Balancing the Supernatural and the Word

So fundamental was the influence of preaching “the Word” in the New testament that Dr Luke described the church in these terms: “The Word of God kept on spreading” Acts 6:7 and “The Word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied” Acts 12:24 and the Word prevailed!” Acts 19:20.  Luke was not talking about the number of people or churches but about the impact of the Word of the Lord.

The Apostles regarded preaching as crucial. They “filled Jerusalem with their doctrine”. When forbidden to speak anymore, they asked the Lord for boldness to open their mouths. When blessed with numerical success they found the growing problems of ministering to so many required them to insist that others look after practical matters so that they could “devote themselves to the Word.”

Even after His resurrection, now complete with a body that could appear and disappear at will, Jesus did not just ‘wow’ His disciples with supernatural signs but opened the scriptures “explaining things concerning Himself” Luke 24:27. This was consistent with His earlier ministry, during which “He saw a large crowd and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” Mark 6:34.

For personal growth we need to maintain a balance of teaching the Word and rich events such as we experienced last weekend.