How to Hear a Sermon, Part 1: Preparing to Listen
Homiletics. It’s the course in seminary that teaches one how to preach a sermon. Seminarians spend hours in homiletics classes learning the principles of Bible preaching, and then spend years after seminary honing the art through reading, seminars, and most importantly, weekly experience standing at the “sacred desk.”
But what about the rest of the church, those who hear the message week after week? Do we put the same kind of intentionality and care into hearing a homily as we expect our pastors to put into studying, preparing and delivering it? How might those on the other side of the pulpit become better sermon listeners?
Pastors Seth, Chris and I decided to reflect on the task of hearing a sermon. In the next two blogs, Pastor Seth will talk about how to listen during the sermon itself, and pastor Chris will explore listening after the preacher finishes. But in this blog I want to think about how we prepare to listen before the message.
Perhaps the simplest thing we can do is read the sermon text ahead of time. Many churches publish a sermon schedule in advance. At SSBC, a team of volunteers prepares a weekly study guide focused on the upcoming text. These study guides are a fantastic resource for individuals or small groups. You’ll be astounded at how much more you’ll get out of a Sunday sermon if you’ve already studied the text for yourself.
Next, let’s think about “Sermon Eve” (also known as Saturday night). Perhaps instead of watching TV, we might set aside a half hour to read a sermon by Spurgeon, a devotional by Oswald Chambers, or even just a chapter from scripture in order to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1). We might lay out the children’s clothes or gas up the car on Sermon Eve so that we can get to church Sunday morning without being late and frazzled. Many of us would be helped simply by going to bed at a reasonable hour Saturday night! It’s harder to give the kind of focused concentration required to hear a sermon well when you feel like a sleep-deprived zombie.
And most importantly, we must pray. Pray for God’s power to accompany the preaching. Pray that unbelievers would be converted and believers strengthened. Plead for a fresh work of God in your own soul and in your family through the Word preached. Pray the preacher full so he can preach you full. If you get to church early, spend a few moments praying silently in your pew. There’s plenty of time to shake hands after the service. How might our approach to corporate worship be affected if we walked into the sanctuary before the service to find people with heads bowed in personal prayer, seeking God’s power for the coming hour?
In the end, it all comes down to our view of the Bible. Do we really believe that it is the very Word of God? Do we actually look to it as the sole authority for our Christian lives? Do we truly trust that God’s powerful Holy Spirit works potently and primarily through the Bible? If we truly believe these things, it should dramatically affect how we prepare ourselves to hear the Sunday exposition of the Word of God!
- Pastor Jeramie
