A Word in Season: As it is in Truth (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

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What happens when the Word of God is being preached? Well, on one level, there's a human interaction.

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A living man stands before living men and speaks the Word of God to them.

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A congregation of men and women, boys and girls may gather. Perhaps you're preaching in a church building, perhaps you're preaching on the street.

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There are real people who are around you and who are before you and the preacher speaks the

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Word of God to them. But when the Apostle Paul described that transaction in Thessalonica, in 1

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Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, this is how he spoke. For this reason we also thank

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God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the

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Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God which also effectively works in you who believe.

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Now if you tie that in with what happened when Paul came as he describes it in the first chapter, there's no denying that this took place under the operations and influence of the

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Holy Spirit. But here Paul is identifying the disposition that resulted in the hearts of the men and women and children who heard these things.

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He's speaking specifically to the church, those who were captured by what they heard, those in whom the

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Holy Spirit was at work to open their eyes and to open their ears, to see the truth, to hear the truth.

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And what Paul says concerning them is that they received the Word of God, welcoming it not as the

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Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God. In other words, when these men and women heard the truth, when they heard the preaching of God's Word, they recognized that it was not merely a human opinion, they understood that it was not a couple of traveling preachers who were just bringing some novel ideas.

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They realized as they heard it that God was speaking to them through His Word as it was preached by the men who had been sent from Him to bring that Word to the souls of the people.

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And they welcomed it accordingly, and it worked in them as they believed.

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Now, how do we expect the preaching of God's Word to proceed? How do we think of it if we're preaching and teaching that Word?

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Do we come with the expectation that we're just having a chat, that we're just letting people know that God has said certain things?

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Or do we come with the prayerful hope and expectation that as God's Word is spoken, it will not be the voice of a man that is merely heard, but that in and with that the

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Holy Spirit will make people who are listening to us to hear God Himself speaking to them by His Word and Spirit?

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And what's the expectation of those who come to hear? If you are a Christian and you're going to gather to hear

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God's Word being preached, if you can't go but you're going to read a sermon or you're going to listen online, is there any expectation of something more than a mere lecture?

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It's particularly true when we gather together under the Word of God, when it's not just a living man speaking to living men, but it's a living man speaking to living men in the presence of the living

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God in that distinct way where God owns His Word as it is preached to those who are sitting under it.

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Now that can happen in a congregation that's gathered for worship on a Lord's Day or at any other time.

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It can happen when a man is preaching and teaching on the streets. It can happen in some measure when you're having an ordinary conversation with somebody, when you're witnessing or testifying to the

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Word of God. But that's what we ought to be praying for. That's what we ought to be anticipating.

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And that, if we're Christians, is how we ought to be expecting that we should go welcoming what we hear, anticipating, expecting and pleading with God that we and others, as His Word is proclaimed, might not merely hear the

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Word of men, but we might receive it and welcome it as it is in truth the

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Word of God and that it would then effectively work in all those who believe.

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That's a sweet anticipation and that's a great prayer to be able to pray.