Can a preacher apply the meaning of a text to hundreds of different hearers? Isn’t that the Holy Spirit’s job?

March 12, 2010

The important thing to consider here is the preacher’s work compared to the Holy Spirit’s work.

  • The Preacher’s Work. God calls preachers to herald his word, to report it, to explain it, to give the sense of it (e.g. Neh. 8:8). The preacher helps his hearers understand a text and see how it applies to their lives and their church—how they should repent, confess, obey, worship, and rejoice in God in light of the meaning of a given passage. The fact that there may be hundreds of people listening doesn’t mean that the preacher shouldn’t work to apply the passage. Many points of application will consistently fit a large portion of hearers.
  • The Spirit’s Work. God’s Spirit can also give such understanding (and more!), helping people to see how a text is relevant in ways the preacher might not have imagined. More importantly, however, only the Spirit can change the disposition of a person’s heart toward a text and its meaning. Only the Spirit can enable the heart to feel the appropriate spiritual weight of the text. For instance, a preacher preaching on “love of neighbor” can point to the many areas of life where such love must be practiced, but only the Spirit can convict a person of their lack of love and give that person a true desire to love their neighbor.  Only the Holy Spirit can make a sinner willing to receive God’s instruction. Only the Holy Spirit can change the sinner’s desires from opposition to submission, from rebellion to obedience.