By Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
When the Word of God goes forth, the believers are built up, the saints are strengthened, the elect are edified.
When I arrived on site today for a lunch-hour evangelism outing, a brother from our local church was already open air preaching. I grabbed two gospel signs and faced them back-to-back and then held them up high so all who walked and drove by could quickly see that we were all about Jesus Christ! Not that long after, my brother who was heralding mentioned the security and preserving power of Jesus Christ toward His people. Ah! What food for my soul! What balm for my spirit! O how I needed in that moment to be reminded of the glorious theology of the preservation of the saints and the keeping power of our Sovereign! Then, he went on to talk about coming to Jesus and being made righteous In Him. Oh to fill my heart with such truths every hour! God blessed my soul through the heralding of His Word in such timely, providential and public ways! The open air preaching of the gospel serves to glorify God, preach the gospel by sowing the seed, and save the lost. But one huge benefit of open air preaching consists in the edification that it brings to the believers who are there and who hear the Word preached! What a blessing to be under the Word! How riveting to hear the Bible preached and to hear Christ extolled. I thank the Lord that we gathered today to preach the gospel on the streets of our city. We prayed for God to save souls. We prayed for eternal destinies to be altered today as hellbound sinners would hear the gospel, respond, and trust Christ alone by submitting to Him. But also, I’m thankful that I was there next to the preacher, holding up gospel signs, and warmly edified through the open air preaching of the gospel of Christ. Praise the LORD.
Christian, when you walk by and hear a faithful open air preacher extolling Christ and summoning passers-by to trust Him alone for salvation, pause for a moment and thank the Lord for the public proclamation of the saving gospel.
