This is our second week of looking at what it takes to understand God’s Word. Last week we looked at the right message. In our passage, as Ezra stood before the remnant and taught them God’s Word, He taught them the right message. As you can tell from what we just read, we’re still in the same passage tonight. Tonight we’re going to see that in order to understand God’s Word, we have to use the right method. In the American church today, our teaching and preaching methodology is one of the hottest debated topics. What is the best method of teaching the Bible in a way that people will understand it? Many times, we want to look to education studies or psychology or sociology to find the answer to that question. But are those the places we should look to see how we should teach God’s Word? No—the first place we need to look is Scripture. Are there any examples in Scripture of how to teach God’s Word? And that’s what brings us to our passage. That’s what our passage is about. Tonight, we’re going to look at this passage and find the timeless principles that it contains concerning the proper method for teaching God’s Word. In other words, we’re going to ask this passage, What is the right method for understanding God’s Word?
The first thing we see in this passage is that our method of teaching the Bible must be public and corporate. We spent a lot of time last week talking about how ALL the people were involved. Ezra called the people to a public gathering. It was in a public place that was accessible to everyone. It was on the street in front of one of the main gates of Jerusalem. Since it was on the street, there was plenty of room. Typically, the street would widen out in front of the gates, so space was not limited. There were as few barriers to access as possible. It seems that everything possible was done to make sure that everyone had access to Ezra’s preaching. So much so that in verse 4, they built a platform so he could be seen and heard by everyone. But not only was the teaching made available TO everyone, it was made available FOR everyone. Verse 1 says that the people gathered themselves TOGETHER AS ONE MAN. Verse 2 talks about the congregation. In verses 5-6, the people reacted together by standing together and responding together and worshipping together. The passage continually refers to “the people” and “all the people”. None of this event took place in small huddles of people. There was nothing individual about it. It was preaching to the entire gathered remnant. Today, we have so many ways to hear good preaching. I listen to preaching all the time. I have hundreds of hours of good preaching loaded on my phone that I can play in my truck when I’m driving. There is preaching on the radio and on the internet and on the TV. All those things are good. But is that where we are to primarily receive our understanding of God’s Word? No, it isn’t. Because God’s design is for His Word to be taught in a gathered community of His people. It was that way in Ezra’s day and nothing has changed. So, why is that so important? Because you can’t interact with a TV preacher. You can’t ask a radio preacher for clarification. You can’t feed off the energy of fellow believers growing in their understanding of the Bible. You don’t have other believers around who will challenge you and discuss the things they heard with you. Those are the things we should expect from being in a corporate body of believers when we hear God’s Word preached. There should be interaction. There should be encouragement. You’re amen might just encourage another person to seat that point in their mind. Amens don’t just encourage me. They encourage the Body. An amen is not applause. It is a way to reinforce a teaching point that was made. When I listen to Adrian Rogers or Alistair Begg on the radio, I can holler amen all I want to. There’s no one there to be spurred on except me. That teaching might be good, but it is not the primary method that God has ordained for our understanding. The method that God has ordained is public and corporate teaching—not private. What method does it take to understand God’s Word? The method must be public and corporate.
The second thing we see in this passage is that our method of teaching the Bible must involve one preacher and many teachers. I kind of ran through those names in the passage earlier. But I want you to picture the scene in your mind. First, they had built a big platform in the middle of the street. And when Ezra came before the people, he stood in the middle of the platform. On his right, stood six men. On his left, stood seven men. There were 14 men standing on the platform. In addition to that, verse 7 says that there were at least another 13 men who were in with the crowd. When Ezra mounted the pulpit, verse 3 says that he read the book of the Law of Moses from the morning until midday. Now, I want you to notice what happened here. Ezra read his Text. It just so happened that his text was the first 5 books of the Bible. And when he completed his reading, he broke into his preaching and teaching. But he wasn’t alone. He was the main expositor of Scripture. But he wasn’t the only teacher. The 13 men on the platform with him weren’t just there for window dressing. We don’t know how they did it or when they did it, but they were involved in explaining the things that Ezra said. And then there were another 13 teachers who were roaming through the crowd. They were doing the same thing. They were teaching. It might have been while Ezra was preaching, I don’t know. I happen to think that Ezra had to take some breaks if he was going to read and preach for ¾ of a day. It was probably during those breaks that the teaching went on. I know that you will not pick up everything I say. I know that the mind wanders when you sit in front of one-way communication. That’s another reason that we gather together. You should continue to teach one another. We’re not going to do this, but I think the ideal method would be to reverse the preaching and Sunday School times. Then after preaching, you could gather in small groups and discuss the sermon and teachers could continue to teach on the points. That seems to be what was happening here, only in several segments. Ezra read the Word. He preached the Word. Then the teachers reinforced the Word in the minds of smaller groups within the congregation. It’s a shame, but logistically, I don’t think we can ever get there from here. But we can carry on the concept of one preacher and many teachers. Teach each other by discussing and reinforcing what you hear from the pulpit. Ask each other questions. Draw commitment and personal application out from each other. “Hey, you know when the preacher was talking about family finances this morning? How do you think I can apply that in my life?” One preacher, many teachers. That is the method that God has ordained for our understanding. But what does the teaching and preaching look like? Does God have a specific method for preaching and teaching? Yes He does. And we see it in the third point.
The third thing we see in this passage is that our method of teaching the Bible must involve proclamation and expository teaching and preaching. There are lots of people today who will tell you that preaching is dead. They will tell you that one-way monologue is a completely and totally ineffective teaching method. And you know what? They’re right. That’s why it’s so strange that this is the way that God has ordained it to be done. But then again, God likes to use things that don’t make sense, doesn’t He? It doesn’t make sense to use shouts and trumpets to tear down the walls of Jericho, does it? It doesn’t make sense for Gideon to go against an innumerable host of the Midianite army with only 300 men, does it? It makes even less sense to arm them with only pitchers and trumpets and torches. God likes to do things that we think are impossible. The cry of many people today is that people don’t have the attention span to sit and listen to expositional preaching. People today are visual learners, they can’t focus enough to learn by listening. One of the new methods that some preachers are using is based on that. The preacher will only talk for a couple of minutes at a time. Then he’ll show a video or a drama. Then he’ll say something else and have the congregation move around or act something out. Then he’ll say something else and somebody will come up and paint a painting or play a song. When you take into account all of the things that psychologists and sociologists are telling us, you almost have to do it that way. Either that, or turn our services into quick hitting Sesame Street segments. But that’s not the method that God has ordained. God has ordained that His Word will be understood primarily by its proclamation. He has ordained that understanding will happen when His word is taught by expository teaching and preaching. Does that mean we can never use any of those other things? No—but they can only be used to point to the exposition of God’s Word. They are never to be the primary means of teaching. And they are certainly never to take the place of preaching. So, when I say “expository” preaching and teaching, what do I mean? I mean exactly what was going on in our passage. Look back at verse 8.
NEHEMIAH 8:8
What Ezra doing there? The first thing that he did was to read the passage. Expository preaching is, by definition, an exposition of a text of Scripture. It has to start with a Bible passage. Another characteristic is that it was read distinctly. In other words, it was read in a clear, understandable way. It was read in the people’s language in words that they could understand. But here’s what distinguishes expository preaching from other kinds. Look at the next thing in verse 8. They read the text and read it clearly. But then they gave the sense of the text and caused the people to understand it. What is the focus here? The focus is always on the text. It’s not on the preacher’s opinions. It’s not on the current events of the day. It’s not on some legalistic moralism he wants to come up with. The focus is always on the text. Say what the text says. Don’t make it say what it doesn’t say. If I or any other preacher stands before you and speaks… here’s how you can know if it was a good sermon. If you attended. If you actively listened. If you paid attention. Do you now have a better idea of what the text said than before you came to church? If you did your part in listening, you can tell if the preacher did his part in preaching when you have a better understanding of the text. Ezra was not interested in going over a list of great things the people did by building the wall. He wasn’t interested in decrying the immorality of Sanballat and Tobiah. He was interested in the text of Scripture. He read the Law and he explained it to the people. Read the text, interpret the text, explain the text and apply the text. That’s what he method of teaching was. And that’s what our method of teaching must be if we want to understand God’s Word in the way that He’s ordained. Our method of teaching the Bible must involve proclamation and expository teaching and preaching.
The fourth thing we see in this passage is that our method of teaching the Bible must have understanding as its goal. The goal of our teaching the Bible is understanding—not emotionalism. It’s fairly easy to play with people’s emotions. Video and drama and music can do a great job of tugging on your heartstrings. Any time our drama team performs, I get emotional. That’s wonderful. But we have to understand that an emotional response is not our goal. Our goal is understanding. There is a reason that God speaks to us in His Word. His word is rational. And because it’s a rational Word, we can cling to it when our emotions fail us. Emotions are a roller coaster. And if our faith is founded on our emotions, we’re going to be in trouble. Jesus said that a house built on sand will fall with a great crash when the storms hit it. But He said that a house built upon a rock will stand firm in the storms. Do you know what rock He was talking about? Of course He was talking about Himself, but He was even more specific than that. In Matthew 7:24, Jesus said, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” In other words, Jesus said that whoever builds his life on His Word will be able to withstand the storms of life. But if you build your life on something else, like emotions, you’re going to crash hard. So, if that’s the case, why do we spend more time speaking to people’s emotions in church that we do to their understanding? Look at how some services are built. 30 minutes of singing and drama and praise and worship. Then 15 minutes of sermon that include a couple of emotion stirring illustrations. And then 15 minutes of emotional appeal during the invitation. Where is the focus there? It’s certainly not on understanding, is it? It’s an appeal to the emotions. And emotions are fickle things. I can be on cloud nine one minute and then something happens. And just like that, I can be sad or hurt or frightened or depressed. That’s why our method of teaching the Bible cannot focus on emotions. Emotions can and should and will be a byproduct. We should weep at our sin. We should shout at the victory of Christ over our sin. But those things only should come as a result of our understanding. So understanding is what we must focus on—not manipulating emotions. Our method of teaching the Bible must have understanding as its goal.
Finally, our method of teaching the Bible must result in biblical application. We’re going to see how this plays out in a couple of weeks. It’s nice when the text gives us a list of things that we can immediately go out and do. But it doesn’t always do that. But whether the text does that or not, we still must find a way to apply what we’ve heard to our lives. Otherwise, we’ve just sat here for a philosophical lecture. So how are you going to apply what you’ve heard tonight? You’re not a preacher, you might not be a formal teacher. So how can you apply what you’ve heard? Well, if you recognize that God’s chosen method of teaching the Bible is public and corporate… you can resolve to be part of that corporate gathering. If you recognize that God’s chosen method of teaching the Bible involves one preacher and many teachers… you can purpose in your heart to be one of those informal teachers. You can also seek out the preacher or one of those teachers to help you with things you might not understand. If you recognize that God’s chosen method of teaching the Bible involves proclamation and expository preaching… you can attend. You can actively listen. You can pay attention. Instead of going into a preaching service with the attitude, “What are you going to lay in my lap”… You can go into it with the attitude, “What can I draw out of this.” Finally, if you recognize that God’s chosen method of teaching the Bible has understanding as its goal… you can quit viewing Sundays as a time to get your emotional batteries recharged. Instead, you can look at it as a time to know Jesus in such a way that your house doesn’t blow down every time a storm comes along. Do you know Him that way tonight? I didn’t ask how you feel about Him. I asked if you know Him that way. It starts with understanding. And understanding comes from using the right method. You can start that understanding tonight by committing to be here and be involved and be active in your learning. Will you make that commitment tonight?
