Zwingli, the great Swiss Reformer, taught that the Word of God is power and light. In England, when Henry VIII ruled that a Bible in English be placed in every church, people flocked to read it. Those that couldn’t read, asked those who could read, to read put loud for them, such was the hunger for the Word of God. And this Word transformed a nation and turned it into a Christian nation. Such is the power of the Word of God.
Today we have more access to the Word of God than ever before. We can even download free copies of the Bible onto our phone and there are free commentaries online. So why don’t we appear to see the same power of the Word as during the Reformation?
Wrong Assumptions
Because today we assume everyone is Christian who regularly comes to our church. So we don’t preach the Gospel to them.
Wrong Gospel
Many people think they are good people and depend on living good lives and going to church. So they are putting their trust in this and not in Jesus alone. They don’t know they have a sick heart and so aren’t open to the cure.
Wrong diagnosis and so wrong message
Hence, the hearts of many people are still sick! We just preach Christian living, so their hearts remain sick and unable to receive or practice the Christian living. So many maintain a superficial Christian living, but are in reality are still full of sin, and have made a superficial repentance instead of a life-changing one.
The solution? We must preach justification and repentance to heal the sick heart first.
Mark 1:15
“The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Superficial understanding Of the Gospel of Grace
Martin Luther, the Great Reformer, was a priest. After 12 years of striving in his own strength to gain salvation, he finally discovered the God of grace and righteousness received as a free gift.
Luther became like a child. He realised he could do nothing and relied instead totally on the grace of God and the power of the Word and penning it. He showed extraordinary spiritual poverty for an extremely capable man and remained that way.
Today we don’t have this childlike faith to receive the Word and obey it because we have no realisation of the great need for the cure and so haven’t experienced its power yet. So Luther became an Apostle of grace. He received profoundly and abundantly the grace of God, so he became a great instrument to pass on this grace.
A Gospel without self-sacrifice
There is little preaching of the cross, which is self-denial. So there’s no willingness to sacrifice to know and live for the Word. Hence, we don’t witness its power.
Mark 8:34-35
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
Luther preached and lived knowing it could be his last day! He knew that one day he could be preaching and the next the army of his enemies could be at the gate of his city, and he’d be tortured and burnt at the stake. So every day he studied the Word and received it with great purpose and to receive grace for the great challenges he faced. For he didn’t know how many days he had left.
Today we treat the Word with familiarity and not as the power of God in our lives. All the gifts of God are received by faith. Small faith in the Word, small grace received. Great faith in the Word, much grace received (and then passed on).
What now?
Hence, it’s not the power of the Word that has changed. It’s our diagnosis of the hearts of others and the way we are preaching today that caters more to Christian living than preaching to cure the heart and preaching the cross. Let’s return to this.
Do you want a heart with apostolic passion to preach the Gospel like this? My book GRACE OUTPOURINGS: 21 DAYS REVIVAL DEVOTIONAL is designed especially to help stir us up to have an apostolic heart, with stories from revivals that inspire. Do read for a great devotional experience.