The mystery of preaching is that it is where and when God speaks. God speaks his word in sermons. Calvin said that God uses the ministry of men, “doing his own work by their lips, just as an artificer uses a tool for any purpose.”
Jesus introduces this principle to his disciples in Matthew 10. In verse 7 he tells them, “As ye go preach.…” Later in the same chapter Jesus makes it clear that when they are delivered up, they will be given what to speak, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you” (v. 20). Jesus clearly taught that when his disciples spoke, God spoke.
Paul takes up the same theme. In First Corinthians 2, speaking of spiritual trust, he says: “… that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. (vv. 12, 13).
The thought is repeated clearly in First Thessalonians 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
Paul often brings this theme forward and stresses that his words are God’s words. He sets a New Testament principle in following the Old Testament example of the prophets who spoke the words of God. Certainly the preacher of today does not speak God’s words in the same sense that the apostles and prophets did. Yet today, the proclamation of the Word of God still carries with it that inevitable “thus saith the Lord,” as it did in times past.
To explain how God acts to speak in the proclamation of the Word is difficult. Paul did not grasp how it happened that God spoke in preaching. His discourse in First Corinthians 1 reveals that Paul thought God had chosen the wrong people to confound the wise by the proclamation of his Word. Indeed, Paul was so mystified at how preaching worked that he notes: “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (v. 21).
Later, in Second Corinthians 3, Paul points more directly to the fact that this mystery takes place because God ordains it should and acts to accomplish it. He declares that “our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5). Within the same context, Paul ties this statement to the spoken word: “Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech” (v. 12).
When a pastor believes God is speaking as he preaches, confidence returns to the pulpit, and life flows from God. God is heard. He is present. The apathy of the people is dealt with when God speaks. Hearts look inward. When pastor and people prepare for God’s speaking, eternal business will be transacted.
Not only does God speak through the proclamation of his Word, but he speaks with power. “If we are truly humble-minded,” said Spurgeon, “we shall not venture down to the fight until the Lord of Hosts has clothed us with all power and said to us, ‘Go in this might.’ ” There is no point in all of the Bible where a person proclaimed God’s Word without power.
God himself in creation spoke a word, a command to nothing and out of nothing. God never ceases to speak the powerful creative word. In the Old Testament, we see the prophet speak his “thus saith the Lord,” and the rain stops, the sun stands still, the fire consumes, the nations fall. Abraham heard the word of God on repeated occasions and believed God for a son. Moses heard the word of God, and led Israel out of bondage. Never do we see throughout the Old Testament the creative word of God void of power.
In the New Testament, the pattern is maintained. Not only is Jesus identified as the Word, but he also claims for himself the power of the creative word when he speaks to the leper, “Ye shall be clean through the word which I have spoken.”
No less does Paul attribute creative power to the proclaimed Word. Paul declares in First Corinthians 1 that the preaching of the cross although foolishness to man is indeed the power of God. But it is this “foolish” powerful proclamation that confounds the wise and brings to nothing the things that are. Paul’s concept of the creative power of the Gospel proclamation is repeated in Romans (1:16) and elsewhere (Eph. 3:7, 8; 6:17; Phil. 2:9, 10). In his instructions to Timothy, Paul exhibits an explicit and implicit faith in the power of the Word as he exhorts Timothy to “preach the Word.”
Words can be meaningless. People can use words dishonestly. But in Old Testament thought, the word of God is defined and validated by creative and powerful action. Power comes to the word. The word demonstrates power in the creation.
It is precisely at this point that the Word works uniquely today. The Word produces action, whether it be seen in new birth, spiritual growth, or social action. Hence, the power of the Word is demonstrated. With God’s power actively at work in his Word, the pulpit becomes a forceful position. The man who answers God’s call to the pulpit will find that God’s creative power will make the proclamation not just successful but spiritually dynamic. Further, when God’s people respect the pulpit, listening to God, there comes to them not just a sermon, but God’s creative power.—PETER TORRY, pastor, Faith Missionary Church, Pomona, California.
