BLOG 5: YOUR TASK AS GOD'S MESSENGER

BLOG #5

PREACH AND TEACH TO CHANGE LIVES

Step 2:  CLARIFY YOUR TASK AS GOD’S MESSENGER.

In Step 1 we talked about how to engage your hearers’ attention.  We were really talking about how to present your message; we were talking about the mechanics of effective communication by using the four elements: HEY! YOU… SEE? SO.

But what good will it do if you know the HOW of communication, but you don’t have a MESSAGE to communicate?   Starting with the HOW is not the best place to start.  Now it’s time to start at the right place, and we will do this with the help of the diagram below (please enlarge accordingly on your computer). 

The right place to start is with the MESSENGER.  On the left hand side of our diagram, please note the two persons involved in communication – HEARER and MESSENGER? 

To preach and teach to change lives, you must be clear that your task as preacher/teacher is to be God’s messenger to deliver the God-given Word.

PREACH THE WORD

As a preacher/teacher, you are God’s messenger charged with the task to DELIVER GOD’S WORD.

Jeremiah 23:28, 29: 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the LORD. 29 "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (NIV)

2 Timothy 4:1-2:  I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at^] His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (NKJV, and so throughout unless otherwise indicated)

Personality, talent, age, and background (family, economic, social or educational) have absolutely nothing to do with becoming God’s messenger.  Everything depends on God’s choice and call.

THE STORY OF SAMUEL

It is worth reading again the familiar story about the call of Samuel when he was only a boy in 1 Samuel chapter 3.  Please note the comments inserted in brackets in bold letters.

 1 Now the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. [The message (“the word of the Lord”) was not learned in any school or seminary; it always came by “revelation”.] 2 And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, 3 and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the LORD where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, 4 that the LORD called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!” 5 So he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” And he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” And he went and lay down.

6 Then the LORD called yet again, “Samuel!”

So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” He answered, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 (Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.) [How did Samuel come to know the Lord and the word of the Lord?  Did he need to go to some school or seminary or some apprenticeship under an experienced prophet?  No, that had to be “revealed” to him by the Lord Himself.  And this account tells us about that first instance when God revealed Himself and His word to the boy Samuel.]

8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you did call me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD had called the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, LORD, for Your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. [We have to give credit to the priest Eli.  I believe Eli knew somehow that God had set him and his sons aside, in spite of them being the divinely appointed hereditary priests and therefore the normal human vehicles for God’s revealed word.  Still, Eli showed no jealousy toward the boy – the BOY! mind you – and he wisely instructed Samuel how to respond to the Lord.  This response was, is and will continue to be the response of all God’s true messengers.  God’s messengers do not discover God’s message through their study and research; they wait on the Lord until He speaks to them.  During Jeremiah’s time God condemned the false prophets for doing exactly the opposite: Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:32) Note:  God did not send or command the false prophets; in other words, God had not revealed to them Himself and His word.  Contrast the false prophets with the true prophet Habakkuk; he could do no better than the boy Samuel did: I will stand my watch
and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. (Hab 21:1).  In other words, Habakkuk was saying, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.”]

10 Now the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”

11 Then the LORD said to Samuel: “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. 14 And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

15 So Samuel lay down until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. [This was the very first time that Samuel was entrusted with God’s word and he already confronted the temptation that all messengers of God, old or young, face: the temptation to be afraid of delivering the word because of what might happen to him (the messenger) or to the recipient (hearer) of the message.  The boy Samuel was no more susceptible to this fear than was the mature prophet Ezekiel, as God’s warning to him proves:  “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.  You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. (Ezekiel 2:6, 7)  Once more, we have to give credit to the priest Eli for encouraging and at the same time warning the boy Samuel about the awesome privilege and responsibility of bearing the word of the Lord.]     16 Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He answered, “Here I am.”

17 And he said, “What is the word that the LORD spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you.” 18 Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”

19 So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the LORD. 21 Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh. For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD. [The only credentials of a messenger of God are: (1) God reveals Himself to the messenger; (2) God gives His word for the messenger to deliver.]

The story of the call of all of God’s prophets and messengers follow the basic pattern that we see in the calling of Samuel.  For comparative study, please read the story of Jeremiah’s call when he was probably only a teenager (Jeremiah 1).  Also compare the defense of Amos when the king questioned his authority to prophesy (7:12-15):

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: “ Go, you seer! 
Flee to the land of Judah. 
There eat bread, and there prophesy.  13 But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the royal residence.” 

14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: “ I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit.  15 Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘ Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’’

Amos is a classic example of a prophet who never had formal educational training.  He was an absolute layman as any layman could be in regard to religious position or profession.  What was his sole qualification?  One day as he was taking care of his sheep, God revealed Himself to him and entrusted him with His word and then commanded him to go and deliver the word to no less a high personage than the king himself!

We are not saying that education and training and background are not important; they are, in their right place.  But their presence neither qualifies nor their absence disqualifies a person from becoming God’s messenger.  God’s revelation of Himself and His word alone qualifies a person to become God’s messenger.

Study also the call of the persecutor Saul, who became Paul, God’s apostle (Acts 9).  Here was a man with great family background and with considerable education and training from the schools of his day coupled with tremendous natural gifts.  And we are sure that all of these enabled him to communicate God’s message in a most powerful way to different classes of society, from common people to royalty.  But he never forgot for one moment the basis of his authority, God alone.

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

In our next blog posting we will answer, among others, these questions:

(1)  Does God still call messengers today?

(2)  Does God still give His word directly to His messengers today?

(3)  How do we get God’s message from the Bible today?