found in His Word. Let us not replace that banquet that is set before us with the perishing food of “modern application”.

Bibliography

Craddock, Fred B. (1985)
Preaching. Abingdon Press, Nashville.
Lloyd-Jones, Dr. Martyn (1971)
Preaching & Preachers. Hodder & Stoughton Limited, London.
Stott, John (1982)
I Believe in Preaching (or Between Two Worlds). Hodder & Stoughton, London.
Honeycutt, Frank G. (2001)
Preaching to Skeptics and Seekers. Abingdon Press, Nashville
The ESV Bible (2001)
ESV Bible. Crossway Books, Wheaton
Sweet, Leonard (2001)
SoulTsunami. Zondervan Press, Grand Rapids
Robertson, O. Palmer (1980)
The Christ of the Covenants. Presbyterian & Reformed, Phillipsburg
Parrish, Robin “Interview with Derek Webb” no pages. Accessed 12th September, 2003. Online: http://www.cmcentral.com/interviews/241.html