THE PREACHER’S TASK
(Ordination or Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 40:9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings! &c.
This chapter commences the second part of Isaiah’s prophecies, in which the local and national is less prominent than in the former, and the visions are carried forward to the time of Messiah. The prophet hears voices, each of which contains a message of consolation. The first bids him announce the coming of the King and command the preparation of His way; the second affirms the everlasting duration of the Lord’s Word; the third calls attention to the fact of His coming.
The third is our text. It is differently rendered in the margin. “O thou that tellest good tidings unto Zion; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem.” This version is adopted in Handel’s Oratorio. It is generally preferred. It makes Zion and Jerusalem the recipients of the good tidings along with the cities of Judah.
God’s strong hand would terminate the long Babylonian captivity, and lead His people back, as a shepherd leads his flock. But beyond this is the great salvation the Messiah would accomplish. The call is addressed to those whose business is to proclaim that salvation. Their occupation is described; their challenge is dictated; their methods are prescribed; their sphere is defined.
I. THEIR OCCUPATION IS DESCRIBED.
They are evangelists: tellers of good tidings—a suitable description of the preachers of the Gospel, and their work. The Gospel contains the good news men need. The world lies in ruin. It is sick. It has no power of recuperation. Its disease produces a fatal unwillingness to be cured, if only its consequences may be escaped. The preacher is charged with the good news that the disease can be cured, its consequences averted, the dislike of recovery removed. God’s love in Christ is the essence of the news (John 3:16-17). If it came to you for the first time, you would say it was the most astonishing statement possible. It involves the whole work of Christ. It involves the proclamation of God’s readiness to forgive and cleans the sinner. It is salvation.
Whoever makes this known to any one previously ignorant of it i an evangelist—a teller of good tiding—a preacher of the Gospel. Conventionally this name is given to a professional class. There are many reasons for the existence of such a class. But serious loss is sustained, if the preaching of the Gospel is confined to them. Others should also preach. Parents, Sunday-school teachers, friends in conversation, letters, visitors of the ignorant and neglected, distributors of tracts and books. Every man who has heard and believed the glad tidings should himself be an evangeliser. Every Christian is such a man. He has not heard a secret, but a glorious truth which he is to proclaim.
II. THEIR CHALLENGE IS DICTATED.
The announcement of the glad tidings of salvation does not terminate in itself. It is proclaimed with a view to action. “Behold your God.” Hence the Gospel is a manifestation of God and a summons to man.
1. A manifestation of God. He is the Author of the salvation, the Doer of the great and gracious things announced. When surveying a manufactory and its machinery, your thoughts turn to the manufacturer and the engineer. Going over a hospital, you think of the benevolence of the man by whom it was built and endowed. Studying the heavens and the earth, you think of their Maker’s power and skill. So when you think of the Gospel, think of God. It is the medium through which He is best known. His full manifestation waited for the incarnation of His Son (H. E. I. 855–857). “The world by wisdom knew not God.” That was true of the ancient world. It is true still. Men think and dream about God. But they do not know Him until they come in humility to the Cross. It reveals His holiness and His love. It shows Him righteous, yet delighting in mercy. And this representation of Him has ever been most effective in the reclamation of the heathen from idolatry. Judaism was comparatively uninfluential. When Christianity arose, the idols fell (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). The overthrow of ancient idolatry was the work of two or three hundred years. Modern heathenism is falling in like manner before the manifestation of God in Christ as the redeeming God.
2. A summons to man. “Behold your God!” This is the action required on the part of those to whom the Gospel is addressed. Men must not turn away from the manifestation of God. If a prince were to show himself in an impoverished part of his dominions for the purpose of relieving the people’s wants, would indifference become them? Would they not look to him? This is the look the Gospel demands. Behold Him with the eye of faith. When you carry the Gospel to others, call upon them thus to behold Him. If there are those here who are not saved, we call on you thus to behold Him. As the Israelites, when bitten by the serpents, were told to look to the serpent of brass, we tell you to look to Jesus (John 1:29; Isaiah 45:22). Helpless and ruined without Him, we proclaim salvation by Him, and call upon you to look and live.
III. THEIR METHODS ARE PRESCRIBED.
1. For the message they must endeavour to secure publicity. “Get thee up into the high mountain,” where you can be seen and heard. Go where the people are; seek the centres of population; avail yourselves of all circumstances to attract attention.
2. The message must be delivered with energy. “Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up.” As if you believed in it, realised its importance, sympathised with its gladness. Bring into the announcement the vigour of mind and body that is born of earnestness.
3. The message must be proclaimed with courage. “Be not afraid.” Fearless preaching carries authority and weight. The Gospel has never wanted men of such courage. And it is displayed. Recent offer of Christian young men in South Sea island to take the place of the teachers massacred in New Guinea.
IV. THEIR SPHERE IS DEFINED.
“Zion, Jerusalem, the cities of Judah.” Every one must have a definite work. It will gradually expand from nearest relations and friends to neighbours, our country, the world.
Tell it, brethren, because—
1. It is time.
2. It is needed.
3. Its proclamation is commanded.
4. Success is assured.
5. Faithful service will be rewarded.—J. Rawlinson.