Ferguson: You know an ordinary means of grace ministry is, the thrill from the point of
view of those who share in that ministry of the exposition of Scripture in different ways
and at different levels, and watching the Word of God work.
I’ve become more and more convinced, that the default among us evangelicals is, that
we do the work and the Word helps us.
And perhaps that’s an indication that in our churches we see far too frequent — far
too infrequently what it’s like when the Word of God preached in the power of the Holy
Spirit, itself does the work, and changes people’s lives.
If you read through the Acts of the apostles, it’s interesting how on occasion the Word
of God is — almost becomes like a person who does things.
The Word of God increases, the Word of God prevails.
Paul speaks to the Thessalonians about the Word of God which is at work in you.
And my own feeling is that even if we speak about means of grace ministry, we may not
have caught sight of that vision of what’s it like when God’s Word does its work, floors
us, prostrates us, transforms us, gives dignity to our lives, and means that what happens
in — under the ministry of the Word is — becomes visible in the community in the days that
follow, and we long for that, and for that we need to as, Act 6:4 says, give ourselves
to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
Lawson: Yeah, it’s a Word-centered ministry, and is saying the same thing in slightly different
way.
And when we say Word-centered we’re talking about the written Word of God in the canon
of Scripture.
We preach the Word, we teach the Word, we sing the Word, we pray the Word, we see the
Word in the signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We live the Word.
It’s a Word-centered, Word-driven ministry, and so, just to succinctly state what that
is, it’s the written Word of God ruling in the life of the church, and we’re not
looking for alternative strategies or other ways of doing ministry.
Like I quoted Luther last night, there is no reason for the church to ever come together
except the Word be in the very center of it.
Parsons: I think that’s very helpful, and talking about the ordinary means of grace,
our confession speaks of these outward and ordinary means of grace being: Word of God,
prayer, and the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper, and baptism.
And these outward and ordinary means are really the warp and woof of the life of the church
and of our lives.
And as Dr. Lawson said, that means that in trusting God and believing that God is sovereign,
we’re believing not only that God ordains the ends of all things, but also that He ordains
the means of all ends.
And so often people claim to believe that God is sovereign, they believe in the sovereignty
of God, but they’re not trusting the means that God has ordained to build His church,
to grow us up, to make us mature as disciples of Jesus Christ.
And so, in ordaining the ordinary means of grace, these are the means by which we grow.
These are the means we worship Him and these are the means by which He carries out His
Great Commission to the ends of the earth in His mission.
And so, it’s trusting them.
It means we’re not technique-based, we’re not method-based.
We don’t have to constantly drum up new technics and programs.
No gimmicks.
It means we trust God’s way to build and to grow and to reach and to revive and to
reform His church, and that’s what the Reformers did.
They were relying on the Word of God.
Relying on the Spirit of God through the Word of God in prayer and the sacraments to do
what God promised they would do.
So we need to trust God and believe that He’s sovereign, not only in some ethereal way,
some theoretical way, but really, where it really counts in the life of the church.
Nichols: I think there’s two things in Luther that can be very helpful for us.
When you think of the ordinary means of grace, and you think of Scripture and you think of
the Lord’s Supper.
And we have the signs and wonders.
I think in our day its more feelings.
You know, there’s this — we’re very tuned in; do I feel joy or how am I feeling
today?
Luther has this great hymn of God’s Word, he says that we don’t trust in feelings.
He says, “For feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving.
My warrant is the Word of God, not else is worth believing.”
And there’s a solidity there.
There’s a soundness there to Luther and his emphasis on the Word of God.
And that’s really at the center of our worship, it’s at the center of the Christian life.
But the other is the Lord’s Supper.
You don’t have to agree with Luther’s view of the Lord’s Supper to appreciate
what he has to say about it.
And I think especially in American Evangelism, we’re very much influenced by a Zwinglian
memorial view.
And probably for most American Evangelicals, the Lord’s Supper does not rank very high
in their list of things they need to live the Christian life.
Luther, of course, advocated the Lord’s Supper every week, and in his larger catechism
he says this, “We are locked in a battle for our souls.
The Devil is out to get us every week, and so on Sunday we come for the nourishment of
the body of Christ.”
And there’s something to that.
You don’t have to be Lutheran in your view of the Lord’s Supper to appreciate that
we need to take the Lord’s Supper very seriously as a gracious gift of God, for us, and how
we live the Christian life.
Godfrey: Now, this is really beautifully summed up in the Heidelberg Catechism.
Where question 65 asks, “Where does true faith come from?”
And for every preacher, for every Christian, that’s a vital question.
“Where does true faith come from?”
And the catechism says, “True faith is worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the holy gospel and confirmed unto us by the holy sacraments.
And what a beautiful summary that is of Christian ministry by the work of the Holy Spirit.
But I like particularly, “through the preaching of the gospel,” it’s the Good News of
Jesus Christ that the Spirit uses to work faith in our hearts, and then confirms it
through the gospel sacraments.
Thomas: Steve Lawson reminded us last night of that wonderful story of Lloyd-Jones at
the beginning of his ministry in Sandfields, in South Wales, that the first thing that
he did was to nail the pulpit to the floor.
So, I’ve been thinking about that ever since I was reminded of it last night.
Just the image of Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones with a hammer, and some nails, and hammering this
pulpit into the floor.
But it was a demonstration of the centrality of the Word.
Wasn’t it Lloyd Jones who also said, that the way to fill Westminster Chapel was to
announce that he’d be preaching in his swimming trunks the next week?
Parsons: I think, also Chris, it might be helpful to say that in these ordinary means
of grace — and if we can sort of borrow some of the language of the marks of the church,
and the ordinary marks of the church that, it’s only when a church is concerned, as
Calvin said, with the pure preaching of the Word of God, the right administration of the
sacraments, and subsumed within that is right and consistent church discipline.
And that if a church isn’t carrying these things out consistently and wisely and graciously,
that they’re not a true church.
Ferguson: I’m not a great fan of the expression ‘means of grace,’ as it happens.
But I think we shouldn’t miss out from this the pattern of, for example Ephesians 4, with
its emphasis on the ministry of the Word, and what it actually produces in the life
of the church, where it produces a community in which each part is doing its work properly,
and outbuilds itself in love.
And you know, we are — we’re not just a teaching institution.
We’re — the Word of God creates a new kind of community, and so the preaching of
the Word without the creation of that new kind of community ordinarily does not make
the same evangelistic impact on the world around.
But the creation of that community helps people to see that the Word that is preached has
illustrations in the life of this new community, that are beyond contradiction.
And you know, often one finds that people who think little of the gospel, find that
they cannot contradict the reality they experience when they come among God’s people.
And it’s that reality that begins to work in their hearts to open their ears to listen
to what the Word is actually saying.
So, you know, we’re not speaking when we speak about means of grace and the importance
of the preaching of the Word that all we need is more ministers.
Or even all we need is more preaching.
But what is produced by that is — I mean that is one of the griefs about the United
States, there has been so much evangelical preaching that has changed nothing.
And, the statistics — those of you who know James Davison Hunter’s books, or Paul, or
David Well’s books, the deficit between the amount of preaching there is and the amount
of transformed living that there is, is absolutely colossal.
And we need preaching that closes that deficit, prayer that results in the closure of that
deficit, and new gospel communities that give illustration of the power of the gospel.
There’s a huge need, I think, in the Christian church today.