The Preacher's Application in Sermons
Chapter 8: Preaching with a Pastor's Heart: Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor
Wallace Benn
Some books mark you deeply and change your life, although there are not many that you want to read over and over again. Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor, first published in 1656, is one of those rare life-changing books. In the thirty-five years that I have been in the ministry, I have tried to read this great work on pastoral ministry every five years. I need to, lest I forget what being an under-shepherd of the flock of God is really all about.
As a primer, I offer the following passage to provide a preliminary taste of the passion and power of Baxter:
The first and greatest work of ministers of Christ is acquainting men with the God who made them; He is the source of their blessing. We should open up the treasures of His goodness for them and tell them of the glory that is in His presence, a glory that His chosen people shall enjoy. By showing men the certainty and excellence of the promised joy, and by making them aware of the perfect blessedness in the life to come in comparison with the vanities of the present life, we may direct their understanding and affections toward heaven. We shall bring them to the point of due contempt of this world and fasten their hearts on a more durable treasure. This is the work we should be busy with both night and day. For when we have affixed their hearts unfeignedly on God and heaven, the major part of the ministry is accomplished. All the rest will follow naturally. (p. 108)92
It is small wonder that Jim Packer describes The Reformed Pastor as "another all-time classic, admonishing, motivating, and instructing the clergy."93
The Man behind the Book
Baxter was a salaried preacher at Kidderminster, England, from 1641 to 1642, and then vicar of the same town from 1647 to 1661. More than any other English preacher, he has been the model parochial minister. His was "a ministry during which he just about converted the whole town."94 The effect of Baxter's ministry at Kidderminster was extraordinary. Packer writes that "Kidderminster was a town of some 2,000 adults, and most of them, it seems, were converted under his ministry. He found them, he tells us, 'an ignorant, rude and revelling people, for the most part . . . they had hardly ever had any lively serious preaching among them.' But his ministry was wonderfully blessed."95
Baxter was a powerful gospel preacher and teacher of Scripture with a real heart to see people won for Christ. His ministry had such an effect on the town that, two hundred years later, a statue was erected to his memory by town officials. He believed that "there is no better way to make a good cause prevail than to make it plain," and he preached with a clarity, power, and straightness that were compelling. He spoke so as to be understood, and he expected as well as longed for people to come to Christ. His pastoral care and instruction were second to none and he remains, even in a different age, a good role model in many ways.
The Reformed Pastor: The Biblical Point of Departure
Baxter's magnificent book The Reformed Pastor is a heartfelt appeal to other Puritan ministers for good pastoral practice and is an extended discussion based on Acts 20:28, which reads, "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers." Before we look at what Baxter has to say that is relevant to our subject, let us take a tour of what Paul says in this magnificent chapter.
Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and he is in a hurry to get there (v. 16). So he sends for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come some thirty miles and meet him in Miletus. This is the church that Paul has spent the most time with - nearly three years of his life - and they are clearly very dear to him. The particular reason he wants to see the elders is that he does not think that he will have an opportunity ever to see them again, and he has some very important things to say to them (v. 25).
The poignancy of this chapter, then, is clear, as final conversations with loved ones, or those which we believe to be our last, are times for expressions of love as well as a reminder of things that are important to keep in mind. So it is here, and if I could go back to New Testament times, other than hearing Jesus teach or seeing him perform a miracle or being there on resurrection morning, this is the scene for which I would most like to have been a fly on the wall!
We should note that there is an "I know /you know" structure to the passage (see vv. 18, 22, 25, 29, 34). Within this format, Paul makes five key points. First, Paul appeals to the elders on the basis of their knowledge of him (vv. 18ff., 34). His life backed up his proclamation, and his lifestyle did not jar with it either. Despite trials and problems, he didn't shrink from declaring "anything that was profitable" (v. 20). Nothing put him off or hindered his testifying "to the gospel of the grace of God" (v. 24). Nor was he a drain on those amongst whom he worked, seeking, in this situation at this time, to support himself and his team financially (v. 34). Paul knew that a minister's life must back up what he preaches and that much pastoral damage is done by inconsistency in this area.
Second, Paul was much more than a pulpiteer. He proclaimed the gospel not only in public, but from house to house (v. 20). In other words, he was a man of the Word who took every opportunity to share it, in large situations as well as in small groups or with individuals.
Third, Paul's gospel is very clear. It is his testimony to "the gospel of the grace of God" (v. 24) that drives him. It is a gospel that calls for "repentance toward God and . . . faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 21). It is the revealed good news of God's love to repentant sinners in and through his beloved Son Jesus. It is God's gospel and is not to be altered or adjusted to suit politically correct ideas but rather to be proclaimed and testified to. Interestingly, Paul sees no difference between "the gospel of the grace of God" (v. 24), and "proclaiming the kingdom" (v. 25), but rather they are different ways of saying the same thing! How different that is from some liberal critics who want to see a difference between the gospel of the kingdom as proclaimed by Jesus in the gospels and the gospel of justification by faith as proclaimed by Paul. Paul would have had none of it.
Fourth, Paul didn't just preach to the Ephesians evangelistically but also shared with them "the whole counsel of God" (v. 27). He would have shared with them the Old Testament Scriptures as well as the apostolic testimony to the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. In our terms, he expounded all of Holy Scripture to them. He didn't just share his favorite bits but "anything that was profitable" (v. 20).
Fifth, personal profit or ease was not Paul's overarching motivation, but rather it was being faithful "to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (v. 24) and finishing his God-given "course and the ministry" (v. 24) that he had received from the Lord Jesus.
His dear friends would need to remember his priorities and example if the church was to be preserved from the damaging effect of false teaching, even from some of their own number who were more concerned with building their own reputations and empires than with the good of the kingdom of heaven (vv. 29, 30). So the elders must be alert (v. 31). The faithfully taught and believed gospel of grace is that which alone builds the church and causes it to grow (v. 32).
Paul's advice is summed up in the key verse of the chapter (in Baxter's view) - verse 28. Two very important things ought to be noticed about this verse, which Baxter (we shall see) emphasized.
First, the order of the first part of the verse is significant. We cannot watch over or "pay careful attention to . . . all the flock" if we are not watching over ourselves first. We cannot lead others where we have not gone ourselves. Keeping a guard over our spiritual lives is critical in the ministry, as is taking care of our responsibilities as husbands and fathers. We must preach to ourselves first what we would preach to others.
The other key thing to notice, which is not obvious until we see it and then wonder why we missed it, is the Trinitarian nature of the verse. If you exercise an ordained ministry it is because, I trust, you know that behind the promptings, advice, and encouragements to seek ordination is no one other than the Holy Spirit who both calls you and equips you for ministry (v. 28b).
The high calling you have been given is to care for the church of God. It is not your work, but God's work, that you are privileged to be involved in. So it is not about your success, nor is it about building your own empire. "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain" (Ps. 127:1). Acts 20:28 is the verse that most helps me, as a senior church leader, to sleep at night! Sometimes there are real problems and difficulties in church congregations and between Christians that look too difficult for human wisdom to sort out. But God cares for his church much more than we can ever do, and ultimately the church's health and well-being depend on him and, thankfully, not on us. It is his work and his church.
Furthermore, the church of Christ has been bought at great cost: "which he obtained with his own blood." This is a hapax legomenon (a unique phrase) in Scripture. Normally it is "the blood of his beloved Son" or something similar. This is what it means here, too (it can be read as "with the blood of his own"; see F. F. Bruce on Acts), but the more natural reading of the Greek is that it is the blood of God, stated as starkly as that. When Jesus voluntarily and willingly went to the cross, he did so in love and in obedience to the will of his Father. Oh, how much our redemption cost not only the sinless Son but the whole Trinity.
As we turn now to see the emphasis in the Reformed Pastor that relates to the thrust of this chapter, I hope that it will be obvious how Baxter picks out and expresses truths enshrined here, and elsewhere, which, according to the great apostle, are so important for a healthy preaching ministry. In particular I want to draw attention to three things emphasized by the good Puritan.
The Preacher's Spiritual Walk
Recently a fairly well-known evangelical minister came to see me (one not working in my area). He told me that his preaching was valued by his congregation and that he had a reputation as a good Bible teacher whose ministry was much appreciated. He was clearly upset, so I asked him why he had come to see me. His answer was that although he produced skilled and appreciated sermons for others to believe, he had no personal walk with Jesus Christ. He said, "I have become a sermon factory for others to take to heart, but I am spiritually nowhere myself!" He asked for advice.
I told him that in my opinion he should take a sabbatical and spend a lot of time at the foot of the cross until his heart was warmed again by the love of Christ,96 for he dare not preach to others what is unreal to him or what he is unwilling to take on board personally. I also encouraged him to read Baxter in that time off. He did what I suggested and thankfully has been helped and blessed. His story underlines the fact that it is dangerously possible to be simply "professional" in the job of ministry and forget or neglect our own walk with God. We must never forget the words of our Savior, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good" (Matt. 12:34-35). Otherwise, preaching is not done "in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 4:1), before them to please them (which is awesome but also liberating), but before people for the praise of men. It defies Paul's advice to Timothy, "Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity . . . practice these things, devote yourself to them . . . keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Tim. 4:12, 15-16).
As a fine and faithful preacher and pastor himself, Baxter understood only too well the dangers that must be avoided in ministry. Here is great practical wisdom from Baxter:
My second exhortation is preach to yourself the sermon that you propose before you preach it to others. When your mind is enjoying heavenly things, others will enjoy them, too. Then your prayers, praises, and doctrines will be heavenly and sweet to your people. They will feel when you have been much with God.
Conversely, when I am depressed in soul, my flock will sense my cold preaching. When I am confused, my preaching is, too. Then, the prayers of others will reflect my own state of preaching. If we, therefore, feed on unwholesome food, either of errors or of fruitless controversies, then our hearers will likely fare the worse for it, whereas if we abound in faith, love, and zeal, how it will overflow to the refreshing of our congregations and to the increases in the same graces in others
So, brethren, watch over your own heart. Keep out sinful passions and worldly inclinations. Keep up the life of faith and love. Be much at home with God. Let it be your daily, serious business to study your own heart, to subdue corruptions, and to live dependent on God. If not, then all your work that you constantly attend to will go amiss, and you will starve your hearers. If you only have an artificial fervency, then you cannot expect attendant blessings. Above all, be much in secret prayer and meditation.
For your people's sake, then, look into your own hearts. If spiritual pride overtakes you, and you develop any dangerous ideas of schisms, and you try through your overvalued intentions to draw away disciples after you, how you wound the Christian body! Therefore, take heed to your judgments and affections. Error and vanity insinuate slyly. Apostasies usually have small beginnings. How easily also will bad spirits creep into our affections, and our first love for the Lord cools.
A minister should take special care of his own heart before he goes before his congregation. If it is cold, how is it likely to crown the hearts of the hearers? Go then especially to God for life, and read some rousing, challenging books. Meditate on the theme and thirst for the subject that you are about to speak on. Carry the burden of your people's souls on you before you go the house of the Lord.97
We might add that a pastor needs to take relationships at home very seriously. I will never forget the teenage son of a well-known evangelist saying to me at a conference, "The trouble with my dad is that he is a street saint and a house devil!" It is at home that we are seen at our best and worst, and so much damage is done to young hearts if the preacher is inconsistent at home (bearing in mind none of us is as good as we might be). There needs to be a transparency and reality about our spiritual life that backs up our preaching. Otherwise how dare we expect others to travel where we have not and to expect God's blessing on our preaching? We need to read the Bible and pray, not just to produce sermons for others but for our own spiritual well-being too. It is a great privilege to have to engage with Scripture every week to preach properly and in an expository manner, but our engagement with Scripture must first be to speak to ourselves. We need to use our responsibility to preach God's Word as an opportunity for a regular health check. Baxter as ever is a wonderful soul friend.
Two comments of Baxter's that I particularly treasure and that sum up my point are the following: "Be much at home with God" and "When our mind is enjoying heavenly things, others will enjoy them too." (See also a key passage about Old Testament leadership in Malachi 2:5-7, which is applicable to presbyters in the New Testament.)
The Preacher's Pastoral Involvement
We have already noticed that the apostle Paul was more than a pulpiteer and that he took every opportunity to share the truth of the gospel. Baxter was assiduous in his pastoral care, spending two days a week in a hectic life to see families and catechize each one for an hour. He worked his way through all his parishioners every year with the help of two assistants, believing that this one-to-one work was at the very heart of the success of the ministry in Kidderminster.
Despite his high regard for preaching, Baxter was concerned that some of his colleagues spent too many hours each day in the study, with the result that they had little pastoral contact with people. Baxter saw that as bad for the people under a pastor's care, but he knew that it was bad for preachers also. How would preachers understand their congregants' questions and needs if they did not know their flock? How would they be prayerfully guided in the selection of a book of the Bible to preach through if they did not have the information as to which book of the Bible would be most relevant to their people at that point in their spiritual lives?
Today there is an urgency for pastors to apply Baxter's advice in a modern context where daytime visiting might find both mom and dad at work. If one parent is at home, it is likely to be the wife, and in today's world how appropriate is one-to-one, male-to-female pastoring? Evening visiting finds commuters exhausted and distracted with television, and children needing help with their homework. How helpful and serious can a spiritual conversation be in that context? However, I am convinced that with adaptation and imagination Baxter's model of pastoral care can be used effectively and helpfully today.98
My concern is that preachers have little pastoral contact with ordinary people except in emergencies, and this is not good for their preaching. Indeed, we must honestly admit that some preachers appear not to like people much, withdrawing from contact with them and sometimes justifying it by saying they believe in the priority of preaching. With Baxter, I believe passionately in the priority of preaching, but this must not be used to distance us from involvement with people. It is a question of balance. The problem that Baxter was addressing is especially a problem for a senior pastor in a large church, where, by the nature of the job, pastoral involvement with people becomes harder; the more senior the leader, the more isolated you can become.
Baxter would have agreed that much counseling and pastoral care are done through good preaching, and indeed where the Bible is faithfully and powerfully taught and applied, many counseling problems will disappear. But Baxter's point for preachers is that we will not preach powerfully to people if we don't really know them or understand the challenges they face. He is also crystal clear that the teaching of the Word of God publicly must be reinforced by teaching in a smaller group context where individual questions can be addressed. Here are three passages in which Baxter addresses the issue:
I know that public preaching of the Gospel is the most excellent means of ministry because we speak to so many at once. Other than that single advantage, it is usually far more effective to preach the Bible's message privately to a particular sinner. In public we may not use the more homely expressions, and our speeches are so long that we overrun our hearer's understanding and memory. Thus they are not able to follow us. But in private we can take them at their own pace of understanding and keep their attention by argument, answers, and objections as they raise them. I conclude, therefore, that public preaching is not enough. You may study long but preach to little purpose unless you have a pastoral ministry.
Like the apostle John, we should not count our lives dear to us, so that we may find our crown of rejoicing by doing the work of God for their salvation. When the people see, then, that you love them unfeignedly, they will hear what you say - they will bear whatever you ask - and they will follow you more readily. And when a wound is given in love, it will be more readily accepted than when one issues a foul word that is merely given in malice or anger.99
Moreover, we have the best opportunity to imprint the truth upon the hearts of men when we can speak to each one's personal needs. If you have the compassion of Christ, you will exercise this ministry. If you are coworkers with Christ, you will not neglect the souls for whom he died. . . .
Such personal teaching will make our public preaching so much better understood and regarded. When you have acquainted the people with the principles, they will better understand all that you say. They will better perceive your intent when you have prepared their hearts and minds beforehand. So you will not lose in public service if you have been fruitful in this private ministry.100
In large church situations, this work needs to be delegated to a good pastoral team that reports to the senior pastor. Baxter shared the work with others. But he would have cautioned the pastor to be doing some of this himself, lest he remain aloof and fail to understand his peoples' needs personally. There is wisdom here for effectiveness in our preaching, for clearly pastors need to pastor in more ways than in the pulpit. They also need to be people (as they encourage their congregations to be) who are on the cutting edge of mission and evangelism in seeking to win individuals they know personally for Christ. Such involvement will make our preaching so much sharper and on the ball. Edward Donnelly's comment is apt: "This perhaps is where Baxter may prove most serviceable to the ministers of today - in the forging of a strong link between pulpit and pastorate."101
The Preacher's Application in Sermons
The greatest need of the church today is powerful expository preaching. There is a lamentable lack of it even in evangelical churches. John Stott in a marvelous chapter on "the paradoxes of preaching" reminds us of the following:
Our understanding of preaching is that it is essentially, in its very essence, an exposition of the Word of God. In that sense all Christian preaching is expository preaching - not in the narrow sense of that term, meaning a running commentary on a long passage of Scripture - but in the broad sense that it opens up the biblical text. Preachers are trustees of God's revelation, stewards of the Word of God; and we must be determined, above all else, to be faithful in our stewardship.
But Stott goes on to say:
Yet at the same time, authentic Christian preaching is also contemporary, or should be. It resonates with the modern world; it wrestles with the realities of our hearers' situation. In our resolve to be biblical we must refuse to lapse into irrelevance. Instead, we should seek to relate the ancient text to the modern context. True biblical exposition goes beyond exegesis, which simply explains the meaning of the passage, to application - grasping the heart of the message.102
In England we have not only a lack of good expository preaching, but also many complaints about some otherwise good young ministers. I speak of preachers who see the vital importance of understanding the text of Scripture and getting it right but fail to see that is only half the job done. A vital half for sure, but devoid of application. Too much sound preaching is unnecessarily dull. We dare not forget what Martyn Lloyd-Jones said in his great book Preaching and Preachers: "What is preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason. . . . Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire."103
Wilbur Ellsworth also reminds us in a timely fashion that "in fact, our increasing technology seems to create an even greater need for human touch and the human voice speaking to the human heart."104 Considered application as well as a heart moved by what we are preaching is essential for powerful biblical preaching. "In all cases preaching will employ you in teaching, plus application, for the purpose of persuasion."105
As my old professor and friend J. I. Packer used to tell his students, "Preaching is teaching, first and foremost. It is more than teaching; it is teaching plus application . . . but it is never less than teaching. It is a kind of speaking aimed at both mind and heart, and seeking unashamedly to change the way people think and live. So it is always an attempt at persuasion."106
So, then, application is essential to good biblical preaching. In fact, we could say with the wonderful Bible expositor J. A. Motyer, "The art of preaching is application." Of course there are different ways to do that, and the place to start is by laying the meaning of the text of Scripture bare and thinking in applicatory ways of how to teach the text, so that the message of Scripture comes home forcibly to us. But without limiting the application of Scripture to a congregation, I am persuaded that modern people need examples of how Scripture can apply. Here is John Cheeseman on the subject:
Application is absolutely crucial. This is what really makes the message come home with force and penetration to the congregation. People want to hear something that is relevant to them in their daily lives. We must spare no effort in making our application as real and down-to-earth as we can. But do not always keep the application to the same part of your sermon. For example, some preachers save it all up to the end. This is not a good idea on every occasion. If you inject your sermons with applications all the way through, it will help your people stay alert and awake 107
By now it will not surprise you when I say that Baxter knew this all a long time ago! And in many ways he puts the issues of prayerful application best of all:
Augustine remarked, "A preacher must labor to be heard with understanding, with willingness, and with obedience. Let him not doubt that he will effect this with fervent prayers more than with all the power of his oratory. By praying for himself and his audiences he will be fit to be a petitioner before he is a teacher. So when he comes and when he goes, let him raise his voice to God, and lift up his soul in fervent desire."
Prayer must carry on our work as well as our preaching. For he who does not pray for his people will not preach powerfully to his people. If we do not prevail with God to give them faith and repentance, then we are unlikely to prevail with them to believe and to repent. Thus Paul gives us frequently his own example, as one who "prays night and day" for his hearers. When our hearts then are out of order, theirs will also be out of order. If we do not prevail with God to help others, then our work will be in vain. . . .
Even in our sermons we are often negligent to study more than gathering a few points of data, and we fail to go deeper, to see how we can set these matters forcibly in the hearts of other people. We ought to study how to convince and how to get inside people and how to learn to bring the truth to the quick - not to leave it in the air. Experience tells us that we cannot be learned or wise without hard study, unwearied labors, and experience.
Moreover, if ministers are to do the work of the Lord, it must be done more vigorously than most of us do it. How few ministers preach with all their might or speak of everlasting joy or torment with conviction. Instead, we speak so drowsily or gently that sleeping sinners cannot hear.
What a tragedy it is, then, to hear a minister expand doctrines and yet let them die in his people's hands for the lack of a relevant and living application. Could we speak coldly of God and of men's salvation? So, in the name of God, brethren, labor to waken your own hearts before you come and are fit to awaken the hearts of sinners.108
Richard Baxter has much to teach us today both about good expository preaching that understands the need for good application, as well as the importance of the preachers speaking from a heart that is "enjoying God" and walking prayerfully with him. Here is a powerful reminder that there is more (not less) than an academic engagement with the text which the preacher must do. It will take our best efforts and above all the strength and enabling of the Holy Spirit of God, who not only calls us to ministry but thankfully equips us for it too. Baxter was a magnificent example of a preacher with a pastor's heart. We need to digest his wisdom and make it our own. Our preaching, by the grace of God, will be far more effective if we do. In preaching as in the whole of ministry there is really no substitute for love of God and love of his people.
Edward Donnelly sums up Richard Baxter well as a preacher: "This then is Richard Baxter of Kidderminster. A preacher who labored to make plain the truth of God, who spoke from a burning heart as he pleaded with his people to close with Christ. A pastor who knew his sheep by name, who spoke to them personally about the great concerns of their souls. He is not merely an historical curiosity, a fossil to be marvelled at, but a stimulus, a rebuke, an encouragement."109
It has been a great pleasure and joy to be able to commend a few of Richard Baxter's key insights, which have meant so much to me personally. He needs to be widely read by a whole new generation of young pastors as well as again by us oldies! I know of no better example of a modern powerful expository preacher, who preaches with the kind of pastoral heart that Richard Baxter exemplified, than my very dear friend Kent Hughes, to whom this volume is dedicated. To God be the Glory!