Vol. XXXIX July 2, 2007 No 7
HOW TO LISTEN TO SERMONS
by Tom McLemore
After I had composed it, the title of this article struck me as providing both a narrow and a broad focus. I want to address the topic of “how to listen to sermons by Tom McLemore,” but I also offer suggestions on “how to listen to sermons” by anybody that you might hear preach.
Warnings and Instructions from Jesus
Jesus taught that it is important to be concerned about what we hear. That indicates that we should consider to whom we listen and what is said. The Bible warns against listening to false teachers and false teaching. Many false prophets have gone out into the world, and opportunities for hearing both false teaching and true teaching are more numerous than ever before. Because of the decline of Bible knowledge, we are more vulnerable than in times when God’s people were well versed in the sacred and living oracles. It behooves us all to be very careful, and Jesus’ warning has never been more urgently needed.
Jesus also warned to be careful how we hear. Whereas the previously considered warning of Jesus focuses upon the speaker and the content, this warning calls us to consider the responsibility of the listener. Jesus’ parable of the soils reveals the dangers with which listeners are faced. The evil one, shallowness, tests, life’s worries, riches, and pleasures all pose a threat to the word of God. These can remove the word from the heart, keep it from growing, and choke it. The heart that is honest (noble) and good is the one that has the best possibilities for nurturing the word and allowing it to bear fruit.
This parable places a huge weight of responsibility upon the listener. There is no comment on the speaker, and the implication is that if the word of God is spoken, it is entirely up to the one who hears whether the word bears fruit. That indicates the importance of Jesus’ warning that we take heed how we hear.
Preachers Desire Feedback
As a minister of the word, I am constantly considering my communication of the message. I am compelled to recognize weaknesses that I am striving to overcome and improvements that I can make. Through the years, I have received some feedback that is very helpful and which I am attempting to utilize in making improvement. The most helpful and welcome feedback, of course, is a description of difficulties listeners experience in effectively hearing the word which could be overcome by improvements made by the speaker.
While I strive for growth and pray for help, I am realistic enough to accept the fact that it’s not entirely up to me. The listener has a part to play, and if we take seriously Jesus’ warnings and teachings that we have considered, the listener has a tremendous part to play. I fear that the preponderance of entertainment in our culture and society, along with the proliferation of various media for presenting information, has greatly reduced the capacity of our people to be good listeners to the word of God.
Having said all of this, let me offer some thoughts for those listeners who are interested in shouldering their legitimate weight as participants in the communication process. What can listeners to sermons do that will help them “get more out of the sermon?”
Listen!
One of the most important bits of advice that I could offer is to listen. The sermon is designed to make a single general impression. Ideally and theoretically, everything in the sermon is designed to contribute to and reinforce that general impression. It may be a concept which is to be grasped, an action that is to be taken, a decision that is to be made, a truth to be believed.
I am convinced that at least some folks think that the object is to be able to remember all of the details of the sermon. That is neither realistic nor desirable. I am talking about not being able to see the forest for the trees. The sermon is the forest. The details are the trees. Try to see the forest as a whole.
Listen mostly for a Person. Listen as one who wants to know God, to learn and follow Jesus Christ, and to be led by the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, all true Christian preaching has this as its focus. While it is appealing and tempting to look for other things, I suggest that there is nothing more sacred and valuable, and nothing which characterizes a good listener to sermons, than a desire to be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.
Use Your Bible Sparingly!
Related to this suggestion is another: use your Bible sparingly during the sermon. More specifically, forget about finding all the scripture references referred to in the sermon. I would imagine that some might be shocked by such a suggestion, given our emphasis upon “thus saith the Lord” for all of our faith and practice. By making this suggestion, I am not seeking to diminish that emphasis one bit (I think we need more of it, and I fear we are departing from it). But I am dealing with listening to the sermon. Open your Bible to the sermon text and keep it open there throughout the sermon. (All of my sermons have a specific text, and I think this is true of all preachers among us. Most of them concentrate on that one text while bringing in other texts as supportive material. The main impression intended by the sermon will come out of that text).
If you want to run all of the references, jot them down and look them up later at your leisure. But during the sermon, listen to the sermon. Listen to the word of God being read during the sermon. Many have been trained on the basis of Acts 17:11 to attempt to run all of the references during the sermon. “These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.”
Be aware of the fact that few, if any, of these listeners owned personal copies of the Bible (they were made by hand and price prohibitive except for the very wealthy), and if they did, they didn’t bring them to synagogue (the whole Old Testament would take up quite a number of scrolls). And if they had brought a scroll to synagogue, the sermon would be over before they could have unwound the scroll to the first scripture reference. Then, we must remember that the ancient scrolls did not have chapter and verse references until several centuries after the advent of Christ. (Except for the most general references, e.g., “the second psalm,” or reference to a particular writer, early Christian preachers did not give scripture references as such. The listeners would have to literally search for the quotation, unless they were well versed in the contents of the sacred writings). It seems most likely that those early listeners just listened to the sermon and then later they would spend parts of their days studying the scriptures to read the things that were said for themselves. I can assure you that you will “get more out of the sermon” if you will be content to do nothing during the sermon but listen to it.
Listen for God’s Word
Finally, cultivate a reverence for the word of God, and listen for the word of God in the sermon. According to the classical definition of Phillips Brooks, preaching is “truth through personality.” This definition is founded upon the great doctrine of the Word made flesh. It is reinforced by the observation that even though the Holy Spirit and angels were directly involved in the stories of conversion in Acts, without exception, a human being was involved, proclaiming words whereby the hearers must be saved. The speaker is indispensable to preaching.
However, it is possible to focus too much on the speaker and not enough on the word spoken. It is possible that by refusing to hear what is spoken because of one’s view of the speaker, one may be refusing to hear the word of God. While ancients recognized the value of ethos (the audience’s perception of the character of the speaker) in persuasion, a careful and wise auditor of preaching is more concerned with the truth of the word spoken. Many have been led to believe lies, because they were more concerned by the ethos of the speaker than by the truth of his message. You have probably known of people who have given up serving the Lord when a preacher they admired was involved in personal scandal. That shows they believed in the preacher but had not heard and believed the truth. If they had believed the truth, they would have continued to serve the Lord for the truth’s sake no matter what any man does.
While all preachers (and every Christian) must strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord, the truth is still true and false doctrine is still false no matter who teaches either. Paul wrote, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!” In addition, the apostle Paul could distinguish between the evil motives of some of his enemies, and the true message of Christ which they preached. It was wrong for them to have wrong motives, but the gospel was true even when they preached it from evil motives.
So, when you are listening, try as much as possible to focus most of your attention on what is said and its origin (the scriptures) and least upon the one who is saying it or even how he might be saying it. Your minister, like every minister of Christ who has ever served, has sinned and falls short of the glory of God. He is a person “subject to like passions as you are,” i.e., a human being just like you. He prayerfully and increasingly is aware of his sins and failures. He will not be able to avoid mistakes, both in what he says and in his behavior. You may not like him personally. However, do not allow that to keep you from hearing God’s word. If your minister is honest and true to God, the only thing he seeks as he preaches is for you to hear God, to obey God, to know God in Christ, and to enjoy God’s fellowship now and eternally. “Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God . . .”
[Note: There are numerous allusions to, several citations of, and a few quotations from, the scriptures in this article. In the spirit of allowing you to experience the word as the earliest hearers of Christian preaching experienced it, no scripture references have been provided. You must search the scriptures to see whether these things are so. And by the way, the ancient listeners did not have computer Bible programs or printed concordances. They had to be very familiar with the contents of God’s word].
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