Somebody reads a passage of Scripture out loud and explains what it means. Then he shows you what it has to do with your Tuesday. Figure on 25 to 35 minutes. Look around the room and you'll see Bibles open in laps everywhere, because the man speaking always tells you exactly where he's reading and people go there with him.
What It Looks Like From the Pew
One man speaks from the front. He reads the text aloud, and the references usually go up where everyone can see them, so nobody's left flipping pages in a panic. People follow along in the Bible they brought, or in one the congregation keeps on hand for anybody who needs it. No band starts up and no video rolls. Just a man with a text, and a room of people reading it together.
Here he is called the evangelist or the preacher, and around here that is Drew De Grado. Paul told Timothy to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:5). That describes the work. It isn't a rank. The preacher isn't in charge of anything. Elders shepherd this congregation (1 Peter 5:2; Acts 20:28), and the preacher is a member like the rest of us who happens to do the preaching.
An Older Pattern Than You Might Guess
Nehemiah records the same practice. The exiles had come home to Jerusalem. When they gathered to hear the Law read aloud, Ezra stood on a wooden platform and opened the book where everyone could see it, and Levites helped the people understand what they heard (Nehemiah 8:4-7). Here's what took place: "They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8).
A note on the Hebrew: "clearly" translates mephorash (מְפֹרָשׁ), a word for something made distinct or spelled out. The ESV margin offers "with interpretation" or "paragraph by paragraph." Ancient Jewish tradition took it to mean the reading was translated into Aramaic on the spot, because many who came back from Babylon no longer spoke Hebrew well. "The sense" is sekel (שֶׂכֶל), meaning insight or understanding. Either way, the goal wasn't a ceremony people sat through. The goal was that "the people understood."
Jesus did the same thing in the synagogue at Nazareth. "As was his custom," he stood up to read. He unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, read it and sat down, and "the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him." Then he told them what the text meant: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:16-21). He read the text, and then he explained it.
The early church kept at it. Philip found an Ethiopian official reading Isaiah in his chariot and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man answered, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" So Philip sat down with him, and "beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:30-35). That's still the job: start with the text in front of you, explain it, and get to Jesus.
Paul explains why any of this is necessary: "How are they to hear without someone preaching? … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:14, 17). And he handed Timothy an instruction that doesn't come with an opt-out clause: "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2). What gets preached is the word, not a man's opinions about the week's news. In the next breath Paul warns about listeners who, "having itching ears," go looking for teachers who will say what they already want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The preacher is required to bring two things: complete patience, and actual teaching.
A note on the Greek: "preach" is kēryxon (κήρυξον), from kēryx, a herald. In the ancient world a herald stood up in the public square and announced the king's message as it was given. He didn't edit it, soften it or add his own commentary on current events. His whole job was to get someone else's message across accurately. That is the job description Paul is giving here.
Paul also told Timothy what the public assembly should include: "devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13).
A note on the Greek: those are three distinct words. Anagnōsis is reading the text aloud. Paraklēsis is exhortation, which means urging people to act on what they heard. Didaskalia is teaching, which means explaining what the text says. Put the three together and you have the first paragraph of this article: read it, explain it, then show what it has to do with your Tuesday.
For the record, half an hour is modest by biblical standards. Ezra read "from early morning until midday" (Nehemiah 8:3). When the church at Troas gathered "on the first day of the week… to break bread," Paul "prolonged his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7). A young man named Eutychus fell asleep in the window and fell from the third story. Paul went down and embraced him, and he was alive (Acts 20:9-12). Our sermons are shorter than that.
What the Sermons Are Actually About
Over the course of a year you'll hear lessons that walk through a book of the Bible and lessons built on one doctrine. You'll also hear a good deal about money and marriage, and about grief and a short temper. The center never drifts, though. Paul put it about as plainly as language allows: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).
A note on the Greek: "crucified" is a perfect participle, estaurōmenon (ἐσταυρωμένον). Greek uses the perfect tense for a completed action whose results continue. Paul isn't only pointing to something that happened one Friday outside Jerusalem. He is describing Jesus as the crucified one, permanently. The cross still defines him, and it is still what every sermon comes back to.
Some of it will land hard. That's because a man working honestly through a text doesn't get to skip the verses that sting. "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12), and those verses reach the preacher before they reach anyone else. Paul told Timothy to "keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching" (1 Timothy 4:16), in that order. None of it is aimed at a guest.
What Won't Happen
Nobody campaigns for a candidate, runs a pledge drive, builds a lesson around a movie clip, or works the crowd for a reaction. What we do together as a congregation is edification, evangelism, and helping Christians in need (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; Romans 15:26). The preaching serves that work, not some program.
You Are Meant to Check Him
Guests are often surprised to hear it. Bring a Bible and look up every reference. Disagree with what you heard if the text says otherwise. Luke praises people for doing precisely that to an apostle: "Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11).
A note on the Greek: "examining" is anakrinontes (ἀνακρίνοντες), a word used for legal questioning. Luke uses the same verb for Pilate examining Jesus at his trial (Luke 23:14) and for the Jewish council questioning Peter and John (Acts 4:9). The Bereans weren't skimming. They held what the apostle Paul said up against the Scriptures and cross-examined it, "daily." Luke calls that noble.
Nobody minds the sound of pages turning mid-sermon. That's the whole reason you're told where the text is. And because we're an independent congregation with no denomination or headquarters above us, we've got nothing to appeal to except the text itself. That's exactly the standard we'd want you holding us to.
Nothing Is Required of a Guest
You sit and you listen. Nobody will call on you or ask you to stand, and no microphone is coming your way. Most sermons end with an invitation for anyone who wants to respond. The idea comes from the first gospel sermon: when the people who heard Peter asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" he told them plainly (Acts 2:37-38). If a sermon explains the gospel, it ought to give people a chance to act on it. Still, staying right where you are is perfectly ordinary, and plenty of people in the room will be doing the same.
Come Hear One
The only real way to find out what the preaching sounds like is to go hear some of it. Bring a Bible if you have one, and bring your questions too. Ask us for a free Bible study, read a little about who we are, or let us know you're coming.
Our schedule:
We're at 416 Main Street, Suite D, Honesdale, PA 18431. Parking is behind the building, and the rear door is the one to use.