March 1, 2000
FAMILY BIBLE SERIES:
God's power works through proclaiming his word
___1Corinthians 2:1-3:3
___By Stacy Conner
___First Baptist Church, Muleshoe
___Use your imagination for a moment. You are a resident of Ninevah. You know nothing of Jonah's adventure. The call of God, the violent ship ride, the giant fish and Jonah's resistance to preaching are not in your frame of reference. Instead, as a resident of Ninevah, you go about your daily tasks, caring for children, gardening, working to make a living, when an unknown preacher begins shouting, "Forty more days and Ninevah will be destroyed" (Jonah 3:4).
___What does this stranger mean? Is an army coming? Is the city on the brink of geological disaster? Is a plague approaching? Jonah's preaching does not hit the mark as one of the great sermons of history. The sermon is lacking in clarity, structure and application.
___Yet it is effective! The people of Ninevah repent of their sins, and God repents of his decision to judge them. Why? Jonah's sermon is proof in point that God often touches lives through imperfect messengers.
___The second chapter of 1 Corinthians makes the same mysterious point of the work of God in human preaching. Since Paul's last visit, the Corinthians have grown a little tired of Paul's pedestrian preaching. They want a preacher who will astound, amaze and amuse. The orators of the day used brilliant, convincing argument to prove their points. Paul was a simple one-point preacher. He defends his methodology by clinging to one fact: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul preaches one message and one message only.
___Sermons are interesting creatures. Very few are memorable. The average church member does not remember from one week to the next the finer points of last week's sermon. (Every young preacher has made the mistake of asking, "Do you remember what I said last week?" Only to see blank stares and shaking heads.) Oh, they might remember a story or a particular application. But most of us are not able to give a general summary of a sermon more than a couple of days hence.
___Yet for some mysterious reason, the Spirit of God speaks through the proclamation of God's word. Needs are addressed. Unknown to the preacher, specific applications are drawn that never were conceived by the preacher.
___It is the power of God working through the preaching of his word.
___Simple sermons and complex sermons achieve the same purpose. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they point people to Christ. You may worship in a small church with a preacher not yet trained in the eloquence of oratory, or you may worship in a church with a pastor whose vocabulary rivals Noah Webster.
___Yet the Holy Spirit works toward the same goal. Through the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified, the Holy Spirit convicts and comforts.
___"But as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him' these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
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