One of my great privileges as a Minister of Word and Sacrament is being granted the opportunity to deliver God’s Word to His people. This is the chief and sacred duty of every pastor. It must be his life’s work. However, important administration may be, or counseling, or even acts of charity in caring for those in need, nothing rises to the level of importance of preaching God’s Word (cf. Acts 6:2). For it is by preaching that God has ordained for His people to come and be reconciled to Him through His Spirit.
Indeed, we know that God could have delivered His Word through angels but instead He’s called weak and fallible men to shepherd and feed His flock. When Evangelical Anglican Charles Bridges considered the essential role of Gospel preaching, he presented this method in no uncertain terms. Bridges wrote that it is “the Ministry of the Word” which “is the ordained means of conversion, and of subsequent establishment in every stage of the Christian life; and its necessity must continue, while there is a single sinner to be brought into the family of God, or a single grace in the heart of the saint to advance to perfection.” (The Christian Ministry, p. 10)
Here we observe the privilege of the preacher’s task. He takes from the riches of God’s storehouse and dispenses them liberally to God’s people. It is only by the mercy and kindness of God that we are enabled to learn about any subject in Scripture. We have forgotten that to hear a sermon is a privilege.
Only by the kindness of God are people enabled to learn about the mysteries of God. For example, consider the divine mystery of God’s foreknowledge and predestination (language pulled from Romans 8:29). Contrary to the nonsense of ancient and modern paganism which bears the lie that the stars can foretell your future, it is God alone who is able to do that. He reveals Himself in such a way that we can only learn about Him through the words of Scripture. Returning to the two examples of foreknowledge and predestination, we cannot discern what God intends concerning these realities by our mere observation of the universe. God must reveal it, or else such truth will always remain locked away under the banner of sacred mystery.
But God has spoken. As Hebrews tells us from the very start, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2 ESV) God has not left Himself without a witness. Therefore, it is every Christian’s sacred duty to take seriously all that He has said and the pastor to faithfully deliver it to God’s people without tampering.
When considering the special gift of God’s Word, we are confronted with the reality that some passages are more complex and difficult than others. What are we to do? As one author put it when looking at the Bible, “Is there a meaning in this text?” Some have given up the idea of ever coming to a definitive interpretation of the Bible because there are varied opinions. But as Christians, we believe that God’s Word is not meant to be reinterpreted perpetually at the whims of culture or the conveniences of opinion. The Word of God is not a wax nose to be adjusted to serve people’s desires. The Word of God is a hammer which breaks our hard hearts and rebuilds us according to the image of Christ. We do not judge God’s Word, but it judges us.
So, ministers who have been tasked by God with the ministry of the Word are called to carefully and with technical precision divide the Word of God for their good. The need for such precision lies at the very heart of the Christian faith. Our Lord and Apostles regularly committed themselves to such a labor when they worked in the synagogues. Their interactions with Jews and Gentiles alike engaged in more than a simple presentation of the Gospel. Their work was a serious wrestling with the text of Holy Scripture. This labor must continue in pastors and, by extension, the people of God. The fact that there are teachers of Scripture by God’s command means that people need to be taught. This call for technical precision in the Word of God therefore is not a mark of man-made religion but the example of Christ and the Apostles.
Just as you are grateful for your heart’s physician’s training, expertise, and proper use of technical ability in the care of your body, so churches ought to have ministers, that is, physicians of the soul whose training, expertise, and proper use of technical ability exceeds your own because they are physicians of the soul. I think of that classic quote from Reformation Pastor John Calvin, “Zeal without doctrine is like a sword in the hand of a lunatic.” Our passion for the truth of God must be tempered by the Word of God.
Therefore, let us come to the Word of God expectantly Sunday after Sunday. Let us with anticipation bring a fresh notebook and pen to take notes of what God’s ordained servant has for us. It is Christ who instituted the church, not men. It is Christ who delivered the gift of pastors and teachers to the church, not men. Therefore, let us pray for the men that God has called to this task, and even hold him accountable if what he should preach should counter the Word of God. For a minister is not to be nothing other than a faithful dispenser of the pure milk and meat of the Word of God.