The goal
of our preaching– Sunday March 3rd 2013.
“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of
Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying, 2 “Thus says the
Lord, ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of
Judah who have come to worship in
the Lord’s house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do
not omit a word! 3 Perhaps they will listen and everyone will
turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning
to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.’”
(Jeremiah 26:1-3)
Beloved in the Lord,
The goal of our preaching is not to condemn people but to bring them to repentance.
Every single person that is not saved by the blood of Jesus Christ is on the
road to eternal damnation. Our God given commission is to preach the Gospel
with the hope that every lost person will find salvation in Jesus, will come to
a point of repentance and put their faith in Jesus and spend eternity in
Heaven.
This has always been, and always will be the goal of true preaching.
Man’s natural tendency is rebellion against Almighty God. We are born in a
state of sin, and so from birth are separated from God. The state of sin is
inherited from Adam. We are born with a need to be reconciled with God. We can
only be reconciled with God through the blood of Jesus. That is why we preach
Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone!
Last Sunday we considered the fact that one of man’s greatest problems
is a lack of Godly fear. People do not take the Word of God seriously. They do
not believe in hell, the judgement, and the infallibility of the Bible.
Think about it for a moment:
If there is no judgement and no hell, why did Jesus come into the world
in human form, suffer, shed His innocent blood,
and die a sacrificial death, and
rise again on Easter morning? If there is no hell, no eternal
punishment, and somehow all will be well after we die, then Jesus was a fraud
and He died in vain.
The truth is that Jesus is the Truth. He did not suffer and die in vain.
Judgement is real, hell is real, the wages of sin is death and the only way to
be saved is by the blood of Jesus Christ. Only His blood can wash away our sins
and save us from eternal death.
We read in Acts 4:12:
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under
heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
This message has never been and never will be popular. God’s truth is
rarely popular because it cuts deep into our hearts. Jeremiah the prophet is a
good example of the unpopularity of the truth. Our text today is God’s command
to Jeremiah to speak the truth. God gives him clear instructions to speak all
the words that He has given him. If we read a little further in the chapter we
find that the people tried to kill Jeremiah because they did not like his
message!
A quick read of the New Testament book of Acts will show us that it was
the same in the early Church. Most of Jesus disciples were martyred. Everywhere
Paul went there was an ensuing riot, but also there was revival. Hearts were
softened and people turned to Christ and were saved.
For the sake of those who do turn to Christ, it is worth suffering the
abuse, and the persecution and even death if required because every soul is
precious and we do not want any to be lost.
God’s Word is powerful. We read in Hebrews 4:12-13
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints
and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And
there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid
bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
These verses give us the very reason so many people reject God’s Word.
They do not like it’s sharpness, they do not like it’s penetration, they do not
like the fact that it exposes their sin and they certainly do not like being
accountable to it.
This is why Satan is working so hard to shut up the prophets, the
teachers of truth. Those that he cannot stop, he tries to persuade (and often succeeds)
to water down the message, soften it, make it politically correct and palatable
to the sinful mind. Satan does not want people to be saved.
The goal of our preaching is to bring people back to God. That is why we
must never twist the message; we must never water it down. We must preach it in
its entirety, we must live by it day by day. Our lives should reflect God’s
Word in word and deed and character.
We are living in the time of Grace. How much longer only God knows, but
the day is coming when the door will be shut forever and then it will be too
late!
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have
come. 18 Now all these
things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us
the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against
them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor.5:17-21)
Paul is clearly emphasising the need for reconciliation. Every single
person needs to be reconciled to God. Paul also stresses that we have been
given the ministry of reconciliation. That is what we preach, and that is our
mission. Everything that we do as a Church, as a congregation should be in fulfilment
of the great commission given to us by Jesus Himself:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to
observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
You see our commission is from Jesus Himself. Not only he commissions
us, He promises His own presence to lead, guide and empower us! Hallelujah. He
promises to be with us always, and through the Holy Spirit He is!
If we faithfully cling to Him, and His Word, if we obey Him, then He
will bless our work and people will be reconciled to Him.
I feel that God has laid it on my heart to emphasise Jesus words: “teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you!”
All, not part, not just this and that; but ALL. Not just the
non-controversial parts; but all! Jesus tells us to TEACH ALL THAT HE HAS
COMMANDED US! This means to take the whole Bible; the whole counsel of God and
to faithfully teach it and preach it and live it.
Martin Luther, the father of our church understood this. The basis of
his preaching was Law and Gospel. Luther rightly understood that you must first
preach the Law so that the sinner can understand his lost state before Holy
God; and then preach the Gospel stating that Jesus has taken the punishment;
paid the sin debt in full because He loves us. If a person does not understand
that he or she stands condemned before Almighty God; then the message of the
Gospel is nonsense to them. A person must know that he needs a Saviour before
accepting Him.
This type of preaching is sadly missing in most pulpits today, and that
is why so few are truly born again; reconciled to God. As the late Keith Green
said: “Going to Church does not make you a Christian anymore than going to MacDonald’s
makes you a hamburger.”
The goal of our preaching is to bring people to repentance.
Let us pray that God helps us to be true to our calling. May He empower
us to live the Gospel. Let us pray for courage, faith, love, and patience to
always speak the truth in love.
I close with Paul’s words to Timothy:
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience and a sincere faith.” (1.Tim.1:5)
Amen.
Pastor Colvin S. MacPherson Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Sydney.
All Bible quotations taken from New American Standard Bible.