This is Part 3 of a sermon series titled “How Should We Preach the Gospel?” preached at Mt. Gilead UMC in Georgetown, KY.

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Romans 10:4-15

Introduction

• You are a preacher. You are a priest. You preach through your life and how you live. You represent God to the world in your actions, thoughts, attitudes, and how you treat others. We remember that St. Francis once said something like this: “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” And so the past couple Sundays, we’ve been hearing about how we should preach the Gospel with our lives. I called this the ethos of preaching. Ethos as you will remember means trust. We must gain people’s trust and earn the right to speak into their lives. Most people won’t listen to us unless they know that we are trustworthy, reliable, and faithful people. That is ethos. And so we preach with our lives, as Paul said, “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your logical/reasonable worship” (Rom 12:1). And so, we can preach the Gospel at all times through our lives, because actions speak louder than words. But the end of St. Francis’ quote doesn’t let us off the hook with simply being nice people who get along with others and build relationships with people. That is good and necessary, but the last part says, “if (it) is necessary, use words (in preaching the Gospel).” And sometimes it is necessary. People can’t come to Jesus simply by having a relationship with us. And people can’t come to Jesus just by watching a beautiful sunset or sunrise. People can’t know that Jesus loved us by dying on a cross for our sins and that God raised him from the dead and defeated sin, death, and the devil just by observing the beauty of creation or simply by knowing the Christians are nice people who can be trusted. It is absolutely essential and vital that we practice what we preach, that we model and live out what we believe, but that alone won’t bring God’s salvation through Christ to the world. Yes, we read in the New Testament about the miracles that the Holy Spirit did through the apostles in the Book of Acts. We see that they had integrity and were faithful to God and lived what they believed. But they did more than that, because when the rubber hit the road, they actually proclaimed their faith as well. Sometimes it is necessary that we use our words. And the apostles used their words a lot when evangelizing the Roman world during the first century. They proclaimed that God raised Jesus from the dead. You’ll remember that Paul defines his Gospel in 2 Tim 2:8 as “Jesus Christ raised from the dead, descended from David.” And so, this morning we’re going to talk about actually sharing our faith; using words to preach the Gospel to people, because sometimes it is absolutely necessary that we do so. And this is what is called logos, the logos of preaching.

The Logos of Preaching

• Logos means a number of things. It means logic. It means word. It means speech or speaking. It has to do with “what” we say. It is our message that we preach. Remember that sometimes people says, “It’s not what you said, but how you said it.” Well, the logos of preaching has to do not with how we say things, but what we are saying.
• And we already talked a lot about that in the previous sermon series “Easter according to Paul” where we answered the question “What is the Gospel?” In short, you’ll remember that the Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus; Christ died for our sins and has forgiven us for all our wrongs (hallelujah!) and God raised him from the dead, thus destroying the power of death’s hold on us (hallelujah!). So that is the “what” of our preaching; that is the logos of preaching.
• So first, we earn people’s trust so that we can share our message with them. Then, once we have their trust, then and only then, can we share our message with them. This takes courage for sure. I’m really uncomfortable talking to people about God whom I don’t know, and I’m a pastor. I’m really uncomfortable talking to people about my precious beliefs whom I don’t know. So don’t think that I or any other pastor have this special, fearless superhuman gift to share God’s message with strangers. I don’t have that gift. I have to know people before I open up to them. But some people do have that gift. Some people are open books. My mother-in-law was that way. My realtor is that way. But at some point, we have to share our message with others. We have to “Go tell it on the mountains that Jesus Christ was born.” But our message is more than just that Jesus was born. When we take communion, we declare the mystery of our faith: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” That is our message in a nutshell. And that is pretty much how Paul defines it in our passage this morning: “‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:8-9).

And So?

• But you can’t get that from a sunset. And you can’t get that just from someone being nice to you and showing you kindness and love. Those actions are important and they backup what you say, but if you never get around to saying it, then you may have missed your opportunity.
• Now it is okay to not always be trying to convert people in every conversation that you have with people that you know aren’t Christians. Some people aren’t ready. Some people are questioning and thinking about things. And that’s okay. We shouldn’t be like those pushy, annoying salesmen who try so hard to get us to buy something right now. That’s not our model of preaching the Gospel and getting people saved. It’s okay to not mention Jesus in every conversation, and doing so might actually turn the people off that you’re trying to reach and influence. But sometimes, we do need to speak the truth, to speak the Gospel. Sometimes people are ready, and they’re just waiting for us to share.
• “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!’” (Rom 10:14-15).
• And that’s you, my friends. That’s me. We are sent by the Lord to bring good news to people. When the time is right, when they are ready, and when we have done the hard work of building a real, genuine relationship with others, then we can tell them of our Savior’s love; then we can tell them of his resurrection; then we can bring good news and share our message.
• As I close, I want you to think of one person—just one—whom you know does not know the Lord. I want you to pray and ask God how you can reach out to them this week. How can you build trust with them? How can you help your relationship with them? What’s one thing that you can do this week? Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.