"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!' But not all Israelites accepted the good news.”
Romans 10:14-15 (Part 2)

IN the last sermon we saw Paul leading us to the conclusion that if people are calling on the Lord in their need for salvation, then they must be able to believe in the Lord. We heard Paul tell us that faith is not possible unless we have confidence in the Lord, so it necessary that we hear about the Lord, and understand the truth about the Lord. We heard also Paul telling us that such learning demands a preacher, a herald, to proclaim the truth so that we may understand and so have confidence to believe in Jesus. Finally we heard Paul telling us that such an important office needs the authority of being sent by the Lord.

This raises the whole matter of preaching and the Christian ministry and to see it in the light of Paul's teaching here.

PREACHING GOD'S METHOD OF BRINGING PEOPLE TO FAITH.

We live in days when there has grown up a multiplicity of ways of communication. Church worship has seen the growth of visual aids, drama, dance, etc. in order to communicate the message. There has been much talk as to what is the best vehicle of communicating the message. It has been worked out that what we learn is conveyed through sight, through hearing, through touching, through smelling. We are further told that statistics tell us that 70% of what we learn is through seeing, and only about 17% is through hearing. Because of this in Christian communication we are encouraged to use different methods of communication, and preaching has become despised as the best method of teaching. In the most forward thinking churches often the traditional sermon has been replaced by visual communication, and breaking up into groups for discussion, and so on. In the light of all this what does the word of God teach us.

The word of God through Paul tells us that God's way of communication and teaching of the message is by preaching. This is the means which has been ordain of God, and so we must assume that this is the chief and most important vehicle of teaching that must be used. This does not preclude the use of other means, or the use of visual material in a sermon, but these must not cause the ministry of preaching to be lost or eroded.

But the argument is that preaching is outmoded and is ineffective, so we must turned to other means if we are to have success. The answer to this is that with all other means of communication we have no assurance to believe that it will bring results, but because preaching is ordained of God we have such an assurance that God will make this means of communication and teaching a blessing to people and effective. The preacher has this confidence that he or she is using the method ordained of God, so there is the confidence that preaching engaged in with entire dependence on the Lord will be blessed.

However this does not mean that ever sermon will be blessed by God, and that simply preaching will have the desired effect. Preaching must be preaching that is good preaching, and if it is to be good preaching then preparation is essential, and learning the art of preaching is also essential. However the most important thing about preaching is that it must be preaching of the truth as received in God's revelation in the Bible, and that the plain meaning of that revelation taught as the truth of God. If preachers preach their own opinions, or even their own interpretation of the Word of God it will not be owned by God.

Preaching also needs that the preacher has been taught by the word of God, and knows the power of the truth of God in his or her soul. Unless the preacher believes the truth of God, and it has become his or her way of life, and he or she knows the Lord of the Scriptures, there will be no power in the preaching.

Further, the preaching that is blessed by God is the preaching of that message which comes from God through his Word on each occasion. The preacher must not only know the truth of the Scripture he or she is preaching from, but also have heard the Lord giving that truth from the Scripture which the Lord ordains should be proclaimed on each occasion of preaching. This requires the preacher not only to meditate deeply on the passage from the Bible, but also in prayer seek for the Holy Spirit to impress upon the mind and heart the truth to be proclaimed from the passage. This requires the conviction given by the Holy Spirit of the truth to be taught on each occasion.

Then if preaching is to know the blessing of the Lord, the preacher must be humble under the mighty hand of God. There is no place in preaching for self glorification or self promotion. All the practice of preaching is to point people to the Lord and his word, and the preacher must be forgotten. When the sermon has been delivered, there must be no suggestion in the preacher's mind that the blessing is attributed to him or her. All the glory must be given to God, for any blessing that is found in preaching comes from God and him alone. Preaching in the wisdom and power of mankind is of no value, and can never build true calling on the Lord, and true faith in the Lord unto salvation. The words and aspiration of John the Baptist is relevant here. When Jesus came John told his disciples to seek Him, for he, John the Baptist, must decrease, and he, Jesus, must increase. By this he meant that people must glory in Jesus, trust in Jesus, and follow Jesus, and not John the Baptist. We must not be disciples of men but disciples of Jesus.

PREACHER MUST BE SENT.

The second important truth coming out of these words of the apostle is that nobody should take up the office of preacher unless they are sent. Here is clear indication of the rightness of ordination to the ministry. Nobody should seek the office of a preacher unless they are ordained.

This ordination requires two ingredient. In the first place if a person is sent by the Lord there will be a strong inner conviction given by the Holy Spirit that God is calling a person to be a preacher of the Word of God. I think it is safe to say that it is better to doubt a call unless the call cannot be denied. Together with this inner calling there will be the confirmation of events and circumstances which confirm such a call. If a person feels they have a call by this inner conviction, then the best way to test it is make moves to answer the call and have it confirmed by God ordering things so that the call is confirmed by events. When Paul sought the will of God as to where he should proceed in his ministry, he prayed for guidance, and then took an intelligent step in the direction he felt was the right one. Twice he did this and was prevent by the Holy Spirit. This may be through circumstances impeding such a move, or a sense of going in the wrong direction in the mind and heart, or some circumstance occurring that turns us elsewhere. When Paul was at a loss then he had a vision of a man from Macedonia calling him to go there to help them. God never leaves those he calls in doubt what his call is when the right time has come.

The other ingredient in ordination is the confirmation of the call to the ministry by the church, which is followed by the church setting aside by ordination that person and so giving them authority to minister in the office of a presbyter, minister or priest.

PREACHING IS THE GREAT AND MAIN OFFICE OF THOSE SENT.

What is involved in ministry, and what is its prime and most important task. Paul makes this quite clear here in these verses before us. The one sent is ordained to the ministry and office of preacher. Those called and sent are sent to communicate the good news of Christ and his work for us.

These days in the Church of England preaching seems to have lost this prime position as the ministry of the ordained person. It is difficult to attain a definitive idea of what the Church of England believes to be the office of a priest, but it is not centred on preaching, but rather what is called the Eucharist, which is the more popular term used for Holy Communion. There seems to be some idea that the priest's office is in some measure the office of a mediator between God and people, and that the celebrating of Holy Communion is the appointed means of this mediatorial office. This is quite contrary to the teaching of the Bible, and certainly of Paul's teaching here. The office of the presbyter, minister or priest is one of being a herald of Christ to preach the good news of Christ.

The idea of the ministry to be a mediatorial office is not only utterly alien to the New Testament, but such an office is not required and quite redundant. There is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. He is our priest in the sense of being a mediator. He acted as our priest when he gave himself a sacrifice for our sins, and offered a perfect sacrifice of atonement which made all sacrifice to be redundant. He is now our mediator as our priest in heaven to make intercession for us, and to suggest that we need other human priests in this role is to say Jesus is not up to his job as our high priest and needs the help of sinful human beings. This is simply blaspheme.

So we see Paul is teaching that the call to ordination is a call to be a preacher and an ambassador for Christ. The business of ordination is the business of preaching, and preaching the revealed truth in the Bible as it is in Jesus. The office of ordination is to preach so that people may hear the truth and so have confidence to believe the truth, and so trust in Jesus and find salvation through faith in him.

There can be no greater or more important task than this, and if the church is ineffective today, as it certainly is largely in the UK, then it is because the office of a priest as the preacher is not being carried out, and those ordained are following other ministry which is both wrong and not according to the will of Christ, as well as being dishonouring to Christ. How can the church know blessing if those called to minister are following ministry other than preaching and that which is against the will of God and offensive to God.

CONCLUSION.