The Beauty of Preaching the Word of Christ | Romans 10:14-21
A long, long time ago, an influential mentor in my life said to me, “Preaching is not everything, but it effects everything.” I wonder how many of you listening would agree. What you hear in this hour is certainly NOT everything. But have you ever considered that what you hear—namely preaching, and by God’s grace preaching that represents faithfulness to God’s Word, effects everything? To what extent does preaching effect your life?
A preacher I know writes, “People are starving for the grandeur of God. And the vast majority do not know it . . . Only a few diagnose the longing beneath every human desire as the longing to see God . . . As we look out over the wasteland of our secular culture, must we preachers not ask, “Who but us will say to this people, ‘Behold your God!’? Who will tell the people (men and women, dads and moms, boys and girls) that God is great and greatly to be praised? Who will remind them with tales of wonder that God has triumphed over every foe? Who will cry out above every crisis, ‘Your God reigns!’? . . . If we (preachers) do not spread a banquet of God’s beauty on Sunday morning (through preaching), will not our people seek in vain to satisfy their inconsolable longing with the cotton candy pleasures of pastimes and religious hype? If the fountain of living water does not flow from the mountain of God’s sovereign grace on Sunday morning (through preaching), will not the people hew for themselves cisterns on Monday, ‘broken cisterns that can hold no water’ (see Jer. 2:13)?” —John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching
If that’s true, then preaching does affect everything. It was this same sentiment, I believe, that led one of my favorite preachers to preach this about preaching, “The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching. And as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need in the world also.” —D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers
So, my aim in this sermon today is to hold up the beauty of preaching—the preaching of the Word of Christ. I’m fully aware that attempting to do so has the potential of falling dramatically short of the target. However, if anyone should be able to say to you, “I have looked upon the Lord in the sanctuary and beheld His power and glory,” it ought to be the preacher—the herald of God. If I do not aim to spread before you a banquet of God’s beauty, will you, my friends, not seek for it in something else? So please bear with me, and please pray for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim to you what God has said about preaching.
“’Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
“But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’
—Romans 10:13–21
The main point of Romans 10:14–21 is located in verse 17: “So [therefore] faith comes from hearing, and hearing through [preaching of] the word of Christ.”
The cause of faith, the faith that causes one to call on the name of the Lord for forgiveness of their sin, is hearing the preaching of the Gospel. That’s why it may be said that, though preaching isn’t everything, preaching affects everything. At least preaching affects everything the ultimately matters most.
What Is Preaching?
Paul uses two different words in this text in reference to preaching. In verse 14, Paul says, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
Heralding
There, the word translated “preaching” is our English word for heralding or announcing. Paul uses the same word in verse 15: “And how are they to preach [herald/announce] unless they are sent?”
So, preaching has to do, mainly, with announcing something. Preaching has to do, mainly, with heralding something—something big. “Hey! Listen up! There’s no school tomorrow!” “Hey! Big news! No masks required!” “Hey! Get this! Gas is $2 bucks a gallon!” Don’t you wish! That’s what preaching does. It heralds news!
Preaching is what a sunset over the prairie does. Preaching is what a night sky full of stars does. That’s why, in verse18 Paul quotes Psalm 19:4, “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’”
Whose voice? Whose words? According to Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals his knowledge …. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1–2, 4).
That’s an illustration of what preaching means. Preaching is declaring the glory of God. Preaching is proclaiming His handiwork, revealing who He is. And we should add that preaching is different than teaching. In 2 Timoth 1:10-11 Paul says, “Christ abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.”
Those are three distinct things. Paul understood God had appointed him for three different tasks: heralding or announcing the Truth as a preacher; composing, preserving, and transmitting the authoritative pattern of Truth as an apostle; and explaining and applying the Truth as a teacher. So preaching is not just explaining or teaching. Preaching is what the old town crier did when there was a message from the king.
Good News
But Paul uses another word for preaching in Romans 10:15: “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
“As it is written.” Paul is quoting the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Nahum. And the phrase translated “preach the good news” is actually just one word, the word from which we get the term “evangelism.” It’s literally “good news-ing” or “gospel-ing.” So, preaching in this sense is not merely heralding. Preaching in this sense is the same as evangelizing. It’s not just what happens here in this hour. It’s what happens in that conversation over coffee, or that talk in the driveway. It’s heralding the good news. It’s “gospel-ing the gospel.”
I spoke with a friend this past Thursday who has served as a Christian Sport’s Camp director in the Ukraine for the past 15 years. And this is how he described to me the situation there for many families he knows. Imagine you’re hunkered down with your mom, and young siblings in your basement. And for the past week, you’ve been hearing the thunder, and feeling the whoomp of bombs. The last time you went outside, you saw tanks burning at the end of the street. And your dad, and your brothers have been gone the last two days, because they went out to join the fight. And the anxiety of it is so intense you don’t feel like eating. You can’t sleep. You can’t stop shaking.
But then imagine if this happened: One morning the sun comes up and that thundering has stopped. And you hear voices outside. And at first, your fear level starts to elevate. You’re afraid you’re about to hear the worst. But instead, the words you hear are, “It’s over! The fighting is over! You can come out! They’ve pulled back! We’re all safe!”
That’s “good-news-ing.” That’s “gospel-ing!” And that’s the word for what Paul is referring to in Romans 10:14-21. And loved ones, God says that is beautiful! That kind of preaching might not be everything, but it changes everything.
The Beauty of Preaching
Now you might be thinking, “I thought it is their feet that were beautiful. Doesn’t it say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of the gospel-ers!? How beautiful are the feet of the good-news-ers’?” Well, that phrase is a poetic figure of speech. In Hebrew poetry, it’s common to write that way. It’s like the groom in the wedding described in Song of Solomon, when he says to his bride, “Your hair is like a flock of goats. Your teeth are like sheep that just came up out of the pond in the pasture. Your neck is like a tower in a fortress.” In other words, there’s nothing about the actual feet of a preacher that are all that beautiful. I could prove it for you right now. I could take off my shoes and socks and you’d go, “Oh Pastor Greg, your feet are amazing! They look like the Adida’s shoe logo. If you just had claws, you could climb trees like a squirrel.”
No. The reference to feet—arguably one of the most unattractive, unnoticed, lowly features of the human anatomy—is intended to highlight the content of the news. It’s the “good-news-ing,” it’s the “gospel-ing” that is beautiful. It’s the heralding of the Word of Christ that is beautiful. And this preaching is beautiful first and foremost, to God. He’s the one who says how beautiful it is. God is the one who is commending the beauty of preaching. God is the one who is extolling the value and loveliness, NOT of the preacher (or his feet or any other extremity). God is extolling the excellence, the wisdom, the treasure of what preaching is and does.
And preaching is beautiful, because, and when it heralds the good news of God’s saving activity in the person and work of our Lord Jesus, who is the Christ. What makes evangelizing beautiful is that it draws attention to the pinnacle of God’s redemptive acts. What makes good-news-ing beautiful is that it announces the center and climax of the Bible’s story, and the essential message for our faith, life, and witness. God, in love, became a perfect man. And this perfect God-man took upon himself the guilt and shame and punishment for our sins. And he was condemned to death, and he died in our place. And his sacrifice was and is accepted by God. And on the basis of faith in him, believing this good news about him, everyone who calls upon him will be saved. What is more beautiful than that? What else in or on earth effects everything like that? And therefore, we are committed to preaching, preaching the Word of Christ.
Now, let’s get more specific. Why does God commend preaching? What makes preaching the Word of Christ beautiful to God? Preaching the Word of Christ is beautiful to God, because …
Preaching the Word of Christ Reveals God’s Glory
More specifically, preaching the Word of Christ is beautiful to God because it heralds, or announces the truth of who He is, and what He has done in and through Jesus.
Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because through it He proclaims His rich and lavish mercy: “He bestows His riches on all who call on him. ‘For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:12–13).
Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because through it He announces the glory of His sovereign grace: “Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me’” (Romans 10:20).
God shows himself, reveals himself as glorious and beautiful freely to whomever He so chooses. Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because through it He reveals the purpose of His divine and saving plans: “But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation I will make you angry’” (Romans 10:19).
Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because through it He reveals His patient and tender heart: “But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people’” (Romans 10:21).
Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because through it He sends out His invitation to trust Him to the ends of the earth: “How are they to preach unless they are sent? … ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’” (Romans 10:15, 18).
Through the preaching of the good news, God is calling out to people everywhere. The beauty of it is not that the good news of the Gospel doesn’t just fall from the clouds in heaven like rain. The beauty is in the fact that the Word of Christ is brought forth and heralded by the mouths of people wherever it is directed providentially by God above. “As it is written [from the mouth of God], ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:15).
And therefore, preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God because in it and through it and by it God reveals Himself as glorious!
Second, preaching the word of Christ beautiful to God, because through it and by it …
Preaching the Word of Christ Causes Believing
God brings believing into being through the hearing of the word of Christ. Now that “hearing” may be through “reading the word of Christ.” But more often, and in light of the context of Romans 10, the “hearing” is through the audible preaching of the word of Christ. Either way, through reading or preaching, hearing the faithful rendering of the word of Christ is instrumental means by which God brings sinners to a saving faith. And the ears (eyes of our ears) are the organ through which the word is heard.
“Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through [reading or the preaching of] the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” That is a somewhat unfortunate claim, since it can lead to lead one to conclude that words are unnecessary. Now to be charitable to St. Francis, I believe his right and good intention is to register that our entire life should proclaim Christ. That is, our words won’t be good news if our lives are bad news.
But Paul is crystal clear. Believing is a result of what and who God has revealed Himself to be in the word about Christ. Believing is a result of hearing the announcement of the truth of who he is and what he has done in the person and work of Jesus. That’s why Paul says, “How are they to believe to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14).
So loved ones, listen. It is a deceptive lie from Satan that says, “There is no need to say anything.” True and saving faith is not a result of imagining God according to what we would fancy Him to be. Paul attributes the hearing of the word of Christ, and Christ alone, as the instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit that brings about the miracle of new birth. And when one’s heart is made new, made alive, they behold the glory of God’s wisdom, and the glory of God’s mercy, and the glory of God’s provision in Christ. And when the light goes on, they trust. They believe. Preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God, because it produces a true and informed faith. And when people truly believe, they turn to the Lord and call on His name.
Loved ones, preaching the word of Christ is beautiful to God, and to us all, because it is produces the faith by which sinners call on the name of the Lord that they might be saved.
Preaching the Word of Christ Inspires Prayer
Paul makes a direct connection between praying and believing. “How will they call on him [pray to him] in whom they have not believed?” (Romans 10:14).
How will they turn to one in whom they don’t fully trust? When you need help, who do you call? When you’re in trouble, who do you call? You call the one you trust. You call the one whom you believe. When my grandchildren are upset, I can hold out my hands, but they will not be comforted unless they are held by mom or dad. They want the one they trust. John Calvin writes, “A true calling on God’s name cannot be except a right knowledge of Him were had first.”
What makes the times we live in so challenging, at least to me, is the how hard it is to know what one can believe. Who do you trust? I go to the gym, and there’s two TV’s side by side. One has CNN. The other has FOX News. They are covering the exact same thing, and you’d never know it. Their perspective is as different as day is from night. How can you follow one who you do not believe?
And how will anyone call on Christ if in him they have not yet believed? And how are they to believe in Christ if they have never heard what they need to hear in order to trust Him? And how are they to hear what they need to hear to trust Him without someone proclaiming it? Calling on Christs comes from believing. Believing comes through hearing. And hearing comes through the beautiful word of Christ.