Arriving at teen camp a few summers back, I was greeted by one of the pastors who had brought his teenagers for the week. “Brother Goetsch,” he said, “we have a fine young man in our group whose family is Jewish. The parents are nice but steeped in Judaism. They allow their son to come to some of our activities at the church because he is friends with our teens at the high school. We are so excited that they have allowed him to come to camp with us!”
That night in the service I noticed that this fifteen-year-old was attentive to everything going on, especially during the message. On Tuesday night, God led me to preach on the cross and I went into explicit detail of Christ’s sufferings as He bore our sin. I quoted entire passages such as Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and John 19. During the invitation, Chris immediately made his way to the back where his pastor met him, took him outside, and led him to Christ. It was exciting to hear of his salvation, but I did not get a chance to speak with him that evening.
As we gathered for chapel the following morning, Chris came to where I was seated and said, “Mr. Goetsch, I got saved last night!” I relayed that I had heard about it and was very happy for him. A thoughtful expression came over his countenance. He said, “You know, I went to see the movie The Passion of Christ.” (I have never seen that film but am told it is quite graphic in its depiction of the crucifixion.) “That movie really didn’t do anything for me,” Chris continued. “But when you quoted those Scriptures last night about the same event, it touched my heart, and I knew that I wanted Jesus to be my Savior.”
No matter how creative we are, there is nothing in our ministries more powerful than God’s Word. Too often we go to great effort and expense to draw people to church, only to be satisfied that we had a good crowd. Unfortunately, we can have increased attendance, awesome fellowship, fulfilling activity, and emotional excitement while not achieving the ultimate goal—changed lives through the power of the gospel.
As we celebrate thirty years of “training laborers for His harvest” at West Coast Baptist College, we as a faculty constantly remind ourselves—and remind the students we train—that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). God’s Word carries with it the power of the Author of those words who can guide that truth to the heart of the hearer. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). In fact, God’s Word can work even when our greatest plans and efforts fall short. “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:28–29).
Even when we may wonder if we are really getting through as we preach, teach, counsel, or witness, we have a promise from God: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10–11).
It was a Sunday morning and the start of a week of meetings. The Lord was leading me to open the revival with what I have called “The Scripture Sermon.” It’s a message that is entirely God’s Word. No references are given, nor is there an introduction or conclusion. It’s simply verse after verse walking the audience through the fall of man, the promises of a Messiah, the birth and life of Christ, His crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and concluding with the judgment for Christians and the Great White Throne judgment for sinners, with their eternal destiny being in Heaven or Hell. It is about forty-five minutes in length and includes around two hundred verses or passages.
A man in his mid twenties sat halfway back on my left, right on the aisle. He was a professing Christian, from what I was told, but only came occasionally. His lifestyle did not evidence a born-again experience, but he professed to be a Christian. I noticed early in the message that he was fidgeting in his seat and was looking down or away. Halfway through, he stood up and bolted for the back. As he left, I was troubled in my spirit, sensing that I had lost his interest and my opportunity to see God work in his life. When he reached the lobby, a godly usher sitting near the front door went to him and asked, “Can I help you?” With the tears beginning to course down his face he said, “I can’t take any more of that—I’ve got to get saved!” The usher sat down with him, opened his Bible, and led him to Christ.
When I am asked to sign someone’s Bible, beneath my signature, I write 2 Timothy 4:1–8. I chose that passage for my signature over fifty years ago and have never signed my name with any other verse or passage since. I doubt that many people look it up, but I don’t write it for them—I write it for me. It is a reminder of my calling and the only thing that truly changes people’s lives. Verse 2 says plainly: “Preach the word.” Preaching anything other than God’s Word is not true preaching. It may be interesting and entertaining, but it is only God’s Word that changes lives eternally.
As a college student in 1973, I served a summer internship at the Woodcrest Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pastor Clarke Poorman was a wonderful preacher, and I took the internship, in part, because I wanted to hear him preach for the next three months. One day, he asked me to teach the junior high Sunday school class the following Sunday. God had called me to preach the week before, but I had never taken a class on preaching and had never spoken publicly. When Sunday came, I went to the classroom and to my horror, the pastor had sent his wife to the classroom to hear me. As I stumbled my way through the message, I was sure she would tell me it was the worst thing she had ever heard.
As those teens made their way out, Mrs. Poorman approached me with her purse in one hand and her Bible in the other. She smiled and said, “John, that was good.” I figured “good” meant perhaps a B- at least. I said, “Mrs. Poorman, I don’t know where your husband gets all his sermons!” She looked me in the eye, held her Bible out in front of me, and said, “They’re all in here.” To this day, I have never received better advice.
