Listening to the Logos

The high call of Christian leadership is to find one’s place in listening to and passing on God’s Word, so that Christians will all grow in works of service and corporate character. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul writes that if anyone wants to be a Christian leader “he must...be able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:1-2). The job of the Christian preacher is to exegete God’s revealed texts and expose the message of that revelation to his contemporary audience. Doing this properly will involve a serious effort to understand the meaning of the texts of God’s Word, as well as a serious effort to understand the culture and language of the listening audience to whom the preacher must expose God’s revelation plainly. Understanding God’s Word has always involved a careful observing of God’s action, listening to him speak, asking critical questions of the Word, understanding him through Holy Spirit illumination, and proclaiming it clearly and boldly. In his seminal work on the history of Christian proclamation, Edwin C. Dargan demonstrates that this is what the early Church Fathers continued to do as faithful imitators of the apostles.

          
God appointed patriarchs, the lawgiver, judges, prophets, wise ones, and apostles to first hear, and then preach, his Word. This Word is recorded for the Spiritual formation of the faith community. These are the “lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder” that burst from the throne of God. The Holy Christian Scriptures clarify God’s general revelation through creation, point to God’s specific revelation in history, and ultimately his incarnation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

          
As an apostle, John shows how this revelation is engaged: "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."…And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth" (Rev. 4:6, 4:9 – 5:10 NIV).

How is this revelation perceived and received? By receiving the written Word of God (the scroll 5:1), revealed by Jesus (the Lion of Judah and the slaughtered lamb 5:5-6), exegeting it (paying careful attention to what it actually says and means), and preaching it (proclaiming that original meaning to the contemporary community context, in their language, history, and culture). This is what John was doing in Revelation. He is exegeting the whole of the written Word and teaching it to his flock in a new contextualized language. He is listening to the text of God’s Word and preaching it to God’s people under his care.

          
It is only by the revelation of God himself that the Word is revealed. The Word is the self-initiated speech of God. The Word goes out in God’s perfect, breathing revelation to the world (the number seven is the number of perfection in apocalyptic poetry). The Church’s response is to listen, receive, understand, worship, and proclaim. He has made the Church his community of kings and priests in the world, and the way the Church reigns and presides is by leading people to pay attention to God’s Word read, sung, prayed, and preached. This is like the voices of the many messengers (Rev. 5:11),

numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. (We) encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice (we sing): "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise” (Rev. 5:11-12 NIV).

The logos of Christian Spiritual formation is the exposed Word of God. Authentic Christian preaching of the Word of God, will always and only be, in every generation, the act of God’s representative messenger, paying attention to the texts of God’s Word and then boldly proclaiming the meaning of God’s Word to his contemporary cultural context. Only then will the congregation truly hear the voice of God, be transformed, and then God will be glorified. This has always been the case. This has always been the true practice of the authentic covenant people of God; whether in the tabernacle or the temple, in synagogues or sanctuaries, churches or cathedrals.

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped (Rev. 5:13-14 NIV).

This is a beautiful picture of “God’s throne,” given through John’s Scripture-soaked imagination, his love for God, his skill with words, and his love for his parishioners, to whom he writes by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What he gives them is a picture of “what is to happen” – the invisible reality of God being adored by his people through the “open door” of worship. God is revealed in concentric circles. Beginning with the rainbow and jewel-lit throne, God’s person radiates out through the four living creatures (his creation), the elders (his prophets and apostles), and the angels (his revealing message). The “Lion of Judah” (the incarnated Christ) opens the scroll (Holy Scripture) and the sacraments (baptism in the “glassy sea” and the Lord’s supper through “a Lamb...who had been slain”) amongst the seven lamp stands (God’s people assembled in church communities).

          
Here the action of worship is revealed. This is the picture of the invisible context of the Church at worship. In the midst of feeble attempts at serving God, his people are caught up in the world-shaking events of God’s eternal throne room. In the public reading, praying, preaching, singing, and sacraments, God’s people are involved in the heavenly drama of this cosmic transformation, whether they realize it or not. In the midst of weekly, Sunday church service, the elders fall on their faces and lay their crowns before the throne. All of creation sees and proclaims his glory. The thunder and lightening of his revelation comes from the center of his throne. The creatures, elders, and angels all sing his praise, which culminates in the triumphal “Amen!”

The Radiating Revelation of God through People: 8. The Apostles

Finally, the apostles represent the final witnesses of God’s accumulative revelation in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Word of God in the flesh (Jn. 1:1-18). He is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament means of God’s revelation to man. He called the apostles to be his sent ones, to witness his works and words, and then preach his message. They were constituted by Jesus to receive the revelation of the Word, exegete and understand the revelation of the Word, proclaim the revelation of the Word, and worship the revelation of the Word (Lk. 24:36-53).                       

           
The apostles themselves consciously understood their unique task as end-time preachers. The author of Hebrews plainly writes, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Heb. 1:1-3a NIV).

God spoke in the past “through the prophets” (the Old Testament), but now (“in these last days”) he has spoken through Jesus, whom the Church knows through the testimony of the apostles (the New Testament). As the gospel of Jesus Christ was revealed to be the new law of the new covenant, the apostles were the new prophets who were God’s designated spokesmen to form the new covenant community through applying this new law to the everyday life of the community of God. Through their preaching and teaching (recorded in their epistles) the Church was Spiritually formed. Later, like the Old Testament wisdom literature, the whole of the Scriptures is summed up in a new work of poetry and song in John’s “Revelation.” The apostles, like the prophets, were not to speak on their own authority (Matt. 23:8, 1 Thes. 4:9, 1 Jn. 2:20-27). The apostles, like Jesus and the prophets, also demonstrated their authority to speak revelation directly from the throne of God by providing miraculous signs as proof of authentic authority.

The apostle Paul is especially self-conscious of his commission as God’s uniquely designated spokesman. He is conscious of his authority as an apostle to declare his writings as formative Word of God (1 Cor. 2:6-13; 4:1-3, 6-7; Gal. 1:6-9; Eph. 1:9; 2:19-20; 3:4-5; Col. 1:25-29; 2 Tim. 3:10-17). The apostle Peter declares Paul’s writings as “Scripture” (2 Pet. 3:15-16). He also claims this authority for himself and his own formative teaching (2 Pet. 1:12-21).

Paul Barnett makes a convincing case that the tradition of accepting the New Testament writings of the apostles and their contemporaries as Scripture (the Word of God on equally authoritative footing with the received canon text of the Old Testament) was well established within the lifetimes of the apostles and within fifteen years of Jesus’ death. During the Apostolic age, there was a mix of both oral and written Word of God, which was the live preaching of the apostles and the written record of their sermons.

These texts were from the beginning self-consciously Sacred Scripture. Because they belong to the apostolic age and enjoyed the endorsement of the apostles they were always regarded as “Scripture” and located within the Canon (“yardstick”). Shorter written texts (Luke 1:1) and oral “proclamation” and “pattern of teaching” have now been gathered up for us in the written and canonically recognized texts of the NT. The chief work of the “pastoral ministry” is to read, teach and apply the Scriptures of the OT and NT to the congregation.

Paul also instructed his apprentice, Timothy, to carry on this ministry of formative preaching (2 Tim. 4:1-5). Timothy was instructed to guard the preaching of Paul (2 Tim. 1:14), and to preach Paul’s preaching to reliable people who would faithfully preach it to others (2 Tim. 2:2). He was instructed to “cut straight the Word of truth”[ (2 Tim. 2:15). That is, carefully exegete the texts of the Scriptures. He was to be disciplined in never deviating from the received Word of God like a good soldier, a competitive athlete, and a hard-working farmer (2 Tim. 3-7). Paul considered anything less “godless chatter” (2 Tim. 2:16). As a Christian leader, Timothy was not to expect to personally receive new revelation from God. He was to pay attention to God’s Word recorded in the biblical text (including Paul’s and the other apostles’ writings), and he was to concentrate on his highest goal as a Spiritual leader: to set an example to his congregation by reading, preaching, and teaching the text of Scripture: Command and teach these things...but set an example for the believers...devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching...Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Tim. 4:11-16 NIV).

The apostles exegeted the living Word, Jesus. They observed him, listened to him, and asked him critical questions. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, he gave them understanding of the Word (Jesus and the Old Testament), so that they understood the Word and proclaimed it clearly and boldly. The Apostolic gospel preaching was the exegesis and exposition of the words and works of Jesus (the text of the Word in the flesh). They also exegeted Old Testament texts, exposing God’s meaning to their contemporary contexts in their language, culture, and history. This is the main way they did the work of Spiritual formation.

One example of the apostle Paul doing exegetically based, expository preaching is in Acts 13:14-43. In this passage, Paul was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day (Saturday), and the specific text of the Word of God (from the Law and the Prophets) for that day (as it was systematically read each week) was read aloud. The synagogue rulers asked Paul and his companions if they have a “message of encouragement (a sermon) for the people” (Act. 13:15 NIV). Paul then stood up and preached. His message was not a random, topical speech. It was an exposition of the text just read. He expounded upon the recorded text of the Word. He knew the text. He exegeted its meaning. He listened to it read out loud with the gathered congregation. He then proclaimed the meaning of the text of God’s Word to the gathered faith community.

           
Paul makes it quite clear that the preaching ministry of a Christian leader is the primary task for the Spiritual formation of the church community. In Ephesians 4, he shows how God initiated in giving the Church the gifts and means of his revelation in a specific order. Paul writes, It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13 NIV).

 

The order is unmistakable; first God initiates, through his “apostles” (Jesus’ sent ones) who spoke God’s Word, then “prophets” (preachers) who exegete and expound that Word to the covenant community, then “evangelists” who proclaim that Word to the lost, then “pastors” who apply that Word in shepherding the flock of God, and “teachers” who explain the basic doctrines of that Word to their flock. The purpose of all of this is that through the hearing of God’s Word (read sung, prayed, and preached) the covenant people of God are “built up,” reaching “unity in the faith,” growth in “knowledge of the Son of God,” and becoming “mature.” This is authentic Spiritual formation.

The Radiating Revelation of God through People: 7. The Christ

Before Jesus is revealed in the Gospels, the figure of John the Baptist appears. John (like Moses and Samuel before him) was a hybrid. He bridged two epochs. He was the last Old Testament-style prophet and the first New Testament-style evangelist. His role was that of a spokesperson, but he also heralded the introduction to the gospel message of the coming Kingdom. It is recorded that the content of John’s preaching was associated with exposition of the texts of Gen. 1:1 “the beginning,” Ex. 23:20 “I will send my messenger ahead of you,” Mal. 3:1 “who will prepare your way,” and Is. 40:3 “a voice of one calling in the desert” (Matt. 3:1-3). Even his diet and clothing was an application of understood texts (2 Kin. 1:8, Zech. 13:4, Lev. 11:22). John demonstrated that he was a true prophet as he exegeted and applied the texts of God’s written Word.

Jesus himself is unknown apart from the testimony of the apostles, but Jesus’ own ministry of preaching will be observed first, and then that of the apostles separately. Jesus is the Word in the flesh (Jn. 1:14). He “is the visible expression of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15 Phillips). He is not the reduction or the summary of the Word. He is the fulfillment (the fully filling reality) of the Word. He is the Prophet, the Priest, the New Adam, the Lawgiver, the King, the Messiah, the Judge, the Redeemer, the New Exodus, and the New Exile. He is the Elect, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. The focus of all revelation comes in him. Jesus Christ is like a prism through which all the centrally radiating light of God’s revelation is refracted and seen.

It is recorded that “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matt. 4:23 NIV). The pattern for synagogue “teaching” at this time would be for a text of the Scriptures to be read aloud in the assembly on the Sabbath. Then, following the reading, someone (sometimes the reader) would stand up before the congregation and give their interpretation (exposition) of what was read. This would be the sermon for the formative teaching and training of the people.

There is no reason to think that Jesus did not follow this practice in his synagogue proclamation. In fact, it was his custom to go to synagogue on the Sabbath (Lk. 4:16). In this Lukan passage, Jesus is clearly seen following the regular custom of reading, exposition, and application of Scripture. First he read it:

He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me..." (Lk. 4:15-18a).

Then he expounded it: Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."…Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'" "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian" (Lk. 4:20-27 NIV).

Jesus takes God’s Word, recorded in Isaiah 42, and reads it aloud. Though he is the proto-author of the text, he gives precedence to the text itself and defers to it for the authority and context of his message. He preaches the written Word. He does not begin with himself. He reads the text, demonstrates his exegesis of it, understanding and proclaiming it to his gathered audience in their language, history, and culture. He quotes several supporting passages and applies it to their existential reality. Here Jesus is clearly demonstrating his adherence to the vital work of Spiritual formation through expositional preaching.

         
The congregational leaders hated him for his application of the text to himself. This shows how the Scriptures were held in such high esteem. But the people saw how his message had authority (Lk. 4:32). This authority was derived from his miracles and his person, as well as his faithfulness to the prior revelation of God’s written Word. Jesus exposed the meaning and significance of the Scriptural Word of God throughout his ministry, quoting it, reading it, exegeting it, expositionally preaching it, teaching it, applying it, and proclaiming it.

         
Earl Palmer makes a case for the fact that what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is what every rabbi was expected to do, in giving his expository commentary on the Law. Another time that Jesus is seen appealing to the authority of the written Word of God is during his temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Satan is presented as twisting texts of Scripture to tempt Jesus to disobey his Father. Jesus refutes each text with a superior exegesis of these texts and an application of more texts. Jesus demonstrates that the only message for truth is found in the recorded, written Word of God. Jesus said, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (Jn. 5:30 NIV). Even Jesus first listened to and then proclaimed the Word of God.

         
Lastly, Jesus is observed walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Disguised as a stranger, Jesus teaches them about the presence of “the Christ” throughout the Old Testament, through an exegetical study of the whole Scriptures: He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Lk. 24:25-27 NIV).

That expository sermon has not been recorded for the Church. One is left, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to exegete the Scriptures in every contemporary language, history, and culture, seeing that the meaning and message of God’s Word is “explained” to a new generation, afresh, and that what is “said in all the Scriptures concerning (Jesus)” is proclaimed.

The Radiating Revelation of God through People: 6. The Wise Ones

During the full epoch of the time of the prophets, the faith community created the wisdom literature of the Old Testament Scriptures as Holy Spirit-inspired response to God’s revealed Law. Designated wise ones wrote application of God’s revelation and response to God’s action and Word. These songs, poems, proverbs, and stories were accredited as Scripture by God’s Holy Spirit, endorsed by God’s designated authoritative representatives, embraced by the authentic faith community, and lived and prayed as a part of the formative sacramental life of God’s people. Jesus and the apostles also endorsed the wisdom literature of the Old Testament as authentically part of the revealed Word of God by quoting it and teaching from it. These “wise” artists are part of the representative, Scriptural concentric circle around the revealing center of God’s throne.

There was a period of about 400 years between the last prophetic Word of the Old Testament, and the first apostolic Word of the New Testament. During this time, like the 400 years of captivity in Egypt, the people of God experienced a dry season without any new Word from God. One picture of the authentic practice of preaching in the faithful covenant community, just before that inter-testamental period, is recorded in Nehemiah 8: All the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly…He read it aloud from daybreak till noon…in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion...All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up…The Levites... instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read…Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them (Neh. 8:1-12 NIV).

Here the authentic practice of the people of God is seen as they gather to listen to the formative Word of God read, sung, prayed, and preached, and then go out and worship God with their lives. This event occurred in the 5th Century B.C. Yet it is a model of Spiritual formation that could be contemporary with Moses through to Saint Paul, or with Saint Clement through to Martin Lloyd-Jones or any emergent leader today. The public proclamation of God’s Holy Scriptures is the historically authentic way that God’s Word continues to form, reform and transform his people.

As in the historic case of the Josian reformation (2 Ki. 22-23), the people of God gather and God’s book is brought out. It is read aloud. They listen. God’s leader (who has been formed himself through listening to the text, meditating on the text, and exegeting the text) explains the meaning of the text and applies it to their existential context. Then the transformed people of God respond in worship. Besides the Josian and Nehemian reformations, the authentic faith community is always reformed and rejuvenated whenever God’s text is faithfully heard, exegeted, preached, and applied.

This picture in Nehemiah 8 also introduces the practice of developing “targumim” as instructive, interpretive commentary on the Scriptures. The habit of the faith community at public gatherings during the Babylonian exile was to read the text of the Scriptures at synagogue in Hebrew, and then to give a paraphrase and an application of the text in Aramaic (the language of their contemporary culture). These renderings were also written down. Here another type of biblical, exegetically based, expository sermon can be seen as a vital part of the life of the faith community.