霍顿论敬拜2: 传讲基督PreachingChrist Part 2 of a 6-part series onWorship
作者：Michael S. Horton 译者: 牛泓
宗教改革的焦点在于真正的敬拜，并认为坚持按照个人的幻想、想象和乐趣敬拜或服侍上帝就是偶像崇拜。我们都是罪人，即便是我们当中那些已经归信的人。我们仍然是堕落的，我们的心也总是要转回异教思想，除非我们不断地聆听那外在的圣道提醒我们关乎我们和上帝的真理。我们没有真的认为自己是全然堕落的，所以，律法来告诉我们坏消息究竟有多坏。但是同时，在一位圣洁的上帝面前， 我们也没有真的认为那个仍在犯罪的自己可以被宣告为义并得到完全的接纳，所以，福音来告诉我们好消息究竟有多好。如果律法与福音这两个信息没有成为我们日常的“饮食”，我们就根本没有听到上帝的圣道，而仅仅是满足于人的话而已。
由于我们的罪性、我们的偶像崇拜和我们善于扭曲事物以符合自己口味的倾向，改教者们相信我们必须不断地听到外在的道，这道在我们之外，向我们宣告我们的感情可能无法接受的信息。他们相信道有使人归信的能力，因为律法剥下人们虚假的义，而福音则带给人们在基督里所成就的义。正如保罗所说：“我不以福音为耻；这福音本是神的大能，要救一切相信的，先是犹太人，后是希腊人。”当圣灵开始动工之时，道就有使人归信、使灵性死亡之人苏醒和使罪人与上帝和好的能力。改革宗的一个信条甚至这样说道：“从一个特别层面上来讲，被传讲的上帝的道才是上帝的道。” 信条这样写是要告诉我们讲道不仅仅是一种人类教导的形式或者道德教训，更不是给寻求者的励志演说。相反，讲道，过去是现在也仍然是让人归信的工具。上帝不会通过《照我本相》的歌词使人归信，而是藉着被传讲的上帝的道。当在经文上数小时的辛勤劳苦之后，牧师登上讲台向上帝的百姓讲道，他不是在那里发表自己对世界的看法，也不是分享有关实际生活的指导。他作为牧者，代表上帝站在那里，为的是要引导那位好牧人的羊群走向路途的终点。他为着上帝，并向上帝的百姓讲话。
这就是为何讲道是一件如此严肃的事情，至少应该如此。这不是属于讲道者的时间，而是属于上帝的时间。这不是讲道者的讲台，而是上帝的讲台。因此，决定人们需要听什么信息，不是讲道者的说来算，不是长老的说来算，不是敬拜委员会说来算，也不是诗班长说来算。这是上帝说来算，而牧师则必须谨慎地从自己的圣经研究中分辨此时此刻上帝要对自己的百姓说什么。
你们当中肯定有人注意到我刚刚用了“圣经研究”（biblical
scholarship）这个词，你们可能会问：“你一定不是在说牧师必须是个学者吧？”那恰恰就是我的意思。一位忠实的牧师不会某天突然从床上爬起来，然后决定自己被呼召去传道，再找几个自己的朋友来确认自己的狂热。诚然，话语和圣礼侍奉的呼召离不开圣灵的带领，但是事情也远不止这么简单。如果一个人相信自己被上帝带领去寻求这呼召，他必须付出几年时间认真地学习圣经以及正确分解圣经的必要的方法。他必须掌握合乎圣经的解经原则。多少邪教不都是因为未经训练的狂热者不懂分辨不同的修辞手法和文学体裁而产生的吗？接下来，他必须掌握相关的语言，并且可以在一定程度上研究原文。然而这些并不是全部，他还必须了解教会历史，从中学习智慧，摒弃其中的愚昧。又有多少古怪的邪教和教派的产生是因为我们的某某弟兄认为自己是第一个真正明白圣经的，而实际上他所做的一切却只是复活了一千多年前的异端？在最重要的教义上，他必须从《创世记》到《启示录》去系统地学习圣经的教导，为的是要明白这些教义如何有机地融合成一个整体。否则，他就会在自己的讲道和教导上失衡和迷茫。
代表上帝站在讲台上半个多小时是一件可怕的事。这就是为何圣经警告道：“我的弟兄们，不要多人作师傅，因为晓得我们要受更重的判断。”教导不是一项权利，而是一种荣幸，不是每个信徒都有此恩赐。如果有人声称有教导的恩赐，他不仅要证明自己有交流沟通的技巧，也要证明自己拥有圣经的知识和基督徒的历史观，同时他也必须对自己所处的时空有一定觉悟。尽管我们不会强行让圣经去符合我们的处境，但如果对我们的处境只有肤浅的了解，我们就不能把圣经应用到我们当前的处境当中。
然而，今天更多的情况是圣灵被放在超越圣经或者与圣经相对的位置上，甚至你会听到有传道人以“靠圣灵带领”来为自己因懒惰无法预备属灵盛宴来找借口。有些传道人可能有学问，却为了更贴合会众口味而浪费了自己的学识。相比面对那些自认为为上帝说话的目不识丁的狂热分子，我在面对那些自称是改革宗并接受了改革宗神学教育，却仍然在满口传讲肤浅的道德主义的人最没耐心，因为你可以在同济会听到更流利的演讲。
讲道不是灵修性的或励志式的演讲，也不是神学课程，更不是讲道者的人生传记；它不是教人行善的道德教育，也不是活出美好人生的实践研讨会；它不是为了个人自我提升或者国家福祉。讲道的目的在于传讲基督并祂钉十字架。但是，这信息与我们所处的糟糕世界所面临的各种实际的问题相关吗？难道别人不会说这信息不实际甚至愚拙吗？使徒保罗答道：“诚然，福音的道理在那灭亡的人为愚拙，但在我们得救的人，却是神的智慧和神的大能。”
Preaching
Christ
Part
2 of a 6-part series on Worship
Michael
S. Horton
Reformation
was obsessed with true worship, insisting that worshiping or serving God
according to one's own whim, imagination, or pleasure, was idolatry. We are
sinners--even those of us who have been converted. We are still fallen and our
hearts always revert to paganism unless we are constantly confronted with an
external Word that tells us the truth about ourselves and God. We don't really
think that we're totally depraved, so the Law comes to us and tells us how bad
the bad news really is. But then we don't really think that we can be declared
righteous and fully acceptable before a holy God even though we still continue
to sin, so the Gospel comes to tell us how good the good news really is. If we
don't hear these two words, the Law and the Gospel, as our regular diet, we are
not hearing the Word of God, but are settling for the words of men.
Because
of our sinfulness, idolatry, and general tendency to twist things to suit our
own tastes, the Reformers believed that we had to constantly hear this external
Word, standing outside of us, announcing to us that which we may not find
acceptable to our sentiments. They believed that the Word had a converting
power, as the Law stripped men and women of their pretended righteousness and
the Gospel provided them with the righteousness offered in Christ. As Paul
said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto
salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek." The Word, when attended by the Holy Spirit, has the power to
convert, to bring those spiritually dead to life, and to reconcile sinners to
God. One of the confessions of the Reformation went so far as to put it this
way: "The preached Word of God is, in a special sense, the Word of
God." What the confession meant by that was that preaching was not merely
a form of human teaching or moral instruction, much less a pep talk for
seekers. Rather, it was and is a converting instrument. God doesn't convert
through the 25th verse of "Just As I Am," but through the preached
Word of God. When a minister, after hours of faithful laboring over the
passage, mounts the pulpit to address God's people, he is not there to give his
opinions about the state of the world or tips for practical living; he is there
in God's place, as the shepherd, meant to guide the flock of the Great Shepherd
to its final destination. He speaks for God to God's people.
That's
why preaching is such a serious business...or should be. It's not the
preacher's time, but God's time. It's not the preacher's pulpit, but God's.
Therefore, it is not up to the preacher, or to the elders, or to the worship
committee, or choir director, as to what the people need to hear. It is up to
God and the minister must, therefore, discern from careful biblical scholarship
what God has to say to his people in this hour.
Some
of you will have noticed that I mentioned "biblical scholarship." You
might ask, "Surely you're not saying that a preacher has to be a
scholar." That's exactly what I am saying. A faithful minister is not someone
who crawls out of bed one day and decides that he is called to preach, and gets
a few of his friends together to confirm him in his zeal. To be sure, the
leading of the Spirit is part of the call to the ministry of Word and
Sacrament, but it doesn't stop there. If one believes he is led by God to
pursue this calling, he must surrender several years to the serious study of
God's Word and the tools necessary for rightly dividing it. He must know the
proper rules for biblical interpretation. How many cults have been spawned by
untrained zealots who couldn't distinguish figures of speech and different
literary genres? Further, he must know the languages and be capable, to some
extent, of working through the passages in the original tongue. But that's not all.
He must learn church history, to learn from the wisdom and folly of the past.
Again, how many strange cults and sects have arisen because Brother Fred
thought he was the first person to really understand the Bible, when all he was
really doing was reviving a heresy that was over a thousand years old? He must
learn the systematic teaching of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, on the
most important doctrines, in order to see how they all fit into a constructive
unity. Otherwise, he will be unbalanced and confused in his preaching and
teaching.
It is
a frightful thing to occupy a pulpit for a half an hour or so on behalf of God.
That's why the Scriptures warn, "Not many of you should presume to be
teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more
strictly." Teaching is not a right, but a privilege, and not every
believer is gifted. If one claims to be gifted, he must demonstrate not only
skills in communication, but a knowledge of the Scriptures and the history of
Christian reflection. But he must also know something about this time and
place. While we don't force the Bible to fit our context, we can't apply the
Scriptures to our contemporary situation if we only have a superficial
understanding of that context.
Too
often today, however, the Spirit is either placed over or in opposition to the
Word in such a way that sometimes you even get preachers who excuse their
laziness for not having prepared a spiritual meal by saying that they wanted to
let the Spirit lead. Others may have great learning, but squander it for the
porridge of relevance. More than with the illiterate zealots who often presume
to speak for God, my patience is thinnest when I encounter men who claim to be
Reformed and have a Reformed seminary education, and yet preach a diet of
superficial, moralistic drivel that people can get more eloquently presented at
the Kiwanis Club.
The
purpose of the sermon is not a devotional or inspirational pep talk; nor is it
a course in theology or an autobiographical account of the preacher's life and
times. It is not a moral lesson in how to be good, nor is it a practical
seminar on how to have a happy life. The purpose of the sermon is neither
personal self-improvement nor national salvation, but to preach Christ and him
crucified. But will that be perceived as relevant, with so many practical
problems in our troubled world? Won't they consider such a message impractical
and even foolish? And the Apostle Paul answers, "Sure, the Gospel is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is
the power of God and the wisdom of God."
