“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
When hearing the word “pulpit,” most of us would probably imagine a wooden stand with a preacher behind it. Though many great sermons have been preached from behind such a pulpit, we find in the Word that God chose a different kind of pulpit. God preached His greatest sermon to us through the life of His Son. He began His message in a manger, fulfilled it on the cross, and sealed it in His resurrection.
God spoke to us through the life of our Savior, of whom it is written: “He had no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:2-3). How is it that a man despised and rejected continues to preach a message to all humanity even two-thousand years after His life on earth? It is because His birth, life, death and resurrection are all a demonstration of God’s power.
The same power through which a virgin conceived a child is the same power through which the blind could see and the sick could be well. It is the same power that rose Christ from the dead, and it is the same power that is at work in our lives today. For this reason, the Apostle Paul said: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:4-5).
Now, because the resurrection power of Christ is available to all who call upon His name, God continues to preach His gospel through the lives of is people. Many of us may never stand behind a pulpit to preach a message, but God wants to use our lives to preach His message: “…clearly you are an epistle of Christ…written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). This we pray: through us, oh God…continue to preach the message You began in the manger. Demonstrate Your power in us, and declare Your gospel through our lives!
Read more articles by Jenna Fernandez or search for articles on the same topic or others.
