Last week, I began to give the final answer to the question of how we worship by considering the importance of the word of God in our worship. If Scripture is the sole authority for our faith and practice, it is the way that we come to know God and ourselves, and it brings us to faith through the teaching of the Gospel; then how are we to handle the Word of God? This morning, I am going to get pretty technical as we consider the ways in which we can study the Bible. I want to consider the ways that we study the Scriptures personally, as a family, and as a congregation.
First, how do we study the Scriptures in our own personal walk with the Lord? To answer this question, let’s consider Psalm 1:1-2 together. This Psalm sets up a contrast between those who would live in the way of sin and those who would live in the way of the Lord. The man or woman who would live in the way of the Lord is anchored in one thing: he delights in and meditates on the Law of the Lord. This beautiful statement in verse 2 involves both the heart and the mind. It is a false dichotomy that modern Christians create when we say that we don’t want to study, we just want to be in relationship with God. One cannot know God unless we study his word, and we cannot study his word unless we find our delight in it. The two are inseparable. So, let’s consider what it means to delight and meditate on the Word of God.
First, the word “delight” that is used in verse 2 means “to take pleasure in”. So, to delight in the Scriptures is to find satisfaction in them, to desire them, to be pleased by the words of God. How do we do that? To start, you must be saved. One cannot delight in something that he does not first love, and the only way to love the Word of God is to trust in the God of Scripture. Rom. 8:7 says, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” If you do not find beauty in the Word of God, if you do not find yourself convicted by your lack of devotion to it, if you have no longing for it; the problem might be that you were never saved to start with.
To delight in the Scriptures, you must also be caught up in the drama of it. One serious error that Christians make in their personal study of the Bible is to read it like an owner’s manual. Sure, the Bible contains wisdom for our daily lives. The Bible contains commands that we are to obey. But, above all else, the Bible tells a single story from beginning to end. It tells the story of God’s great plan of redemption, in which he took a small, insignificant man named Abraham, and through him he made the nation of Israel. It is the story of how he took this helpless nation of Israel, and through it he defeated the greatest armies of their day. It is the story of how, at the height of Israel’s power, God judged them for their idolatry and led them away into exile, and the story of how he brought them back to the promised land like he said he would. It is ultimately the story of how God, in his grace, delivered this rebellious people through His own Son, Jesus Christ and how that grace extends to all who believe in him. If we are going to delight in the Word of God, we must allow ourselves to get caught up in that drama.
To do that, I encourage you first and foremost to make a goal of reading all the way through the Bible. There are many different Bible reading plans, and those can be great. But even if you just take a chapter a day - set a goal of reading through the Bible, and then start over. Yet, as you do that, I’d also encourage you to think through how the chapters you read each day fit into that broader story of God’s redemption of the world. You’ll find as you answer that question, God will grow your delight for His Word.
The Psalmist doesn’t just say that the man of God delights in the Word of the Lord. He also “meditates” on it day and night. The biblical idea of meditation is not what we typically think: sitting cross-legged and humming. Biblical meditation is the work of thinking deeply about a passage of Scripture. There are two aspects of meditation that I’d encourage you to practice. First, meditation begins with memorization. I’d encourage you, as you read through the Bible, to pick out a few verses each week that you can memorize. Write those verses on an index card or on your mirror and set your mind to memorizing them. Second, meditation means thinking through the scripture that you’ve read. You can do that by keeping a journal of your thoughts on each passage. You can also pray through the passage, as we’ve been studying on Wednesday nights. The goal of meditation is that we go beyond just reading the Words of Scripture, and we allow them to penetrate our hearts and minds.
Now that we’ve seen the ways that we can personally study Scripture, let’s consider the ways we can study as a family. For that, turn with me to Eph. 5:25-26, 6:4. In these three verses, I want you to notice the centrality of the Word of God in the Christian family. First, notice that Paul calls Christian husbands, in verse 26, to wash their wives with the word. Then, in chapter 6, fathers are encouraged to raise their children in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. There are two points that I want you to notice from this.
First, the husband/father is to act like a priest over his household. Understand, this is not to say that the wife/mother has no responsibility in studying Scripture or in teaching children. But, the husband and father is the ideal leader for the family. Husbands, we are responsible for ensuring that our wives are staying rooted in the Word. That means, first and foremost, that we need to be rooted in it. From our own devotion, we can lead our wives. I’d encourage you to find good Christian books that you can read together. Listen to a good Christian radio program or podcast together and talk through the teachings of it. Talk about my sermons together.
Similarly, you should be teaching your children the ways of the Lord. Again, this starts with patterning the faithful Christian life in front of them. Let them see you having a devotion early in the morning. Make church a non-negotiable weekly activity. Make it a regular practice of having an evening devotion with your children, whether that be around the dinner table or before bed. It can be as simple as reading a passage of Scripture together and praying for the needs of those you know.
Finally, let’s consider the ways that we worship with the Word as a congregation. For that, let’s read 2 Tim. 4:1-5 together. This passage is a great encouragement and buttress for any pastor because it provides a base, non-negotiable responsibility for any pastor. Paul reminds Timothy that, above everything else in his ministry, he is to “preach the Word.” He goes on to admonish him to do this “in season and out of season.” There are two things that I want you to notice from this one statement. First, the preaching of the Word is to be the central work of the pastor, and by consequence, the central focus of the congregation. My primary responsibility to you is not pastoral care or administration. My first (and arguably only) responsibility is to proclaim the Word of God to you. If that is my primary responsibility, then your primary responsibility is to hear and do the Word of God. James 1:22 warns, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” The reason we center the whole of our worship service around the preaching of the Word is that we might all be changed by it and leave this place ready to serve Christ in the week ahead. So, you should start every Sunday in prayer, asking the Lord to teach you through His Word as we meet together in Sunday school and worship. And, you should listen with a heart that is ready to respond.
Second, Paul charges Timothy with the task of preaching “in season and out of season.” This phrase means that Timothy should preach when it is popular and when it is not. Now, I’ve been in ministry long enough to know that every member of this congregation has an opinion about what I should preach. Some wish that I would preach more about the woes of this country. Some wish that I would teach more on end-times prophecies. Others wish that I would say more about life application. Yet, my responsibility is not to give you what you want. My responsibility is to give you what you need. Like a parent who forces his child to eat broccoli because in the end it is good for him, sometimes I have to give you the hard things of Scripture because you need to grow. And, your responsibility, as you listen, is to take it to heart, to pray for understanding, and to walk in faith by it.
Brothers and sisters, the Word of God should be a delight to us. It should shape us, whether it be in our own personal study, our time as a family around the dinner table, or as we listen to a Sunday sermon. May we respond to the Word of God with faithfulness as he shapes us into the worshippers he calls us to be.
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