Paul Davison 

Two perspectives on the preaching experience:

As a preacher, there are certain convictions that keep me preaching sermons. I want to set those before you so that you might not lose heart – so that you will want to hear sermons preached. Those convictions have to do with the nature of God and the way God works.

God is a Speaking God

God the Trinity is the originator of communication. Before the universe was created: Father, Son and Spirit shared in perfect communication – speaking to one another. How else are we to understand:

• John 17 where Jesus prays to the Father,
• or Jesus’ baptism where the Father speaks from heaven
• Or Jesus’ promise that the Spirit “will not speak on his own; he will speak only what
  he hears” (John 16:13)

And human beings, men and women, have been made in the image of God and imitate his communication. We speak because he speaks.

God Reveals Himself Through His Words

That’s how you get to know someone – through their words. How have strangers become your friends? Through their words. You might be able to make some guesses about the lives of strangers as you walk around the shopping centre or the supermarket – their appearance, clothes, things they are buying etc. – but you can’t have a relationship without words.

Without God’s words people can make their best guess about God and what he is like and what pleases him and what offends him – but unless God tells us, we can never know for sure. The God of the Bible, the Christian God, the God shown to us in the Lord Jesus Christ – is a God who has spoken and revealed himself to us, told us what he is like – we can know God through his speaking. God reveals himself through his word.

Which means that we can truly say that we know God personally if we have a relationship with him centred on his words.

Scripture is God’s Word to Them for Us

We have in the Bible, not just an ancient record of what God said a long time ago. Rather we have God’s contemporary word. God is speaking today to us through the words that he said to them.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us … (Romans 15:4)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness … (2 Timothy 3:16)

The Bible is God speaking to us today. It is a contemporary and relevant word - coming to us dressed in old clothes, yes – but nevertheless God’s word for us here and now. In J.I. Packer’s words the Bible is God preaching – preaching to me and you every time we hear or read any part of it – God the Father preaching God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word is Powerful and Effective of Reality

“God’s revelation begins with a sermon; God preaches and the world is made. God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. Six sermons are preached in a wonderful sequence; the Word of God is proclaimed in heaven’s pulpit and all comes to pass; the preaching forms the universe. The Word preached is no empty word; it accomplishes what it pleases and never returns void to him who speaks.”

God speaks, and his words are powerful, effective and creative of reality. The God who speaks is the God who acts through his words. God accomplishes things, something happens with God’s word. So that Paul can write: “The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”. The message, the good news, God’s word about Jesus has the power to save a soul, transform a life, rescue a person, and change the ultimate trajectory of their life from hell to heaven.

And so as a preacher I function under the conviction that when the Bible is taught God’s voice is heard. To hear God’s voice is to come to truly know God and to have your life powerfully transformed by his Word.

• My aim is to teach the Bible so that God’s contemporary and relevant word is heard.
• My aim is to be faithful to the Scriptures believing that God will speak today.
• My aim is to let the word do the work of changing lives.

Church and Sermons

Couldn’t we just hear God’s voice through our own reading of the Bible – and cut out the middle man, so to speak: “Do I still need to hear a sermon in church?”

Look at the two churches set before us in Hebrews 12. As we think about the place of sermons in church, let’s look at the place of God’s word in these two churches.

In Hebrews 12:18-21 we are pointed to the occasion when the Israelites, having been brought out of Egypt through God’s power, are led by Moses to Mt Sinai where the Lord comes to them to establish a covenant, a contract of agreement – he will be their God, and they will be his people. And that relationship is ratified through the giving of the Old Testament law – the Ten Commandments, the establishment of a sacrificial system and priests and so on. But the experience for the people was absolutely terrifying – fire, darkness, gloom, storm, judgement, and death for any transgressions – even Moses was trembling with fear.

And what was the key ingredient of the whole event? God’s word – God’s speaking. But that was unbearable for the people: “such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them”.

Surprisingly, what is it that most people want God to do? How do they want God to give them guidance and tell them what to do? What do they say? “If only God would speak to me in a voice I could hear!”

Well, it happened to these people and they begged for it to stop. We fail to realise what a kindness it is to us that a holy God doesn’t speak directly to sinful people – the experience would be too terrifying. But God in his kindness gives others to speak.

The people didn’t want God to speak to them, rather they wanted Moses to be the one who spoke on God’s behalf. And so ‘Moses came and told the people all that the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, “All that the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”’ Moses is God’s mouthpiece – God gives his words to his servant, who is to pass them on to others. Moses is the prototype preacher. He takes God’s word and teaches it to the people.

In Hebrews 12:22-24 we’re pointed to the second picture of church – the church gathered in heaven - and we have a complete contrast. Not this time fear and gloom and punishment, but rather myriads of angels, joyfulness, people made perfect – Jesus is there. Jesus is a better Moses who is the mediator of a new covenant – a new contract of agreement for the people of God. That relationship is ratified not by the giving of law, but of grace and forgiveness through the blood of Christ – that speaks a better word than the blood of Able.

When Cain murders his brother, and the Lord says to Cain: “Listen! Your brother’s blood of cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Abel’s blood cried out for justice, for vengeance, for retribution. But one greater than Abel – the Lord Jesus, his sprinkled blood speaks a better word – his blood cries out offering mercy, promising forgiveness and reconciliation.

Both the Old Testament and New Testament churches are formed around the word of God. The very purpose of both gatherings is to hear from God. In fact, it is the word of God which brings the church into existence. People are called by the gospel into a new community – called to be part of the people of God. However, the New Testament church surpasses the Old Testament church: because it has a greater word, a more important message. Which is exactly the point that the author of Hebrews makes in verse 25.

What should the church on earth be doing as an expression of their participation in the church in heaven? Listening to the one who speaks from heaven – the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the one who spoke a long time ago, rather it is the one who is speaking. It is not the one on earth who speaks, rather it is the one who is in heaven. And yet the church on earth is to listen to the one in heaven as he speaks to us now. How? Through the Bible!

The function of a sermon is to set before you the Lord Jesus speaking from heaven to his church on earth; to set before you the better word of grace and restoration through the sprinkled blood of a crucified saviour – which is the message of the whole Bible.