Preaching As Worship - Gospel Reformation Network

Introduction

Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously pointed out that if one cannot tell the difference between preaching and teaching then that person has never heard true preaching. Unfortunately, this is often still true today. Biblical preaching certainly teaches, but it is more than teaching. It heralds God’s word with divine authority, presses the claims of Christ upon the conscience, and calls sinners and saints alike to worship the living God. (1) But preaching also has a central ingredient that can be neglected today. Preaching is the chief element of worship. Preaching is worship.

Preaching As An Ambassador

All elements of the worship service lead up to the preaching and respond to the preaching. The preaching of the gospel of God is the main act of the service—without which it would not be a worship service. It is especially in the preaching that we meet with the speaking God. Christ is truly present through the faithful biblical preaching of His ambassador to all who are present. As Lloyd-Jones said, “Any true definition of preaching must say that that man is there to deliver the message of God, a message from God to those people. If you prefer the language of Paul, he is ‘an ambassador for Christ’.” (2)

Because preaching is an element of worship, a sermon is more than a Sunday School or small group teaching session. It is different from a seminary classroom or a one-to-one discipleship session. Preaching is not a lecture. Again, Lloyd-Jones shows the distinction between a sermon and a lecture. “[A lecture] is primarily and almost exclusively to the mind; its object is to give instruction and state facts… So a lecture, again, lacks, and should lack, the element of attack, the concern to do something to the listener, which is a vital element in preaching.” (3)

A Sermon Is More Than Teaching

Today’s “preaching” is almost exclusively teaching which results in genuine preaching being ignored, rejected, and rebuked. In today’s preaching landscape, we might hear some defend their messages to qualify as sermons. When you look under the hood, we often hear an explanation of the text, several quotes from commentators or favorite authors, a few illustrations, and some applications. This style might even be a monologue, expositional, logical, persuasive, and possessing rhetorical questions. But this is not necessarily preaching. This can still be a lecture that adds some life application. A sermon goes beyond a lecture.

There is the necessity of teaching in sermons today. We cannot herald a text that people cannot understand. Preaching must involve teaching, but it also goes beyond it. It must herald and it must have the primary goal of bringing people to worship “on the spot”.

The Central Element Of Worship

Preaching is not always in the context of a worship service. There is “street” preaching, campus preaching, sports chaplain preaching, preaching before a governmental body, or even preaching in a retirement home. Preaching can and should happen in many different contexts (see Acts 17). But preaching primarily happens in the worship service and it occurs there as an element of worship. David Strain says,

“But we are not just arguing that worship results from the preaching of the Word. We are arguing that biblical preaching is worship. It is an act of worship commanded by the Word of God. As such, the central place of worship in our services highlights the fact that in worship, God moves toward us first. We are there to meet with him and to hear from him and to be dealt with by him, under his Word and by his Spirit; only secondarily and reflexively are we there to offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.” (4)

Again, Strain says,

“Preaching is worship because God is exalted in the proclamation of his grace in the midst of the assembly of his people and to the ends of the earth.” (5)

The goal of preaching is to magnify the Triune God and His gospel of grace according to the biblical text at hand, in such a way that is faithful to the original context, our modern situation, and the timeless truths that the Spirit intends for us. Worship involves happiness, fear, lament, humility, assurance, confession, action, correction, and more. Preaching ought to produce all of this across many different sermons. Chiefly, worship is concerned with God. Preaching heralds His Being and His Work. Expositional preaching is not simply about explaining the text verse by verse and phrase by phrase. It is with the goal of encountering the God of that text and to worship Him right then and there based on the truth that is proclaimed.

Preaching God

That means that preaching is not merely about God, but preaching preaches God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, biblical preaching induces saving faith. Jesus shows up in the preaching (Rom. 10:14; Eph. 2:17) and speaks to us individually and corporately. The Father assures us of our adoption right then and there. We don’t simply explain truths about God, but we hold Him out to be taken hold of by the hand of saving faith. God, through the preacher, offers Himself to those who are listening. He invites us into a relationship with Him and He invites us to grow in our relationship with Him. This is not simply relaying information; preaching presses the gospel home to the heart (thoughts, affections, and actions).

This means that preaching requires much prayer—not merely from the pastor but also congregants. Much preaching loses some of its power, not because the pastor isn’t prayerful, but because the people aren’t. To benefit most from the preaching, the pulpit and the pew must prioritize personal, private worship. This is not prioritized over public worship, but it prioritized so that we can benefit from more from public worship. James Durham says about ministers, “It is the nature of the ministry that it requires communion with God and standing in His counsel (Jer. 23:18, 22). Without this, it may be accounted a stealing of His Word without acknowledging of Himself (v. 30).” (6)

If preaching is worship then this changes our expectation, preparation, and reflection. Our expectation of the preaching changes from entertainment, consumeristic, and “just give me some life principles” and to a deep reverence, experiential faith, and heartfelt worship of the living God. We aren’t listening to a religious TED talk; we are there to hear from God Almighty and who commands us to give our entire life to Him. Our preparation to listen to this preaching is different from everything else in life. It is different from small groups, Sunday School, and personal devotions. Preaching is when God more especially “shows up” to meet with us through His Word. It is an encounter with the Holy, Holy, Holy God. This requires self-examination, prayer, mental preparation, hearts ready to receive the faithful preaching, and the desire to gather with God’s people. This also means that our reflection upon the preaching is far different than sermon criticism. Rather, it takes the form of humbling ourselves under the faithful preaching, receiving it with faith, reflecting on our lives, confessing and repenting, believing that His grace is for us, resting upon Christ alone, and joyfully pursuing obedience. There is a time for sermon feedback, but it is far less than how frequently it happens today. A mindset of rating the preaching and critiquing the sermon develops into a hardened heart that will receive nothing from God unless it meets our itchy ears. We must be like the Bereans, but you don’t read about the Bereans adopting a Thomas Jefferson approach of: “Here is what I’ll believe and here is what I’ll reject.”

Conclusion

It is worth concluding by quoting the man we started with. “What is the chief end of preaching? I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence… I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ my Savior, and the magnificence of the Gospel.” (7)

(1) Thank you to Matt Adams for this wonderful feedback on this part of the article.

(2) Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI, 1972), p.53.

(3) Lloyd-Jones, p. 71.

(4) David Strain, Expository Preaching (P&R Publishing: Phillipsburg, NJ, 2021), p. 71-72.

(5) Strain, p. 73.

(6) James Durham, Preventing Ministry Failure (Reformation Heritage Books: Grand Rapids, MI, 2022), p. 11.

(7) Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI, 2011), p. 110-111.