Moses works for Jesus.
Moses works for Jesus.
The mandate of worship and the meat of the word.
I’ve been thinking a lot about preaching lately — specifically the “event” of preaching (if I can put it that way). What happens when a pastor steps into the pulpit to open and deliver God’s Word for the good of God’s people? That, to be sure, is not an insignificant question to consider. The event of the sermon has, to a certain degree, lost some of its luster in recent years. With the advent and veritable explosion of worship bands, the emotional experience that’s associated with a good song service has shimmied its way into the primary focus of the gathering of the saints. And though I would never want to diminish the importance of God’s people singing good hymns in unison, there’s something to be said about the fact that the sermon isn’t often regarded as the pinnacle of the worship service. That slot is reserved for praise anthems that pull on the heartstrings; or for when the band’s entire set is “on point.”
Maybe that sounds a bit anecdotal, but when “Worship Leader” is in church vernacular equivalent to “Song Leader,” I think I’m touching on a critical issue. Thanks to an abundance of memes, the title of Worship Pastor is, more often than not, associated with skinny jeans and extra-long T-shirts. I don’t mean to sound curmudgeonly about all this but I do believe this is the regrettable state of the church at present. I don’t wish to point the finger of blame at anyone except for the ones standing behind the pulpits or lecterns. You see, part of the reason why the song service has assumed prime real estate in the average church’s order of worship is often due to the fact that the sermon has grown weak on grace and strong on law. Preachers, in the main, likely wouldn’t say that is true, but this is the functional effect whenever a proper distinction between God’s law and God’s gospel isn’t happening behind the pulpit.
What does this have to do with worship? Well, everything, really. Sermons that are little more than moralistic rah-rah speeches do next to nothing to actually feed the souls of those in the pews. It’s like eating stale saltines. Without a hearty view of Christ as the ultimate revelation and application from every text of Scripture, churches are left to partake of the table scraps of the song service. Again, that’s not meant to diminish the importance of singing. Rather, I only wish to reiterate that the singing of God’s people is not an adequate substitute for the proclamation of God’s Word. As beneficial and biblical as singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” is (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), it is not the main course on which Christ has invited his church to feed. That’s a slot reserved for himself (Luke 22:19–20).
Consequently, pastors and preachers have a responsibility to deliver this main course to their congregants week in and week out. “Preach the word,” Paul commissions Timothy, “in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). “Give them the goods,” we might render the apostle’s instruction. Those whose task is to deliver sermons on a weekly basis should never be stingy with that which is every sinner’s only hope — namely, that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). “The preacher,” writes Lutheran professor and writer Ken Sundet Jones, “[is] to give me the one thing, the only thing, the only person who is my hope. Jesus” (94). In “A Gospel-Double-Decker Not A Law-Sandwich,” Reformed professor and theologian R. Scott Clark spends some time explaining the futility of preachers who lay the stress of their sermons on the law instead of on the gospel. Indeed, as he puts it, a proper “gospel orientation” ought to pervade the entire preaching event, from start to finish. He writes:
A gospel orientation means that the preacher is convinced that the best thing, the most salutary (in the fullest sense of that word) message for his congregation to hear is the gospel, that God the Son has come for his sheep, that he has obeyed in their place, that he has died for them, that he has been raised for their justification (Rom. 4:25), that he has ascended for them, and is interceding for them (Rom. 8:34); in short, that he has accomplished redemption for them and that the Spirit has sovereignly, freely applied redemption to them . . .
This is not to denigrate the preaching of the law. It is, however, to set a priority between the law and the gospel in the act of preaching. To put it another way, Moses works for Jesus. This is unquestionably true in the history of salvation (Heb. 3:5–6) but it is also true in the order of the application of redemption and in preaching. The function of the pedagogical use of the law is to teach sinners the greatness of their sin and misery in order to point or to drive them to Christ (Gal. 3:24). In that case the law works for the gospel. The point of preaching the law is not to glory in the law, but rather that sinners might become conscious of their need for a Savior.
If church folk are relishing in the singing more than the preaching, perhaps it’s a consequence of the sermon being low on redemptive calories, so to speak. Maybe it’s because Moses has sidled his way into the message on one too many occasions. That’s backward, though, because, as Dr. Clark says, “Moses works for Jesus.” A diet of law will inevitably create famished disciples who are desperate for some semblance of substance, even if that means they have to scrounge for other sources of nourishment. The truth is, the true and better Substance that every sinner needs is found nowhere else but in Christ alone (Col. 2:17). He is the one with whom the church is invited to delight and dine without end (Isa. 55:1). The meat of the Word is the Word himself. Our worship is rightly directed and conducted when the Christ of God is the main course and the only focus.
Grace and peace to you.
Works cited:
Ken Sundet Jones, “Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation: A Little Course on Preaching,” Handing Over the Goods: Determined to Proclaim Nothing But Christ Jesus & Him Crucified: Essays in Honor of James Nestingen, edited by Steven D. Paulson and Scott L. Keith (Irvine, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2018).
Reading the title, I was hoping to find a reference to Hebrews 3 in there! ;)
As an associate pastor who leads music and preaches from time to time, I can say that it is hard trying to make that distinction clear for people even when preaching is not merely moralizing the text. It’s so pervasive in our culture to think of the singing as “worship” and not the other elements of the service. Many, many times those leading have propagated that culture of “worship leaders.”
Thanks for the article!
Very nice Brad. I enjoyed and agree with every sentence. That being said, the focus on the sermon as the center of worship comes later in the church's history though not so late as the focus on praise choruses. The great Philip Schaff identifies the focus of early church worship as...communion. The sermon is where the gracious provision that the Lord makes for us is to be proclaimed to the ears and the mind but it is to be followed by actually receiving that provision in your body.
The sermon has been watered down by Law as you say, such that it is scarcely missed when it is replaced by praise choruses. The Reformers complained about a priesthood that had withdrawn the use of the cup from the congregation what are we to say about churches where Christ is not presented to the congregation at all, or at very infrequent intervals and the provision of His body and blood is glossed over with nonsense about metaphors and symbols and we are told that only the worthy can receive Him?