GODS REPRESENTATIVES

Excerpt from The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text pp. 4-5 By: Sidney Greidanus

God sent representatives to proclaim His word. An apostle is one who is sent as the fully certified representatives of another. The apostles represented God Himself as they proclaimed His word. During His ministry, Jesus had sent out His disciples, charging them, Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In this commissioning, Jesus made unmistakably clear that the disciples in their preaching represented him and, ultimately, the Father: He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me (Matt. 10:5-7,40). After his resurrection Jesus broadened the mandate: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. But here, too, there was no question as to whom the disciples represented in their mission in the world: Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matt 28:19-20). That the apostles in their preaching represented God is clearly demonstrated by several words the New Testament uses for preachers and preaching. The first word is keryx (herald) and its derivatives. In New Testament times heralds proclaimed publicly the message that was given to them by their master. It is important to note that the message did not originate with the heralds but with their master. In delivering their masters message, therefore, heralds represented their master.1 The same idea comes to expression in the word ambassador. In 2 Cor 5:20 Paul writes of himself and his fellow preachers: So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Ambassadors, of course, do not speak for themselves nor act on their own behalf but speak and act on behalf of their sender. So, says Paul, God himself is making his appeal through us because we, as preachers, are sent by God and represent God; we plead with you on behalf of Christ because we are ambassadors of Christ.

Gods Word Accordingly, the apostles recognize that they speak on behalf of God and, in fact, proclaim the very word of God. Just like the Old Testament prophets, Paul frequently calls his
1

See G. Friedrich, TDNT, III, 687-88. Cf. Furnish, Int 17/1 (1963) 55. Stott elucidates six biblical metaphors of the preacher and concludes: What is immediately notable about these six pictures is their emphasis on the givenness of the message. Preachers are not to invent it; it has been entrusted to them (Between Two Worlds, 135-137).

messages the word of God or the word of the Lord. Perhaps the clearest passage in this respect is Pauls statement to the Thessalonians: And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accept it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God which is at work in you believers (1Thess. 2:13).