How Jesus’s Glory Drives Creative Communication

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:05.000 | Pastor John, you once said in a message, "Everything I write is to try and find a way to say the

00:00:09.840 | obvious in a way that will make people bolt awake and come alive in Jesus."

00:00:15.080 | Explain that for us.

00:00:16.760 | Obviously this awakening is the work of the Holy Spirit, but what role does creative language

00:00:19.980 | play as a means of awakening sinners?

00:00:24.120 | I have been wrestling with that question for years and years.

00:00:26.960 | I did a talk, "Is There Christian Eloquence?"

00:00:30.080 | I think it was in 2006 or something at one of our national conferences.

00:00:35.040 | The recent thing that I did on Herbert is related to that.

00:00:37.880 | I'm always thinking as a preacher and a writer, "Does my language make any difference?"

00:00:43.960 | Because clearly the Bible teaches, "I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth."

00:00:52.720 | That is the decisive growth giver, or Ephesians 2.5, "God made us alive when we were dead."

00:01:00.680 | Dead men are not impressed by vocabulary.

00:01:04.440 | God raises the dead, and they're not raised by my poetic effort.

00:01:13.160 | In 1 Peter 1.23, we are born not of perishable seed, but imperishable through the Word of

00:01:24.000 | God.

00:01:25.000 | The perishable seed is the Holy Spirit.

00:01:28.200 | He does the beginning, and the instrument is the Word of God, which verse 25 says is

00:01:33.720 | the gospel, which we preach.

00:01:37.040 | Jesus said in John 3, "The wind blows where it wills."

00:01:40.520 | We don't know where it comes from, where it's going.

00:01:42.520 | So are all who are born of the Spirit.

00:01:45.160 | So the message of the Bible is God raises the dead.

00:01:49.400 | God causes people to be born again, and it is not decisively our instrumentality.

00:01:56.220 | So the question is really urgent for me, because should I draw the conclusion?

00:02:02.600 | Well, since God can save people through bad grammar, and He can save people through flat

00:02:08.280 | demeanor, and He can save people through prosaic speech, and heavily accented English, or German,

00:02:16.840 | or whatever language people are hearing the gospel in, and He can do it through faulty

00:02:23.560 | exegesis and lopsided presentations, and hypocritical preachers even.

00:02:29.840 | I mean, God can save people just about any way He wants, provided the rudiments of the

00:02:36.000 | gospel get through to people.

00:02:38.000 | Should I just draw the conclusion?

00:02:39.000 | Well, okay, sorah, sorah, don't teach preaching, and don't make any effort to say anything

00:02:43.600 | in a creative or impactful way.

00:02:46.600 | And here's my best shot now.

00:02:49.680 | Okay, so I keep working on this, trying to find ways to say it and live it that are biblical.

00:02:57.320 | I don't think language is a matter of indifference in the matter of bringing people to Christ

00:03:03.160 | or sanctifying people in Christ.

00:03:06.280 | But the two things I would say is, one, we should avoid efforts to preempt the work of

00:03:13.760 | the Holy Spirit by our language.

00:03:16.680 | And that language may be sloppy intentionally, it may be casual intentionally, it may be

00:03:22.840 | artsy intentionally, or literary, or refined.

00:03:26.280 | Any effort, whether you're talking low culture or high culture, to try to manipulate people

00:03:32.360 | by your language, preempt the Holy Spirit, get them saved through your design, we should

00:03:37.360 | abominate that, throw that away.

00:03:39.840 | There should be a feel about our praying and our preaching that says, "This man is not

00:03:45.360 | presuming that his words save sinners, that God saves sinners and uses his words."

00:03:53.640 | Which secondly, then, implies for me this.

00:03:57.640 | The Holy Spirit is sent into the world, according to John 14, to glorify Jesus Christ.

00:04:05.120 | So the Holy Spirit is going to open the eyes of the blind in order for them to see Jesus,

00:04:11.640 | which means my words should be portraying the Jesus that the Holy Spirit wants people

00:04:18.960 | to see when he raises them from the dead, or he might not raise them from the dead and

00:04:22.960 | give them eyes to see because there's nothing there true to see.

00:04:26.320 | Which means my words are a portrait in front of people which is somehow worthy of Jesus,

00:04:35.120 | and the Holy Spirit says, "Oh, I like that portrait.

00:04:38.000 | I will now grant this person the eyes to see that portrait."

00:04:43.440 | And then if I ask myself, "Okay, what is it about Jesus that I should portray?"

00:04:47.440 | Well, he's true, and he's beautiful, and he's stunning, and he's amazing, and he's

00:04:53.840 | something which says something about the kind of descriptions I want to make of him.

00:04:58.520 | So that's my reason for giving effort, like you just read to me in that question about

00:05:07.760 | trying to bring people bold, awake, by saying something striking.

00:05:13.680 | All I mean by that is Jesus really is striking.

00:05:17.360 | Jesus really is amazing.

00:05:19.080 | Jesus really is worthy of the most wonderful or the most surprising ways of describing

00:05:25.480 | him truly, and the Holy Spirit regularly honors that effort by opening the eyes of the blind

00:05:34.560 | to see a truly described Jesus.

00:05:38.120 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:05:40.160 | You will find those messages referenced earlier in this podcast at DesiringGod.org.

00:05:44.720 | The messages are titled, "Is There Christian Eloquence?

00:05:47.960 | Other Words and the Wonder of the Cross," and the other message is titled, "Saying

00:05:51.640 | Beautifully as a Way of Seeing Beauty, the Life of George Herbert and His Poetic Effort."

00:05:56.280 | Thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:05:58.160 | Please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:06:01.080 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:06:02.840 | Thanks for listening.

00:06:03.580 | [END]

00:06:04.080 | Ask Pastor John for a free podcast.

00:06:06.560 | [PODCAST]

00:06:08.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Jesus’s Glory Drives Creative Communication

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