The question of how to preach to a family-integrated church, with all ages and life-stages present, is always a challenge to the minister. While the temptation may be strong to give into the pragmatism that drives so much of our era, the preacher must instead focus on the Word of God and seek to explain it clearly and accurately. God works through his word and the faithful exposition of it - the minister has no other weapon with which to prick the hearts of his hearers regardless of their age.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches presents The Gospel for All Ages, Preaching the Gospel in an Age-Integrated Context, a message given by Marcus Servin at the Power of the Gospel Conference. I want to take you to the Word of God and deal with the subject of preaching the gospel in an age-integrated context, in age-integrated churches. And so when we think about the task of preaching, when you have a multiplicity of ages represented in the congregation, my goodness, that is a task. And it challenges me every week I think about this. When I'm in my study on Saturday finishing up sermon preparation and I'm thinking about how there's five-year-old Ellie sitting there in the second row and I'm thinking how there's a 60 year old Mike in the back row and I'm thinking about some of the grandparents who are visiting, some of the people who know the Lord, some of the people who don't know the Lord, some people who are hostile to the message that I'm preaching, some who are friendly.

It is a total mix of different people who are there. And if you have the opportunity to be proclaiming the gospel, preaching the word of God, then you have to take into account who's sitting out there in the congregation, and how are you going to reach them. And so today as we come to this topic, I want to really take you just to three basic concepts, and I've tried to make them as easy as I could in terms of being able to remember. And so the first idea is just the idea that God would have us preach to everyone. There's no real distinction of either an age or a class of people or a gender that isn't to be preached to.

God would have us preach the gospel to everyone. It's a very just clear stellar way of thinking and it's easy to remember. Secondly, God would have us preach with confidence, and we'll talk about the reasons why, but in particular it's because of the fact that the Word is powerful and God opens the heart. It's not the preacher through eloquence or through wisdom or through being funny or being animated or anything like that. God's the one who changes the heart.

God opens the heart and that's our greatest asset when it comes to preaching the gospel, being confident of knowing that God's doing that work, that preparatory work. And thirdly, we're going to talk about preaching by expounding the text. And what I mean by that is, it's not so much about having a clever or funny story, it's not so much about sharing all of your wisdom or your testimony, as powerful as your testimony might be, but it's the idea of preaching the text of Scripture, because it is that word from God that has the power to transform lives. So a pretty simple message here, but I want to take you to a number of key passages in the Bible, illustrate those with a few different thoughts and send you away with a sense of confidence that when you preach the gospel from scripture, God is going to use that in a very potent and life-changing way. So let's just pray for a moment, ask His favor and blessing on this.

Father, we do ask that you might minister to us this morning. We trust, Lord, that we'd be able to set aside all the other things that might be in our mind, competing interests, ideas, thoughts, concerns, and focus on this idea of how your word is powerful and sharp and how it has the ability to transform people. So we pray, Father, that you would help us to go away with that sense of confidence, and we do pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. During the 1600s, there was a young man by the name of Martin Luther.

Of course, we've all heard his name before. He was a university student in his late teens and early 20s and as he was walking back to the university after being at home for a time, for a holiday, he didn't realize that there was a big storm brewing on the horizon and as he was walking along head down he was actually hit by a bolt of lightning. Now some modern historians will say it only struck close by but he reports that his eyebrows were singed off and his hair was curled and all of that. It really struck him and it threw him to the ground. He resolved on the basis of that force in nature that he would become a monk.

He lived in a very superstitious age filled with religiosity and churchianity, so to speak, and so he resolved to become an Augustinian monk. He entered the cloister in Erfurt in 1605 and he set himself to becoming the best monk he could possibly be. His goal was, since he was a competitive man, to out-monk all the other monks, to put it bluntly. And so he excelled in all the disciplines that went with that life. The memorizations, apportions of Augustine's writing, the lengthy study of his writings, the disciplines of not eating and depriving himself of food and of sleep and all the rest, and he continued to flourish in that, but his body began to wear down, and he realized that he needed something else, that the writings of Augustine, as interesting as they were, and as provocative as they were, they weren't giving him the zeal and the energy that he had had at the beginning.

And so he began to search in the library, and he found a book in the library. It was a large book. It was of red leather, and it was chained to the wall in a little alcove. He opened it up, and he began to read. He realized it wasn't Augustine, it was the Word of God.

He had never held in his hand before a Bible, and he says that when he read it, he read it like a famished man. You see, this illustrates the hunger of people without the word of God. As God is drawing them, as God is convicting them of their sin, as God is bringing them into contact with your family, into visiting your church, into being around your table when you're conducting family worship, whatever the setting might be, God is in the business of bringing people to hear his word, and his word transforms. That's why in Isaiah 55, the Word of God can say so very clearly, and God can proclaim to us, So shall be the word that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Later on, Martin Luther was reflecting back upon his life. He was an old man thinking about all that God had done in the Reformation.

And some people had asked him, well, tell us about all that you did so that we can imitate that. And he responded in this way. He said, I simply taught, preached, wrote God's word, otherwise I did nothing. And then while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and my Amstorf, The Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or an emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing.

The Word of God did it all." Well, Luther understood rightly the power of God's Word, and I want you to go away from this seminar today with a new sense of confidence that when you Read, teach, or proclaim the Word of God, that there is an inherent power there. And there's no reason to think that little children who are sitting in the congregation or gathered around your table would be incapable of understanding the basic elements of it. God gives us every possibility of assurance to show that his word is powerful at transforming lives, and that's the confidence that we can have. Now let's talk about preaching to everyone. So if you would, turn in your Bible to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah chapter 8. We see here a fascinating testimony of the power of the Word of God. Here's the context. The people of Israel have been returning from their exile in Babylon, specifically those who have been taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar from the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom, and after having been in exile for a very lengthy time, Some of them who are still alive and their children and grandchildren are returning and they're coming back to Jerusalem and Ezra the priest is compelled by God to read the word in front of all the people. And so let me just read here the first eight verses of Nehemiah chapter 8.

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses so that the Lord or that the Lord had commanded Israel so Ezra the priest brought the Lord before the assembly both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Watergate from early morning till midday, in the presence of men and women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the word of God or the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on the wooden platform that they had made for the purpose and beside him stood Mattathiah and Shema and Ananias and Uriah and Hilkiah and Massaniah and on his right hand and Pediah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashim, Hashbadanah, Zechariah and Meshalem on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord and the great God, And all the people answered, amen, amen, lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

And also, Jeshua, Bani, Shababiah, Jamin, Achaab, Shabbathai, Hodiah, Massasiah, Calita, Azariah, Josabad, Hanan, Paliah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places, they read from the book from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. A passage like this shows us that all the people were gathered. They were gathered as one man, as it were. They were hungry for the Word of God. And the book of the law of Moses was brought before them to Torah made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Those were their scriptures. And Ezra the priest began to read. Do you notice that there's no gender exclusion here? There's not just the men who are gathering, but the men and the women, and evidently numbers of the children. All those who could understand, all those who would profit from the reading of the Word of God.

Now in the pagan world the understanding was that those who had access to quote sacred scriptures were those who would who would pay a fee and they would pay that fee with the hope and the expectation of receiving some sort of mystical experience that would come from their God, small G, and they would go away happy with their purchase. But this was not so in the Hebrew world, This was not so amongst the people of the Bible. They had all the people standing there, irregardless of their gender, and all who could understand. So there were youth and children mixed in. And Ezra read it from morning till midday.

Now that's a lengthy service, isn't it? Most of us probably have longer services in our churches than many churches do. I can't imagine having just an hour-long service and having people say, well sorry pastor, time's up. I think we go for two and a quarter hours or two and a half hours and that's the way our service runs and probably many of your services are the same. But it's because people are coming and they want to hear the Word of God proclaimed.

They want to hear it and apply it to their life, and that takes some time. Now Ezra is reading the Word of God, but there are Levites present and I read their names so you could have a sense that there were all these men who were committed to the expounding of the word. Ezra's reading. The Levites are interpreting the text of Scripture and helping the people to apply it. And so the law is read out loud and then it is explained.

Evidently there was some translating going on from Hebrew into Aramaic as well because Aramaic at this time was the common language that people spoke. So Ezra would read it in Hebrew, it would be translated evidently he would do that himself into Aramaic, and then the Levites would explain it. Now they read from the book of the law of God clearly and they gave the sense so that the people would understand it. This little phrase here gave the sense, if you were to work that over into the Greek Septuagint, then the word is a word we're familiar with. It's the word hermeno.

And when we talk about hermeneutics in terms of interpreting the text of Scripture, it's that basic Greek word here, and that's the Hebrew understanding of giving the sense of the Word of God. And so the heart really of proclaiming the Scriptures is proclaiming it to all people so that they can hear it and God will then interact with their soul and then it's the job of the preacher or perhaps in this case they have another set of people, the Levites, who then interpret the Word of God and give some explanation. Now God's Word is powerful as a double-edged sword. It cuts down into the very inner man's being, and so if there was no interpretation it would surely still do its work. But we see the pattern here that God has also called for there to be preaching and expounding of the text.

So it's more than just mere reading, it's the actual expounding or explaining of it as well that God has intended should be given. And so the text is given to everyone so that it will be made clear. Most of us are familiar with the name of George Whitefield, that young evangelist from the first great awakening. He was an Englishman. He didn't necessarily grow up in a very sophisticated household.

His father was an innkeeper. They ran an inn. He was used to serving others. As time went along he showed some gifts and abilities in terms of preaching and teaching. He was converted, he went to Oxford, he got some training, but as a young man he felt a burning passion to begin preaching the Word of God.

He had been ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church there in England, and he was preaching in various churches, and God was powerfully using him, but he realized one day that there were lots of people out there who would never come into the traditional English church. Why? They weren't welcome. They were poor people. They were people who didn't have nice clothing.

They were people who were unwashed. They were the outcasts of society. And so he began to hear of a man in Wales named Howell Harris who was actually taking the gospel to the people rather than expecting them to come to him and was preaching in the outdoors. And so Whitefield contacted him and was encouraged by his example and traveled to meet him. But before he could get there, he came to the city of Bristol, England, before he entered Wales, and his heart was melted and he was broken by the people all through that town who did not know the Lord.

In particular there were a group of miners who lived on the edges of the city near Bristol. They were in a suburb called Kingswood, and he went from door to door in that area, just speaking to people about the Lord and the gospel. He realized that at a certain time All these men and boys were going to get off work for the mines, so he went up to a hillside, and as they got off work, he began to preach to them with powerful effect. He could first tell that the Holy Spirit was convicting them, and the word of God was penetrating their heart when he began to see on their blackened faces white streaks coming down from the tears. He writes about it in saying this, The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by the tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks as they came out of their coal pits.

God was using this young man's preaching. He was only 21 or 22 at that time when he was preaching. He had hardly had any training, but he was fired and inspired by the Word of God to proclaim it to all classes of people, not just to the educated, not just to those who wanted to come and hear him in a church, not just to those who are one age or one gender, but it was for all people, no matter what their circumstances were, and God powerfully used him. And so as we think about the proclamation of the gospel, let us not think for a moment that we have to somehow separate people or send this group over here and minister that group over there, let us minister to everyone whom God brings into the sound of our voice and let us do it with confidence. In what way?

How does God give us confidence in preaching the Word of God? Well, let me just say right off that not all preachers are like Charles Spurgeon or George Whitefield or Kevin Swanson. Might I say that in this crowd? If I tried to be like Kevin Swanson it would be a disaster because I'm not Kevin Swanson. But Kevin could be Kevin and that works and it's great and God uses him in a very powerful way.

But I'm Marcus and so I'm going to preach according to the way God has made me. But let us preach with confidence, not so much in our person, but confidence in the Word of God. And so whether it's around your kitchen table and you're you're leading your family in family worship, or you're a mother taking your children as it were through the glories of the scriptures in your homeschool program, or you have the opportunity as a church officer or elder to be proclaiming the Word of God in a more public setting, or you're a street evangelist, no matter where it is, know that the Word of God is powerful in itself and God is the one who gives us confidence. For what reason? Well because the natural man, the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 2, if you would just turn over there, does not understand the things of God.

1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, 15, and 16. Paul says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ. Paul here is talking about the man or the woman who's been converted. They are the ones who have the mind of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. God has changed our heart and our mind to give us a new ability to understand his words. Whereas before, as those who were unconverted, we might have gotten a few of the concepts that are apparent from the the plain reading of Scripture, but God is the one who opens the heart to bring forth a clear understanding.

And so it's just not a mechanical exercise to interpret the Scripture and then to proclaim it, but it is an exercise by faith, trusting that God, through the powerful work of his spirit, is taking the Word of God into the very inner being. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He has no ability, he has no facility to understand it and apply it. But God opens the heart. A number of examples from scripture.

In John 3, when Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus, and he answers him and says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. When the Word of God is proclaimed, the Lord uses that to draw people, but the heart must be opened, the heart must be regenerated. The word there, born again, is palinganesia, or born from above, born from a heavenly source, born again. God is the only one who does that, and Nicodemus rightly understood that. How can a man go back into his mother's womb?

Well, you can't. But God can bring about the second birth. Again in John 3 verse 5, and Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water, referring to physical birth, we have to be alive and and be living, and of the spirit, spiritual birth, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. God takes those who are alive in the flesh and those who are made alive in the Spirit, he opens our heart so that we can believe and trust in these matters. John 6 verse 44, Jesus says to his disciples, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day." This word draw is a fascinating one in the Greek text.

It's the word helkouo. It can be translated in two ways. It can be translated to to draw or to bring along comfortably easily, or it can be the idea of dragging. I think the latter is true, probably in regard to me. That the Lord dragged me into his kingdom, hearing the Word of God, falling under the conviction of that Word, realizing that I was a foul sinner, that I had nothing to commend myself before him, and taking the Word of God to direct me to faith in Christ and to proclaim the life-giving message of the gospel.

And so whether it's a sweet, complying time of coming so easily as many of our covenantal children are in their own households, they're growing up hearing the Word of God every day, proclaimed, they're in churches where the gospel and the law are clearly articulated, they have every opportunity to come to faith in Christ, and they do, in many cases, very sweetly. Other situations where they come in a more dramatic way or a more decisive way, but in either case they come because the Father who sent me draws them. And so it's by the work of God that these matters come. Secondly, God not only opens the heart, but God makes his word understandable. We refer to that in theology as the perspicuity of Scripture.

Now that's an odd term and maybe not one you're familiar with. Perspicuitus or perspicuity means clarity. So if you don't remember the first word, just remember that it's clear that the Word of God has sufficient light in it for us to understand, even in our fallen state, as the Spirit is working on us and drawing us, then we begin to understand the essential doctrines and the essential beliefs and aspects of the Word of God. It becomes understandable. In the Psalms, in chapter 19, verse 7, the psalmist will write, The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. One time in my congregation out in California, a Presbyterian church out there, there was a young man, he was in his 20s, but he was mentally and emotionally challenged. There were just some issues as we related to him. His name was Brian, and he heard me preach for about six years, and he was the sweetest, tenderest Christian man. He understood scripture, Maybe not every complex passage or every convoluted argument that his young pastor could come up with, but he understood the basics of Scripture and there was a clarity to his understanding of the gospel.

Why? Well because God makes the scripture clear and it's got a clarity to it. Psalm 119 verse 130, the unfolding of your words give light, O Lord, and imparts understanding to the simple, even to little children who sit next to mom and dad in the worship and hear the preaching of the word. They may not get everything, but they do get something, and that something sometimes makes all the difference. I'm reminded of the life of Timothy.

You think about Paul and Timothy, they were best of friends, coworkers, but they came to Christ in completely different manners. Do you realize that? About Paul and Timothy? Here's Paul the oppressor, formerly Saul, a Jewish Pharisee, rabbi, oppressing the Christian church, violently breathing out his threats and making all of those threats good, causing people to tremble in fear on his way to Damascus. The Spirit of God throws him down in the dust, and the Lord speaks to him and he raises his head as one who's convicted and believes and says, Lord?

And in that moment God has changed him and regenerated him. A very dramatic type of conversion. Not everybody has that, but some people do. On the other hand, consider Timothy, who grew up in his father and mother's home. Evidently his father was an unbeliever, but his mother and his grandmother were believers.

And we learn from 2 Timothy 1, 5, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure dwells in you as well." Timothy at that time of the writing of that second letter as a pastor in a church in Ephesus, Paul is well acquainted with him and he writes with no doubt in his mind just simply to encourage Timothy to remain true to his calling. As you read on in 2 Timothy, you come to 2 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, where Paul writes, where Paul writes, but it's for you Timothy, continue in what you have learned and what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, your mother and your grandmother, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And so here's Timothy's example of conversion. Sweetly compliant, having been acquainted with the Word of God from the earliest of days, hearing it proclaimed by people he knows and trusts. Isn't it interesting that Paul, who had such a dramatic conversion, didn't seem to have any problem with Timothy's conversion?

Instead he accepts it readily, and Timothy didn't seem to have any problem with Paul's conversion, as if they would say to one another, well I'm sorry you probably aren't converted because you didn't have the same experience as me. And neither men say that. They accept one another. Why is that? Well, because God changes the heart and he works in some marvelous and wonderful ways, but he doesn't work always in exactly and precisely the same way for every individual.

But he does have a business of changing hearts, and he does it through his word, as it's read, as it's taught, as it's preached, as was the example of Timothy. There was a missionary, perhaps you've heard his name, he was in South Africa, his name was Robert Moffat, a Scotsman who had gone to South Africa to establish a missionary enterprise there amongst the native people in Africa. He established a missionary station called Kuraman. It was a very difficult outpost. He went for years without seeing any converts, and he realized that he needed helpers.

He needed some people to come and help him in his missionary endeavors. And so he traveled back to Scotland and England in the 1820s, And he was going around the different parts of Scotland and England trying to find young men who would come and work alongside of him. He came to a church one night in Scotland near Glasgow. It was a very cold, wintry night. There was only a small group of women who were gathered there.

And his heart fell because his text that night was from Proverbs chapter 8 verse 4. "'Unto you, O men, I call.'" And he's thinking, there's no men here, only ladies and only a few of them. But he took heart that that's what God had put upon his heart and he went and preached anyways the Word of God, not realizing that up in the choir loft was a son of one of the women, just a seven-year-old boy at that time, who was up in the choir loft and had the job of pumping the bellows so that the organ would work for his mother who would play it. And so he preached his message and the Spirit of God did its work. And the young man was strangely electrified and convicted by his message.

He had grown up in a house where he was hearing the word of God over and over, but God used that proclamation to work in his heart in a wonderful way. And at that point he resolved that He would go and help Robert Moffat, but he was only seven years old. Robert Moffat knew nothing of it. Twenty years went by. The young man grew up.

He matured. He went off and received some training. He became a medical doctor. And he heard Robert Moffat again in 1840 when he came back to Scotland still recruiting helpers, and this time He went with him. His name?

David Livingston, who became arguably one of the greatest of the missionaries in the 19th century in the heart of Africa. Little did Moffat know that not only did the boy hear the message and 20 years later would follow him, but about five years after that he would also become his son in law and David Livingston would marry his daughter, his oldest daughter Mary. And so this was not only the preaching of the Word of God, this was a family issue. God used all of that in a very remarkable way. My point is that as those who proclaim the Word of God, we can have a great sense of confidence knowing that God opens the heart, and secondly, that God makes his word clear.

That there's a perspicuity of Scripture, so we could have confidence in it that even if we're reading through the genealogies of Jesus or all the the Hebrew Kings and first and second Kings or Chronicles we can be confident that God uses his word sometimes in ways we won't even realize and we can be confident of that. Now let's talk about preaching by expounding the text because preaching is more than just telling stories or sharing ideas. In fact, sadly, sometimes preachers who can become very fond of stories and history, I'm that way. I love all of that. But I have to keep reminding myself, no, it's the Word of God that's powerful.

Not my ideas, not my stories, not my insights. It's the Word of God. And so being committed to reading, teaching, preaching the Word of God makes all the difference. And so I would encourage you, if you are in that situation where you're teaching and preaching, that everything you do is text-based or word-based. Because if you start going off onto other directions, then in essence you're losing the power that stands behind the message.

It's not so much the clever story or the interesting illustration or the book you want to recommend. It's the power of the Word of God. It's that text. And so when you're preaching, my advice is for those who are preaching or teaching to always hold their Bible. I know it sounds like a simple, plain vanilla type of thing, but visually, if you want to give some sense that it's not you who are talking, it's the Word of God that's speaking into people's lives, and communicate with your mouth and communicate visually as well that you're reading and interpreting or explaining the Word of God.

And when you do that, there's a visual cue, just as much as the words that's used very powerfully to make all the difference. So go back here to 1 Timothy again, to 1 Timothy chapter 4. And what does Paul tell Timothy to do in that text. He says in chapter 4, verse 1, now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good but nothing is rejected if it's received with thanksgiving for God made holy by the Word of God and prayer.

For it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer." Well, Paul's telling Timothy there are going to be times in the future where it's going to be a difficult situation in the church because people are going to be lured away from the essence of the gospel and they're going to find themselves, as it were, being devoted to the teachings of demons. And they're going to somehow find that that tickles their ears more than the Word of God. Now Paul goes on to make it clear in 2 Timothy chapter 4 that Timothy is in the midst of that difficulty to preach the Word. So he says in chapter 4 verse 1, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is the judge of living in the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching." So Timothy's authority, Timothy's power, is going to come through the proclamation of the word of God.

And there are going to be a number of results that follow from that. For one, as he rebukes and, or excuse me, as he reproves in the preaching of his word, he'll be, as it were, showing people their faults and their errors. Not so much as a human preacher, but the Word of God is doing that work in a way that a person simply couldn't do. Secondly, there'll be situations that then bring about rebukes in a person's conscience, not because you're doing the rebuking, but the Word of God is doing the rebuking. The Word of God is giving the commands and the orders and showing the faults in thinking in a person's life.

And the word of God is the very tool that's being used in a powerful way to bring them to a change of life. And thirdly, we see this idea of exhorting. It's taking place. And the exhorting is not just because Timothy is an eloquent preacher, or an inspired preacher, or a dramatic preacher, or one who walks all over the pulpit, or one who stands behind it. It's not so much the place or the method so much, it's that he's exhorting and God is using the exhortation from the preaching and in the power of the word to bring encouragement and comfort.

The word in the text here is the word parakaleo. It's the same word that's used in John chapter 14, 15, and 16 to refer to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in the Greek text is the parakletos, the one who brings comfort. And so as you're preaching the Word, the Holy Spirit uses our words and the text of the scripture to bring comfort. And so as you're preaching, teaching, or even reading, it's not so much that you pronounce every Hebrew prophet's name correctly, or that you have every doctrine precisely set, but that it's the Word of God has power in itself through the Holy Spirit.

And that reproves, rebukes, and exhorts. Now notice Paul is encouraging Timothy to preach the word and to actually do this to the best of his ability, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, but the power lies not in him, but in the Word. That's the point I want you to take away from this. Now, also, when it comes to expounding the text, I would encourage you to think about, in some way or another, showing forth in that text of Scripture where it speaks of Christ. Now you might be thinking, well, I could come up with a lot of passages, especially in the Old Testament, where it says nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I may not mention any reference in regard to the Messiah, but I would insist that all of the books of the Old Testament, all 39 of them, speak in some way or another of the Lord Jesus Christ and His coming and His ministry. Right now I'm preaching through the book of Isaiah. It's challenging the socks off of me, because I'm in these passages that are difficult. Right now I'm in chapter 15 through 18, all the woes against Philistia and Tyre and Babylon, and I'm thinking, how am I going to preach Christ in the midst of that? Well I can preach Christ confidently in the midst of that because the text speaks of a day that is to come.

And it's that day that is to come is the arrival of the Messiah. There's a messianic hope all through the prophet of Isaiah. And the people are desperate to find some deliverer in their time of trial during those days prior to Judah being hauled off into captivity. And so I can confidently preach Christ from Isaiah 15, 16, 17, and 18, even though it's all these woes against all these cities. Now Jesus himself has something to say about this, so let's look back in our Bible to Luke chapter 24.

And on his way to Emmaus with two disciples following the resurrection, we see Jesus beginning to talk to these men. And in Luke 24 verse 27, And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now what Scriptures was Jesus referring to here? Obviously the Old Testament. He's thinking of the book of Moses, the law, the Torah.

He's thinking of the Psalms and all the wisdom literature that goes with that. He's thinking of the prophets. Skip ahead a little bit in that same chapter to verse 44 of Luke 24. And we see the testimony of these men as they're reporting back to the disciples in Jerusalem what happened to them and then he said to them these are my words that I spoke with you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And then Jesus, who is standing amongst them, He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem, and you are witness of these things." So you see Jesus referring to the three major headings of the Old Testament, the book of Moses, prophets, Psalms, and they all speak of me, he says.

Now I'm not encouraging you in this sense to say that Jesus Christ is found under every rock of the Old Testament. There are some writers, theologians, pastors, teachers, and so forth over in the past who have made it an art in finding an excessive amount of typology in the Old Testament, so that every single element that they come across in the construction of the temple, or the tabernacle, or every priestly aspect of the garments that they wear somehow related to Christ, and I find myself a little dubious about that. But yet there's an underlying theme and current in the entire Old Testament that speaks of the coming Messiah, that speaks of the fulfillment that people are looking for in their heart. And so in that respect we have the opportunity to proclaim Christ in every passage. If you're wondering how precisely, then certainly you can follow the model that Jesus gives here in Luke 24, or another example would be in John chapter 5 verse 39, where Jesus speaks to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life as if they could worship the book, and that would change their heart.

But Jesus goes on and he says, It is they that bear witness about me, and yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. And so again, from the method of our Lord Jesus, he's seen that all these scriptures speak of him in some way or another, and so we have an obligation to bring Christ into our proclamation of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament. Now if you're wanting some specific helps, here are three books that have helped me. I've read every one of them, and they have been a help. First of all, by Brian Chappell, a book called Christ-Centered Preaching, redeeming the expository sermon by Baker academic and get the second edition and that's a fine book that just for helping those who are preachers to understand how to proclaim Christ in an expository sermon where you're going line by line in the text of Scripture.

Secondly, the man who really pioneered this way of thinking in the last century, Edmund Clowney, professor and president of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He wrote Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. As a young pastor, I heard him lecture out in Los Angeles, California. And it completely changed my preaching when I began to realize that I was proclaiming different passages in the Old Testament that they had something to say about Christ. And it was a wonderful discovery and Clowney was the one who brought it about.

So Preaching Christ in All the Scripture by Crossway. And then a third book by Dennis Johnson, Him We Proclaim, Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures by PNR Publishing. So if you want to go deeper in this, there are three books there that would help you to find out more about how to proclaim Christ in all of Scripture. Now when we preach the text, let us remember that it has in and of itself the power to bring change. So look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17.

A passage that we're all familiar with. But Paul writes saying this, that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." Paul doesn't say to Timothy that you're inspired by God, oh Timothy, that you're the vehicle or the tool or the man of the hour who's going to convert all the nations. No, he says that all scripture is inspired. The word in the text here in Greek is theopneustos, and it means literally breathed out by God. That's why in the English Standard they translate it that way, but the older word inspired is also just as useful.

To show that scripture is different from all other books of antiquity, the Bible is different from all other books that might be considered sacred, that the Bible has in and of itself by the work of the Holy Spirit the ability to pierce down to the inner man and bring conviction and reproof and correction and to teach us and train us. And so Paul speaks of how the scripture is profitable or useful for us. It also can refer to how it's valuable or beneficial. And so the reading of the Word of God and its teaching and proclamation is something that we should always do with a great sense of confidence and knowing that the text makes a difference. Now specifically, what does Paul say it's useful for in this passage?

2 Timothy 3, verse 16. Well first of all, for teaching, the word there is didaskalia. It's where we get our English word didactic teaching. We're familiar with that and that just simply means line by line teaching, orderly proclamation. And so when you teach and preach in such a way, Don't think for a moment, well this is too dry and dusty, no one's going to be able to walk away with anything here.

No, God is going to use that through his spirit to pierce on down. Also, we see that it brings reproof, which means that we not only receive the right things to believe, but we also have corrections that come into our life that keep us from error. Thirdly, it brings correction, or it corrects us from the faults that we have believed, and fourth, it trains us in the way we should go. And so all of these God uses so that the man of God will be competent and equipped for every good work. Now the question oftentimes comes up in the preaching of the Word of God and its teaching.

What about the use of allegories, anecdotes, metaphors, quotations, parables, stories, historical allusions, personal examples, what about all that? Well just from a preacher's point of view I'll give you a couple of tips. First of all, don't let your sermon or your message or your teaching time turn into a situation where it's all about that story or all that message because then again you you lose the power of the Word of God and so you always want to make sure that the illustration is an illustration and nothing more. Also another rule of thumb is if there's any question in your mind as to whether it fits the context, if there's any doubt, leave it out. Far better to go into the pulpit or stand at the podium or teach at your kitchen table without having a fancy illustration or a fun story or something like that because the Word of God is powerful in and of itself.

Thirdly, when you have the opportunity to use family illustrations, and some of you men are going to make an illustration about your family or wife. Don't do that unless you ask them permission first, because if you don't, it's going to cost you when you get home. So if you use an illustration about your daughter, my daughter's right down here, or son or your wife, make sure you talk to them ahead of time and they know exactly what you're going to say because if you don't, you'll be in trouble. Now also in regard to family illustrations, I find that it's fair game to to tell a story about yourself, if it fits the situation, if it's illustrative, if it helps. What about metaphors, parables, allegories, and quotations?

Well, the fact is that the Lord used all of that in the teaching of truth throughout scriptures. The apostle does the same. And so we find plenty of examples of Jesus speaking to them in parables. Parables both make something clear, but they also obscure it from those who don't believe. And so illustrations can help, Or they can cause a person to think about it later.

And so the use of parables, allegories, anecdotes, metaphors, quotations are all used in scripture, and those are fair game as long as we use them in context and they actually help us and don't hinder us. Jesus gives us a parable in Matthew 13 along these lines, a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one a pearl of great value went and sold all he had and he bought it. What's that illustrating? It's illustrating the precious nature of the gospel and how when you finally come to conviction through God's Spirit and his words, it's everything that you want and you're willing to give it up anything to have it in your possession. And so Jesus used parables and illustrations, what the Germans would call a sitz in Leben, or a life situation, something that everyone was familiar with, so that people could have something to hang the truth of scripture on and remember it.

So don't be afraid of using those. Our Lord did, the apostles did, and many, many men in ministry do as well. But make sure that it always is secondary to the text of Scripture. So as you go away today, I hope you'll remember that when it comes to the idea of the gospel for all ages or preaching the gospel in an age-integrated context, that you remember first and foremost to preach to everyone. All the little children, all the old adults, new believers, young believers, unbelievers, preach to everyone.

Secondly, preach with confidence, knowing that God opens the heart. God makes His word clear. Thirdly, preach by expounding the text. Don't just give all your own opinions. Preach the text of Scripture.

Christ is found in every text. The Bible is useful for reproof and correction and training and all of that and the use of all these little stories or illustrations and all that are fine, long as they point to the text. So thank you so much for coming. I'll be glad to take any questions. I'll be standing down here.

I think we're out of time at this point. So thanks for coming today. Let's just give thanks to God. Lord, I pray that you would help all who have heard these words to go away encouraged that they too can proclaim the Word of God in an appropriate setting and be confident that it will do its work. In Jesus' name, amen.

For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. You