Confident Proclamation

Psalm 138; Isaiah 6:1-10; 1st Corinthians 15:1-10

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

04 February 2007

A generation ago ours was a different society. We lived in a Bible Belt world, where Christianity could be taken as a matter of course. Christianity was the only real major on the religious market. Even Hollywood portrayed Christianity as the assumed world religious framework. We sent missionaries around the world to proclaim the gospel among people who lived in a very different world with different answers, questions, and perceptions on spirituality. Our proclamation of the gospel had confidence because it was essentially unchallenged by our society. In our new pluralistic religious context, can we still proclaim faith in Christ Jesus with confidence? Do we confidently recognize the value of the good news sustaining our lives?

The psalmist’s words sound strange to our ears. We expect the Bible to speak with one voice of Yahweh as the only god. The New International Version recognizes the disparity between the Hebrew text and what we expect to find, placing the term “gods” in quotes. The translators appear almost afraid to translate the text as given. In our fervor to proclaim to the world that there is but one God, Creator of life and universe, we forget that this truth was not always understood by Yahweh’s chosen nation. Even serving Yahweh as the only God for Israel was a work in progress over centuries.

We are more comfortable with the Judaism of Jesus’ day, where we find more blanket acceptance that the gods of the nations are nothing more than idols. It is more uncomfortable to remember that idolatry was alive and well in Israel and Judah prior to the exile. It was in this context of conflicted allegiance to Yahweh as one among other supposed deities that the psalmist penned these words. While worship of Yahweh had not taken hold, the psalmist declares Yahweh’s supremacy above all other gods. His experience of Yahweh’s provision at a time of need brought understanding of the true greatness of Yahweh above all others.

The psalmist’s confident proclamation strikes dissonance before a people who did not give full allegiance to the God of Israel. His may have been words that fit the official theology of the religious structure, but they did not fit the reality of national worship. His experience of Yahweh’s care granted confidence to proclaim Yahweh’s sufficiency before a people unsure of the value of the covenant. How does the worth of the gospel change our message to the world?

The Baptist World Alliance made the world aware this week of the arrest of nine Baptist pastors attending a leadership conference in Zimbabwe. In working for peace, justice, and the proclamation of the gospel, these pastors placed their lives and liberty in jeopardy. They recognized that the gospel makes demands upon our commitment. They recognized the value of the good news they claim—a worth worthy of assuming personal risk. Will the world know of our faith in Christ? Will we share the confidence of these pastors to proclaim the worth of the gospel message?

Isaiah’s call required that he stand against idolatry all around. The nation of Yahweh was led by a king in a series of monarchs abandoning Yahweh for the Ba’als of neighboring peoples. It was because of this idolatry and abandonment of confidence in Yahweh that exile loomed large on the horizon. Against this backdrop Isaiah heard a call to become the mouthpiece of Yahweh. He lived amid a people called to be holy, yet who lived in sinful abandonment of the covenant. Isaiah was called to confidence in Yahweh before a nation abandoning God for a host of foreign idols. His was likewise a message for the nation to renew confidence in Yahweh’s faithfulness before opposition. Are we confident that God will enable us to share His word in a world of uncertainty?

It is a simple thing to be confident in a room of others who profess the same faith and assurance. It is easy to speak with one voice among others who hold the same views. What about sharing our views among those who disagree with our positions? Isaiah’s stand did not earn him great popularity. Isaiah’s faithfulness did not earn him power and position before the authorities. Isaiah’s fulfillment of God’s call on his life did not earn him the kind of recognition the world yearns to achieve. Though his message was not what the people wanted to hear, they understood that he spoke faithfully for Yahweh. They knew he did not advance his own interests, but faithfully reported a more important message than his own.

Isaiah’s confident stand was perhaps more important than any barrage of words. He was not silent, but neither do we find him assaulting people with his message. He lived as the mouthpiece of Yahweh, announcing Yahweh’s words in Yahweh’s time. He was at times reticent to share God’s message, yet he was faithful to speak as God enabled and directed. Do our lives exude that quality of confidence in God, serving as faithful mouthpieces for the gospel? When have we last shared our faith with others in unassuming confidence?

Paul’s words to the believers did not find easy acceptance in the larger community. While Paul called Corinthian believers to confidence in the gospel, the larger community lived in idolatry and rejection of the message of Christ Jesus. People did not believe in invisible deities. They believed the gods to be little more than extra-powerful humans subject to our passions, emotions, and whims. It was a jump to accept that God had single-handedly created the world and called us to fellowship. Paul’s claim of the gospel’s essence is that Christ died over our sins, was buried, then rose again to life on the third day. Such a claim seemed ludicrous to the masses in Corinth. Even so, Paul calls believers to proclaim the gospel with the same confidence Paul had employed.

I have heard all manner of claims by people. I have heard new age philosophies proclaimed as new-found truth. I have heard agnosticism, atheism, spiritism, Buddhism, and Hinduism professed as the guiding principle of one’s life and faith. I have heard cult members zealously defending Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness positions. I have heard Christians professing one or another stream of doctrine and theology. They voices that have called with the most compelling strength have not been the loudest. The most compelling have been those voices exhibiting the assuring confidence of a life wholly placed in submission to the faith proclaimed.

The psalmist’s confidence speaks of a change of heart and life. Isaiah’s confident message took over the direction of his words and actions. Paul’s confident faith turned his life upside-down in a way that did not advance any cause for his own advancement, but the advancement of the gospel alone. His confidence was a faith he could live—a reality that worked into and through both actions and words.

Can God count us as faithful witnesses to Christ Jesus? Will our lives proclaim a message of confidence in the gospel, such that others come to question the foundation of our faith? The world needs reassurance and confidence. The world does not need yelling and haranguing. The world does not need words of faith on attack. The world needs the peace and confident assurance that God entered the world to bring us into fellowship with Him who died that we might live. What message do our lives proclaim?

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin