How much knowledge may a preacher work out in a sermon? Generally, ministers have more knowledge than they are showing in their sermons and other activities. “Milk” must be distributed to the congregation and the “solid food.” There is a constant tension between the immediately appealing simplicity and the stability of full knowledge. Both need to be present. In the congregation there are children, young people, and adults. These are there according to age, but they are also there according to maturity in the understanding of the Word of God. Are we in danger of slowly sliding to a sure infantilization of the church?

Slow of Hearing⤒🔗

The Bible explicitly points to the slowness/dullness of hearing. This is mentioned literally in Hebrews 5:11. Already the author of the letter to the Hebrews was faced with this identified problem! He has much to say about the riches of Christ. But it is difficult for him to explain because the people have become slow of hearing. Time wise, they should have been teachers by now, but it did not happen. It is necessary again to be taught the first principles of the doctrines of God. Solid food is not yet spent on them because they cannot handle it. They need to be fed with milk. There are not too many objections against milk, but it is especially a nourishment that belongs to the immature, the children! And then the author says: everyone who still lives on milk has no knowledge of sound preaching. He is still an infant. The solid food is only for adults, who have by the use of it taught their senses the distinction between good and evil. There is an initial teaching regarding Jesus Christ, and there is the complete instruction. Both remain necessary. But we cannot remain stuck in the first lesson.

And Paul is warning us that the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. Their hearing has been spoiled. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, will turn away from listening to the truth, and wander off into myths. They just like to hear something different than the “ancient gospel” (see 2 Tim. 4:3-5).

Monologue?←⤒🔗

And so a tremendous tension has risen around the preaching. No preacher and no congregation are immune from this. The “monologue” (speech coming from one side) of the sermon is under pressure from all sides. Now it is easy to show that the sermon as proclamation of God’s own Word is not only a monologue, with only one-way traffic: from the man on the pulpit to the listening congregation. In the “monologue” of the sermon is indeed a tremendous dialogical moment. Let it be true that the congregation cannot respond audibly during the sermon. That does not diminish the authority of the congregation. Preachers sometimes may hear remarks like: God spoke to me during the sermon. God spoke to me and I had to answer him.

But preachers have to, as it were, compete with gifted and smooth worldly orators. And eloquence is a gift and an art. And when someone has received and developed this gift in order to be able to preach, then this is useful and pleasant for the congregation. It can also become a temptation for the preacher himself! But on the pulpit we are restricted by the Word of God! Paul says: Preach the Word, reprove, correct, in season and out of season. Whether your hearing is spoiled or not is not the issue. Congregations and preachers need to remain sober-minded all new developments. They need to accept the suffering that belongs to the task of an evangelist.

Our time is focused on “flashy information.” Bitesize and immediate accessible news items have to be served. The one moment this, the next something else. This all results in a certain degree of knowledge on the one hand. At the same time there is the danger that the unity of knowledge is under great pressure. In order to accommodate this modern fact, it is advocated to support the “monological sermon,” supplement it, or even replace it by visualization. Hearing alone is not sufficient anymore. Next to the sermon, for instance, there needs to be a place for drama and music, and for all kinds of videos. All of this would make the sermon more effective and boost the results. To what extent this tendency will advance, I am not able to anticipate. That the desire for it will become stronger than weaker for the time being, I fear.

Fear←⤒🔗

I fear it too.

Not because we are scared by nature. But because in the long run the content of the preaching will be severely affected by it. There is no better and stronger instrument than the sound preaching of the Word of God. Thinking about the design of the entire liturgy, and thus of the entire service, is a good thing. When the preaching is put under pressure by competing activities, one will discover that the sermon is going to be on the losing end. The content of the sermon is going to be affected. The space to also give to the congregation the solid food, the complete instruction concerning Christ, will be limited. A simplification will occur, against which the Bible is precisely warning so seriously.

The Knowledge←⤒🔗

Also the knowledge of the congregation needs to be fed. The knowledge of the Scriptures and of the confession of the church has to be kept at a certain level, and this knowledge needs upkeep! Not only upkeep—that is not sufficient—but also renewing and deepening. It is an alarming sign when people are opposing dogmas. I am not pleading for a “dogmatic” preaching, although it is not so easy to explain what “dogmatic” preaching is. The Reformation has specifically emphasized doctrine. A healthy teaching of the gospel. This doctrine can be explained in words and concepts. The church has been busy with this throughout the ages. It is an illusion to think that one could retain the knowledge and reject the “doctrines.” One will see that the knowledge disappears in a rush.

We must not go to an infantilzation of the church, to a simplification of the mighty aspects of the gospel by emphasizing the feelings, the experience, the feeling good about it. That building on feelings is building on quicksand. It is reckoning with eternity. With meeting our God. The Lord himself has to speak in the church services. And he desires to have all opportunity to say what he has to say. The entire Bible and the whole confession of the church needs to be heard. Of course, that is impossible in one or in a few services. Everyone will understand this. But also the radical criticism of the Word over our horizontal and often empty lives needs to be expressed, heard, and processed. Nothing is more powerful than when God really speaks. And then there is much room in the form of the preaching. That is fortunate. It may be in the traditional way, provided the glow and power of the Word shine through. It may also be done in a more modern way provided nothing is taken away from the Word.

The ministry of God’s Word operates in a back and forth between “milk” and “solid food.” Between the first principles regarding Christ and the complete instruction. There has to be something for children, too, in the service. But the more advanced in faith are not to be neglected. But they understand it when a preacher addresses the children too. And that he appeals to people who find themselves still in the early stages of their spiritual journey. Also in that respect there are infants, teenagers, fathers and mothers.

The Holy Spirit←⤒🔗

In the times ahead it will become more difficult. Both for preachers and congregations. And we are going to lose the rightful and necessary spot of the sermon as the ministry of God’s Word if the Holy Spirit does not come forcefully to our aid. In this respect, also the preachers are tested! What does the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding the Word, and with the Word mean for them? This is a powerful and shocking question, when put directly to the preachers. But they need to formulate a clear reply for themselves! Without the assistance and the inner work of the Holy Spirit, no man, not a church member either, can be convinced of the truth and the power of God’s Word. In the Scriptures, faith is a living faith, and all living faith needs to be nourished. That nourishment is the Word, that first of all comes to us in a sermon and which controls the whole service, even to the response and reaction of the listening congregation.

The Word Is Tasteful←⤒🔗

Let us be on our guard against the church turning toward immaturity. With that I say nothing negative about the looking for new ideas. We have to do it! The battle to preserve the second service is in many congregations already in full swing. In a number of congregations the attendance in the second service is pitifully low. And the congregations where people are in general (still) faithful should not be proud about it. Because after a number of years, everything may change just like that.

But from time to time it is necessary to put the modern coming of age under the criticism of the coming of age/fullness in Christ. That coming of age shows itself especially in faithfulness and obedience. In a desire to hear the genuine Word. That Word which is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrates so deeply into the deepest recesses of man, so that there is no escape. Blessed is the man who surrenders to that Word, and becomes nothing in himself or herself, so that by the grace of Christ they will become a new creation. Such people are hungering lifelong after the Word, for milk and solid food, and everything that belongs to it. Because the Word is tasteful. Always. Such congregations are not going to turn toward immaturity.

This article was translated by Karel leGrand.