The Gifts of Exhortation and Preaching | Romans 12:7-8 |

Speaking, proclamation, God’s voice is a vital part of how God has worked throughout the existence of the world.  Speaking is an important function of God (The Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and the community of God—what I mean is that God has used speaking, proclamation, to rebuke, to encourage, to persuade and to instruct His people.

 

God has even created the world through His word, His voice, His speaking.

 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

--Genesis 1:1-3

 

“Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’”

--Genesis 1:6

 

“Then God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them’; and it was so.”

--Genesis 1:11

 

“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;’”

--Genesis 1:14

 

“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; Then God said, ;’Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”

--Genesis 1:14, 26

 

“An important reason why public speaking is so widespread is that it is fully compatible with human nature. Language has a constructive aspect to societies.  Appropriate use of it is an important factor in guiding communities. While some realities can be concealed through language, the importance of language in manipulating many issues emerges. Therefore, an expert of public speaking has the potential to change the perspective of a whole society. Due to this importance, public speaking has been emphasized a lot in all societies and the experience and skills gained over time have been transferred among certain people. Public speaking has been of great importance in the preparation of a society for war or giving up on a decision.”

--Recep Bilgin, “A Review of Public Speaking”, Canadian Journal of Education and Social Studies.

 

1. Preaching and Exhorting God’s word is essential for God’s people.

 

“or service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Romans 12:7-8 (LSB)

 

“Exhortation”

παράκλησις paráklēsis, a calling near, summons, (esp. for help)  admonition, encouragement.  persuasive discourse, stirring address

 

Paul is addressing the leadership of the Roman church and the importance of certain gifts, given by God, to help regular people lead God’s church in their calling and to help the congregation itself lead Christ pleasing lives in their everyday walk. 

 

 

“Diligence”

σπουδή spoudḗ,"speed", i.e.  eagerness, earnestness:—business, (earnest) care(-fulness), diligence, forwardness, haste.  earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything

 

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!’”

--Romans 10:14-15 (LSB)

 

 

“Preach or Preacher”

κηρύσσω kērýssō; of uncertain affinity; to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel):—preacher(-er), proclaim, publish.

 

The most characteristic (occurring sixty-one times) is kerysso, to ‘proclaim as a herald’. In the ancient world the herald was a figure of considerable importance ... A man of integrity and character, he was employed by the king or State to make all public proclamations. Preaching is heralding; the message proclaimed is the glad tidings of salvation. While kerysso tells us something about the activity of preaching, euangelizomai, ‘to bring good news’ (from the primitive eus, ‘good’ and the verb angello ‘to announce’), a common verb, used over fifty times in the New Testament, emphasizes the quality of the message itself. 

 

Why does the church need exhorting and preaching? Because God’s people, the world, are all born into sin, we easily forget, we easily choose sin over choosing God—the Roman church had a ton of sin within the church.  They were not a city on a hill, they were not different than the culture around them, God had given them over to their lusts, their desires, their malice, their greed, their gossip—their fruit was rotten and they were not walking by the spirit (Fruits of the Spirit).  

 

Paul addresses different gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.  

 

“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to someone else faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to someone else various kinds of tongues, and to another the translation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

--1 Corinthians 12:8-11

 

These two lists are not in contradiction to one another rather they compliment one another.  These two churches struggled with different issues, different contexts, both of them were far from God and they abused the gifts God gave to them.  Corinth struggled with the abuse of these outwardly miraculous gifts where the church in Rome struggled with leadership integrity, syncretism, lack of heralding God’s word led to a complacent church in Rome, a church that wasn’t convicted. 

 

If the clearest way to hear God is through His word and we aren’t actively heralding, teaching, urging, exhorting and encouraging each other with the reading of God’s word then the church will not be hearing God—they will be hearing the enemy, ourselves and our ways instead of God’s ways. 

 

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

--2 Timothy 4:2-5 (LSB)

“A low level of Christian living is due, more than anything else, to a low level of Christian preaching. If the church is to flourish again, there is a need for faithful, powerful, biblical preaching. God still urges his people to listen and his preachers to proclaim his word.”

--John Stott, “The Challenge of Preaching.”

 

2. God’s word is proclaimed here, every Sunday, so that you will proclaim it every day, wherever you go. The world needs God’s heralds to proclaim His good news.

 

God gives certain people certain gifts in His church to then use those gifts to equip His people in their gifts, in their faith assurance, so they will go out with Holy Spirit Confidence to herald God’s powerful message in this dark world. 

 

“Let love be without hypocrisy—by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good, being devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in affliction, being devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, pursuing hospitality.”

--Romans 12:9-13

 

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. ‘These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.’”

--John 14:23-26

 

“The preacher is not a chef; he’s a waiter. God doesn’t want you to make the meal; He just wants you to deliver it to the table without messing it up. That’s all.”

--John MacArthur

 

God has spoken.  Are we listening?  God is speaking.  Are we listening?

 

Preaching isn’t just one, simply defined thing.  Preaching doesn’t only take place with a certain elder or pastor, standing behind a pulpit, in front of a group a people—yes that is one style or area of preaching.  But preaching occurs in living rooms, around kitchen tables, in coffee shops, in one-on-one conversations, in prayer meetings, in dorm rooms, in garages, on farm fields, heralding the gospel is simply proclaiming the truth of God’s message, His word to someone who needs to hear it, who doesn’t know it. 

 

Yes, some of us are gifted to speak from a pulpit, in a church building on Sunday morning, but God empowers all of us, through the Holy Spirit, to then bring that living knowledge everywhere we go making all of us preachers, all of us heralds.   

 

“Then Moses said to Yahweh, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been a man of words, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your slave; for I am one with a hard mouth and a hard tongue.’  And Yahweh said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? ‘  So now, go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and will instruct you what you shall speak.’”

Exodus 4:10-12

 

 

“And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”

--Matthew 28:17-20

 

“The preaching of Christ is the whip that flogs the devil. The preaching of Christ is the thunderbolt, the sound of which makes all hell shake.”

~ Charles Spurgeon