Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 21

21 January 2020

Text: Rom 10:1-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul wants people to be saved – that is, saved from sin, from the devil, and from hell.  He is dedicated to doing what he can to rescue people from alienation from God, from not living to their true human potential as God designed them to be.  And so he lays out how it all works: the ordo salutis, the order of salvation.

If you want this salvation, you must “call on the name of the Lord.” 

But how does a person get to this point?  What would prompt someone to seek divine help?  Well, first such people must have some kind of belief in God.  The apostle asks: “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?”  And where does this belief come from?  Well, people need to hear about God, about the order of salvation, about the good news itself, about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For, as he says, “How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?”

And so to be saved, one must call on the Lord.  To call on the Lord, one must believe.  To believe, one must hear.  And to hear, one must have someone to speak something to be heard, as St. Paul puts it: “How are they to hear without someone preaching?”  And so, St. Paul argues that we need preachers to have salvation.  But then the apostle takes this regression analysis a step further: where do preachers come from?  Or as the holy apostle asks: “How are they to preach unless they are sent?” 

Preachers are sent, dear friends.  They do not send themselves.  Rather, Jesus Himself calls them and sends them.  The Greek word for “to send” is ἀποστέλλω (apostello).  When Jesus chose a specific group of men from his disciples and made them apostles, He sent them out to baptize and teach, Jesus was sending them, armed with the powerful Word of God, the message of the Gospel – so that people might hear, believe, call upon the Lord, and be saved.

And so the Church continues to operate on Christ’s instruction to prayerfully send men out.  Those who have received the gift of preaching and teaching are also charged with giving this gift – the Lord’s gift – to other men.  For like the old Eastern adage: “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears, does it make a sound?”  Well, makes a sound objectively, but the sound is not heard subjectively.

And so even though Jesus objectively died for the sins of the whole world, all of the people in the world need to subjectively hear, they need the preached Word, so that they might believe, and call upon the Lord, and be saved.  It is the Word that saves, not the preacher, and yet the preacher is the Lord’s chosen instrument to deliver the Word.  We need pastors, dear friends.  Why?  Because they preach the Word!  It is the Church’s job to listen to those who preach.  It is the Church’s job to support seminaries, and encourage those who prepare for the holy ministry.  It is the Church’s job to support their pastors and most of all, to hear them.

For “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.