The Consistory Discussion about the Sermon⤒🔗

There are numerous places of mutual encounter in the work of elders and pastors. After all, they are working together on the upbuilding of the same congregation and are sent by the same Lord of the church. No wonder they constantly meet each other in their work.

This article will reflect on a very important point on the consistory agenda, which we often conveniently describe as the application of the sermon. The minister works on this aspect every week, and the elders inquire about it on every home visit. When, then, the minister and the elders meet around the consistory table and the matter of preaching receives attention, this matter (namely, the application) will certainly be dealt with. At such a moment, the question is not whether the minister is engaged with passing on the latest exegetical tidbits to the church. The focus is on whether the sermon contains a concrete message for the congregation and whether the message is actually finding acceptance in the congregation.

Before we raise a number of questions about this issue, we need to realize that we are dealing with a beautiful topic here. It is apparently possible that a man presently conveys to the congregation a message from the eternal God. That person does not have a secret line of communication with God for this. He is not a recipient of messages-in-code, which only he is able to decipher. The heathen world has often served itself with such oracle figures (see, for example, Deuteronomy 18:10-14), but our Creator and Redeemer freed the people of God from all of their so-called organs of revelation. He gave his people the prophetic word (Deuteronomy 18:15, see also 2 Peter 1:19). He also ensured that this word was recorded for many generations. Since then it appears that it is possible that by explaining an age-old Bible text, the message of God for the human being of today becomes audible in clear everyday language. That old text was originally spoken in a completely different context, to other people, in other situations, in other political and cultural relationships. Nevertheless, a message for the present day comes to us from this text. As often as that happens, we face the miracle of God’s good care and salutary presence in the congregation.

Our amazement and marvel become even greater when we realize that he who brings the message is not a supernatural figure, but “a prophet from among us, from among the brethren” (see Deuteronomy 18:15). So, those brothers have him in their midst. Those brothers can converse with him in ordinary language about his word on behalf of God. They can all understand him, for he does not present his message in Latin. They can all speak to him, because he understands their language. Moreover, they can test his spoken word against the prophetic word that God gave to his church in the Bible. For all of these reasons, it is a wonderful thing when during the meeting between the preacher and the elders they discuss the topicality and the applicability of the preaching.

In this article, we want to pay special attention to this matter. In an effort to get a better view of the various aspects of it, we will raise a number of questions about this.

Of course, the most fundamental question concerns the nature of the Bible, which has been given to us as a church in this world. How is it possible that what we have just described is actually happening in the church service? An age-old text is explained, and that text speaks about events that are even older. It then appears from the explanation of such a text that a compelling and comforting message emerges for the church of God in our country, in our time. What is the reason for such actuality?

The reader will understand that we need to focus on these kinds of foundational questions,  if we do not want to miss the purpose of this article. That is why we want to formulate the same question in this way: How does the church arrive at the practice of connecting the preaching to a surviving Bible text? Can a preacher make it real, that in that old Bible God addresses today’s person? Or is that Bible really only a pious step above a current affairs column, where the pastor is the editor and for which he makes use of all the journalistic freedom and ingenuity he possesses? Why does the Reformed church insist that a sermon in the twentieth century represents the administration of the Word? And if the sermon needs to be like that, what then can a church member expect and what should a church council require, in terms of that weekly ministry? In short, when the elders and the pastor talk to each other about the preaching, what standard and what norms do they actually use?

The Sermon as Ministry←⤒🔗

We will first look carefully at a few concepts that we tend to use in this connection. After all, we are talking about the ministry of the Word and about the application of the sermon. These are familiar words, but what do these words actually mean?

Let us start with that word “ministry.” We find this word in many places in the Bible. Two texts are very important to us here.

In Acts 6:4 the twelve apostles say, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” In 2 Corinthians 5:18, 19, the apostle Paul writes about himself and his fellow apostles that “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Now, when we speak of the sermon as a matter of ministry of the Word, especially of reconciliation, we are saying at least two things about the sermon. Just like any “ministry,” this operation is also the last act of a long history and the first action in a process that is about to start. Anyone can easily understand this when he thinks about a daily meal. After all, another word for “ministry” is “serving” and this may carry the specific meaning of a table serving. Especially in Acts 6:1-4, that is immediately clear to everyone who closely looks at the connections of the text (the daily “serving” of the tables, see vv. 1-2).

Every day in our homes there is that moment when the table is set, and the meal is served. How much has happened prior to this! We do not only mean all the work in the kitchen done by the mother or wife, but we are also thinking back a bit further. There is actually a complete history to every ingredient of the meal. Just check where the potatoes, vegetables, fruit, meat, spices, bread, spreads, sugar, milk, tea and coffee come from. Imagine how many hands were needed to get all these products to end up in our homes! Anyone who starts to delve into it is faced with all kinds of complicated issues in many areas: agriculture, animal husbandry, cultivation of fruits, export, import, transport, markets, currencies, national and international economies, wholesale, retail, and so on. And then there is, finally, the expertise that we have at home: the purchasing and combining of the ingredients, the art of cooking and the delicious serving of the various dishes. When we look at it in this way, serving the meal is the final act that precedes the consumption and makes it possible to consume it. Before it came to this, a lot had to be done!

But with this, we have only heard half of the story. Because no one is fed simply by the meal being served. This serving requires that we receive it. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” (1 Corinthians 6:13) and the human body is created in such a way that it has the possibilities of receiving it: this complicated process through which food assimilates with a human being and becomes (literally!) “flesh” and “blood.” We call this process the “digestion” of the food and everyone knows that life and health have everything to do with it. That is why a lot will happen after the moment of serving it: It is the process of internalizing the food. That is not just an added point of interest or a random incident. On the contrary, everything was geared towards this, and the entire enormous procedure had been aimed to nourish us.

In the same way we now speak of that service or ministry, which we call the preaching or proclamation. Think of what all occurred before the sermon! The apostle writes about this in 2 Corinthians 5. Before he was entrusted with the word of reconciliation for ministry, God was engaged in Christ to reconcile the world to himself. Just that fact alone is something that we can keep on discussing. The sermon is based on the entire work of Christ. Without this work, a sermon could never be the ministry of reconciliation. Christ had already been working for centuries before the first sermon in the New Testament congregation could be proclaimed. When we as yet did not know anything, he already had us in mind.

Yes, he loved us while we were sinners and enemies (Romans 5:6-10). We can also think of all that work of God in the old dispensation, all that speaking and acting of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the many centuries preceding the coming of Christ. This includes the agelong work of the Holy Spirit that underlies the prophetic word (1 Peter 1:10-12). For centuries, the Spirit worked on that Bible of ours, which we take to church every Sunday. Advent and Christmas, Good Friday and Easter, Ascension and Pentecost—yes, all the work of the triune God in biblical history and church history serves as the background of every sermon we get to hear in our lives.

However, everyone will understand the simple fact that a sermon is being delivered and heard does not yet contain salvation in itself. As the sermon is administered and heard, a new process is starting and that is the decisive process: the word that is heard needs to receive a place in everyone’s own life. This does not mean that the word must be stored neatly in memory, just as a person can “store” all sorts of data. No, what matters is that the heard word of God is digested as spiritual food, internalized as “food for the soul” so that life with God becomes and remains powerful and healthy.

This is a matter that far exceeds our human capacity. We are not talking here about a procedure that we can program and direct as people. We are speaking about the typical work of the Holy Spirit, as we have professed it for centuries, for example, in the Canons of Dordt (Chapters III/IV, Articles 6-12).

It is the Spirit of God that proclaims salvation and in it proclaims reconciliation. It is that same Spirit who guarantees the “appropriation” of this salvation.

Ministry Is Application←⤒🔗

We have now come to the word “application” — the second word that we want to be thinking about in this article.

We just mentioned the word “appropriation” — a somewhat old-fashioned term but at the same time a meaningful word. It speaks to us of the procedure that cannot be missed if we indeed are to receive the salvation proclaimed by Christ, and proclaimed in the preaching, as the Word of our life. That bread has to be appropriated if it is to become our “own” (the root of “appropriation” is “proper,” meaning our own self.)

Note that the word “appropriation” has a disadvantage in that it is ambiguous. It can mean that someone gives me something, but it can also indicate that I take something as if it belongs to me. It can thus indicate the work of the Holy Spirit, who is involved in making me share in the proclaimed salvation (making it “part” of me), and it can describe the work of the church member who makes this salvation his own in active practice of faith. These two issues are of course closely related, but therefore this does not mean that they necessarily coincide.¹

This is why, this time, we choose the clearer word “application” when it comes to God’s work in us in the preaching. In our Reformed doctrine, we speak about the acquisition and application of salvation. With the latter term we think specifically of the work that Christ wants to do for us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit guarantees that salvation is “applied,” that is to say, it reaches its destination in human life. He causes us to share in Christ and in all his gifts. These are the good gifts Christ has gained and earned for us in his bitter suffering. For this work of application, the Holy Spirit uses the written word of the Bible. He speaks in that Word, and everything that has been written earlier has also been written for us (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15, 16). For this work the Holy Spirit then also uses the spoken word of preaching.

The sermon is the serving (the ad-ministration) of the gospel, and as such, it is the main instrument of the Spirit. In this, the acquisition of salvation reaches its destination, and the application of salvation takes place. In this way we receive righteousness and reconciliation, yes, eternal life (see 2 Corinthians 3:8-9; 4:1, 4-15; 5:18-21). The Holy Spirit works to bring the majestic work of salvation of Christ to its destination and completion by means of having it preached among many peoples.

He provides the decisive final link, by which he establishes the ultimate connection between the eternal, holy God and the lost man. We meet this Spirit in the sermon; we may expect that Spirit in the sermon. The preaching is subservient to that work of the Spirit, and the work of the elders on home visits serves that goal.

Since all this is true,, then we should understand the matter of application from the standpoint of the work of the Holy Spirit in and to the church. That in itself is an important conclusion, because this conclusion broadens our perspective, now that we are considering the so-called application in the sermon. We shall have to say, on the basis of the above, that the entire sermon brings out the application as a work of the Holy Spirit.

Application is therefore not just the practical, focused message at the end of the sermon. Throughout the sermon the Holy Spirit is working with us, on us, and in us to give us the salvation of Christ. Application is therefore not merely a component or final part of the sermon, but it should be characteristic of the sermon as such.

The congregation undoubtedly needs to realize this; she should not wait for the practical, concrete message, but internalize the sermon as a whole. But first of all, the preacher needs to realize that the matter of application must be understood in this way. After all, what does it mean to him, when the entire sermon is and should be application? In any case, this belongs: that the indispensable explanatory parts in the sermon also need to stand in the tone of the address and of the appropriation. The whole sermon should be “appropriate” as a ministry. “Ministry” and “application” are apparently two words for the same thing. It is therefore not: ministry = explanation and application. What concerns us is that explanation as ministry = application.

Thus, whoever asks for the applicability of the preaching, asks for the character of the sermon as the administration of the Word. A minister works by observing this norm and there should be no other standard that the church council should use in thinking and speaking about preaching. That is why the question cannot be asked at a consistory meeting, whether the minister sometimes makes use of appealing, concrete, timely and zesty comments in his sermon. The question is whether the preaching as such represents digestible food for the church. In this case we mean the bread that the Holy Spirit has prepared in the Scriptures and that he has entrusted for ministry. Such bread is bread for the heart.

The Alignment of the Sermon←⤒🔗

In what follows we plan to focus on the preliminary result of our story and to give some concrete shape to it. We do this by paying attention to the next facet of the “ministry”: that is, the alignment and coordination.

That is how it goes with every meal: the food is selected and prepared for the meal, taking into consideration the needs and possibilities of the table guests. A sermon being “served” or “administered” therefore also needs to have the characteristic of being in tune with the hearers and their situation.

“Ministry of the Word” is not simply the recitation of a number of sacred formulas. The minister does not utter a number of Hebrew or Greek oracle texts. He speaks in the common language and tells us an old story in contemporary terms.

How the message is specifically served from the pulpit is of course different than when it concerns a personal visit. During a personal visit, one can end up with the conversation being entirely in tune with a particular person. We could call such precise work “fine-tuning.”

When the minister is preaching, he does so in the context of liturgy and addresses the congregation as a whole. That congregation consists of a larger or smaller number of people who have a great deal in common: one faith, one baptism, one Lord (Ephesians 4:3-6). They are all addressed from one and the same Bible, and from one and the same text. At the same time, everyone knows that every congregation displays a great diversity where it concerns character, needs, expectations, intellectual capacities, ages, situations, and life stories. If we were to pay attention to this alone, it would be questionable whether there would ever be any possible alignment with such a multi-coloured crowd. Yet there is indeed “alignment“ taking place in the meeting of this rather varied congregation.

The minister addresses his listeners on the basis of the great entity that all church members hold in common: the covenant with God, the Father of Jesus Christ. The preacher does not tire the congregation with all sorts of things that he needed to considered in his study. That was part of his “work in the kitchen,” which does not need to be discussed at the “table.”

The minister will ensure that he does not present any indigestible materials; for example, through the use of obscure words or by pseudo-scholarly speeches. As much as possible the preacher will take into account the situation, needs and problems that he is aware of in the congregation. But even if he takes all of this into account, every church member will have to be grateful if the alignment is at the level of a reasonable average.

All conversation about the appropriate character of the preaching will have to keep this fact in mind. It is a given with the nature of the liturgy, for which the entire congregation comes together.

We will agree that, from a liturgical point of view, it is a monstrosity to organize a children’s service during the worship, in order to compensate the children for the fact that the sermon is not specifically attuned to them. After all, we do not organize an ancillary service for the seniors, or an ancillary service for the handicapped. But that fact obliges us, therefore, to fairness with regard to the sermon, which as a rule finds its attunement at the level of the reasonable average.

What does this requirement for overall coordination mean in practice for the preacher? To answer this question, we would like to draw attention to the following five perspectives.

1. The minister needs to respect the congregation.←↰⤒🔗

The church is the church of Christ, the house of the Spirit. This Holy Spirit does not work exclusively through the minister on the pulpit. He lives in the church, in the homes and in the hearts of the believers. The work of the Holy Spirit also reaches the children through the service of their parents. Adults can also read the Bible for themselves, can call upon God and make decisions in their lives. Church members are able to process the Word of God and give it a place in the many varied situations in which they find themselves. With one and the same sermon, the Holy Spirit does everything that pleases him. In it he also surpasses the pastor’s thoughts and expectations, like any pastor has experienced, more than once, to his own astonishment.

This respect for the church and for the Holy Spirit can preserve us from a stilted approach. The minister does not have to patronize the church members or act like a mother hen. The congregation has no need for busy or bossy people who interfere with everything, have an opinion on everything, make decisions for all sorts of people and who use the pulpit for the publication of one or multiple ideas.

2. That brings us automatically to our next point: the preacher needs to respect the pulpit.←↰⤒🔗

This pulpit is the place that the Holy Spirit has reserved for the proclamation of the gospel and the law of Christ. That pulpit is not meant to provide a podium for a chatty person. It is not about the minister being given the chance to pass on his commentary on the news once a week. It is not the intention that he climbs on the pulpit to make his contribution in an ongoing debate. Nor is he expected to tell us how all matters in society, in politics, in our country and in the world should be arranged. All of that is far beyond his ability and below his status. We could also say that it is below the status of the pulpit. The pulpit is about the gospel and the law of Christ, as recorded in the Bible. For that is the Word that the Holy Spirit has passed on to the church of the ages, and it is for this purpose that the minister was called to serve.

3. The minister also needs to respect his text.←↰⤒🔗

The minister needs to respect his text, because as a servant of the Word, he is there for the sake of that Word, and that Word is very concrete in this or that text. Through the explanation, the opening of that text, he has to show the glory of God and show the congregation the richness of dealing with this God. He has to show the church how life-saving and life-fulfilling it is to serve this God in the midst of a complicated world. He needs to entice the congregation with the expectation of the glorious future that they will experience. That is how a minister may cooperate in the joy of faith (2 Corinthians 1:24).

4. Ministers need to be concrete and specific in their preaching←↰⤒🔗

Sometimes the servant of the Word, out of respect for the text and the congregation, has to become very concrete and speak very specifically. On such an occasion, he as a servant of the Word, goes far into the practical life of the church members, and directly confronts himself with the great powers in that life: grief, temptation, problems or sins. Sometimes, a hard fight has to be fought with all such forces. What really matters here is that the living, active power of the Word of God will be shown to the church unambiguously.

But no matter how far the preacher goes into practical aspects of life, his words must remain transparent as words that make the content of the text visible. Words that merely express the minister’s preferences or personal pattern of life are sometimes very interesting, but are entirely out of order at that moment and in this place.

Every lawful concretization (specific application) will have to rely on focused exegesis. And every minister who understands his office will realize that every concretization has to be considered well. For it has the advantage of sharpening the message, but it also carries the risk of narrowing the reach of it. In the meantime, it is beyond all doubt that careful coordination with the concrete situation of the church members is part of the good pastoral care that goes out to the congregation in the preaching.

Now, when this particular matter receives a place in the discussion around the consistory table, that is quite the right thing to do. But such a discussion is therefore also determined by a deeper question: is the sermon as such bread for the church? Someone who bears responsibility for the health of the family will need to be aware of the quality of the bread. Moreover, he will sometimes cut and serve that bread in small pieces. As long as it is “bread”!

Sometimes there are people in the church who are waiting for the practical, pithy word; the explanation of the text hardly interests these people. Such a wait-and-see attitude is completely incorrect. In the same way there could also be ministers who seek their strength in an animated style and who lavishly sprinkle their sermons with pointed remarks, respectable opinions or valiant appeals. But where is the exegetical foundation? The congregation has a right and a need for “bread.” An appetizing bowl of fruit cannot replace this. It is specifically the elders who have to be on guard at this point, who need to contradict unwarranted desires of church members on the home visit. At the consistory meeting they need to fight the craving for the cheap effect either on their side or on the minister’s side.

5. Ministers need to apply discretion and wisdom.←↰⤒🔗

Situations may occur in which the preacher should not specifically say “Yes” or “No” from the pulpit with regard to an issue that is living in the congregation. In that case, it is not a matter of staying neutral (imagine: a neutral herald of the truth!) or of being afraid to get burned by an issue. A servant of the gospel may not act cowardly (2 Timothy 1:7). But over against this fear there is no recklessness or brutality, but “power and love and self-control,” according to Paul’s word to Timothy.

Occasionally, situations arise in which the servant of Christ shows the required power, love and self-control by putting a disputed matter in a broader context. That is very concrete help for the congregation! After all, in many debates in ecclesiastical circles there is often a kind of “narrowing of the mind,” or, we could say, “losing sight of the proper dimensions.” At such a time it is precisely the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to broaden the view of the congregation. Look at the apostle Paul, for example with regard to the question about the eating of the sacrificial meat. Look specifically at how he put the matter in a broader redemptive-historical framework, before he came to conclusions! And in his conclusions, he did not deprive anyone of his own responsibility before God.

Serving the Work of the Holy Spirit Together←⤒🔗

We have now considered a number of possibilities that helps the servant of the Word in aligning his sermon. When the textual explanation is sound and relevant, he can arrange his sermon in pastoral wisdom and responsibility by making use of such possibilities. He will endeavour to show the congregation the face of Christ in all of this, and to make her realize what the work of the Holy Spirit is in her midst. We cannot grieve him, let alone extinguish him. On the contrary, we need to give him joy through the sanctification of our actual lives.

In this article, we have discovered that all our thinking and speaking about applied preaching begins and ends with contemplating the work of the Holy Spirit. He gave us the Bible in the form in which we possess it today. He speaks to us today in those words of that earlier time and those are words of truth and wisdom.

Apparently, he had also expected us when he made prophets and apostles into Bible writers. He gave us the offices for the sake of guarding the Word, and for the victory of the message of truth in this world filled with turmoil and contradiction. He lives in the congregation and works in our hearts. He knows how to use people for all of this: people who prepare and deliver sermons; people who go on home visits and who consult each other in their consistory meetings. When we really know the Spirit, the attention that is paid to preaching will also show the high level or respect to which this glorious matter is entitled.

On the other hand, it results in considerable damage when this part of the consistory work would be lacking or when it would hardly represent anything. The preacher will then feel lonely in regard to his core work assignment and the elders will not know which attitude to have on home visits, because their speaking to the families is not supported by forming opinions in the church council on the matter of preaching. Perhaps they have unspoken questions about the “seed” in their own hearts, while their mouth is inquiring about the “fruit” in the families.

When the discussion on the preaching does get off the ground, this can be of great significance for the upbuilding of the church. In this way a wise minister will receive a lot of encouragement for his work on sermons. Because when he can listen (quite an art for a minister!), he will be able to hear a lot about the effects in the lives of church members based on his weekly effort to make sermons. He will be stimulated to correct certain parts of his method or to address subjects that have not yet been addressed in preaching. He can, through conversation with the elders, check whether he asks the real questions in his sermons that live or resonate in the hearts of the church members. Moreover, he will have the opportunity to share with the elders his needs and his joys in regard to the obligatory weekly sermon. In this way, the consistory meetings will gain in their content. For why should we not specifically cause the consistory to also reflect on this central instrument that the Holy Spirit wants to use in his church and in the world? That is the hallmark of Christ’s church: to maintain the pure preaching of the gospel (see Belgic Confession, Article 29).

It is not difficult to make a lot of noise or to have deep discussions about what constitutes “the true church.” But the quiet work of maintenance, to which this first characteristic of the church obliges us, is really worthy of the designation as “church work.