Piety Through the Pulpit

Charles Spurgeon said, “Read anything [by John Bunyan], and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself…. Why, the man is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him.”¹ Is this not what we desire for ourselves and for those with whom we minister? In a recent blog,² I pointed out from Colossians 1:9 that Paul prays that believers “may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.” In Scripture, to be filled by something is to be controlled by that with which one is filled. When we are richly indwelt (filled) by the Word (Colossians 3:16-17), then our lives reflect that to the glory of God.

As we minister to others, we not only pray that they would be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will” (Colossians 1:9), we also help others get into the Word that the Word might get into them. This of course is done through encouraging them to be in the Bible daily for personal growth. Yet also of vital importance to their ongoing personal growth is the corporate gathering of God’s people. Do those you counsel understand the centrality of the pulpit to their lives and thereby prepare for, actively receive, and practice the preached Word each Sunday?

John Calvin wrote in his Institutes that through Spirit-empowered preaching, “the renewal of the saints is accomplished; thus the body of Christ is built-up.”³ To this effect, Joel Beeke wrote that “the ‘external minister’ (being the preacher) is employed by the ‘internal minister,’ who is the Holy Spirit.”⁴ The Spirit of God uses the preached Word of God as a divinely appointed means to work in our lives individually and corporately. Consider the impact of the pulpit ministry upon your own life, and then encourage others to ongoing piety through the weekly proclamation of the Word through the pulpit.

A primary part of being a disciple of Christ is to dedicate ourselves to the public proclamation of the Word and devour it for the well-being of our very souls. Thus writes Joel Beeke: “In preaching, God gives His Word as truth and power. As truth, Scripture can be trusted for time and eternity. As power, Scripture is the instrument of transformation used by the Spirit of God to renew our minds.… Though other books may inform or even reform us, only one Book can transform us, conforming us to the image of Christ.”⁵ With this in mind, how can we make the weekly preaching of the Word as profitable as possible for ourselves and for those to whom we minister? Here are eight considerations for helping one another grow in piety through the pulpit ministry.⁶

1. Prepare to Hear the Word by Bathing Your Soul in Prayer

“Is ‘Hurry up!’ the Sunday-morning call to worship in your home? Does your hypocrisy quotient increase as the tension of getting out of the house gives way to a warm ‘Hello!’ for the church people you don’t live with?”⁷ Ouch! Whether preparing your family or your own heart for corporate worship, the Westminster Catechism Question 160 reminds us of our calling to prepare for worship in prayer: “It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer.”

As we are dependent upon God for all things, in all things we must pray. “Before coming to God’s house to hear His word, prepare yourself and your family with prayer. The Puritans said we should dress our bodies for worship and our souls with prayer.”⁸ In taking your seat before the service, why not get there early and take a moment to again pray that God would further prepare your heart for the proclamation of His Word?

2. Come to the Word with a Holy Appetite and a Tender, Teachable Heart

We must come to the Word attentively. Christopher Love wrote: “Those who hear the Word with gazing eyes, wandering thoughts, and sleepy bodies cannot hear it attentively, but are to be reproved.”⁹ Preparation for Sunday worship really begins on Saturday night as we prepare both body (rest) and mind (prayer) for the attentive receiving of God’s Word. Beeke exhorts us to the following in preparing for worship: “Remember that as you enter the house of God that you are entering a battleground. Many enemies will oppose your listening. Internally, you may be distracted by worldly cares and employments, lusts of the flesh, cold hearts, and critical spirits. Externally, you may be distracted by the temperature or weather, behavior or dress of others, noises, or people moving about.… Like a bird plucking away newly sown seed, Satan attempts to snatch the Word from your mind and heart so that it cannot take root.”¹⁰

Then as we hear the Word preached, Beeke suggests we ask: “Am I really hearing the Word of God? Am I a good listener of the proclaimed gospel, or am I only a critical or careless hearer?… Come with a hearty appetite for the Word. A good appetite promotes good digestion and growth (1 Pt. 2:2, Ecc. 5:1, 2 Chron. 13:7, Acts 9:6).”¹¹

3. Be Attentive to the Preached Word

Listen attentively to the preached Word as an active participant, regarding the sermon as a matter of life or death (Deuteronomy 32:47). Seek to not only grasp the meaning of the message, but also how it should be manifested to God’s glory in your application of it. “Seek grace to believe and apply the whole Word (Rom. 13:14), along with the promises, the invitations, and the admonitions as they are spoken.”¹²

Thomas Watson said we need the whole Word as the object of faith: “The histories to make us wary and cautious; the doctrines to enlighten us with a true sense of God’s nature and will; the precepts to direct us, and to try and regulate our obedience; the promises to cheer and comfort us; the threatenings to terrify us, to run anew to Christ, to bless God for our escape, and to add spurs to our duty.”¹³

4. Receive with Meekness the Engrafted Word (James 1:21)

James 1:21 says, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” In quoting Thomas Watson, Beeke writes that “meekness involves a submissive frame of heart, ‘a willingness to hear the counsels and reproofs of the word.’ Through this kind of faith, the Word is engrafted into the soul and produces ‘the sweet fruit of righteousness.’” Concerning meekness, Christopher Love wrote: “Come … ready, prepared, and disposed to stoop and submit to all the instructions, corrections, and reproofs of the Word of God.”¹⁴

5. Strive to Retain What Has Been Preached and Pray about the Word Proclaimed

“Hear the Word of God retentively. Labor to keep in your memory what you hear, that you may put it into practice for your life. Hearing is for practice’s sake. This also has to do with treasuring the Word, so it will have a continual impression upon your hearts.”¹⁵ For retaining the Word, most find it helpful to come prepared with pen and paper (or a sermon outline if available). An elderly lady once said, “I take thorough sermon notes. When I bow my knees on Sunday evening, I put my notes in front of me, underline those things that I should strive to put into practice, and then pray through them one at a time.”¹⁶

While likely impossible and taxing to write down everything the pastor says, write down a summary of the key points, noting particularly impactful insights, practical applications, and follow-up questions. Then write a one-sentence summary of the whole message in your own words. Challenging yourself to sum the sermon up can be a great way to solidify your understanding of the message. If someone were to ask you about the sermon at lunch afterwards, what would you say it was about? What is the main point you think your pastor intended for you to take away? For those who want a challenge, consider summarizing the sermon in a poem or a song to sing.¹⁷

“Strive to retain and pray over what you have heard. Hebrews 2:1 says, ‘We ought to give earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Thomas Watson said we should not let sermons run through our minds like water through a sieve.… Joseph Alleine said one way to remember the preached Word is to ‘come from your knees to the sermon, and come from the sermon to your knees.’”¹⁸

6. Put the Word into Practice; Be Doers of It (James 1:22-25)

“It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they ... meditate, and confer of it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.”¹⁹ If a patient does not take the medicine prescribed by the doctor, what good is it for him? Yet most often, by the time Tuesday morning rolls around, we've forgotten all about our pastor's sermon the Sunday before. Sermon notes are a great tool for reminding yourself of what was preached on Sunday later in the week, allowing you to continue meditating on the message. What's more, if your pastor is preaching through a book of the Bible, reviewing your notes from the previous Sunday's message could serve as a great warmup for hearing your pastor's next message.

In “How to Listen to a Sermon,” Stephen Altrogge recommends the following:

Throughout the course of a sermon, we should be constantly asking the question, “How does this apply to me?” God intends us not just to hear sermons, but to be transformed by sermons. For this to happen, we must diligently seek to apply the truths we hear. During the sermon, ask yourself, How does this truth apply to:

My job
My marriage
My parenting
My Bible reading
My hobbies
My friendships, etc²⁰

7. Beg the Spirit to Accompany the Word with Effectual Blessing

Jonathan Edwards put it this way, “The heart cannot be set upon an object of which there is no idea in the understanding. The reasons which induce the soul to love, must first be understood, before they can have a reasonable influence on the heart.”²¹ If there is to be both understanding and blessing from each sermon, we need to seek the Spirit’s work in our lives (John 16:13; Galatians 5:22-23).

8. Familiarize Yourself with the Word by Sharing It with Others²²

We should aim to apply each Sunday’s sermon to our own lives, even as we discuss it and encourage others to do the same (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). As we do so, counseling or discipleship is taking place. From Sunday to Sunday, we want to see our others “grounded in and fed by the Bible, and it very often happens with the Bible open, but not in every circumstance. It can happen in the car as we talk with our children, after church as we chat with someone about the content of the sermon, over the back fence as we talk with a neighbor about the gospel … in an article that we share and discuss on Facebook … and so on.”²³ Again, piety is not simply individualistic but has a predominant ecclesiological dimension that involves the pulpit.

“Believers are engrafted into Christ and his church, and spiritual growth occurs within the church. The visible church, as Calvin teaches, is therefore the mother, educator, and nourisher of every believer, for the Holy Spirit acts in her according to his promises. Believers cultivate piety by the Spirit through the church’s worship and teaching ministry, progressing from spiritual infancy to adolescence to full maturity in Christ; they do not graduate from the church on earth until they die.”²⁴ Therefore, let us counsel one another towards “piety through the pulpit!”

¹ “7 Spurgeon Quotes for Those Who Carry Burdens,” https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/7-spurgeon-quotes-for-those-who-carry-burdens.

² Bryan Gaines, “Unceasing Prayer in Counseling | Part 1,” CBCD, https://thecbcd.org/resources/unceasing-prayer-in-counseling-part-1.

³ John Calvin, Institutes 4.3.2.

⁴ Joel Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings (Reformation Heritage, 2008), 4.

⁵ Beeke, Family, 5.

⁶ The main points of this outline are adapted from Joel Beeke’s book The Family at Church.

⁷ Robbie Castleman, Parenting in the Pew (InterVarsity, 2002), 42.

⁸ Beeke, Family, 9.

⁹ Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian (Morgan: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1998), “The Right Hearing of Sermons” as referred to by “How to Listen to a Sermon,” The Reformed Reader, May 1, 2008, https://reformedreader.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/how-to-listen-to-a-sermon/.

¹⁰ Beeke, Family, 12-13.

¹¹ Beeke, Family, 7, 10.

¹² Beeke, Family, 21.

¹³ Beeke, Family, 21-22.

¹⁴ Love, quoted in “How to Listen to a Sermon.”

¹⁵ Love, quoted in “How to Listen to a Sermon.”

¹⁶ Beeke, Family, 26.

¹⁷ At Grace Community Church (gccministries.org), Bruce London summarizes each sermon into a song, which is then put to the tune of a familiar hymn and sung each Wednesday night at their small group sermon review gathering.

¹⁸ Beeke, Family, 25.

¹⁹ Westminster Catechism, Question 160.

²⁰ Stephen Altrogge, “How To Listen To A Sermon,” March 18, 2008, http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2008/03/how-to-listen-to-a-sermon.html.

²¹ Works of Jonathan Edwards, https://ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works2.vi.iii.iv.html.

²² Joel Beeke, Piety: The Heartbeat of Reformed Theology (P&R Publishing, 2015), 25.

²³ Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Vine Project (Matthias Media, 2016), 111.

²⁴ Beeke, Piety, 23-24.