To Dwell on the Glory of the Gospel
Hey there,
My name is Jesse. I teach here at Living Faith. Well, lately I've been doing more preaching - in fact, a lot of it. I can still specifically recall a friend saying to me, "Well, the main difference between teaching and preaching is how passionate you get and how much you pace back and forth."
I mean, I guess? But.. I think any good teacher and preacher should show passion in their work. For lack of better words, to teach is to communicate the Word of God with the purpose of instruction and training. Yet, to preach... oh to preach...
To preach is to proclaim. To confront. To exhort! To persuade and to motivate. To edify and even correct. To preach is to allow the Gospel to overcome your heart, mind and then lastly: voice! You know someone is preaching when the Gospel and truths of God are reverberating through the chasms of each ear in the room.
Preaching must come before teaching so that teaching does not lead to people with a shallow head-knowledge, but rather, their heart is renewed from the instruction. Apart from the preaching, the teaching will never produce fruit.
Unfortunately, some sit under teaching, year by year - they know all the right answers, but nothing in their heart has changed. They are still fallen, anxious, depressed, angry, arrogant, and ultimately: broken.
Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. -1 Corinthians 15:1-2
We receive it via the preaching (Romans 10:14-15), we stand in it to remain saved - we are to yield our lives to it. In Ephesians 5, Christians are told to "be filled with the Holy Spirit." This represents to me that there is a lifestyle, or walk that produces a constant filling of the Spirit. In fact, it is best represented as a sail for a boat. Do not visualize a bucket being filled. Christian, in order for you to "go" you need to be filled with the breath (Spirit) of God.
Now, we must address the parallel we seen in Colossians 3 from Paul. Where Paul writes we must allow the Word of Christ to richly dwell in us. And if there is a verse that better summarizes my heart, I've yet to find it. I love the way the NLT says this verse, "Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives."
Essentially, this verse is saying "let the glory of Gospel and Christ abundantly indwell you."
My friends, if there is one thing I could convince you to do - it would be just this: to hold firmly to the word which has been preached to you. I promise you, as simple as it sounds, the one who dwells on the glory of the Gospel will endure to the end.
I pray this is an encouragement to you,
soli Deo gloria.
Jesse
My name is Jesse. I teach here at Living Faith. Well, lately I've been doing more preaching - in fact, a lot of it. I can still specifically recall a friend saying to me, "Well, the main difference between teaching and preaching is how passionate you get and how much you pace back and forth."
I mean, I guess? But.. I think any good teacher and preacher should show passion in their work. For lack of better words, to teach is to communicate the Word of God with the purpose of instruction and training. Yet, to preach... oh to preach...
To preach is to proclaim. To confront. To exhort! To persuade and to motivate. To edify and even correct. To preach is to allow the Gospel to overcome your heart, mind and then lastly: voice! You know someone is preaching when the Gospel and truths of God are reverberating through the chasms of each ear in the room.
Preaching must come before teaching so that teaching does not lead to people with a shallow head-knowledge, but rather, their heart is renewed from the instruction. Apart from the preaching, the teaching will never produce fruit.
Unfortunately, some sit under teaching, year by year - they know all the right answers, but nothing in their heart has changed. They are still fallen, anxious, depressed, angry, arrogant, and ultimately: broken.
Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. -1 Corinthians 15:1-2
We receive it via the preaching (Romans 10:14-15), we stand in it to remain saved - we are to yield our lives to it. In Ephesians 5, Christians are told to "be filled with the Holy Spirit." This represents to me that there is a lifestyle, or walk that produces a constant filling of the Spirit. In fact, it is best represented as a sail for a boat. Do not visualize a bucket being filled. Christian, in order for you to "go" you need to be filled with the breath (Spirit) of God.
Now, we must address the parallel we seen in Colossians 3 from Paul. Where Paul writes we must allow the Word of Christ to richly dwell in us. And if there is a verse that better summarizes my heart, I've yet to find it. I love the way the NLT says this verse, "Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives."
Essentially, this verse is saying "let the glory of Gospel and Christ abundantly indwell you."
My friends, if there is one thing I could convince you to do - it would be just this: to hold firmly to the word which has been preached to you. I promise you, as simple as it sounds, the one who dwells on the glory of the Gospel will endure to the end.
I pray this is an encouragement to you,
soli Deo gloria.
Jesse
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