[Biblemat] S) PREACHING LIKE PAUL

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  Here is a study from my
files.  Use to the glory of God.

PREACHING LIKE PAUL

     PAUL WAS A GOSPEL PREACHER: -- He preached to chur-
ches.  He preached to non-Christians.  He preached in a wide
variety of settings and circumstances.  He went "everywhere
preaching the Word"  "ready in season and out of season"
(2 Tim. 4:2).  His preaching was "profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness"
(2 Tim. 3:16).  I try to preach like Paul.

     Paul had not always been a gospel preacher.  He had been
religious but before obeying the gospel, he had been a strict
Pharisee, trained in the Jewish religion and zealous for its
teachings and traditions.  That makes it quite interesting to
study his preaching content and methodology among the Gen-
tiles of his day.  Some of them were solidly heathen without
any religious conviction at all.  Others were pagan followers
of false gods.  Perhaps Paul's sermon in the midst of the Are-
opagus (Acts 17:16-34) illustrates the fundamental nature of
his preaching as well as any of his addresses.

HE PREACHED TO HIS AUDIENCE: -- Without fear Paul preac-
hed to the people of Athens.  "He reasoned in the synagogue
with the Jews" and he preached in the marketplace daily "with
those who happened to be there" (vs. 17).  He was not afraid
to confront the deistic and polytheistic Epicureans.  The sup-
erstitious, humanistic Stoic philosophers who believed that
"Fate" causes all things and who called him a "babbler" did
not intimidate him.  There were locals and foreigners there.
There were educated people who only wanted something "new."  And there were 
idlolaters so "opened-minded" that they were willing to have even "an altar 
with this incription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD" (vs. 23).  He had studied them (read their poets, 
Epimenides and Aratus) and he had listened
to what they had to say about their gods and the world.  He
took all of them on and did not hold back in declaring the Truth.

     The sermon at Athens illustrates Paul's point of contact
with his audience: he started from where they were spiritually
He did not begin this sermon with information one would ex-
pect to hear in a synagogue.  He did not start with difficult
points of application that would explain why capital punish-
ment is authorized or how Christians should deal with the war
question.  He did not approach them first with criticisms of
brethren in other places.  If they had been Jews, or already
grounded in Jesus' teaching, or knowledgeable about a dang-
erous false teacher such might have been appropriate.  But
he preached to them what they presently needed and what
they could understand and receive at the time.

HE PREACHED THE TRUE GOD: -- Of course, his audience
was composed of idolaters.  So what they needed was to und-erstand the one 
true God.  Paul was focused on God.  He
preached about the other world, the unseen world of Divine
habitation, not "how to" lessons for the here and now.  Here
is what Paul preached:

     God is the sovereign Creator of all things (Acts 17:24).

     God is infinite and does not dwell in temples made with
      hands (vs. 24).

     God is totally self-existent and self-sufficient (vs. 25).

     God is the omnipotent, omniscient Provider of all good
     things (vss. 25,26).

     The God to serve is the Sustainer of life (vs. 28).

     The God to serve is the Judge who holds all mean account-
     able and will raise all from the dead (vs. 31).

HE PREACHED THE RESURRECTED LORD: -- When some of
the Athenians said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign
gods," it was "because he preached to them Jesus and the 
resurrection (vs. 18).  He said that God would "judge the wor-
ld in righteousnes by the Man whom He has ordained" (vs. 31).  Paul told the 
Corinthians that he had "determined not to
know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him cruci-
fied" (1 Cor. 2:2).  That was true in Athens and everywhere
Paul went.  Our message has to be clear and one-domension-
al in this sense: it must focus on Christ!  Every sermon must
be preached with that in mind.

HE SURRENDERED THE RESULTS TO GOD: -- Although Paul's "spirit was provoked 
within him when he saw that the
city was given over to idols," he had to give his spirit and the
results of his efforts over to God.  The reactions to Paul's
preaching in Athens were the same as they are in cities across America and 
the world.  Some mocked.  Some put it
off.  And some obeyed.  We can expect nothing different when we preach.  We 
must remember that we, like Jesus, are
to be about the Father's business.  It is our business to bring
people to Him.  It is His business to change their hearts and
save them.  ----- C.G. "Colly" Caldwell in Biblical Insights, Vol.
7, No. 4, April 2007.   </HTML>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.biblematters.net/pipermail/biblemat/attachments/20071008/e22de892/attachment.html