The Judged, Not “The Judge”

“[A] God-centered focus of preaching will change [the listener’s] assessment of the preacher and the preaching. If people know they have encountered God, they do not praise the preacher. The focus stays on God. They no longer stand over the preacher as a judge of his sermon ‘performance.’ Though one moment they are the judge, the next they perceive that they are being judged. This perception should lead to a different diagnostic question in regard to preaching. The question will no longer be, ‘How was the sermon?’ because that question calls for the hearer to judge how the preacher did. Instead it will be, ‘How did your soul fare under the sermon?’ or ‘How did God address you in the sermon?’ – Jason Meyer, Preaching: A Biblical Theology, 246.