When God speaks through the messenger

God’s Voice in Our Voices: The Heart of Reconciliation

The Preacher or the witness for God should always strive to have God speaking through him. The scriptures are Gods word, and when the preacher or the witness gives Gods word, we can trust it is Gods will being declared to us. But there is something more to this than just quoting scripture.

The Preacher and the witness must have the presence and activity of the Holy Spirits presence, if his words are going to have effect

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The Apostles quoted scripture, they spoke as the oracles of God, but the Holy Spirit was present in their preaching

1 Peter 4:10–11 NIV

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.

Paul understood the difference between human wisdom and preaching with the Spirit’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:1–4 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

We need dependence on God, to be effective witnesses.

Acts 2:37 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

This morning we looked at the necessity of the Preacher himself , first being a partaker of his own message before preaching to others. how much more effective that is.

2 Corinthians 5:18 ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

Notice the order in which this is given, 1. He reconciled us to Himself. 2. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

1. God is the first mover. He then moves us

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 NIV

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

John—That You May Believe A Life of Service is a Difficult Life (vv. 18–19)

The love of Christ so controlled them that they no longer lived for themselves but for Christ alone. The word translated “compels” sometimes describes one who is “pressed in spirit” (

Acts 18:5 KJV 1900

And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

The Greek word underlying “compels” carries the sense of being “gripped” or “hemmed in.” The word sometimes describes one who is “pressed in spirit,” sometimes the tight hold that men keep on a prisoner, with the idea of being “gripped” or “hemmed in.” Yet this constraint produces not resentment but liberation. Like high, solid rocks that constrain a river, Christ’s love gives believers unusual depth since their devotion is held in, significant drive because they are constrained, and direction as they are guided toward purpose

The result is not begrudging obedience but joyful reorientation toward the One whose love has gripped the believer’s entire existence.

2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

This entrustment does not diminish divine agency but rather extends it. Through human proclamation God makes his appeal, with reconciliation and its administration through a human message forming part of a single, complex act—a working together of God and creatures, not in the sense of a joint venture dividing tasks, but in the sense that God himself completes his own work by entrusting it to creaturely ministers. The messenger becomes the vessel through which God’s own appeal reaches humanity.

God making His appeal through us. Imploring on behalf of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God’s appeal through believers operates through the present tense of proclamation—his Word is not frozen in history but remains living and active. Through his servants, God communicates the message of reconciliation and pleads with people to accept it in faith, with this appeal going forth continually, especially when God’s Word is proclaimed.

The mechanism involves a substitution of voices. Although believers are faithful mouthpieces, God himself is pleading with people to obey his voice1. God makes appeals to sinners through sinners he has already saved—he appeals through us. This doesn’t mean the messenger disappears; rather, believers function like mailmen delivering important letters, carrier pigeons with a precious message, or witnesses testifying about what they’ve seen

Critically, this appeal addresses a paradox: while reconciliation has been accomplished already through Christ, the reconciling process remains incomplete in another sense—the preaching of reconciliation must be carried out and people must hear the call to be reconciled to God, for unless they respond they cannot experience the reconciliation

God made the first move and expects humanity to make the second—God calls, but expects an answer; God provides reconciliation, but wants it accepted.

The words of God’s messengers go forth with power as Spirit-inspired proclamation flows through them, followed by signs and wonders. The appeal happens through ordinary speech empowered by the Spirit, transforming human words into the vehicle of divine summons.

4. The great exchange. The divine transference

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.