I miss public worship. I miss singing with the saints. I miss the door creaking open and the same people coming in ten minutes late yet again. I miss hearing God’s Word read, and then hearing the reader say, “This is God’s holy Word,” and then responding, “Thanks be to God!”
I miss so much: professing our faith; reading a corporate confession of sin before hearing words of pardon from God’s Word; inviting people to come to the Table, and then looking each individual in the eye, saying his or her name, and reminding them of what Jesus did for them. I miss pronouncing a benediction and trying to talk to everyone before they leave.
I especially miss preaching in person: looking out at those who have gathered, opening God’s Word, and preaching to them. Zoom is better than nothing, but it’s nowhere near as good as being in person.
It sometimes feels like the Word of God is being isolated along with the rest of us. But it isn’t, because nothing can stop God’s Word.
You Can’t Lock Up God’s Word
Paul wrote a letter to Timothy from prison. Locked up in Rome, expecting to die, Paul senses his preaching days are over. What can he do while locked up in prison?
But Paul knows something about Scripture and it fills him with confidence, even as he’s lost his freedom. “The word of God is not bound!” he writes (2 Timothy 2:9).
Paul was locked up, but he could still preach to the Praetorian guards and members of Caesar’s household. But even when the preacher is silenced, God’s Word continues to spread. The more you try to stop it, the more it seems to do its work. Centuries later, after many attempts to stop it, it still continues to take new ground and capture new hearts.
You can lock up the preacher, whether by prison or by social distancing. But you can never lock up God’s Word. It always runs free. It always accomplishes what God wants it to do.
You can lock up the preacher, whether by prison or by social distancing. But you can never lock up God’s Word.
“God’s Word can no more be chained than God himself,” says Kent Hughes.
The Word of God isn’t bound. It can never be quarantined. It’s still doing its work no matter what happens to the rest of us. Nothing can stop it: not prison, not persecution, and certainly not a virus.
No Constraints on God’s Word
I don’t know how long we won’t be allowed to meet. I feel constrained as a pastor. Easter will seem different this year than any Easters I’ve known before.
I keep seeing signs and reminders to stay home. And I will. But God’s Word is under no such constraint. You can’t stop it. It will continue to spread and do its work this weekend in ways we can imagine and in ways we can’t fathom, because God’s Word is unstoppable.
I’ll be at my computer monitor on Friday and Sunday preaching and longing for more. We’ll be one of millions of churches facing restrictions. But God’s Word will run free. God will accomplish his purposes through his Word this weekend just as he always has for his glory and our eternal good.