After Lee and I arrived in San Bernardino following nine years with a wonderful, loving group of Christians in South Texas (the home of hot, humid weather and (apparent) headquarters for the entire mosquito population in the world), the elders and I agreed on what we thought would be a positive and helpful way to give members of the church and visitors an opportunity to ask Bible questions about which they have wondered. We decided that doing this on a yearly basis, once or twice at the turn of each new year (depending on the volume of questions and their importance) would be a reasonable and effective way to cover questions and themes that might otherwise be inadequately covered in the course of normal preaching.
Over the past several years we have considered a number of important Bible questions, including questions about salvation, moral issues, marriage and divorce (and remarriage), as well as a few not so weighty issues such as "Where did the dinosaurs come from (and go)?" Along the way, I have tried to be respectful of people, even as I made judgments to insure that the questions to which we devoted time would be reasonable and interesting. To this point, we’ve done a good job, I believe, in keeping the questions to the point and not allowing any decline in the dignity of the worship period during which they are answered.
This is an important and needed question. Just because something appears to be helpful or reasonable does not mean it is scriptural. The question about scripturality is actually a question about authority: Are we authorized by God to take time, during a worship service that might otherwise be spent in an extemporaneous presentation by a preacher, in order to answer questions that have been submitted by assembled worshippers?
In order to answer this question, we must first consider two matters about authority. First, God has revealed Himself and His will for us within His Word, the Bible. We learn what God desires of us by what He commands us to do or otherwise states in clear, preceptive teaching, or shows us by way of the approved conduct of His people, or reasonably compels us by an inference that cannot be denied or refuted. The question about whether our yearly practice is authorized must first be answered affirmatively, by either command (or statement), approved example, or necessary inference.
Second, every expression of specific authority includes also many optional ways of doing what God has said. God’s word is not about giving every little specific detail, for He expects us to walk by faith, and not by sight. Someone might complain that God should have given us all the little details – some even affirm that He did do this -- but such people do not understand how God intends for us to put confidence in what He has said and then act accordingly, according to our several needs and desires.
I will frankly state that our "Ask the Preacher" sessions are either authorized as generic options under God’s specific instruction (command, statement, example or necessary inference) to teach the word or they cannot be authorized at all.
Actually, this question can be rephrased as, "Is it scriptural for the saints to assemble at a time on the Lord’s day when preaching does not occur?" We might as easily ask, "Is it scriptural for the saints to assemble at a time on the Lord’s day when the Lord’s supper/contribution/singing/prayer do not occur?"
This forces us to ask whether there is any principle of specific authority that permits any variation on any of these collectivities, and this introduces the concept of authorized generic options. The Lord told us to provide for the teaching of the word, but He has not regulated every particular about how we may do that teaching. He has regulated certain factors in our teaching, limiting us to that which He has revealed in the Word (and thereby excluding general subjects and philosophy), but there are many ways in which God’s authorized teaching may be done. He has limited instruction to men in a public context, but there are many ways in which men may teach.
One interesting scripture that helps us to see this is in Acts 20:7 and the immediate context. I know this passage is very familiar to Bible students (especially respecting our recent studies on the Lord’s supper), but I want you to see something that is not immediately apparent in the text. Here’s what the Bible says:
"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight."
In this scripture, the word "talking" translates an original word (Gr. dialegomai) from which we get our English word "dialogue." The original word just means to address, teach, speak or preach, and it conveys the idea of an interactive instruction in which the speaker addresses the concerns of his hearers (similar to the way in which to people in dialogue will communicate mutual feelings or ideas during the course of their discussion). In verse 7, the word "message" is from the Greek word that means, "word, speech or statement." It is the same word that is used to describe the preincarnate Christ in John 1:1, 14.
In verse 9, the same word (Gr. dialegomai) is used as Paul prolonged his remarks. Then, in verse 11, the passage says, "When he (Paul) had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left." Here, the word "talked" translates the Greek word (Gr. homileo) that conveys the idea of conversing with a crowd. Incidently, it is the root from which our word "homily" (meaning "a sermon, or admonitory, moral discourse") comes.
I have said all of this to point out that our concept of sermonizing in an extemporaneous fashion is, to a great degree, cultural in its development. Of course, it squarely resides within the specific authority of God that instructs us to "preach the work, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2), but there are many ways in which we may do that preaching (the word "preach" is from the Greek word [Gr. kerusso] that means to "be a herald, to proclaim").
But, we need also to recognize that there are many things that also fit the Divine instruction to teach, even publicly. At some time, we might extemporize (speak at length without advance preparation, as in Paul’s example in Acts 20:7) or present detailed, prepared remarks. In fact, most experienced preachers (including me) are far more likely to speak without detailed preparation – with the exception of illustrations, or prepared notes or charts for distribution), and this is as it should be. Most of us have learned over the years that the most effective teaching is like that of Christ, addressing the needs of people by the simple explanation of the actual words of scripture.
As a matter of fact, although you may not realize it, most preachers prepare their material by examining the text of the scripture and learning the meanings of words or grasping the flow of the context in which a scriptural concept is found. It is rare, indeed, to find a preacher that prepares his exact words, and the vast majority of those preachers are young and inexperienced. When I teach preachers how to preach, I tell them, "Use God’s outline. Use what He gave in the order He gave it. Immerse yourself in His word and learn His actual words, and compare those words with words of your language, insuring that what you say properly reflects what He has said."
Our "Ask the Preacher" sessions are specifically authorized under God’s instruction to "teach," as just one of many generic options we may use in doing what God told us to do.
I hope you will profit from our studies, today.