HOW TO HEAR A SERMON by William Boekestein for Core Christianity
It is possible to hear over 4,000 hours of preaching in a lifetime. Reading the Bible even five minutes a day could add an additional 2,000 hours of Scripture intake. And every encounter with God’s word is life-changing (Is. 55:11). Charles Simeon said that every sermon “increases either our salvation or our condemnation.” How we hear affects how we are changed.
The question is practical: “How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, 89).
God uses “especially the preaching” of the word to renovate sinners (WSC, 89). Scripture was written to be heard (Rom. 10:17), explained, and applied (Acts 8:31). Learning to profit from preaching, then, can equip us to benefit from other encounters with Scripture, all of which demand both divine and human energy to be fruitful. True hearing requires God’s recreating work. Apart from God’s blessing people hear the words of the sermon but miss the God of the sermon. They hear about Christ but do not receive Christ. But proper hearing also demands our diligence. Preachers must rightly handle the text (James 3:1). Listeners must rightly handle the sermon (Mark 4:24–25). Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 3:22). “Take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18).
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If we hope for the preached word to “become effectual to salvation we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives” (WSC, 90). We can simplify that instruction into the three vital actions of preparing for, receiving, and applying the sermon.
Prepare for the Sermon
Prepare mentally. Don’t come to church to hear a polished speech or to fulfill others’ expectations. Come to meet with God and hear how Jesus is food and drink for your hungry and thirsty soul. We should be like Cornelius who told Peter, “We are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord” (Acts 10:33). David’s attitude was right: “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 84:2).
