How to Listen to a Sermon

For Lord’s Day, March 11, 2012

Dear Saints,

How should one listen to a sermon? The email below poses and answers this question. It is something I mentioned recently at a Wednesday night study that I had received and would forward as worth your considering to prepare for listening to God in worship. An important thing to remember is that each of us has a responsibility to prepare to be active listeners. Just like anything else in life, we get out of the sermon what we put in to listening to it for personal application.

As I read the email below, I thought of something else that is helpful for Bible study that also could be a useful tool for you in listening to sermons. Ask yourself two questions as you study and listen: 1) What am I to learn to believe about God?; and 2) What am I to learn that God requires of me to do? Of course, I hope you’ll give attention to the title that I state at the end of my introduction and conclusion in each sermon (also in the bulletin, and the main point of application intended for you to take with you). But these two questions are helpful also.

My Hebrew professor gave the above instruction as a helpful nugget in learning and applying Bible texts, and this is exactly how the Larger Catechism is divided in half. Question 5 says that the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. And the Larger Catechism expounds on the first idea (what to believe about God) with questions and answers 1 to 90. Then there is an actual subheading that instructs we will now expound on the second stated emphasis of Scripture (how we are to obey God) with questions and answers 91 to 196. This is a good way to think about and interact with God’s Word (of course always asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind). It is always wise to let the Larger Catechism guide you in such meditation of the main things God reveals to us in the Bible both in personal study and actively being engaged as a responsible listener in worship. On that note, one of the Larger Catechism’s question and answers gives more specific instruction on how you will most glorify God and enjoy Him in how you listen to Him in worship (and then live for him throughout the week):

What is required of those that hear the word preached?

Answer: It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.

You might find the brief article below beneficial to prepare for this Lord’s Day (the idea of the article came after reading a book about how to read a book).

May we all come to hear the Lord Jesus Christ (with Whom God the Father is well pleased) with reverence and awe as He takes us up into the heavenlies and upon the unshakable Mount Zion (Hebrews 12 – we will see our morning text referenced and applied there).

Semper Reformanda

How to Listen to a Sermon

Posted: 27 Feb 2012 09:56 AM PST

Editor’s Note: In the coming months, reformation21 will be reprinting some of our classic articles. This month’s selection comes from January 2002.

Shortly before college I read Mortimer Adler’s little classic How to Read a Book.  That may sound like an odd title.  After all, how could somebody read the book unless they already knew how to read?  And if they did know how to read, then why would they need to read it at all?

How to Read a Book turned out to be one of the most important books I have ever read.  Adler quickly convinced me that I didn’t know how to read a book after all–not really.  I didn’t know how to ask the right questions while I was reading, how to analyze the book’s major arguments, or how to mark up my copy for later use.  

I suspect that most people don’t how to listen to a sermon, either.  I say this not as a preacher, primarily, but as a listener.  During the past thirty-five years I have heard more than three thousand sermons.  Since I have worshiped in Bible-teaching churches all my life, most of those sermons did me some spiritual good.  Yet I wonder how many of them helped me as much as they should have.  Frankly, I fear that far too many sermons passed through my eardrums without registering in my brain or reaching my heart.  

So what is the right way to listen to a sermon?  With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action.

The first thing is for the soul to be prepared.  Most churchgoers assume that the sermon starts when the pastor opens his mouth on Sunday.  However, listening to a sermon actually starts the week before.  It starts when we pray for the minister, asking God to bless the time he spends studying the Bible as he prepares to preach.  In addition to helping the preacher, our prayers help create in us a sense of expectancy for the ministry of God’s Word.  This is one of the reasons that when it comes to preaching, congregations generally get what they pray for.

The soul needs special preparation the night before worship.  By Saturday evening our thoughts should begin turning towards the Lord’s Day.  If possible, we should read through the Bible passage that is scheduled for preaching.  We should also be sure to get enough sleep.  Then in the morning our first prayers should be directed to public worship, and especially to the preaching of God’s Word.  

If the body is well rested and the soul is well prepared, then the mind will be alert.  Good preaching appeals first to the mind.  After all, it is by the renewing of our minds that God does his transforming work in our lives (see Rom. 12:2).  So when we listen to a sermon, our minds need to be fully engaged.  Being attentive requires self-discipline.  Our minds tend to wander when we worship; sometimes we daydream.  But listening to sermons is part of the worship that we offer to God.  It is also a prime opportunity for us to hear his voice.  We should not insult his majesty by looking at the people around us, thinking about the coming week, or entertaining any of the thousands of other thoughts that crowd our minds.  God is speaking, and we should listen.

To that end, many Christians find it helpful to listen to sermons with a pencil in hand.  Although note taking is not required, it is an excellent way to stay focused during a sermon.  It is also a valuable aid to memory.  The physical act of writing something down helps to fix it in our minds.  Then there is the added advantage of having the notes for future reference.  We get extra benefit from a sermon when we read over, pray through, and talk about our sermon notes with someone else afterwards.

The most convenient place to take notes is in or on our Bibles, which should always be open during a sermon.  Churchgoers sometimes pretend that they know the Bible so well that they do not need to look at the passage being preached.  But this is folly.  Even if we have the passage memorized, there are always new things we can learn by seeing the biblical text on the page.  It only stands to reason that we profit most from sermons when our Bibles are open, not closed.  This is why it is so encouraging for an expository preacher to hear the rustling of pages as his congregation turns to a passage in unison.

There is another reason to keep our Bibles open: we need to make sure that what the minister says is in keeping with Scripture.  The Bible says, concerning the Bereans whom Paul met on his second missionary journey, “that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11; NKJV).  One might have expected the Bereans to be criticized for daring to scrutinize the teaching of the apostle Paul.  On the contrary, they were commended for their commitment to testing every doctrine according to Scripture.  

Listening to a sermon–really listening–takes more than our minds.  It also requires hearts that are receptive to the influence of God’s Spirit.  Something important happens when we hear a good sermon: God speaks to us.  Through the inward ministry of his Holy Spirit, he uses his Word to calm our fear, comfort our sorrow, disturb our conscience, expose our sin, proclaim God’s grace, and reassure us in the faith.  But these are all affairs of the heart, not just matters of the mind, so listening to a sermon can never be merely an intellectual exercise.  We need to receive biblical truth in our hearts, allowing what God says to influence what we love, what we desire, and what we praise.

The last thing to say about listening to sermons is that we should be itching to put what we learn into practice.  Good preaching always applies the Bible to daily life.  It tells us what promises to believe, what sins to avoid, what divine attributes to praise, what virtues to cultivate, what goals to pursue, and what good works to perform.  There is always something God wants us to do in response to the preaching of his Word.  We are called to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22; NKJV).  And if we are not doers, then we were not hearers, and the sermon was wasted on us. 

Do you know how to listen to a sermon?  Listening–really listening–takes a prepared soul, an alert mind, an open Bible, and a receptive heart.  But the best way to tell if we are listening is by the way that we live.  Our lives should repeat the sermons that we have heard.  As the apostle Paul wrote to some of the people who listened to his sermons, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:2-3; NKJV).

Dr. Philip G. Ryken is the president of Wheaton College. Prior to assuming this post, Dr. Ryken was for many years the senior minister of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. The author of numerous books and commentaries, Dr. Ryken’s latest book is Loving the Way Jesus Loves (Crossway, 2012).

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