Intro:
1) One of the things that I love the most in regards to my jobs is training other people. Either at the golf course or at Jamba, I’ve been in charge of training people that we’ve hired. Actually, it starts off with an interview which I conduct and relaying my opinion back to the person in charge. The thought is that I’ll be training these people so I better like them and feel that I can work with them. In any case, I like working with someone with a clean slate, who don’t know anything about the job and where the responsibility falls directly on me in order to train them the proper way.
2) When I train, I tell them to double-check with me just in case anybody else tells them how to do something. I have a sense of ownership and pride in each person that I train. I take it personally if one of my trainees does not work up to expectation. It’s a reflection of me. Now, the point is, the newly hired employees do not know what to do. They will not know until they are told and informed of how to work.
3) In the same way, how would believers, Christians, know what to believe if there was no one to inform us and preach to us?
I. Preach and Believe
1 Corinthians 15:11- “Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”
1) There’s something that happens to me frequently. When I’m driving, if somebody cuts me off or performs an idiotic move on the road, I get angry, just like everybody else. However, every once in awhile, the car that cuts me off ends up having a Jesus fish on it’s bumper or a license plate frame that says “No Jesus No peace, Know Jesus Know peace.” After seeing it, I lose my anger and allow them to slide because they’re apparently believers.
2) My first emotion is to scream at the driver. My second is serenity. I had a situation like this earlier this week. It made me think. How am I supposed to act like? Am I supposed to be irritated because of the inconsideration of someone? Or am I supposed to pardon them because they’re fellow believers? Then another question came across me. How do I know how I’m supposed to act?
3) We have the Bible and it tells us how we should act. The Bible presents to us the standard, tells us how to behave, act, and tells us the rights and wrongs. We have it there. Everybody has it there. And yet there are so few that follow it. We read it and it goes right over our heads. We never seem to take it seriously. And it never hits us hard even when we’ve read the same passage over and over again.
4) There are people in the world that can read the Bible, feel convicted, and have a profound effect. But unless we hear somebody explain it to us, scold us, and make it relative to us, we don’t really allow it to sink in. The efficiency of another person’s voice, understanding, and relativity of the Bible to everyday life is incomparable and the Apostle Paul realized that.
5) Let’s take a look at the verb “preach.” The verb means “to proclaim or make known,” specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t a generic preaching. It was specific. It was the preaching of the truth, things that could not be denied. Too often, preachers in this world preach things that are not true, that are of the wrong theology. But the apostle Paul stated here that when he or any of the other apostles preach, they preach the truth, not heresy.
6) The verb “preach” is in the present tense which indicates that all the apostles from Peter to Paul continued to preach. They preached the same truth and didn’t stop until God decided to take them home. There was an importance to the apostle’s preaching. There could be writings. There was evidence. But all the apostles knew the importance of getting up and sharing the Gospel with the people. Even Christ knew it, thus giving us the great commission.
7) The Apostles knew that they could not just leave it alone and feel that the world would come to the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection on their own. Yes, the Lord could work that way. But He also chooses to use us. The Apostle’s realized that the Lord had given them a ministry to work in. That ministry was to preach and share the gospel so that others would believe.
8) Let’s take a look at the verb “believe.” The church in
9) I’m not trying to take anything from the Bible. I’m not saying that preachers are the most important part of a ministry, especially since preachers preach from the Bible. The Lord doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need us to prove to people that He actually died and rose again from the dead. If the Lord wanted to, He can just force everyone to believe. But that wouldn’t be love. The point is, the apostle’s preached, Paul preached, Peter preached, Timothy preached, hundreds of thousands of people down throughout history have preached. They’ve been used by God. Preacher’s today are used by God. It’s just a different dynamic when we hear somebody talking and presenting to us the Word of God and it’s relevance in our lives.
1) Don’t leave here saying that preachers are more important than the Word of God, because that’s not what I’m saying. When preachers preach, hopefully they’re still preaching from what the Bible says. When the apostle’s preached, they preached the truth, which is what the Bible is. God works in that way. Through word of mouth, through witnessing, many people have come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.
2) When people preach, people believe. As long as people preach, and preach the gospel and the truth of the word of God, people will believe. As long as people witness, people will believe. Once again, we don’t have to be formal preacher or pastor or bishop or seminary student to share the truth of God. All we have to do is open our mouths.
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