The Powerful Proclamation of God’s Word
11/24 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 19-20; 1 Peter 1; Jonah 3; Luke 8
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
11/24 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 19-20; 1 Peter 1; Jonah 3; Luke 8
Jonah 3:5
And the people of Nineveh believed God.
PREACHING
When God’s Word is preached powerfully by His servant, those to whom God intends to hear it will hear from the Almighty, not the servant. The man vomited up by the great fish was of little consequence to the Ninevite citizen and ruler. This amazing power to bring repentance throughout the city of three-days-journey in a matter of one day was prophetic of the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, it as the Sanhedrin officers who went to arrest Jesus testified,
“No one ever spoke like this Man!” John 7:46
The Lord Jesus was, is, and evermore shall be eternal God. He spoke the words of heaven perfectly, without sin, schism, or subsidy. He “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature” (Heb 1:3), so when people heard Jesus, they were hearing from eternal God. It was not only true of Jonah, it was true of every prophet who lived before the incarnation of Christ. God spoke through stuttering leaders like Moses, through the tears and overwhelming grief of men like Jeremiah, and through the common farmers and fig-pickers like Amos. Since Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Lord Jesus still speaks through common, imperfect jars of clay today by the Spirit He has sent— men in constant pain like Spurgeon; cross-eyed preachers who were small of stature but large of voice like Whitefield; and monotone voices of gravel like Edwards. God has ordained men, wretched sinners saved by grace as the vehicle for delivering His Word, yet He has also ordained simple human beings like you and me to receive His holy Word from flawed and feeble men. We are as responsible for hearing and believing God’s Word prayerfully, as those servants Christ has called to deliver it. There are charlatans and false shepherds among the mix, to be sure; just as there were in days of old. And this is why we need to be just as prayerful to examine…
…the Scriptures daily to see if these things [are] so. Acts 17:11
For, by the Spirit, Jesus will speak to us from the Scriptures as well. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Jonah was a preacher who
Delivered God’s true word;
It’s all of grace, the Spirit’s work,
To give and get what’s heard.