2020 Vision – The Bible School Program (Rom. 10:13-17)

How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?
Romans 10:13-17

INTRODUCTION
We like to poke fun at the preacher – to make jokes about preachers. Most jokes have to do with how long a preacher preaches or how interesting or uninteresting a sermon is. A preacher is someone who talks in other people’s sleep. Some gain strength from a sermon. Others wake up refreshed. If you were to take all the people who fall asleep during his sermons, and lay them end-to-end, they would be a lot more comfortable. Brother Don Tucker shared this one with me and I’ll never forget it… A dog bit a preacher… then he had to bite half-a-dozen members just to get the taste out of his mouth!

I have never felt disrespect from any congregation or person I have ever worked with, as a preacher. I have been blessed to work with churches with Christians who understand how important the Word of God is and how important it is to teach the Word of God.

God’s plan for saving man includes man.
Man crucified Jesus – Acts 2:23; 4:27-28
Man witnessed the resurrection – Matt. 28:1-10; Luke 24:33-35
Man spread the first message – Acts 2; 11:14
Now that message is spread through man’s written/preached word – 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Romans 1:14ff.

The first Sunday of each month, I have been reviewing some fundamentals, challenging us in the year 2020 to focus our vision, to have “2020 Vision” on the fundamentals, the aspects of Christianity that are the most important.

All the prior lessons are on our website if you would like to go back and review them. I am focusing on a dozen things we ought to focus on if we want to be the church of Christ. “The Swartz Creek church of Christ exists, by the blood of Jesus, to share the gospel with the lost, strengthen the weak, encourage the members, and worship God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We have seen that we need to focus on:

Honoring God.
Glorifying Jesus Christ.
Following the Holy Spirit.
Building up each other.
Worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
Reaching out into our community.
Being united with each other in Christ.
Raising our youth to serve Christ.
Taking the gospel to the world.

Today, I want to emphasize how important the Bible teaching program, the Bible School program is for the health of the church of Christ.

Preaching has long been used by God to motivate his human creation to respond to him. As early as Enoch, the 7th from Adam, God sent prophets into the world – Jude 14. Preaching was involved in the salvation of the antediluvian world (2 Peter 2:5). Jonah revived a heathen nation – through preaching. Ezra brought Israel back to God to await the coming of His Son – through preaching. John the Immerser prepared the Way of the Lord. The apostles toppled an empire – through preaching “there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7).
That is the point we wish to emphasize this morning.
Romans 10:13-17:
This text connects the hearer to salvation in Christ. Links include:
Senders; preachers; hearing, faith, and obeying “the word of Christ” (vs 17).

EVERY BODY NEEDS TO HEAR:
The world stands under condemnation – John 3:18 (ETR) – “People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son.” John writes in his first letter – “We know that we belong to God, but the Evil One controls the whole world” (1 John 5:19; ETR). By himself, man cannot come out of sin (Jer. 10:23).

God commands sinners to listen to him. “O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!” (Jer.22:29). The primary target of the Bible is the ear. 16x in the NT, Jesus cries out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” or the equivalent expression. Jesus says ears are blessed if they hear – Matt. 13:16.

The importance of hearing is also emphasized by the Lord in another way. On 9 occasions, Jesus asked the Jews, “Have you not read…?” (Matt. 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31; Mark 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; 10:26; John 10:34). A classic text on the importance of hearing the word of God is Matthew 4:4, when Jesus told Satan, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

Yet, man also must be careful what he hears. Not everything that goes into the ears – yes, even from pulpits – should be heard. In Mark 4:24, Jesus said, “Take care what you listen to.”

The hearer must be careful to listen only to the word of God.
The truth sets man free – John 8:32.
The truth saves man from death – James 1:21.
The truth sanctifies us – John 17:17.
The truth helps us know God – 1 Cor. 1:21.
Man is begotten in the new birth through the Word – James 1:18; 1 Cor. 4:15.
The Scriptures cleanse us – John 15:3.
The Scriptures give us life – John 6:63.
Faith is produced when man considers the message – Romans 10:17.
The message converts the sinner – Psalm 51:13.
The word of God’s grace gives man an inheritance – Acts 20:32.
The word is what judges us – John 12:48.
Man can become a Christian by responding the word – Acts 2:41.

Failure to obey the word will send man on collision course with God’s vengeance – 2 Thess. 1:8.
The servant who did not know his master’s will was still punished – Luke 12:47-48.
Through the foolishness of the message preached, God saves the world – 1 Cor. 1:18-21.
The gospel is God’s power to save – Rom. 1:16.
“The world’s real problem – that of sin …can be solved only by preaching” (Stevens, 10).

THE TEACHER HAS TO TEACH:
Consider again Paul’s question – “How shall they hear without a preacher?” Often it is said, “God had only one Son and he was a preacher.” Jesus believed in the importance of preaching. He told His disciples – “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43). We should not fail to understand the role of the messenger in the salvation of man. It is every Christian’s responsibility – Acts 8:4.

An angel was involved in the conversion of the eunuch and Cornelius, but he did not carry the message of pardon – Acts 8:26; 10:3. Even the Holy Spirit was involved in both conversions, but he did not carry the message of pardon itself – Acts 8:29; 10:19. We emphasize again – carrying the message is a human responsibility. Paul felt a mighty obligation to preach – 1 Cor. 9:16. He felt a moral compulsion to preach the word – Romans 1:14. We are to preach “whether they listen or not” – Ezekiel 2:7.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:13 – “we also believe, therefore we also speak.” The love of Christ in a Christian’s heart compels him to speak what he believes – 2 Cor. 5:14 (ETR): “The love of Christ controls us, because we know that one person died for everyone. So all have died.”

The original word translated “preacher” is kerux. The kerux was a herald. He was one commissioned by a higher authority to announce or herald some news-worthy item. Consequently, the kerux “was always under the authority of someone else, whose spokesman he was. …he had …no liberty of his own to negotiate” (Coenen 49-50). As Christians, we are to herald the message, the authority being in the sender, understanding that we have no right to negotiate the terms of salvation.

In the same way, the hearer must be careful to what he listens to; the teacher must heed what he teaches. Jesus taught only what was authorized by God (John 8:28; 14:10, 24).

The NT penmen were not left to their own knowledge and wisdom as they wrote – 1 Cor. 2:12-13. The Scriptures are not theirs but the Father’s – 2 Peter 1:20-21. Thus, Paul told Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching” (1 Tim. 4:16).

Thus the clarion call to everyone attempting to teach the lost – preach the word! If it’s not in there, don’t preach it! If it’s in there, preach it (cf. Acts 20:27) – with conviction, humility, love, and courage.

CONCLUSION
As we look at the world’s population, perhaps we think with Andrew, “What are these for so many people?” (John 6:9). The answer to evangelism and mission work is one soul at a time. A man walked along the beach with his grandson. The boy picked up each starfish they passed and threw it back into the ocean. “If I left them here,” he explained, “they would dry up and die. I’m saving their lives.”

“But son,” objected the grandfather. “the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. What you are doing won’t make any difference.” The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, gently throwing it into the ocean, and said, “It makes a difference to this one.”

Our children need to hear the message. You need to teach them.
Our teens need to hear the message. You need to teach them.
Our deaf need to hear the message. You need to teach them.
Our young parents need to hear the message. You need to teach them.
Our adults need to hear the message. You need to teach them.

“How shall they hear without a preacher?”