There is power in the Word of God (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; Heb. 4:12).
Isaiah 55:11 says that as the Word of the Lord goes forth, it will not return back to God void. In other words, when people hear the Word, they will respond to it – either positively or negatively; there’s no middle ground; there’s no passivity when it comes to hearing the Word of God. Upon hearing it, one will either accept it, or reject it.
To ponder it complacently without action is as good as rejecting it.
Two examples of the Word doing its job, one with a positive response and the other negative, can be found in the book of Acts.
An Example from Acts 2.
After the devout Jews on Pentecost heard Peter’s sermon, they were “pricked in their heart,” and asked what they should do. Peter responded: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins …” (Acts 2:37-38).
Subsequent verses show that those devout men did just that.
An Example from Acts 7.
Just a few chapters later, however, Stephen preached a very similar sermon from the Word of God.
His audience was “cut to the heart,” but they “gnashed at him with their teeth,” “cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him” to death (Acts 7:54, 57-58).
The Word of God worked powerfully in both instances, but the hearts upon which it fell were vastly different, producing different results. The Word did not return void, though.
Preaching Only What People Want to Hear.
It can be tempting for any preacher to “cherry-pick” his sermon topics in such a way that he only preaches the things that the audience wants to hear. The Bible speaks of such audiences in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
The faithful gospel preacher must resist the temptation to preach only the things that tickle the ears. He must “preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).
Preaching What People Need to Hear.
There was a prophet in the Old Testament who refused to preach the things that the people wanted to hear, instead prophesying the things that they needed to hear. His name was Jeremiah, and he is often called “the weeping prophet.”
He is called that because his message included weeping over the eventual destruction of Jerusalem – a just punishment for the people’s sins. He also undoubtedly wept because he was sorely mistreated.
Jeremiah was persecuted in the following ways:
The people refused to listen to him (Jer. 7:27 & others).
They beat him and put him in the stocks (Jer. 20:1-2).
They gave him death threats (Jer. 26:11).
The king burned his scroll (Jer. 36:23).
He was thrown into a dungeon where he sank down into the mud (Jer. 38:6).
He was called a liar to his face (Jer. 43:2).
How did Jeremiah respond?
Well, he at one point felt as if he could not continue preaching the Word of the Lord. Yet, he could not do that. In Jeremiah 20:9, we read:
“Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.’ But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”
Jeremiah refused to cease speaking the Word of the Lord, and we must do likewise, even as persecution increases and many hearts continue to turn away from the Word of God.
Chase Green is a good friend that I spent some time with in preaching school - he graduated in the class before me. Chase preaches for the Marietta Church of Christin Marietta, Oklahoma.
Chase hosts the Everyday Christian podcast with the Scattered Abroad Network. Chase has recently started writing on Substack about his family’s travels to national parks. Read more at Park Stars.
Good message, thanks.