Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Transcription

1 Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ A call to obedience by faith Morning Worship, Lord s Day 3 rd May 2009, 9.30am Rev D. Rudi Schwartz 1 Bible Readings Old Testament: Jeremiah 20:7 11 New Testament: Romans 1:1 17 Hymns/Songs Main Points 1. Approach: Sovereign grace over sin abounding 2. Forgiveness of sins: Come O fount of every blessing 3. Thanksgiving: Come O fount of every blessing 4. Response: Tell me the old, old story 1. Introduction 2. The minister of the Gospel 3. The content of the Gospel 4. The call of the Gospel 5. Conclusion 1. Introduction My dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus Christ, I agree with many other reformed preachers of the Gospel that Gospel preaching today is in serious trouble. Earnest calls from many sources come to once again return to expositional Bible preaching. It is time we seriously answer a few questions: What is the Gospel we preach? Can the church ever slip into a market driven message which would answer the needs of those who listen? Can the worship service ever become a therapeutic experience filling the sociological and psychological cravings of man? It has become a feature of many mega churches, mainly those of charismatic inclination, to make the worship service a massive hyped up event whereby the preacher preaches about 1 Feel free to copy, quote or duplicate this document.

2 Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ 2 things happening in the world around them, with hardly any reference to the Word of God. If the Word is read, it is mainly done to serve as a springboard to catapult the sermon into the realms of what the preacher actually wants to say himself. I recently heard of an extended sermon on the TV show Desperate Housewives. From our text this morning we find a clear answer. Paul sets the contents of preaching for us in Romans 1: The Gospel is to call people to faith and obedience in Jesus Christ. The Gospel calls people to belong to Jesus Christ. Of Biblical exposition based on good and thorough exegesis not much is heard. The complaint is often that modern day people do not want to hear the biblical message anymore. They want to hear how to solve their personal problems. Therefore there is no room for theology and doctrine. There is also the complaint that theology and doctrine is divisive, while the Gospel brings unity. One could only ask what such a Gospel is about? Fact is, even preaching has gone out of fashion. In many churches it has become a mere talk or a mere homily out of some prescribed book, while the preacher does no personal research, study and meditation of the Scripture. Dr John MacArthur writes in a essay titled Why I still preach the Bible : Faithfully preaching and teaching the Word must be the heart of our ministry philosophy. Any other approach replaces the voice of God with human wisdom. Philosophy, politics, humour, psychology, homespun advice, and personal opinion can never accomplish what the Word of God does. Those things may be interesting, informative, entertaining, and sometimes even helpful but they are not the business of the church. The preacher s task is not to be a conduit of human wisdom; he is God s voice to speak to the congregation. No human message comes with the stamp of divine authority only the Word of God. How dare any preacher substitute another message? 2. The minister of the Gospel I did a research through my electronic Bible program on the term preach. The results are stunning. The apostle Paul uses the word in the letters he wrote to the different churches 51 times, and in all those cases it has to do with only one thing: the proclamation of what God called him to say about Christ. Never has it any hint of what Paul had to say in personal sense to the congregations. In Romans 1:1 the task of the servant of God is clearly defined: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God (Romans 1:1) Paul calls himself a bond servant. With this he says is that he is subject to the will and wholly at the disposal of God. With this he describes his absolute subjection and devotion to the Lord Jesus as he would never have yielded to a mere creature. He knows he is an apostle, as one who is sent on a mission with the full authority of a messenger for God to proclaim the gospel message about Jesus Christ.

3 Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ 3 John Piper quotes Arnold Dallimore, the bibliographer of George Whitfield the mighty preacher of two centuries ago. Dallimore longs for preachers like Whitfield in our day: Yea that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more... raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. Thus was the apostle Paul. Thus was the prophet Jeremiah who said about the calling of God to be a prophet to the people: But if I say, I will not mention Him or speak any more in his Name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:9) Paul, apart from the fact that he is a bond servant and an apostle knew one thing above all: this Gospel is God s Gospel. It is from Him, about Him, it belongs to Him, and it is to his glory that it must be preached. Paul s relationship with the Gospel is only defined by the fact that God called him. We, both preachers of the Word and those who hear the Word preached, have to understand this fact. Ministers are not in the service of the congregation, and the congregation does not belong to the ministers. What they need to preach is only the Gospel, and what the congregation should long to hear is only the Gospel. This is the only way the church will be church. Take this away and the church becomes a religious club. The Word shapes and builds up the church; the Word shapes and builds up the minister, and in this dynamic process God speaks to the church and the church lives to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 3. The content of the Gospel Once again, in defining what the Gospel is about, Paul is very clear: it is the Scriptures and how they proclaim the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And even in this matter we need to very specific these days. The message is about Him as the perfect Mediator between God and us, our Redeemer and Saviour of sin, the only Way to the Father, the One who rose from the dead. He is our Lord and Him we worship. It is not about the Jesus so easily preached today as if He was sent into this world to make this place a better place for us to live, helping us overcome depression and low self esteem, restoring our bank balance and securing our career success. Some of these things are true, but they may only result from a saving relationship with Christ when we live to his glory and crucify ourselves for the sake of his glory. Once saved by grace, we become his servants; He is never our bond servant. Paul says He is our Lord, proclaimed by the Holy Spirit with power to be the Son of God, worthy of our praise and undivided love and service. The content of our message is therefore nothing more and nothing less Jesus Christ, the one risen from the dead, who by grace saved us from sin and restored us to sonship of God the Father. The grace we received is not for our sake; it is for His sake. We do not live for ourselves. In another place Paul puts it this way:

4 Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ 4 For Christ s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14 15) This is the message regarding the risen Christ, that we who received new life by grace, should live for Him. This is also what we hear about servant hood in Christ just a few verse further in Romans 1. The apostle says: God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you (Romans 1:9) 4. The call of the Gospel The Gospel comes to us in the form of a call. The Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter 10 paragraph 1 declares: All those whom God has predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ. So even today, like in the days of Paul, God still calls through the Gospel and by his Spirit people from among all the peoples to obedience of Christ Jesus. This call is interesting and may help us to understand something about the Biblical understanding of faith. In Acts 6:7 we read this: So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7) When Paul ends the letter to the Romans he says: Now to Him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,... by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey Him (Romans 16:25 26) Justifying faith is brought about by the preaching of the Gospel. By faith I am convinced that the Gospel is the true Word of God in which God speaks about Himself. It is faith that helps me to understand that I have nothing in myself to save me from the misery of sin; it is faith that teaches me that I need to trust upon Jesus Christ only for his righteousness to be my shield against the wrath of God upon sin. But there is more about faith: It is not merely a mental assent to the truth of the bible; it also implies obedience to the commands of the Gospel, which are the commands of God. To believe is not only to say positive things about the Gospel, it is to live the Gospel. Faith without works is dead. This is what Paul calls the call of the Gospel: He calls people through the Gospel to Jesus Christ. This is what I and all ministers of the Word should be doing: we should call people to faith in Christ Jesus. Why? Because He is the son of God who is the only Mediator between God and man through whom we must be saved. We call people to belong to Christ. We call people to become what God wants them to be: his holy ones. And this expression would of course mean that God wants us to be holy because He is holy, and therefore it means that our lifestyle should reflect the holiness of God; but what called to be holy in essence here means, and that is probably why it is translated as saints, is that God by grace sets us apart to belong to Him through Jesus Christ. Now, that is Good News indeed!

5 Called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ 5 5. Conclusion The Gospel is the authoritative proclamation or preaching of the Word of God. It is about Jesus Christ who by his blood, death and resurrection became our righteousness so that we have peace with God. This Gospel calls us to live as people belonging to God. This is the old, old story of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. It is the story of a wonderful redemption, God s remedy for sin. This is our only Gospel. Nothing more, nothing less. AMEN.