Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.38 – October 1999
The Power of Preaching
Sermon by Rev S Voorwinde
on Romans 10:14-15
Scripture Readings: Romans 10:1-17
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Is there someone in your life whom you would dearly, dearly love to come to the Lord? You might even say that you would give your right arm for this person’s salvation. Perhaps you would even be prepared to die if need be. That’s how strong your love is for the other person; that’s how much you long for them to be saved.
If that’s how you feel, you are not alone. Over the years I’ve met quite a number of people like that – particularly parents, bleeding for the salvation of their unbelieving children. Sometimes it reduced them to tears. At other times it gave them a heavy heart.
Another example of that kind of love was the apostle Paul. He was both passionate and perturbed about the spiritual condition of those who were close to him, his own people, the Jews. At the beginning of Romans 9 & 10 he gives us a glimpse into his soul: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. …My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Rom.9:2-4; 10:1).
Now the question is: how are people like that going to be saved? How will they come to know the Lord?
- Will it be by you talking to them and witnessing to them personally? Yes, possibly.
- Could they be saved by hearing a stirring testimony from somebody who has had a dramatic conversion experience? Yes, maybe.
- Or could they come to know the Lord by seeing a Christian film or reading a good Christian book? Yes, that, too, is quite possible.
These are indeed all ways in which people have come to know the Lord. And yet, the most common, the God-ordained and the most clearly biblical way for people to come to Christ is through the preaching of the Gospel. Think about it for a moment.
What was it that triggered revivals in the past? What was it that sparked the fires of the Reformation? Above all else it was the preaching of the Word of God. That was the dynamic force that came with these great movements of God. Reformers like Luther and Calvin were great theologians, but first and foremost they were great preachers. When he was in Geneva, Calvin preached every day, and we still have the legacy of that in his commentaries.
The leaders of the Great Awakening and the Evangelical Revivals in the 18h century in Britain and North America were also great preachers. Think of names like Jonathan Edwards, the Wesleys and George Whitefield. Whitefield’s ministry spanned 34 years during which he preached an average of 20 times per week. In his travels between Europe and North America he crossed the Atlantic no less than thirteen times! The stamina involved was simply amazing.
And the same was true in the ancient church. Fathers like Augustine and Chrysostom were superlative preachers who made a remarkable impact on the societies of their day. Just a brief glance at church history will soon show you that revival, reformation and renewal in the church went hand in hand with powerful preaching. Why? Because God would have it so.
This brings us to the verses that this message will be focussing on – Romans 10:14 & 15. And notice that there are five sentences each beginning with the word “how”.
- How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?
- How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
- How can they hear without someone preaching to them?
- How can they preach unless they are sent?
- How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
So let’s look at each of these “how’s” in turn.
1. How Can They Call on the One They Have Not Believed In?
A.
Now who precisely is Paul referring to here? Who are the “they” in this verse? Remember, his heart is bleeding for his own people, the Jews. Nothing would delight him more than their salvation. But here he is making the broadest possible statement. Look back for a moment to verses 12 and 13. What does it say?
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” And then Paul backs that up with a promise from the Old Testament, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
What a grand promise! How generous! How broad! How all-embracing! How non-discriminatory! Jew and Gentile, black and white, African and Asian, Australian and New Zealander, rich and poor, young and old – “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
B.
But now comes the crucial question: What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Let me say four things:
i. The situation is drastic. The Old Testament promise comes from the prophecy of Joel, and notice the context: “The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:30-31)
Now this was the very passage that Peter quoted in his famous sermon at Pentecost. And how did the people respond? What did they say? They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)
Often, when people call on the Lord for the first time, they realise that their situation is drastic. They have no hope. They are at a loss. They have hit a crisis point. In fact, it has been said that when adults come to know the Lord, it is because their lives are in crisis. They will seldom come at any other time.
ii. Therefore, secondly, their appeal is urgent. The same word is used by Paul in front of all those dignitaries in the courtroom in Caesarea when he calls out, “I appeal to Caesar.” And why did Paul appeal to Caesar? Because he had nowhere else to go. He had run out of possibilities. And so it is when people call upon God. They have exhausted their own resources. When it comes to their eternal destiny they know they have nowhere else to go. And so, they call on the Lord.
iii. Their call is focussed – they call on the name of the Lord. And who is the Lord in this context? Verse 9 makes it abundantly clear: “Jesus is Lord.” That’s the central Christian confession, and it’s right here in this passage. There’s nothing vague about this calling out. There’s nothing casual about it. There’s nothing haphazard. It is urgent. It is direct. It is clear. These people know what they are doing, because — like the crowd at Pentecost – they have been told exactly what to do.
iv. They call out in faith. They call out to someone in whom they have believed. They are not reaching out after some unknown god. Once again Romans 10 makes it perfectly clear what Paul means. In whom have they believed? Where have they put their trust? Verses 9 & 10 give the answer:
“…if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
Paul makes it sound so simple – confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, and you will be saved. These are the ABCs of Christianity. These truths are so simple, so straightforward, that even a child could understand them. And precisely because this is so, Paul asks the next question – a question that has burned on the conscience of the church ever since, a question filled with more pathos than any other in the New Testament.
2. But How Can They Believe in the One of Whom They Have Not Heard?
A.
It is a simple matter (not a light matter, but a simple matter) to confess Christ as Lord and to believe that God raised him from the dead. But what if you don’t know that he was raised from the dead? What if you don’t even know who he is? What if you have never heard of him? If that’s your situation, you haven’t even reached square one when it comes to calling savingly on the name of the Lord.
Sadly, there are more and more people in our society who fall into that category.
Last Easter our family took a trip to Sydney and when we arrived there we bought a local newspaper. In it people were asked about the meaning of Easter Holidays. Chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies headed the list. Particularly for the younger generation the religious significance of the occasion had disappeared almost entirely.
To make matters worse the problem has been with us for a long time. A generation ago, Donald Horne wrote an Australian best-seller called, The Lucky Country. In it he gave the results of a religious survey. The statistics were sobering:
“Of the 770 army recruits surveyed by an Anglican team, only 19% could write out the Lord’s Prayer, and only 21% could identify the three persons of the Trinity. Only half knew what was being celebrated on Easter Sunday.”
Let’s face the facts. In our society biblical illiteracy is rampant, and to such an extent that many people have never heard that Jesus rose from the dead, let alone believe it to be true. How can they believe in him of whom they have never heard?
B.
And if that is a relevant question here in Australia, it must be at least equally pertinent in places like China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, The Sudan, Senegal… and the list goes on. And because the list is such a long one, it makes us wonder whether this second question of Paul’s has indeed been etched on the church’s conscience the way it should be: How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
I am reminded of William Carey who started out as a Baptist minister in England in the 1700s. He strongly advocated the sending of missionaries to the heathen, and he gave his ministerial colleagues no peace. At one meeting an old minister told him sternly: “Sit down, young man, and respect the opinions of your seniors. If the Lord wants to convert the heathen, He can do it without your help.”
The point is of course that he could, but he has chosen not to. Carey went to India, translated parts of the Bible into twenty-six Indian languages, and within fifty years after his death there were more than half a million Protestant Christians in that land. They had heard of Christ, and they were able to call upon him. But how did they hear of Christ?
Listen to Paul’s third question:
3. How Can They Hear Without Someone Preaching to Them?
A.
I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but notice what Paul is not saying here:
- How can they hear without someone discussing with them?
- How can they hear without someone dialoguing with them?
- How can they hear without someone debating with them?
I am not saying that these approaches are without their value, but we must insist that pride of place goes to preaching. Scripture proves it, and church history proves it as well. Jesus was above all a great preacher. So were the apostles. So were the church fathers. So were the Reformers. So were the leaders of the Evangelical Awakening. Both biblically and historically it can be demonstrated that preaching is the means that God has chosen to bring people to himself.
B.
But what exactly is preaching? It is the authoritative proclamation of a message from God. And what is that message? Again I will let Paul speak for himself. To the Corinthians he wrote: “We preach Christ crucified” (1Cor.1:23) and we preach “that he has been raised from the dead” (1Cor.15:12). The death and resurrection of Christ were central to his message.
To the Thessalonians he says, “We proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.” (1Thess.2:9)
And in the last chapter that we have from his pen, Paul gives Timothy one final instruction: “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2.Tim.4:2).
C.
John Stott summarised the evidence well when he said, “Preaching was God’s appointed way by which sinners would hear of the Saviour and so call on him for salvation.” (Between Two Worlds, 18)
Martin Lloyd-Jones has made the same point even more forcefully: “The preacher is the only one who is in a position to deal with the greatest need of the world… So I would lay it down as a basic proposition that the primary task of the Church is not to educate man, is not to heal him physically or psychologically, it is not to make him happy. I will go even further; it is not even to make him good. These are things that accompany salvation… Her primary purpose is not any of these; it is rather to put man into the right relationship with God, to reconcile man to God.” (Preaching and Preachers, 29-30)
To quote one more authority, the American Presbyterian theologian, Charles Hodge: “It is the first and most pressing duty of the church to cause all people to hear the Gospel. The solemn question of Paul: ‘How shall they hear without a preacher?’ should sound day and night in the ears of the churches.” (Romans, 346)
D.
And surely this poses a great challenge to us. How often have you prayed that there would be a revival of great preaching today? How many times have you pleaded with God to raise up gifted preachers in the church today?
Think of the difference it would make to our country if every Sunday the Gospel were preached from every pulpit in the land – in every Reformed church, in every Baptist church, in every Presbyterian church, in every Anglican church, in every Uniting church, in every Pentecostal church, in every Catholic church. Do we dare pray for a revival of preaching right across the board?
And how often do you pray for your own local church? How often do you pray for your minister that he will preach the Gospel in such a way that his sermons strike and stick? I don’t know what you think of Bill Hybels and his Willow Creek church, but there is no doubt that he has a very powerful pulpit ministry, and I think I know one of the reasons. I have heard it said that he spends every Saturday evening in prayer. How much do you pray for the preaching of the Word in your congregation?
As you pray these prayers for preachers and preaching, that will also help you understand the logic of Paul’s next question.
4. How Can They Preach Unless They Are Sent?
A.
“Sent by whom?” you ask. When you are praying to God for preachers, what are you asking God to do? Surely you are asking God to send them. And that must be Paul’s meaning here. Preaching is not something you drift into nor is it something you take upon yourself. You are sent or commissioned by God. But there’s more. And here I believe we can safely appeal to Paul’s own experience. In the book of Acts we read of Paul’s three missionary journeys, but how were they launched?
You will remember that while the church of Antioch was at worship the Holy Spirit said: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So it was a divine commission. But the account does not stop there. It continues: “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” So they were also sent by the church. Preaching is not just a private arrangement between the preacher and God. The preacher’s gifts and ministry must also be publicly recognised and endorsed by the church.
B.
And that will also have a profound effect on the message that is proclaimed. The message that is preached will be the message that Christ has entrusted to the church. So the preacher is not an orator delivering his own message. He is not a public speaker putting forward his own point of view. As Paul makes abundantly clear, he is acting in the capacity of one who is sent. In his commentary F F Bruce explains it like this: “The preacher is an ‘apostle’ in the primary sense of the word; he is a herald or ambassador conveying a message from someone who has authorised him to deliver it.” (Romans, 205).
The preacher, then, is an apostle, a herald, an ambassador. He is not asked to give his own opinions, but he has been commissioned to speak authoritatively on behalf of another. In other words the preacher stands before people as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ. He is not there simply to talk to them or to entertain them, but to bring them a message from God.
The former archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, has put it like this: “The Christian preacher has a boundary set for him. When he enters the pulpit, he is not an entirely free man. There is a very real sense in which it may be said of him that the Almighty has set him his bounds that he shall not pass. He is not at liberty to invent or choose his own message: it has been committed to him, and it is for him to declare, expound and commend it to his hearers… It is a great thing to come under the magnificent tyranny of the Gospel!” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, 126-127)
That’s a preacher speaking. Now listen to those who have responded positively to his message – those who have heard and believed and called on the Name of the Lord. What do they say about the preacher? How do they evaluate him? Listen to Paul’s concluding exclamation:
5. How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Bring Good News!
This is very poetic language, but I’m sure we all know exactly what Paul means. In everyday life when you get good news you sometimes just want to throw your arms around the person who brings it and give them a great big hug. Surely you don’t just stand there when people give you messages that go something like this:
- “Your job application has been successful.”
- “The biopsy showed that the growth was not malignant.”
- “We had to do a Caesarean section, but mother and baby are now doing very well.”
- “Congratulations, you achieved high distinctions in all your subjects.”
Doesn’t news like this do something for you?
B.
And if news like that excites us, then what about the greatest News of ail? Paul was quoting from Isaiah who told of the news that the Babylonian captivity was over and the exiles could finally go home. But Paul has even greater News – that both Jews and Gentiles can be saved simply by calling on the Name of the Lord. The liberation from Babylon has been overshadowed by the far greater liberation brought about by Christ. And that word needs to go out. People need to hear. The Gospel needs to be preached.
Allow me again to quote from Lloyd-Jones who declared: “To me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching.” (Preaching and Preachers, 9)
Conclusion
Are you praying that the Lord will raise up preachers in his church? Are you pleading with him to send out more and more heralds of the Gospel into a needy world?
Let me take those questions further. Is the Lord perhaps asking you to be the answer to your own prayers? Could he perhaps be calling you to this great and glorious task? Let me close on a high note with the words of Will Sangster, a preacher in London earlier this century:
“Called to preach! …Commissioned by God to teach the word! A herald of the great King! A witness of the Eternal Gospel! Could any work be more high and holy? To this supreme task God sent his only begotten Son. In all the frustration and confusion of the times, is it possible to imagine a work comparable in importance with that of proclaiming the will of God to wayward men?”
And then he reaches for the skies with these words:
“Preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ is the highest, holiest activity to which a man can give himself: a task which the angels might envy and for which archangels might forsake the court of Heaven.” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, 47)
To sum it all up: Preaching is the noblest work on earth.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
Amen.