One Sunday Evening

The Apostle Paul had some extraordinary gifts. He cast out demons (Acts 16:18), healed a man crippled from birth (Acts 14:8-9), resurrected a young man who had fallen from a third-story window, and blinded the eyes of the sorcerer, Elymas.

In Ephesus, Paul’s “powers” were particularly astonishing. Acts 19:11-12 reads, “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” Wow!

Paul was prolific in the gift of tongues (I Corinthians 14:18). His endurance in suffering was exemplary (2 Corinthians 11:22-30). On the island of Malta, he miraculously survived the bite of a venomous snake, to the surprise of the shocked natives!

But there was something Paul could not do: open the hearts of the spiritually blind. While the “signs of an apostle were accomplished among [the Corinthians] with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds,” regeneration and faith were a product of something quite ordinary.

Isn’t it fascinating that, despite all the miracles Jesus and the Apostles performed, it was the Word preached that truly changed lives? “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). We are born again by “incorruptible seed,” writes Peter, “through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 2:23).

The preaching and teaching of the word of God is one of the “ordinary means” of grace. It is the medium by which souls are brought to faith in Christ, and it is the regular sustenance for every Christian who wants to grow in faith (see 1 Peter 2:2).

We could put it this way: the greatest miracle of all is accomplished through the simplest of means. The irony was not lost on Paul. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

This is taught in Keach’s Catechism (a Baptist catechism commissioned in 1693):
 

Especially the preaching! The ordinary, weekly, verse-by-verse exposition of the Scriptures brings men, women, boys, and girls to faith, then contributes to their lifetime of growth in grace and obedience.

There was nothing special about the Sunday evening in 1992 when I gave my life to the Lord. Same old church building. Same pews. One of fifty or so services, just like it, that year. My pastor preached a message from God’s Word, as was his habit. My eyes were opened. I was convicted of sin. And I gave my life to the Lord later that evening.

I’ve heard a similar testimony countless times. Thank God for ordinary means.