The Church and the Word of God

The church is an organism of the Word of God. The Word of God guides individuals to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ, and in life after they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and are made willing to trust in Christ alone for salvation. The Word of God gives the church life, direction and source for its message, and direction and source for its mission and ministry. In his work, Toward an Exegetical Theology, Dr. Walter Kaiser Jr. has stated,

In 1742 John Albert Bengel observed: "Scripture is the foundation of the Church: the Church is the guardian of Scripture. When the Church is in strong health, the light of Scripture shines bright; when the church is sick, Scripture is corroded by neglect; and thus it happens, that the outward form of Scripture and that of the Church, usually seems to exhibit simultaneously either health or else sickness; and as a rule the way in which Scripture is being treated is in exact correspondence with the condition of the Church." After more than two centuries we can affirm the validity of Bengel's warning. The Church and the Scripture stand or fall together. Either the Church will be nourished and strengthened by the bold proclamation of her Biblical texts or her health will be severely impaired.

The work of the pastor in the pulpit is of utmost importance to the overall proclamation ministry of his church, and, indeed, to the overall health of his church. The proclamation work of other staff members and church members will be affected by the quality of the pastor's pulpit ministry. Dr. Kaiser also stated correctly, "Should the ministry of the pulpit fail, one might just as well conclude that all the supporting ministries of Christian education, counseling, community involvement, yes, even missionary and society outreach, will likewise soon dwindle, if not collapse."

There is an important feature about the pulpit ministry of the local pastor that can be neglected, or it can be used as it is designed to be used, for the edification and equipping of the church to do the work of ministry.

In his 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, Dr. Mark Dever noted, "Too many churches misunderstand the priority that they are to give to God's revelation and to the nature of the regeneration He [God] offers therein. . . . The first mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching. It is not the high mark; it is far and away the most important of them all, because if you get this one right, all of the others should follow" [i.e. biblical theology, the Gospel, a biblical understanding of conversion, a biblical understanding of evangelism, a biblical understanding of church membership, biblical church discipline, a concern for discipleship and growth, and biblical church leadership].