Shrinking the Devil's Playground
A Plea for Preachers and Teachers to Consider Different Spiritual States in Their Audience.
The text for the upcoming Sunday includes 2 Thessalonians 3:10:
“If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat”.
You know the implications of this text are very important for the culture of your city and your church: entitlement to government handouts and indiscriminate, “feel good” charity is rampant and destructive. In your church, there is a significant contingent that feels entitled to the best of programs, while giving little or nothing of themselves. You know your own struggle with laziness.
You know that a strong challenge to the congregation is in order. You pray for courage and clarity and preach faithfully.
A few days later, you hear that a dear older saint has asked to be removed from the meal train.
He was on the meal train in the first place because his wife passed away a couple of months ago, after many years of slow decline. You remember how he had asked to be invited over for dinner, rather than having meals brought, since he preferred to eat with company in this season of his life. You remember admiring his courage and vulnerability.
Why then did he ask to be removed?
Because after your sermon, he felt he could not continue to receive meals while contributing so little to the church.
Most pastors can relate to giving a strong word to the congregation, which lands on precisely the wrong person. I am also confident many an unrepentant sinner has been emboldened by an encouraging word.
What is to be done about this sort of thing?
Some would say this is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit, and the preacher’s role is to simply pray and trust that conviction and acquittal will be applied to the appropriate person.
Respectfully, I disagree.
I believe the preacher is to cooperate with the Spirit’s work as much as possible, and to oppose the work of the enemy.
One way to think of this work is to “shrink the Devil’s playground”.
Shrinking the Devils’ playground
In Matthew 13 Jesus pictures the devil as birds that are watching for exposed seeds so that they might snatch them up (Matt 13:18-20).
Certainly, the emphasis of the parable of the seeds is the nature of the human heart. Nevertheless, Jesus here gives insight into the work of the Enemy in this parable.
Next, we have the well-known passage in Revelation 12:10, which describes the work of Satan as the one who “accuses (Christians) day and night before our God”.
Thus, every Sunday when the word is preached, the Devil is working. He approaches the tender hearted, hardworking saint at the point of exhaustion:
“Do you hear that? Freeloader. That’s you. Jenny asked you to help with kids and you said, “No, I’m stretched too thin right now”.”
But at the same time, he approaches the disengaged man, who sporadically attends church because he likes to sleep in, and says, “That’s not for you. You’re busy. You work hard.”
This is the Devil’s playground: between the faithful application of the Word of God, and the self-evaluation of the hearer. It is in the implicit question every hearer of the Word must answer, “Does this apply to me?”
Now the word “shrink” is key. It is impossible to completely eliminate the potential for misapplication to happen on a Sunday morning. As long as the right preaching of the Word goes forward, there will be erroneous self-evaluation declaring, “I’m innocent” when one is in fact guilty, and “I’m guilty” when one is not worthy of the hard Word given.
However, that inevitability does not acquit pastors from their responsibility to make some effort to limit the space the devil (and his ally, the flesh) inhabits on a Sunday morning.
Here are some ways to do that.
Practical Suggestions.
Each preacher must understand that whenever you give a challenge or a comfort to your congregation, you have a kind of person in mind. Maybe yourself. But your congregation does not know what that person looks like. It may seem obvious, but it may not be as obvious as you think.
Therefore, a few words to describe the person you have in mind can help immensely.
If you are preaching a message about the importance of discipling your children, and you have in mind the passive, excuse-making father who does almost nothing, describe him.
“If you are a father in here who has time for a 3-hour hockey game twice a week, and you think that reading a 5 minute bed time story to your child is a “Job well done”. I’m talking to you...”
Then describe those you are not talking to.
“If you’ve just arrived in this country, and you are having to work two jobs to pay for your small rental unit, maybe all you can do is bring your family to church for a season. Well done if you are doing that!”
Joel Beeke in his book, “Reformed Preaching”, references 13 categories of saints to consider when preaching, as enumerated by John Jennings (1687-1723). He is clear that he is not meaning that each sermon must address each one of the 13 groups. However, this list demonstrates the variety of spiritual states that may be present on a Sunday morning, and how insufficient it is to preach to one category week after week[1].
Conclusion
Finally, I want practice what I preach as well.
If you are a pastor reading this, and you or your church expects you to keep your message under 30 minutes, there are going to be some genuine limits to how many groups you can address.
Start with 2 of the 3 groups listed in 1 Thessalonians 5:14—try to consider them:
“14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”
However, if your congregation allows you over 45 minutes most Sundays, and you tend to have at least 3 or 4 subpoints to your 2 – 3 main points, then you have some time to consider how your text may apply to 3 or 4 spiritual states. Biblical instruction is important, but you are a shepherd of souls first.
I am confident that as each pastor labours to shrink the devils’ playground, he will find the space for the Spirit to convict and comfort will simultaneously grow.
May the activity of the Spirit of Christ fill each sanctuary where the Word is preached this Sunday!
[1] Joel R. Beeke, Reformed Preaching: Proclaiming God’s Word from the Heart of the Preacher to the Heart of His People (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 365-67.
This was great, Thomas. Thanks for sharing!
Helpful and practical, thanks!