Well, this time I invite you to open your Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I will read verses 14 through 21. Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 21. And actually, I'll read verse 13 just to get a little bit of context. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 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. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word with all of its precepts, its promises, its directions, and its light. And we thank you for this word here in Romans that we are able to study now. Lord, we ask that you would bless to our souls the truth that we find here, that it might take deep root in our hearts and bring forth good fruit to your glory. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Being a preacher, I have, as you might expect, a natural interest in the topic of preaching. I have probably read more books on preaching than on any other topic or area of theology since I graduated from seminary and came here nine years ago. I've got, I think, two more sitting around my desk waiting to be read that were recently recommended to me. I hope to get to them before too long. But one of the things that you notice as you read through a variety of books on preaching and the pastoral ministries is that there's been a bit of a change in the last, at least the last 100 years or so, though it probably starts further back than that. But it becomes more prominent in the 20th century. There's a change in the way that the older books talk about preaching in the pastoral ministry and the way that the newer books will talk about it. And there's a couple of different ways you find this change. One is in what is preaching? What is preaching? Is it just a casual conversation with someone where you are meant to entertain them with jokes, show them movie clips, and use clever sermon titles? Or is it a theological discussion about some doctrinal point? Or is it heralding the word of God? And I hope it's obvious that it's the last of those three. Unfortunately, today, it's sometimes thought of as the first, a time for jokes and for entertainment in this very little substance. At times, there is also some of the second, where it's more of a theological discussion and explanation. While I certainly hope that there is good theology in a sermon, that's not the primary thing that a sermon is. sermon is to be declaring the message that God has given to the herald, passing on the word that he has been given. And that will include theological discussion, but it is more than theological discussion. And so there's a change in the way we think about what preaching is. There's also, at times, you find a change in what preaching is meant to accomplish. What do we think preaching does? Most often today, preaching is thought to be preparation for the real work of Christianity, which takes place and the world around us in the other six days of the week. We never want to create this divide between Sunday and the other days of the week as though Christianity is only for Sunday. But this newer way of thinking says the pastor is more like a coach who prepares the people to go out and do ministry. And in this mentality, relationships are more important than preaching. But in the older treatments of preaching, there was an understanding that the work of ministry is done first and foremost in the preaching of the Word on the Lord's Day, that something sacred happens in the act of preaching as Jesus comes and speaks to us. When we discussed this last week, we worked through this passage we've just read, and we saw how this is the view of it. It's the older view, and it's largely been lost today. Another difference that you find in older and newer books on preaching is the question of who can preach. Can anyone just stand up and preach? And of course, the modern view is that we are all preachers and we are all to spend our lives preaching. And when that's said, it really waters down what preaching actually is. This view will sometimes like to quote an older figure. So this isn't an entirely new idea. But they'll quote Saint Francis of Assisi, who once said, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Friends, I have to tell you, I do not like that saying at all. For one thing, Francis is not a reliable theologian in general and shouldn't really be given a whole lot of time, but he completely misunderstands what it is to preach and what the gospel is. The gospel is the good news, that's what the word means, gospel, the good news that Jesus died for sinners. There is no set of actions that you or I can do that will communicate that Jesus died for sinners. There is no action you can do that communicates that, but that's what the gospel is. Preaching the gospel requires words. Francis was absolutely wrong on this one. The older view, at least among Protestants, Francis was a Roman Catholic by the way, but the older view among the Protestants understands that God ordains men for a specific purpose. He calls men to the office and in that office they receive this commission from God that's been given especially to them. And so who it is that can preach has changed over time. There are other things that have changed, things, how long people preach, other matters of delivery and form. But these are some of the most substantial changes that have taken place. And we might ask ourselves, well, who is right? What view of preaching is the correct one? Of course, the evangelical culture today wants to say it's this new one. And they say, how else will we reach the people around us? Well, I'm sure I've already given away enough for you to know my own perspective on these things. Again, last week we traced this argument to Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 21. We saw how it teaches that there is a blessing that comes through preaching, because Jesus himself speaks to us in and through the preacher, and he invites us to trust in him. And then we also saw how judgment can come when that word is rejected and disobeyed like it did upon the people of Israel. So today we're coming back to these verses, and we want to reflect a little bit more deeply about this, what it teaches on the pastoral ministry. We want to see that this old view of preaching is indeed the right one. And because of that, we need to consciously adjust the way that we approach the preaching of the word. And some of this will be a bit of repetition from last week, and I hope that's not wearisome to you, but I really believe that this is one of the greatest areas where the church today needs better instruction. And so I think it's worth spending a little bit extra time. Today we're going to focus on two sort of larger topics, and then, Lord willing, the next time that I preach in a couple of weeks, we want to come back to this again, and with a more practical approach. So today, some larger topics as we consider the place of preaching. First, then, we want to see the importance of preaching. And this is a place for us to be counter-cultural. And I'm not thinking so much of the unbelieving culture, but even of just the Christian culture today. This is a place for us to be self-consciously counter-cultural. This is where we have to begin, the importance of preaching. And everything we'll say after this flows out of this point. Why is it that preaching is so important? There are at least two reasons that we saw in our text last week. Let's look at these again. The first is, as we said, because in preaching, Jesus himself speaks. Jesus himself speaks. I explained to you these verses how, in verse 14, it says, How then will they call upon him? That's Jesus, in whom they have not believed. And then it asks, And how are we to believe in him? And the ESV says, of whom they have never heard, but the NASB translates it better. It says, how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And then, how are they to hear? And that's how are they to hear Jesus without someone preaching? This is the best way to translate the Greek here. We hear Jesus. We hear him in the preaching of the word. Why is this so important? Let me see if I can convince you of this. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 says, 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. Scripture tells us that In time past, God used to communicate to his people in a variety of ways. There are lots of ways in which God spoke to his people. Then it says, But in these last days, but that word, but creates a sharp contrast. It's different now. It used to be that God communicated in many ways, but it's different now. Although God spoke in many ways of the past, he has in these last days spoken by his son. God's final word to mankind on this side of glory comes in Jesus Christ. If we wish to hear the voice of God today, we need to hear the voice of Jesus the Son. It is through Jesus that God speaks today, not in many different ways, in this one way. Okay, so then, how is it that Jesus speaks? I wonder if you thought to yourself, how many ways can I think of that Jesus communicates to us? I'll give you a hint. It's not very many. People like to think that God speaks to them in all kinds of ways. Little messages, signs, feelings. Most of that, if not all of it, is just nonsense. Jesus speaks through the Word, as it is read, and especially as it is preached. Friends, there are not many more ways than that that Jesus speaks today. And if that's the case, then perhaps you begin to see why it is important that Jesus speaks through preaching when we say, this is a place where Jesus speaks. You see, if we want to hear from God, this is how we can do it. It's in the preaching of the Word. We will not hear Jesus speaking in many other places. Do you remember that Reformation slogan we talked about last week? That the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God? The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Now, perhaps that statement makes you a little bit uncomfortable. After all, we've all heard sermons where the preacher says something foolish or just plain wrong, right? And we wouldn't want to say, therefore, the Word of God has somehow made a mistake. No, we're not saying that preaching is somehow infallible. That's not the point. It's only when the preacher preaches the Word of God that it becomes the Word of God, that the preaching becomes the Word of God. When a preacher begins to preach his own thoughts, and when he diverges from the truth, he's no longer preaching the Word of God. And so what he says is not the Word of God. I'm going to try to say it another way. It is not the case. that when someone preaches, they suddenly absorb all of the qualities of scripture as though everything they say is the word of God. That's not how this works. Instead, when a pastor faithfully preaches the word, God owns it as his own. He inhabits it. He accompanies it. And only then does it become the word of God. So as the word is faithfully preached, God comes and he owns and he says, yes, this is my word and I speak to you in it. So this is why preaching is so important. In preaching, Jesus speaks to us. What a profound and wonderful thought. Jesus himself speaks to us when the word is rightly and faithfully preached. The second reason we saw why preaching is so important, and this one just much more quickly, is that this is how we get and grow in faith. Verse 17 says, Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. As Christ speaks, as He communicates to His people, it is in that act that the Spirit comes and creates faith within us. The way that people are saved and the way that people grow in faith is ordinarily and primarily through the preaching of God's Word. I have never yet met a true Christian who didn't want to grow in faith. So I think it should be obvious why this is important. If we want to grow in faith, clearly preaching is important for us. But this is such an important word today. Again, so many churches are downplaying the place of preaching. Preaching is falling on hard times among Christians. It's getting shorter, it's getting de-emphasized, it's filled with more jokes and funny stories than the Word of God in some places. Things like loud music are given the place of emphasis in a church service. Children are dismissed from worship when the preaching starts on the belief that there's something more profitable for them to do than to hear the word of Christ. We're told that people's attention spans can't handle preaching anymore. It's an outdated mode of communication, and we need to find something that speaks to our multimedia-friendly generation. PowerPoint slides and other presentations are being more and more popular and preaching just isn't cool. It's thought that preaching will drive people away because who wants to come and listen to somebody talk? We're driving people away with preaching when we want to draw them in, so let's find out what will get them to come. And preaching gets replaced with all sorts of other things. Brothers and sisters, God knows best. God knows best. And Jesus does not speak in movie clips or in jokes. Jesus speaks in the preaching of the Word. When the Word of God is opened, it is read, and it is explained. That's the pattern of preaching that we find in the Bible. It's as simple as that. You open the Bible, you read a passage of Scripture, and you say, this is what it means, and this is how it applies to your life. God has told us that this is how we grow in faith, for this is where he speaks to us. Preaching is of fundamental importance for the Church and for each Christian, and we should never be ashamed or embarrassed that our Church emphasizes preaching. Perhaps you've heard me talk about this before. I don't remember if I've said this from the pulpit or not. But this is one of the guiding principles in the way that this new building was designed for us. I did a bit of study on architecture in Reformed churches. Believe it or not, there are books about Reformed church architecture. It's fascinating, actually, to read. I really enjoyed it. But yeah, I learned as people built churches, as the Reformation took hold in the centuries past, what did people in Reformed churches think about when they were constructing a church? And here are some of the basic things that I learned. Once I say it, at least to me at least, it seems so obvious that it's like you kind of wonder why anyone would ever think differently. And yet, the fact that I hadn't really thought about it myself ahead of time shows we need these things. The architecture of the church needs to communicate a message about what's most important to us and what are the primary things we are doing. What's most important to us and what are the primary things that we're doing? What message do we want to communicate? What do we want to tell? When somebody walks in the doors of this room, what do we want them to know about us just by looking around the room? And as I read through the literature, it brings into focus three things, the pulpit, the communion table, and the baptistry. The pulpit, the communion table, and the baptistry, the word and the sacraments. We wanted to make it so that when someone entered this room, the primary visual impact was that they would see these three items as having the greatest prominence and being the visual focal points in the room. And again, I think it kind of becomes obvious when you say it, but that's just not the case in most churches today. Next time you go into a church, you walk into the sanctuary, think about the message that's communicated by what you see in the room. You might find a soundstage that looks as though it's been prepped for a band. You might find an awful lot of clutter that just creates this distracting mess and floral arrangements and wall hangings. But think about this the next time you go into a church and what kind of message. Now, I understand not every church has the ability to create the space how they wanted. We certainly have met in places in the past where this has not been possible for us. Please understand, this is not as though it's speaking with judgment against the churches who haven't done this. But for instance, we have chosen not to put anything on these walls in this end of the building. And that was very intentional. We had conversations about windows behind the pulpit, and the building committee went back and forth on this. But we ultimately decided we didn't want anything that would draw our eyes and attention away from the most important things here in this room. And that's especially the preaching of the word. Right at the center, this is what we are here for. This is what we want to focus upon. We are trying to communicate to anyone who comes, this is what's important to us. And it is counter-cultural. There are a lot of other things that people usually think about today when they are trying to create a worship space. We said, this is what we want. The evangelical world around us is minimizing and downplaying preaching, but we must hold fast to this act as being of central importance to us. And we do this because we believe the Word of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21 says, For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. The folly of what we preach or some translations say the foolishness of preaching. The world says, what a foolish thing you guys are doing. You say, yes, but God told us to do this, and God has promised to bless it. And so this is where we take our stand. This is what will be most important to us. And so this is the place to be countercultural, to stand firm in what we understand the importance of the preaching of the word in our church. For here Jesus speaks, and here we grow in our faith. The second area where we can reflect on preaching is who it is that gets to preach. I want to think a little bit about this office of preacher. Again, Romans 10, 15 says that someone can only preach if they have been sent, right? It says, how are they to preach unless they are sent? This question implies there isn't any other way for someone to preach unless they have been sent. A preacher is someone who has been sent. He's not just someone who has this desire within themselves to preach. They must be sent. I wonder if you have ever heard of Amy Simple McPherson. One of the first modern religious celebrities of the 20th century. She was especially prominent in the 1920s and the 1930s. She founded the Four Square Church, which is a Pentecostal group. Amy Simple McPherson became a very famous preacher in her day. She toured all around, attracted huge crowds wherever she preached. And people would ask her, they would say, Amy, how can you be a preacher when the Bible very directly says that women are not to be preachers? And she answered something to this effect. I've listened to the audio clip before. I couldn't find it this week, but I think I remember it pretty well, the essence of it. I know that the Bible says a woman is not supposed to preach. I know that. But I feel this calling from God in my heart. I know it's from Him. Where else could it be from? And if He didn't want me to preach, He wouldn't have put that feeling there, so I have no choice but to go and preach. What's the problem with this answer? For one thing, it is entirely self-referential. She felt something, she interpreted that feeling, and she decided what she had to do, and then she blamed it on God. And, in all of this, she neglects the Church. She was not sent by anybody. You see, people can get all kinds of feelings and desires, like, I have to go and do this. And it's tempting to want to say, oh, that's a special message to God from me, a burden he's placed on my heart. Friends, that is not how God communicates to us. It just isn't. When it comes to the ministry of the word, God communicates these matters through the church as they interpret scripture. And the church recognizes that somebody who has the appropriate gifts and graces that make them suited to the ministry. And it is only once somebody has been set aside by the church that they are then free to engage in the work of preaching. I want to relate to you a couple of historical anecdotes to show how this older view has been present in centuries past in the Protestant church. First, we can think about a particular Baptist in the 1600s As they thought about those who might preach in their church, they would evaluate the men who had a desire to preach. And this applied to those who wanted to be pastors or elders. And it also applied to those who wanted to be what they called gifted brothers. Gifted brother is something we've had in our own church. It's this position where the church has said, yes, we do believe this person has the ability to preach, even though they're not a pastor. And so they've been given that authority within the church. And what they would do is the members of the church would gather together on a day during the week. Only the members would be allowed to attend, and nobody else. The doors would be closed. And the man who desired to preach, he would get up and he would preach to this group. And the church, the members would then evaluate his ability. And only if he passed the test would he then be allowed to preach in more public settings. The churches wanted to guard unbelievers from hearing bad preaching. And so everybody would have to get vetted first. They would make sure that only those who had been given a commission by the church after having been tested would be allowed to preach. And this was the common practice of the Baptists a couple hundred years ago. It's been, of course, lost today. but they so carefully wanted to guard who it was that would preach. A second anecdote is somewhat present today, although you don't see it nearly as much as used to. But historically, in Reformed churches, you may know that the preacher would wear a black robe. Black robe. If you've seen a picture of an older preacher wearing a robe like this, you may be able to picture this in your mind. It looks kind of like what we might think of as a choir robe today, all in black. Or some churches will use baptismal robes, and it will look kind of like that as well. Some churches today still use these for a preacher. They're usually called a Genevan robe, named after Geneva, the city where John Calvin ministered. And perhaps you've wondered, why would people wear a robe? Why would a pastor wear a robe as he preached? And it's not that there was some kind of formalism. It's not a matter of high church pageantry. It's actually the exact opposite. The robe did a couple of things. One is that it marked out the man as having been ordained to preach. It meant he had been recognized by the church as someone who had the authority and the ability to preach. Perhaps there is a helpful point of balance here for all of the talk about the importance of preaching. I said this last week. I am aware of the potential awkwardness of a preacher talking about how important preaching is. It can sound, perhaps, as though I'm just puffing myself up and going on an ego trip. But the second point of the Genevan robe was to say, it's not the man that's speaking who's important. It's the office of the elder, the office of pastor that's important. It's not the man that's important. It's the office. The robe was largely meant to hide the man who was preaching so that the office is what people would be responding to. The focus is not on the man, but the fact that God has sent a messenger and we are listening to the Lord. See, if Jesus speaks when preaching takes place, then it should not be the man that we come to listen to, but Jesus who speaks through him. You could say that the robes function in a similar way to what we talked about with the architecture of the building. It causes us to focus on the things that are most important, and that is the message that Jesus himself is speaking. The man fades into the obscurity when he wears the robe. It's kind of like what John the Baptist said with reference to Jesus, right? I must decrease, he must increase. That was the point of the robe. Now, today, because they're quite unusual, it's possible that it would actually have the opposite effect. If I stood up to preach with a robe, it would probably distract you more and bring more attention to me. And so I don't have any interest in bringing this practice back. But I can appreciate the original intent of it in trying to draw the attention away from the individual. There's another application of this, as we think about who it is that can preach, an application that pushes back against the modern Christian climate. And that is this really pushes against the modern phenomena of the celebrity preacher. The modern phenomena of the celebrity preacher. It is quite possible to become overly infatuated with some particular well-known preacher and to latch on to them, to latch on to the person. And I'm not speaking here of the phony TV pastors. I'm talking about good, solid men who are good preachers. We were never intended to latch on to a particular person and certainly not a preacher that lives in another place in the country or even somewhere else in the world. Now, please do not misunderstand me. I have no problem. with people listening to other preachers, and even having some that you may particularly enjoy listening to, don't hear me saying, stop listening to sermons. That's not at all what I'm saying. What I am concerned about is when someone becomes wrapped up in the teaching and theology of one particular man from another church. The error is that we are focused on the man and not upon the office. But we are called to think of the office and to think of the way that God has provided for us in that office. Jesus has given to each Christian their own pastor. And so Jesus speaks to each Christian through their own pastor. It is through their own pastor that should be their primary source for instruction. I have to say that if you find most of your Christian teaching from one particular pastor who's not a part of this church, that's just not the biblical pattern. In these verses, we find Jesus sending men through the church. And these men go out and they preach to particular congregations of people. And as they preach in those local churches, that's where Jesus speaks. It's an event that only takes place in the live, in-person interaction that takes place in a local church. Listening to a radio preacher or an internet preacher is not the same thing. The same thing is not happening in the same way of Jesus coming and speaking through the Word. When we latch on to one individual, it often gives evidence of having a greater regard for a person than for the office of the pastor and of the way that God sends men to particular and individual churches. So we have tried to see here that those who can preach are those who have been ordained, sent by the church. And as we see that, we understand it is the office that's especially important and not the particular man who stands up to preach. Well, I know that much of this has been revisiting things we talked about last week. But again, I really think these are things worth spending our time on. The evangelical world today is often very confused about these things. But they're so basic to who we are and what it means to be a healthy church. And at the heart of it is our willingness to submit to God and to his wisdom rather than to our own ideas. One of the things I have seen sometimes in articles that talk about a good pastor, or sometimes in job position postings for pastorates in churches, they say they want a man with vision. A man who can cast that vision before the church in a way that the church will get excited about his vision and get on board with it. To be honest, I hear that and I think, in my estimation, what a misguided way to look for a pastor. And here's why. We shouldn't be looking for a man who has his own ideas about what makes good ministry, and then can get the church excited about his ideas. We should want a man who is diligently seeking to understand the mission and the vision of Christ that he has already given to us, and then is helping the church to get excited about that vision. Pastors shouldn't be casting their own vision. They should be helping us to see the vision in scripture. It would be like sending a messenger, and then along the way, the messenger decides to come up with his own message and his own plan instead. No, we are to faithfully pass down the message that we have received. It's because we are to submit to God's message, God's mission, and God's vision. One of the qualifications for a pastor, Titus 1.9 says, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. This thing that has been handed down to him, that's what he is supposed to preach, and it is only when he does this that he will be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it. Friends, that's the vision. That's the mission that Christ has given to us. Let us be a church that prizes this understanding of a preacher and this task of preaching. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, as we have considered the place of preaching in our lives and in the church, we ask that we would keep preaching at the heart of who we are as a body and in our personal lives. Lord, forgive us of the ways that we grow weary of it. and keep us from thinking that we are wiser than you. Please grant to us meekness and humility so that we may be taught by your light. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.