It’s possible that God’s presence is not felt in a local church. Why is that? Keith Drury offers one answer: “The people have, as a group, quit responding to His Word. They may attend to see if others respond, and they might even pray that someone else will come and respond; but they no longer respond to preaching themselves. As a body, they do nothing upon hearing God’s Word.”[1] Friends, let’s not make that mistake. Together, let’s do everything we can to maximize our sermon-listening. The following suggestions will enhance your community sermon-listening after the sermon is done.
Our first commitment is that we should never rush off after the church service is finished. Plan after-church-events so that you still have time to hang around after the sermon to fellowship and enjoy the church family. It’s okay if lunch is delayed thirty minutes—your family will survive the hunger pains. Spiritual interaction is far more important, especially while the Word of God is still fresh on your minds. So consider this time an integral part of your public worship experience.
Ask people about the sermon. Tell them how you were challenged and what you plan to do as a result of the preached message from God. You may be able to pray for someone before you leave or ask someone to pray for you. Jonathan Leeman says, “The Word should reverberate back and forth, from mouth to mouth and heart to heart.”[2] Remember James’s warning: “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (Jas 1:23–24). We can’t afford to walk away from that intense exposure to the Word of God—namely, the sermon—our spiritual mirror—and fail to make the appropriate adjustments to our thinking and behavior. So do it immediately and involve others in the process.
Joel Beeke provides an appropriate warning: “Do not engage in frivolous, worldly conversation after a sermon. Shallow talk about politics, people, sports, or news events is Satan’s way of sending his vultures to pluck away the good seed of the Word.”[3] Instead, discuss how the Bible passage should shape the church. Pray together for the work of God's Spirit to shape both you as an individual and the church as a body of Christians together.
In the same way, Christopher Ash writes
Why not make an effort to say something about how you hope to
respond to the Bible truths in the sermon? (“I was really challenged to . . .
Were you?” or, “I was really encouraged by . . . How about you?” or, “It was so
helpful to be reminded of . . . Don’t you think?”). Or perhaps there is still
something in the Bible passage that really puzzles you; how about asking someone:
“Can you help me understand what . . . means?”[4]
These encouragements are simply practical
ways in which you can live out the “one anothers” of the New Testament in
response to the sermon.
Not only should we share with one another in the congregation, but we must also respond to our pastor. Paul said, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches” (Gal 6:6). Your pastor worked hard to prepare and preach a sermon that will both accurately explain the Scriptures and faithfully prompt you to action. You should thank him. But don’t thank him with the typical “great sermon, pastor” comment. After a while these kinds of sentiments only pay lip service to your pastor. Instead, give him some detail that explains why the sermon was good. How were you challenged specifically? What do you intend to do as a result of the message? These are the kinds of things that will really encourage your preacher because then he gets to share in the fruit of his ministry.
Maybe your pastor didn’t answer all your questions about the passage or its application. That’s okay. The Bible is so deep that it’s almost impossible to cover every aspect of a particular passage in one sitting. Let’s be realistic concerning what our pastor can achieve in forty-five minutes. Instead of complaining, take the opportunity to discuss with one another your questions. Let these discussions form the basis of your fellowship. You should also approach your pastor to ask him your questions. He’ll be encouraged by your interaction over the text of Scripture.
Once you’ve departed the church service, you should try to continue this interaction over the sermon. Instead of using digital media to avoid church attendance, use social media to enhance it. Use Facebook and other online mediums to engage in theological and implicational discussions after the sermon. Highlight your prayer requests in a personal e-mail. Get people talking about sermon application. You can do this online and in your own home. Alexander Strauch comments personally: “To me,” he says, “hospitality is a fitting conclusion to worship. In fact, it is a needed continuation of our short time together as God’s family. It is also an opportune time to meet new people, encourage the weak, minister to the needy, and care for the new babies in Christ.”[5]
Post-sermon fellowship is the best time to take advantage of the people in the church who can invest into your life. Joel Beeke advises, “Ask older, more experienced Christians for advice. Talk to people who are spiritually mature about how to live as a Christian.”[6] In addition, find those Christians who are newer in their spiritual journey than you are and get them started on spiritual discussion that will continue the biblical nourishment that was started in the sermon.
Why not purpose to make a phone call during the week to follow up with a person whom you know was listening to the same sermon as you? The following is a list of text-related questions. You could consider these before you make the call and allow them to guide your discussion:[7]
1. What examples can we follow?
2.
What commands should we obey?
3.
What errors must we avoid?
4.
What sins must we forsake?
5.
What promise can we claim?
6.
What new thoughts about God
should we employ?
7.
What biblical principles should
we live by?
These are wonderful discussion questions that should become part of the fabric of our fellowship culture. Remember, we’re trying to do things differently than we have in the past. We’re developing honesty and transparency in our relationships. We’re in devoted partnerships with teammates who are working together to accomplish eternal goals.
Sometimes the impact of such community-wide transformation is such that an entire congregation recognizes a culture of sin that has previously been allowed to exist without correction. When this kind of church-wide revival takes place and is led by the shepherds of the church, corporate confession is needed. In Nehemiah 8 and 9 the nation of Israel opened the Book of the Law for the first time in many years. Ezra the scribe read the Law and explained it for an entire week while the people listened. On the twenty-fourth day of the month “the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dirt upon them. And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers” (Neh 9:1–2). Such public confession of sin is a wonderful expression of God’s grace to a community. Your church elders may lead the congregation in times of public confession like this. When that happens, follow their lead and listen to their counsel. Sometimes an entire church can slip into a culture of blatant idolatry, immorality, or even stray away from preaching the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes there is a general acceptance of so-called “respectable sins”[8] such as gossip, spiritual pride, ungodliness, anxiety, selfishness, jealousy, and judgmentalism. When a church recognizes that these sins have become a part of its culture, determines to confess them publicly, and resolves to make necessary changes, testimonies are restored, families reunified, churches revitalized, cities transformed, and nations revived. May God open our eyes to see the need for the corporate confession of sin if it exists.
Another way to continue the impact of listening to sermons together is to be involved in a personal discipleship relationship. You could meet with a personal mentor once a week over coffee or in one another’s homes to reflect on the sermon and make plans for personal application. There are wonderful benefits of one-on-one discipleship—benefits to which you should avail yourself. Find a person in the church who can invest himself or herself into you and someone else into whom you can invest yourself. But realize this: No one discipler is the perfect mentor, and no one mentor has a corner on all necessary spiritual inputs.
The best kind of discipleship in the church is not one-on-one, but many-on-many. It’s a more balanced approach to community living. It better describes fellowship. It promotes balanced discernment. And it’s the context in which fellowship can rightly take place. So pursue one-on-one discipleship but not to the neglect of meeting in small groups around God’s Word. If you have to choose between the two options, then choose the small group setting.
Sermon-based small groups can greatly enhance the effect of the Sunday sermon experience. Next week, we’ll see how this kind of ministry involvement can maximize the preaching and fellowship combination that began with the Sunday sermon.
[1] Keith W. Drury, There Is No I
in Church: Moving Beyond Individual Spirituality to Experience God’s Power in
the Church (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2006), 65.
[2] Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light,
Freedom, and Action to His People (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2011), 101.
[3] Joel Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and
Attending Prayer Meetings (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008),
27.
[4] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!:
A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The
Good Book Company, 2009), 14.
[5] Alexander Strauch, The Hospitality Commands: Building Loving
Christian Community: Building Bridges to Friends and Neighbors (Littleton,
CO: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 1993), 50.
[6] Joel Beeke, The Family at Church, 32.
[7] John MacArthur, “A Study Method for Expository Preaching,” in John MacArthur,
Jr. and The Master’s Seminary Faculty, Rediscovering Expository Preaching
(Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1992), 217–8.
[8] Jerry Bridges, Respectable
Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 2007).
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