I have two children (8, 20 months) and I was blessed to be in the delivery room during both of their births. The event is indescribable and to truly understand it one has to experience it. There is an excitement, an electricity in the room in anticipation of what is about to happen — we will witness the entrance of a new life on planet Earth. Sometimes the experience is scary and almost violent, sometimes it is smooth and quick as in my youngest daughter’s case. (Of course, I can only speak to the experience as a man sees it, not the mother). Birth is in and of itself a special miracle. One minute, there are 3 of us in the family, the next minute, there are 4. A new life emerges from the depths of a mother’s womb and we see someone we did not see just minutes or seconds before.
The preaching of the gospel affords us as believers an opportunity to witness the greatest miracle ever to take place — the new birth. God’s delivery room may be the church sanctuary on Sunday morning, the inside of a car while listening to an audio sermon, the living room floor while reading a book, etc. Regardless of the place, wherever the preaching of the gospel is present, there is an excitement in the air causing us as believers to wonder, “who is God going to save today?”
Peter says:
23 since you have been born again, e not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through f the living and abiding word of God; 24 for
g “All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 h but the word of the Lord remains forever.”And this word i is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, ESV)
The new birth comes through the word of God. It alone has the power to open blinded eyes and darkened hearts. This is not the same as the “talks” that are taking place in many churches on Sunday morning. This is not the 17 minute “talk” that is immediately practical, but never eternally helpful. This “word of God” is the preaching of the gospel — it is the heart of Christianity. It is “good news” because it makes it possible for lost mankind under holy wrath to be reconciled to God through the substitutionary death of His Son, His treasure, Jesus Christ.
Paul says in Romans:
13 For t “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him u of whom they have never heard? [3] And how are they to hear v without someone preaching? (Romans 10:13-14, ESV)
There is no greater experience as a Christian than to be in a service where the gospel is being preached and looking around thinking, “wow, God is going to save someone today. Today, a new name will be written down in glory.”
May we all become “preachers” of the gospel and take “God’s delivery room” with us everywhere we go!