Why You Need to Be PRESENT at Church!

The Ordinary Means of Grace and the Event of Preaching

I think something that is an epidemic in our day, I don't know, serious-minded evangelical church shy away from words like event or shy away from words like experience because of how those things have been co-opted by revivalism.

But those words are appropriate because this is true of all the means of grace. They only occur in the context of the assembled church. In a particular way, preaching is only when the saints are gathered, when there is a man gifted and ordained by God, to do the preaching of the word, who is in their presence bodily, preferably in a regular sense.

Guest preachers are fine, but preferably he's a man who lives amongst the people. Can I interject? This is when Paul talks about using wisdom and selecting people among you, or men among you, to argue your point.

In a regular sense, this is a man who lives among the congregation, who has been ordained to this office, who has been ordained to an office where he sets aside his life to the study of the word of God and the ministry of the word of God in prayer.

Now he will stand in front of the assembly and open the book, and he is going to proclaim and herald the things that we've been talking about. We're going to talk more about what it is that we communicate in a minute.

This is an event and it's an experience that you need to be present bodily for. If you are in a church where you are watching a preacher on a screen, you're listening to a message that is not preaching, that is not the means of grace.

If you are the kind of individual who likes to consume sermon content in an audio format, you're listening to your favorite preachers during the week for edification, God be praised that you would be learning and be edified by that.

You are listening to messages, but that is not preaching. Preaching is an event where a man bodily is present with other people bodily, and the Spirit is gathered with the people, and the man opens the word and preaches the word.

This event is not something that can be replicated. That is why you are legit missing out if you are not present when this happens in the assembly of the saints in your church on the Lord's Day. We're two guys because of this podcast.

There are people who listen to our sermons every week, and I hope that people are encouraged and edified by those things. We thank God for technology and all that stuff. At the same time, the most important time you ever spend around the word of God in your life, and the most important thing related to the word of God that occurs in your life, is when your pastor preaches the word to your congregation on the Lord's Day.

The Importance of the Assembly for Faith and Growth

Jon Moffitt. You just said something that I want to emphasize. First of all, well said. You encouraged my heart, and I agree. You said something that is the most important, and that's hard for people to hear because that is not what they have been taught.

This is why Hebrew says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves as such as you are doing, because it is there that our faith is sustained and strengthened, and our knowledge of Christ is increased.

As James says, we become doers of the word. It's important that there's this emphasis on the receiving of the word. It's been a tradition that God has set up from the beginning. Children of Israel gathered together to hear the law read over them, to hear it.

Then you get into the New Testament, and it's read and explained. Some people say, well, why don't we just read it? Well, that's not what Paul says. To preach or to herald or explain is not just to read.

We do not prioritize this in our lives. Justin, we're okay with just kind of missing out. It's okay. I'll just read my Bible, or I'll catch the MP3 on Monday. Now this is where things are going to sound legalistic, and you guys are sounding like the Roman Catholic Church.

I and Justin just want you to hear the word of God and hear the promises of the word of God. If you're going to make a sacrifice, you're going to make a sacrifice that would prevent you from ever feeding and feasting on Christ as He designed it to happen.

I am not deemphasizing Bible reading. I am just putting preaching and teaching back to where Scripture properly emphasizes it. Justin Perdue. Make the preaching of the word great again. One sense is what we're trying to do.

Ephesians 4, Hebrews 10, and the Weight of the Teaching Office

I think Ephesians 4 is an open and shut conversation. You mentioned Hebrews 10. That whole passage leading into Hebrews 10 .25 is so corporate in nature in terms of how this whole thing works. You mentioned several other passages.

Obviously, there's 2 Timothy 4. Jon Moffitt. Well, can I just say, James, this is why James says with such great gusto, not many of you should be teachers because you could lead people the wrong direction.

This is why the office of an elder, they need to rightly divide the word of truth. He has to have right character. He needs to be observable, and he needs to dedicate his life to study of the word. Why?

Because he's shepherding. He's not an advisor. He's a shepherd of souls.