The Minister’s Workshop: Getting the Layman to Read His Bible

Every pastor wishes the layman to read his Bible, both in private and at the family altar. From the pulpit why not show him how? There can be no bad way of reading the Bible, but from the pulpit show the best way. The Bible was written by books. Within each book the paragraph, or poetic strophe, serves as the literary unit. In college a layman learns to enjoy Shakespeare by living with one play, and within the play, one act, and one scene. Such a method works even better with the Bible.

Many a layman has never read a Bible book as a whole, and by paragraphs. In private and family devotions he uses a devotional manual, with a Bible verse a day, and little continuity. In church the sermons may follow a similar pattern. How long must a man attend church before he learns to enjoy such a difficult book as Romans? Today the Lord calls on every pastor to serve as a pulpit guide.

In a sermon about any book, tell the layman what to seek for. In successive messages, morning or evening, deal with chosen parts (too many for a special series). Every Lord’s Day the bulletin will give next Sunday’s topic (not the text), with a chapter or two for home reading. The list below runs too long, but it is easier to omit some parts than to add others on the same high level.

Broadus used as an example the Epistle to the Romans. He had found it difficult, but “there never would have been any great difficulty in seeing what the Apostle meant to say if I had only been willing to let him alone and let him say what he wanted to say.” Today any such pulpit explainer would delight lay hearers, and increase their number.

Before a minister starts preaching this way he should study Romans in the spirit of prayer. The stress ought to fall on reading the book as a whole, and then by paragraphs. Starting with the Greek, a man ought to use various versions. On points of difficulty he should consult a standard exegetical commentary such as that of Sanday and Headlam; also, a devotional one, as by Griffith Thomas. If the minister still does not understand a part, or see its relevance now, he may recall an old proverb: “If you can’t lift a stone, leave it alone.”

Gradually a number of golden texts will call for sermons. As R. W. Dale once learned about preaching on Christ our Contemporary, a man can keep on in the same field as long as each truth makes his own heart burn. So will the heart of the layman glow while gradually he learns to read the Bible as it was written, keeping the eye fixed on Christ, ever in meeting the heart needs of persons like us now (John 4:42).

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In eight or ten years a pastor can guide a growing number of laymen in enjoying almost every major book of the Bible, and some “minor” ones. By such “cooperative preaching” from the Bible, he can present God’s way of solving every spiritual problem, and meeting every heart need of the hearers. As for the harvest, both he and the hearers will claim the promise of God about his Book (Isa. 55:10, 11).

“It is not an accident, brethren, that in this age, in which infidelity has anew become blatant and arrogant, the Bible is more studied than ever it was before. It is not an accident that there is a new demand, throughout the Christian world, springing up for Biblical, expository preaching.… People don’t know about believing the preacher nowadays, and a great many people don’t know about acknowledging the authority of a church as they once did; but the people who come to hear the gospel, if you bring them something right out of the Bible, not a broken, dead fragment, but a part of the living whole, full of the true, divine life, and show them its meaning as God has taught it, and lay that meaning, explained, upon their hearts and their lives, the people everywhere respond to that.…”—JOHN A. BROADUS, Sermons and Addresses (1886).

Under God the effectiveness of the course will depend largely on the opening sermon. Here one does not dangle the skeleton of a corpse, but introduces a living book. First, the Meaning of the Gospel as the Super-Atomic Power of God. Second, the Practical Use of this Power Today. At best, atomic energy can change only the form and the place of things. The Gospel alone can transform a sinner into a saint, a cannibal tribe into a redeemed family of God. Super-atomic power enough to transform our world!

In a message about Repentance, one could deal first with the Gospel Meaning of metanoia, a complete “change of mind” about God and one’s own sin. Then with the Gospel Reason: because the Christ of Calvary is here. Last of all, the Christian Issue. Not merely “turning a new leaf,” but starting a new life, full of joyous service and lasting hope.

So each of the messages will bring the unsaved hearer face to face with the Christ of the Cross, moving him to accept the Redeemer and King, and then to bring others, one by one, to the foot of the Cross, there to lay down the burden of sin and shame, to receive pardon, cleansing, peace, and joy, with endless hope. Hallelujah!

Because of such preaching by a pastor whom I know, a mature young man and his wife accepted the Lord. Four years later they had to move away. In bidding farewell, they thanked him for showing from the pulpit how to read and enjoy 20 Bible books, none of which they had previously read. Who can imagine the lasting impact of such pulpit work where many laymen read the Bible setting before they hear each sermon?

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The Super-Atomic Power of God—1:16

The Christian Reason for Repentance—2:4b

The Bible Teaching about Sin—3:23

The Bible Teaching about Salvation—4:3

The Christian Gospel of Peace—5:1

The Gospel Gift of Salvation—6:23

The Daily Struggle in the Soul—7:15 (RSV)

The Holy Spirit as Our Guide—8:14

The Christian Basis of Optimism—8:28

The Christian Promise for Missions—10:13

The Christian Doxology about God—11:33