What do You Preach?

 

Christ Preaching His Sermon on the Mount, In Which All of the Law and the Prophets are Fulfilled and Completed in the Perfect Law of Christ

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 

- Romans 10:13-14

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West)

I was once asked by a brother on the mission field, "What do you preach?" 

My instant response was, "I preach that Christ is the Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal, incarnated as the Second Adam to right our relationship with God, through his life, teachings, works, sacrifice, descent into Hell, his resurrection from the dead, his appearing to the Apostles, and his ascension into Heaven. In his flesh, we find God and are connected to the source of infinite life, and in his Godhood, the Father is reconciled to us and accepts us as his children. 

"Christ sent the Spirit, also co-equal and co-eternal with God, from the Father on Pentecost to establish the Church and give it life as the Bride and Body of Christ, leading it into all truth. Because of this, the Church has a formal reality greater than the sum of its parts and is called 'the pillar and ground of truth', and is an irreducible part of our salvation. The Spirit does not come out of Christ, but out of God the Father, eternally proceeding just as Christ is eternally born. The Holy Spirit is received at baptism in the Name of the Trinity by the work of God, and he is sealed in the life of the believer in holy chrism by the laying on of hands by a bishop. The bishop can only impart what he himself had received, thus the necessity of an unbroken chain of the laying on of hands. By this token, we know that we have the Spirit and that the practices Christ commanded us to keep, the sacraments of the Church, are effectual and filled with the Holy Spirit. 

St. Augustine of Canterbury Preaching to King Aethelbert and Converting Britain to Christ

"Once the Spirit is present in the believer's life, he calls us to constant works of repentance, confession and good works, which are constantly strengthened by Christ's presence in the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit's presence in our midst. By these works of love, forgiveness, mutual submission, good conversation and repentance in faith, we receive more and more grace and are transformed into the Likeness of Christ. This is the goal of our whole existence, the reason for worship and the anthropology of our creation. It is of God, for God's glory, and not of us. In our sinfulness and fallenness, all we can do is die, to cease from our own work, so that Christ is resurrected in us. This grace is not of works, or we would boast in ourselves. Instead, it is in death, ceasing, not doing, that we allow Christ to be fully manifested in our lives. 

"In submitting to God, God's will is imparted to us and we have the power to live for Christ. We receive God's grace to the extent that we repent and die to ourselves - this is called 'synergy' and 'theosis', but is biblically called 'resurrected in Christ' and the 'newness of life'. Through the Incarnation of Christ made available in the Church, we are partakers in the Divine Nature and become by grace what Christ is by nature - the sons and daughters of God!"

My friend rolled his eyes at my rant and we went back to talking about the weather!

Never forget, preaching the Word of God is a sacramental activity, and we must "preach the word, being instant in season and our of season," trusting that the Holy Spirit will teach us in the very hour what we need it, "so that we may by all means save some." (2 Tim 4:2, Luke 12:12, 1 Corinthians 9:22)

Bl. John Wesley Preaching in Savannah, Georgia, Leading the Anglican Church Back to Repentance and Holiness through Re-Discovering Orthodox Doctrine and Practice

St. John Chrysostom in the Original Hagia Sophia, Preaching Against Imperial Apostasy, Heresy and Idolatry

St. Paul Preaching to the Pagan Athenian Philosophers and Scholars on Mars Hill, Illustrating the Power of the Gospel and the Will of God to Save Both Greeks and Gentiles