Third, the classroom teacher personally invited church members to be involved in the classroom. In the first five weeks of the project, discipleship material was developed for the discipleship class. Since God held the primacy of the revealed Word in the New Testament, he also held the primacy of hearing the preached word.
Other scholars believe that the seed and its harvest are the focus of the parable. Beyond this, no explanation or further development is given to the harvest element in the expository passage. Another means of motivation is related to the joy of reaping the fruits of the harvest.
At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus is on the shore teaching the crowd from a boat. Privatized faith, however, is nowhere to be found in the pages of the New Testament.
Pay attention to what you hear…”
How many of you remember the old song "Be careful what you see, little eyes". One line went like this: "Oh, be careful what you hear." The message of that verse seems to be a warning about the places you put yourself and what you allow yourself to hear.
Take care then how you hear…”
It is made serious through a right perspective for it
Not only is preaching made serious by who is present, but preaching is also made serious by having the right perspective for it. Paul says he accuses Timothy in the presence of God and Jesus Christ, AND by his appearing and his kingdom. The pulpit is not a playground, and neither is the pew.” And then Paul adds another serious layer by saying, Jesus Christ will return, will judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will be completed.
In what atmosphere, in what reality, what perspective of life should I have that will tell the reason for mine. You must listen with this perspective in your mind and heart. We must live in the light of these truths. Timothy, be faithful in preaching the word of God, for the son of God will return and set up the kingdom of God.
On the one hand, we long to see our Savior come back, but on the other, there must be a great desire to see others come to Him while they can. And we want to be found faithful in the desire to see His second coming, and also to concern ourselves with spreading His fame to the ends of the earth. I will be held accountable for what I preached and how I preached it, and for the perspective I had when I preached.
This is not here to scare us, but to prevent us from minimizing the weight and impact that the preaching event should have in our lives. Be careful how you listen because preaching is a serious event, which means listening is also a serious event.
It is made serious by God’s persistence of it
The time is fast approaching, Timothy, when people will not want to hear biblical preaching.
It is made serious by the power within it
- Selfish passions are in opposition to biblical truth
- Selfish passions pursue validation instead of transformation
- Selfish passions take you down the path of deception
It is one of the main means, if not the main means, He has chosen to communicate with us. Did you come in here this morning expecting the God of the universe to speak to you? It serves as a platform for the rest of the sermon, and the preacher tries, through the introduction, to get as many of his listeners as possible to take the ramp with him.
But within these preaching books, most of the writers have made a foregone conclusion about you, the listener. When you begin to preach, many (perhaps most) of the members of the congregation are thinking of other things...To arrest, or get attention, is absolutely necessary; until you have done this, the congregation will not hear anything you have to say, however valuable or interesting it may be." Jay Adams, Preaching with Purpose, p. Rather, I think we need to cultivate in our church an understanding of the seriousness and the privilege of what takes place when we come together.
My friends, we live in a day when not only society, but those within the church itself do not tolerate, welcome or receive the sound teaching of the word of God, and even worse, we live in culture full of people who stand behind pulpits delivering sermons just to scratch itchy ears. He is not talking about people outside the church who turn away from biblical preaching, but rather people within the church. Crave like new-born babies for the pure spiritual milk, so that through it you may grow up to salvation...Beloved, I exhort you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.".
One for the picky eater who only wants to eat certain foods and then they arrange their meal for the rest of the family. These people are not looking to have their lives transformed by the power of the gospel, they are not looking to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, they are looking for someone to come and say that what they believe and how they live is totally okay and good and right, even if it goes against the word of God. A Baptist church in California affirmed "same-sex sexuality." The pastor of the church said that he was walking along the beach when he realized that he did not believe the traditional teachings of scripture on homosexuality.
He could sense the tension surrounding this issue, and he became one of those who tickle the ears of those who are more interested in their own selfish passions than biblical truth. You know what parents discover in their picky eaters when they refuse to acknowledge their pickiness and instead feed them a steady diet of the food that everyone else eats. I pray that if it is your desire to be a faithful student of God's Word, that you will.
LESSONS
Perhaps just as harmful to the church are those who come to elevate themselves spiritually but have no intention of participating in the life of the church. This strongly suggests that the essence has to do with the reception of the seed.”3. The heart is not cultivated to be ready for seed.
One of the most common responses to preaching is not obedience to the word, but rather dozing off while the word is being preached. Being part of the regular gathering of the church body should not be an option for a Christian. We must be spiritually prepared to get the most out of the sermon.
Most of the time, the design of a worship service is to set the table for the word of God to be preached. According to the end of the passage, what is required of the hearer to be able to distinguish good from evil. Because you rejected the word of the LORD, He also rejected you to be king."
