The First Three Minutes: What They Reveal about the Pastor and Assume About the Hearer.
Continuing the First
Three Minute Series, this essay looks at some assumptions that are being made. Although
we may sit in the pew as the sermon begins, assuming the introduction is merely
a prelude to more serious matters, far more is already being communicated. Two
key beliefs are on display: his view of God (and His Word), and his view of the
congregation.
Now, although much has
already taken place in a service before the preacher begins the sermon, in the
Reformed tradition, worship is ordered around the ministry of the Word, and
especially its preaching, because it is through that means that God addresses
His people. This address by God is for the purpose of our salvation. As the
Westminster Larger Catechism Q155 puts it: “The spirit of God maketh the
reading, but especially the preaching of the word an effectual means of
enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of
themselves, and drawing them unto Christ”
So, before a doctrine begins
to be unfolded, or alas too often, before the opening anecdote is finished,
something more fundamental has been revealed about the pastor. He has taken a
stand. He has
established his relationship with the Word and he has placed the
listeners either before God under that Word, or within themselves as quiet
judges of it. We need to be aware of both these points. The first, the
preacher’s relationship with the Word, is almost self-explanatory. The second
though needs further clarification. In his placing of the listener, he reveals
whether he regards the listener as one who must be addressed and judged by God,
or as one who is competent to assess and receive what is said.
At its root, this is not a question of delivery, but of theology. In those opening moments, the preacher is revealing his doctrine of God and his doctrine of Man, not in a formal statement, but in functional practice. Does he believe God speaks, now, through His Word? Or does he behave as though God must be introduced, assisted, or made palatable before He can be heard? Does he believe the hearer stands as a sinner before God and must be addressed, exposed, and brought under the Word? Or does he assume the hearer is fundamentally capable, self-aware, and able to evaluate what is said?
Scripture does not give the preacher much wriggle room here. James warns that those who teach “will be judged with greater strictness,” while 2 Timothy 4:2 commands, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” These are not suggestions but charges. They define both the task and its gravity.
The listener, therefore, is not free to approach the sermon casually. His expectations should align with what Scripture says is taking place. If God addresses His people through the preached Word, then attentiveness is not optional. It is required. The spiritual weight of the sermon must be reckoned with by those who hear it, for the stakes are not merely instructional, but eternal.
Consider two very different sermon openings:
The first, by the Rev Nick White from First Baptist Church of Hamburg in America, and his sermon from Matthew 6:7–8. This passage is immediately before the passage we know as The Lord’s Prayer. Pastor White has read his passage, prayed, and this clip marks the opening words to his sermon.
These two very different openings are not just different in style, they reveal different theologies of preaching. They reveal what the pastor believes he is doing in the pulpit.
In the first example the text is pressed upon the hearer. The preacher is revealing that he believes he stands under God and that God is about to address His people. It might be said that he is not introducing God’s message, he is submitting himself to one.
The second example reveals that the preacher believes he must manage the encounter between God and His people. Mc
Intosh demonstrates his belief that it is his role to secure attention, establish a connection between the hearer and God and then fit the Scriptures into that framework.
Now, these are not small distinctions. One minister sees himself submitting to the Word; the other stands over it. This is a functional difference where the Scripture’s authority is either affirmed, or quietly denied. Further, this functional denial of the Scriptures amounts to denying the Holy Spirit His rightful ministry through the Word as the advocate of Christ. Sure, the Spirit may be confessed, but he is not being relied upon. It hardly needs to be justified. When the text governs the opening, the congregation is immediately placed beneath its authority. When the text follows an anecdote, a theme or a cultural observation, the text becomes supportive rather than determinative.
It was my intention to address in greater depth the implied positioning of the hearer taking place in the first three minutes of a sermon, but this really requires a separate focus. Instead, let me just say here that these two different openings involve the preacher making assumptions bout the hearer that could be unhelpful. One pastor believes the Scripture of the sermon has an implied call for repentance; the other believes that the hearer is equipped to judge what relevance the Scripture has for them.
In conclusion, it should be said that what has been discussed is not addressing the questions surrounding the use of illustrations in sermons. What needs to be understood though is that if anything outruns or overshadows the Word at any point in a sermon, the Word is dealt a blow and the ministry of the Holy Spirit is effectively silenced.
When the authorial position of the Word is displaced at the beginning of a sermon, it is very difficult for that authority to be recovered.
