Pride and Humility in Criticizing Sermons
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John recently led a Q&A session
00:00:07.340 | with the students of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.
00:00:10.300 | Here's a question from one of the students.
00:00:12.380 | - Pastor John, I just wanna say that it's an honor
00:00:15.020 | to speak with you today and thank you
00:00:16.980 | for your lecture earlier.
00:00:17.820 | I'm a product of the New Calvinism movement,
00:00:20.940 | but I wanted to ask you more of a Pastor John
00:00:23.180 | type of question.
00:00:24.660 | As an MDiv student and with the training,
00:00:27.380 | the exceptional training that I'm getting here at WTS,
00:00:30.940 | I struggle when I listen to sermons.
00:00:33.020 | I take out that MDiv red pen.
00:00:35.660 | And it's not that I'm looking for any sort of error,
00:00:39.980 | but it's like, I don't know,
00:00:42.260 | did you faithfully preach that text?
00:00:43.920 | I find that as a temptation for me.
00:00:46.380 | I don't think I'm the only one,
00:00:47.460 | but how do I control that?
00:00:51.260 | I'm naturally a Berean, but I think sometimes
00:00:53.380 | I'm like a Berean on steroids.
00:00:54.980 | So I just wanna see how can I control this?
00:00:57.660 | I don't wanna be overly critical,
00:00:59.020 | but I think it's important to discern
00:01:00.740 | what I'm hearing too.
00:01:01.780 | - That's a good question.
00:01:04.900 | I mean, I'm 68 and I tend that way.
00:01:10.580 | I mean, I listen that way to sermons.
00:01:13.020 | So I have to preach to myself.
00:01:16.300 | Here's my answer for me.
00:01:18.860 | And it is only an answer by grace at any given moment.
00:01:23.180 | That is the answer works at any given moment
00:01:25.860 | because of grace arriving at that moment.
00:01:28.100 | So a theoretical answer to your question right now
00:01:30.300 | may have no effect on you whatsoever
00:01:32.060 | because grace is applying it at that moment.
00:01:34.900 | So get that difference?
00:01:36.400 | Having answers here and having it work
00:01:38.660 | in the moment of being excessively critical
00:01:40.860 | aren't the same thing.
00:01:42.020 | But it helps to have answers
00:01:43.460 | because the Holy Spirit then uses
00:01:45.220 | right theological thinking.
00:01:46.640 | So my answer is, number one,
00:01:51.380 | it is a good thing to be discerning
00:01:53.660 | and to test all things and to hold fast what is good.
00:01:56.100 | You cannot not assess preaching.
00:01:59.300 | All right?
00:02:01.980 | To be indifferent to error in preaching
00:02:04.460 | is to be a bad listener.
00:02:06.460 | To be indifferent to sloppiness in preaching
00:02:08.900 | is to be a bad listener.
00:02:10.260 | To be indifferent to lousy exegesis with true points,
00:02:15.460 | true points, false texts, is to be a bad listener.
00:02:19.220 | So all that, I'm just affirming that.
00:02:20.780 | So I'm affirming that you have that bent
00:02:23.540 | and seminary gives you that bent,
00:02:25.500 | or if you have it already, it makes it worse.
00:02:27.820 | (audience laughs)
00:02:28.660 | Or better.
00:02:29.500 | - That's my problem.
00:02:30.320 | - I don't know how you look at it.
00:02:31.180 | However, now that we've said that,
00:02:33.700 | can we benefit from imperfect sermons?
00:02:37.800 | Not if you're proud.
00:02:39.980 | Not if you're so consumed with needing
00:02:46.140 | to show him he's wrong,
00:02:48.420 | or even needing to whisper it to the person,
00:02:50.620 | did you hear what he said?
00:02:53.540 | There's this impulse in you to identify the error
00:02:58.540 | and talk about the error
00:03:01.340 | and make sure everybody knows you saw the error.
00:03:03.620 | All that's pride.
00:03:04.640 | That's pride.
00:03:06.680 | What can replace it is,
00:03:10.300 | I am a broken, imperfect, corrupt, proud,
00:03:15.300 | marriage embattled, imperfect dad
00:03:20.020 | who needs God to talk to me
00:03:22.660 | through any ass he wants.
00:03:25.740 | That's a biblical illusion.
00:03:27.380 | (audience laughs)
00:03:30.220 | Balaam's ass.
00:03:32.140 | I need this animal to talk to me.
00:03:39.060 | And if an animal can talk to me,
00:03:41.520 | so can this God creature.
00:03:44.740 | I think, in other words,
00:03:47.260 | my sense of need and imperfection
00:03:50.740 | can override his imperfection.
00:03:54.900 | So that Jay Packer said,
00:03:57.260 | I asked him one time,
00:03:58.380 | how can you be so gracious to so many Arminian types?
00:04:02.620 | (audience laughs)
00:04:04.020 | And he said, I'm always looking for the needle
00:04:06.500 | in a haystack of error.
00:04:08.100 | In fact, he says in his book,
00:04:09.900 | "Keep in Step with the Spirit,"
00:04:12.000 | God loves to honor the needle of truth
00:04:16.340 | in a haystack of error.
00:04:18.740 | Now, if that's true,
00:04:20.100 | and I think it probably is,
00:04:21.900 | then we can do that in a listening to a sermon.
00:04:25.100 | So it comes down to whether I am a broken-hearted,
00:04:30.100 | humble person, aware of my need,
00:04:34.260 | aware of my sin, aware of my imperfection,
00:04:36.100 | so that I lay down the brazen, proud need
00:04:41.100 | to be known as a good listener who is so critical
00:04:45.820 | and can just listen for the truth.
00:04:48.700 | Let the fact that he always does this
00:04:51.580 | or always does this,
00:04:52.540 | or just ask the Lord to give you the grace
00:04:56.460 | to look right through the strange ticks
00:04:59.340 | and the incomplete grammar
00:05:02.300 | and the inadequate exegesis.
00:05:04.180 | The man probably has 10 true things to say this morning.
00:05:08.540 | Get 'em.
00:05:11.140 | And then ask the Lord to apply 'em like crazy
00:05:12.980 | in your needy life.
00:05:15.020 | Thank you.
00:05:16.660 | - That was Pastor John leading a Q&A session recently
00:05:18.900 | at Westminster Seminary.
00:05:20.460 | And related to this topic is the essential point
00:05:22.820 | of understanding what's actually happening
00:05:24.500 | during the live experience
00:05:25.720 | as your pastor preaches the word.
00:05:27.500 | Pastor John described this as, quote,
00:05:29.620 | "A supernatural encounter with the living God
00:05:32.620 | "as the preacher worships over the word
00:05:34.560 | "and draws the people into an experience of God Almighty
00:05:38.300 | "through his proclamation," end quote.
00:05:41.180 | He said that in episode number 118 in this podcast series
00:05:44.580 | and a podcast titled, "Is the 40-Minute Sermon Passé?"
00:05:48.260 | That episode can be found
00:05:49.260 | in the Ask Pastor John podcast archive,
00:05:51.020 | which is most easily found in the free iPhone and iPad app.
00:05:54.780 | Again, that's episode number 118.
00:05:57.300 | Tomorrow we return to talk about one bold way
00:06:00.020 | churches can intentionally pursue ethnic diversity.
00:06:03.900 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:06:04.740 | We'll see you tomorrow.
00:06:05.860 | (upbeat music)
00:06:08.440 | (upbeat music)
00:06:11.020 | [BLANK_AUDIO]