{"id":21724,"date":"2010-01-14T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T03:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=21724"},"modified":"2020-04-20T21:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T02:13:14","slug":"does-the-whole-church-need-to-hear-the-whole-sermon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-whole-church-need-to-hear-the-whole-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the whole church need to hear the whole sermon?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Is there some biblical passage where it is mentioned that in the primitive church all <\/b>listened to the preacher and all <\/b>were present during the whole worship?<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

“And they\u00a0continued<\/strong>\u00a0steadfastly<\/strong>\u00a0in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers<\/em>” (Acts 2:42).<\/p>\n

“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.\u00a0Continue in them<\/strong>, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you<\/em>” (I Timothy 4:16).<\/p>\n

“Therefore\u00a0we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard<\/strong>, lest we drift away<\/em>” (Hebrews 2:15).<\/p>\n

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which\u00a0you do well to heed<\/strong>\u00a0as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts<\/em>” (I Peter 1:19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You won’t find a verse for every possible situation. Do we know that every Christian sat through the entire service and listened to every word spoken? No. But that isn’t the important question. Given how important God’s word is to the Christian, why won’t they be wanting to learn more?<\/p>\n

Imagine being served dinner, and a number of guests leave food on the table when it is over. Why?<\/p>\n

    \n
  • It is more than they could eat in one sitting.<\/li>\n
  • It is the same thing they have every time and they are bored with the selection.<\/li>\n
  • It wasn’t properly cooked.<\/li>\n
  • It wasn’t what they wanted to eat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    When it comes to the preaching of God’s word, you will find similar reactions. Some preachers try to stuff more into their lesson than most can digest in one sitting. Some preachers only teach on a limited set of topics instead of teaching the whole counsel of God. Some lessons are just plain poorly organized and poorly presented. Then there are always those who are only interested in hearing what they want to hear.<\/p>\n

    When someone leaves before the end of service, it is a declaration about that person and usually not a flattering one. A feast is prepared and some just aren’t that hungry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question: Is there some biblical passage where it is mentioned that in the primitive church all listened to the preacher and all were present during the whole worship? Answer: “And they\u00a0continued\u00a0steadfastly\u00a0in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.\u00a0Continue in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[536,84],"class_list":["post-21724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-preaching","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19123,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/take-heed\/","url_meta":{"origin":21724,"position":0},"title":"Take Heed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffey W. Hamilton Text: I Timothy 4:6-16 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The books of I and II Timothy and Titus are instruction manuals for preachers \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you think a moment, there isn\u2019t another role in the church that is discussed at such length \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And this is besides the numerous comments regarding preaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/take-heed-unto-thyself-and-unto-the-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":21724,"position":1},"title":"Take Heed Unto Thyself and Unto the Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey via The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 11, Sept. 1952. \"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine, continue in them: for in doing this though shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee\" (I Timothy 4:16). These words are from the pen of Paul to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-images-of-animals-or-men-for-toys\/","url_meta":{"origin":21724,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to have images of animals or men for toys?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are stuffed toys, teddy bears, barbie dolls, and so on related to witchcraft? In Deuteronomy 4:4-18 it mentions graven images. Is this really referring to teddy bears, stuffed toys, and so forth? As I believe, these verses are related to idols that people worshipped. Teddy bears, stuffed toys are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-importance-of-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":21724,"position":3},"title":"The Importance of Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via\u00a0The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, August 26, 2007 This past week, I noticed that the sign in front of the Presbyterian Church in Rogersville said, \"Love God. Love others. The rest is doctrine.\" The message was plain. Loving God and loving others\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69101,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-churches-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":21724,"position":4},"title":"Why Churches Die","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Riley The following are this writer's observations over forty years as to why churches die. 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I have been a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}