What is it that makes preaching truly powerful? Is it the speaker's knowledge, or his eloquence, his passion, his sense of humour? Today on Truth for Life weekend, Alastair Begg draws from the Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians to help us understand what Paul relied on as he took the gospel message to crowds that were often unwelcoming. I did not come into Corinth, he said, and try and dance your tune. I didn't come in and play your game.
I didn't come in and set up my stall and stand on my box and go at it the way you like it. I decided I wasn't doing it. And furthermore, he said, not only did I not use Logos, but I didn't use Sophos. I didn't use Sophia. I didn't use the wisdom that they like.
What did he carry with him?
Well, you'll find that in verse 3. What did he check? He checked three things: weakness. Fear and much trembling. Not exactly what you would call impressive.
You think? When it says that he was there in fear, do you think he was frightened to preach? No, he was preaching all the time. Do you think he was trying to get his head chopped off? No, he'd already decided he was going to get his head chopped off.
Do you think he was afraid of what people say? Get real. Everybody had said everything. There was nothing more for them to say. What was he afraid of?
I'll tell you what he was afraid of. He was afraid of the fact that when he looked at himself and saw how impoverished he was, when he looked at people and saw how great their need was, and when he looked at God and saw the calling he'd been given, he was afraid that he would intrude upon the proclamation in such a way that folks would be attached to him and would miss what God was saying. That's what he was afraid of. That's what ought to make a preacher fearful. And that is why he dumped the bags.
Because he knew that if he gave them what they wanted, they may buy it at that price. And having bought it at that discounted level, it would be an irrelevancy to them. as they face the future.
So here he is. He's run down. He's a sorry sight. He's not the kind of individual that you expect to put face to face with people who admired strength. And creativity and oratory and philosophy.
Can you imagine introducing him to a group of people at the prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C.? We bring the president and we bring all the powerful and the mighty.
Well, let's rethink that. They're not that powerful at economics, so we would want to change that. They're not that powerful at moral transformation, so we would want to change that. Frankly, they are not that powerful at all, they just think they are. And we bring all these presumptuous people.
Who, because of their high estimation of themselves, believe that the only person they would ever be prepared to listen to is someone who is very powerful, very mighty. very eloquent and very wise. And in we trot this little converted Jew who can neither stand up straight. nor chooses to take them on at their own game. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.
The Apostle Paul. People have said, away with this wee character. He's not the kind of thing we like. Give us what we want. And Paul faced the challenge in his day, and we face the challenge in the day.
The culture cries out, give us what we want. And the challenge of the scriptures is whether we're going to give. what the Bible says they need. That was his manner. What of his message?
What of his message? Well, he tells us. He said that he made a resolve. The word is actually an important word.
Some have suggested that his resolve is unique to Corinth. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except this, as opposed to other places. And those of you who are Bible students over the years know that one of the classic interpretations is that he moves from Acts 17 where he's been in Athens and he's been quoting poets and quoting the Beatles and quoting all those people, the first century Beatles and quoting literature and doing all that stuff. And there hasn't been that great of a response to the gospel apparently.
So he decides to bag that as an approach and he comes into Corinth and he says, now I'm resolving to do it differently. I think that's an absolutely crazy interpretation of the Bible. I don't believe that he was doing anything differently except employing the methodology that is a distinction between when you walk down to a group of fishermen by the coast in the northeast of Scotland and you seek to engage them in conversation, you're going to approach them in a very different way than you're going to engage a group of people in conversation down on Coventry Avenue in the Heights. If you're smart, you are at any rate. You tailor your approach.
And that's exactly what he was doing. When he goes into Athens, he employs a strategy for Athens. He says these guys are intellects, so he goes at their level. And he quotes their poets. But he doesn't rely upon that as his strategy.
It's merely a door of opportunity. The difficulty comes when the door of opportunity that we create by means of our methodology transcends our message. The only reason he swung the door open was so that he could say the same thing in Athens as he was saying in Corinth. What was he saying? He was proclaiming the testimony of God.
And the NIV says testimony about God is really the testimony of God. It was God's testimony. God imparted it to his witnesses, and his witnesses were to impart it as he'd given it. It wasn't to be tampered with, it wasn't to be altered, embellished, it wasn't to be fiddled with with oratory and worldly wisdom. What was the testimony of God from heaven when he looked down?
this is what he said seeing his son in his baptism this is my beloved son Listen to him. That was the testimony of God. Listen to Jesus. That's still the testimony of God. Therefore, those of us who have the responsibility, which falls to all who are in Christ, of proclaiming the testimony of God, we don't need to be in any doubt about what it is.
We're to say to men and women, this is Jesus, listen to him. And when we get to the essence of who and what Jesus is, we bang right up against this phrase, Jesus Christ and him crucified. It wasn't, you see, that Paul just slipped into this. He made a decision. The word resolve, ekrina.
means to decide or to determine to employ our will to an eventuality. And he said, I resolved to know nothing. You see, it's in the mind that we channel the resources to change the will. And he won the battle in his mind. He thought it through, and he said, No, I won't do that, I will do this.
If we don't change in our minds, Romans 12:1, we'll never change in our lives.
So, as he sat and thought it out, he thought it out and said, No, I'm not going to do that. I know that's what they like. I know that's what they want to hear. I know that'll draw a crowd, I know it'll be influential, I know they'll go home happy, but I'm not going to do it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to proclaim this message Jesus and him crucified.
I refuse to play the game. I refuse to get involved in exciting speculation. I'm going to stick with the program. Jesus said that I was to bear his name before the Gentiles, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to bear his name.
Now he says in verse 4 that neither the message he proclaimed nor the way in which he did so were marked by words that were wise and persuasive. This does not mean that he was foolish and unpersuasive. In fact, in Acts chapter 18 and verse 4, it says that he wrestled around the synagogue and he tried to persuade the Greeks and the Jews of his message.
So, what does it mean that his preaching was not with wise and persuasive words? It doesn't mean either that he just gave them the message in a kind of take it or leave it approach. Rather, what he's saying is this, in his message, And in his preaching, He displayed nothing. that was calculated to impress and capture. Do you realize how challenging that is?
If you're going to be a preacher of the gospel, Do you realize how everything in you militates against that strategy? Everything in you as you approach the 700th Sunday of your life, or whatever else it is. As you come again to the same task, everything in you is saying, Capture them. Grab them. Use this.
Read Zieg Ziegler. Get smart. You can't just keep doing that sin thing. You just can't keep going, this is the Bible, believe the Bible, trust in Christ, follow Christ. You can't do that.
You're going to have to do more than that. These people won't hang around for that stuff. Paul says no. I decided that I wouldn't go for that. He was going to rely on what God would do, not on what he might accomplish, because he's already made it very plain and he will return to it and underline it in verse 14 of the chapter: that the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned.
Do you understand what that verse is saying? It's saying that you bring your people to the guest service and they don't give a rip about the message of the gospel, they don't understand it, they don't appreciate it, and anything they grab about it, they think it's total foolishness.
So what are you relying on? The ability of a man to package it in such a way that will break down their resistance. A line of approach An angle? A clever presentation. A natural talent.
A skillful erosion of the mind of man so that we may achieve what the Bible says is unachievable. Is that it? See, this is why Paul was at this. He said the only way that anything ever happens is when the Spirit of God does these things. And that's why he succeeded.
In spite of his poor condition physically, In spite of his strange methodology, He succeeded for the very reason that he was throwing aside all human help and relying upon divine assistance. That's what we need in this pulpit, and that's what we need in every pulpit. We must have men who are relying solely on divine assistance. We cannot have men who are relying on their ability. They will preach in vain, and people will listen in vain, and congregations will pray in vain because God will not share His glory with anybody else.
So, if the man comes to the pulpit and he says, I've got a good one this morning, boy, I'll go at them and I'll show them and I'll do this and I'll do that. God says chur turn off channel three or whatever it is. It's more nonsense again. More self-self. If a congregation begins to focus on an individual and say, boy, is that the guy who can talk?
Boy, here's the preacher. Boy, we'll have this person come and that person come. And then they'll listen to him. Nothing, nothing will happen. That is of eternal significance.
It can happen. It's destined not to happen. And that is exactly why Paul did what he did. Don't you think he could have jammed every amphitheater in Corinth? Don't you think that he could have shut down the Acropolis?
Don't you think, I mean the Temple of Diana, don't you think that he could have arranged all kinds of marches in the streets? Of course he could. But he didn't. And the question for your mind this morning is this, is this an incident of historical significance? Or is this a description?
of eternal validity. In other words, is this Descriptive. Or is it Prescriptive. Are we supposed to be doing what he's doing? The statement in verse 4 incidentally does not mean that Paul and his preaching displayed spirit and power.
When it says that he didn't have wise and persuasive words, but he had a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, as it says in the King James Version, what does that mean? It does not mean that in his preaching He displayed spirit and power. in the way that I can get worked up or get excited or something and people say, whoa, you know, that spirit. Whoa, that's power. No it's not, that's personality.
That's all it is. God may choose to clothe it with power, but this is personality. This is who I am. I get worked up like this. I'm sorry.
But worked up is not spirit and power. And quiet is not an absence of spirit and power.
So it was not that he disdained wise and persuasive words, but was spirit and power. But rather it was that in his leaving aside of all the skillful oratory of the day, in his leaving aside of the human wisdom, in his standing there in apparent weakness, and in his communicating the truth of Jesus Christ and him crucified, the Spirit of God made a demonstration in the hearts of men and women. That's where the demonstration takes place. It's not a demonstration made by the preacher. It is a demonstration that nobody sees.
It is a demonstration in the heart of man.
So somebody goes out from this auditorium they get in their car and they cannot shake the scripture They cannot evade the conviction. Who's doing that? The Spirit of God's doing that. Does it matter who said it? Not at all.
Does it matter how they said it? Not ultimately. It matters that they said it in such a way that the Spirit of God said, Here is a message that I can drive home to the heart of an individual.
So we don't want to look for some kind of style as an indication of strength and power. We want to look for the eventuality of people's lives being transformed by the gospel. Where's the demonstration of spirit and power? Change lives. Reconciled husbands and wives, people coming from darkness into light, people who are enslaved by habits being liberated, people who are standing up and proclaiming, this Jesus is the Christ.
My life has changed. But it doesn't matter who proclaimed it, it doesn't matter who shared it, it doesn't matter how they did it, it doesn't matter if they're loud or they're quiet or they're good or they're funny or they're long or they're short. It only matters that we have the kind of preaching that God by His Spirit can own. And without that this is the most Horrible. Triviality.
For all concerned. Loved ones, I need you to pray to this end. Those of you who are committed members in this congregation, I need you to pray to this end. Lest we fall down on the wrong side of this equation. and congratulate ourselves.
and missed the point. Completely. Persuasive words, you see, can never accomplish what God by His Spirit is only able to do. The world is great at persuasion. It accomplishes nothing in the end.
Now let me finish just with a word here in verse 5. His manner was not eloquence and superior wisdom, it was actually weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. His message hasn't changed. The testimony of God, Jesus Christ and him crucified, a testimony which will bring with it a demonstration of the Spirit's power, not that people can look at it and say, there it is, but in the transformation of life. Why did he do this?
What was his motivation? It's very clear. He says, I did this for an express purpose, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom. Because men's wisdom changes all the time. And if he simply communicated the wisdom of man, And the Corinthians had embraced man's wisdom.
Then the Corinthians would fall foul of the next person who came along who was wiser than Paul before. And so he says, I didn't take that approach because I recognize that your faith, if you were to be stabilized and energized, must rest on the changeless grace of God himself. And so he seeks. to minister in such a way that his listeners may have their face resting solidly upon God's power. You see, loved ones, this morning, only, as I say, God's power can take an indifferent and rebellious heart and transform it.
Only God's power can do that. Man can take religious ideas. And communicate them in such a way as to show the pragmatic validity of them to men and women. Men and women can understand the pragmatic notions of faith. can decide that they like that.
can commit themselves to a religious journey. and remain completely unchanged by the power of God. And there are some in our congregation, and that is exactly you. You came along to this church, and this is exactly where you are. You decided that church ought to have a place in your life for whatever reason.
The Spirit of God is at work within your heart and says, Come on, let's get serious.
So you began to get serious. You've come along. And you decided that there is a measure of pragmatism in what's being said. After all, it gives a peace of mind, and I like peace of mind. After all, it gives me a sense of equilibrium in my week, and I like that.
After all, it kind of reinforces family, and I'm American, and I think family is important. And it also says to me, you know, there's purpose out there.
So embracing the validity of all of that, you have decided, of your own volition, to commit yourself to a religious journey, and you're on it. But here's the problem. When you started the journey, You are a dreadful swearer, and you swear just as much as you ever did. When you started the journey, you were a liar and you lie as much as you ever did. When you began the pilgrimage, your life was full of bitterness and of envy and of hate and of rebellion and of guilt and you're still the exact same as you ever were.
And you know it. And you're troubled by it. And I'm here to tell you what the answer is. You have simply recognized the wisdom that is contained in a way of life. But you have never come to learn in Jesus that way.
to life.
So your faith this morning is vacuous. It is resting on man's wisdom. And preaching such as that that I've just outlined. may continue to help you to walk that walk. And to talk that talk, and may lead you into the very pit of hell.
And that is why Paul took the approach he took. That is why he trembled at the prospect of it. He trembled at the thought. that men and women could so miss the point under his ministry as to embrace the shell. and miss the substance.
and go on their journey. continually lost. What does this say? About the approach that we take to things as well in terms of what we do here in the church. I think it says that we may be as imaginative and creative as we can be in creating a door of opportunity.
But once we open the door of opportunity, we dare not modify the gospel. to make it more acceptable to our hearers. Paul, in these verses, offers no leeway to those of us who are tempted to eliminate parts of the gospel in an endeavor to attract and reach more. than we might if we told them the whole story. Because after all Have a gospel.
produces half a Christian. and half a Christian. is no Christian at all. What are you this morning? You're half a Christian.
Almost there. Present in your seat. committed to the ideology. interested in the benefits that it brings. That is not it, loved ones.
So that your faith may not rest on men's wisdom, but on the transforming power of the Spirit. of God. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alastair Begg. Alastair returns in just a moment to close today's program. If you are looking for an encouraging book to kick off your fall reading, let me recommend a book written by nineteenth century hymn writer and pastor Horatius It's titled The Story of Grace, an Exhibition of God's Love.
This is a unique book that reads like a story, as Moner brilliantly navigates you through the sweeping narrative of God's patience and goodness towards sinners. He begins in Genesis and then methodically unpacks the events from creation to the fall to the finished work of Christ on the cross. Event by event, he focuses on God's divine love and mercy. This is a book that really plumbs the depths of how God graciously rescues, redeems, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies from the beginning of time to the very end described in the book of Revelation. You can find out more about the book The Story of Grace when you visit our website at truthforlife.org.
Now here's Alastair with the closing prayer. Right where we sit this morning, God calls for a response in our hearts. These messages produce crossroads for us all, decisions to be made. Resolution to face convictions regarding life and faith and family and ministry. I don't know what God might choose to do in your heart, but you do and God does.
Are you a Christian this morning? Are you transformed by the power of the Spirit? Are you just coming along with your mom and dad, and you like it a bit, and you're not sure? And God is speaking to you these weeks. And you go away, you get in the car and you try to turn the radio on and think about something else, change your mind.
Don't do that. Just where you sit this morning, acknowledge what is really the case: that you're lost and you need Christ. That you're empty. Just where you sit, cry out to him, cast yourself upon his mercy. And those of us who are in Christ, and her attempted to play the game.
God forgive us, change us. Silence my tongue, Lord, for once and for all. Where there is violation of the very things that we're wrestling with this morning. Shut the ministry down rather than let us rob you of your glory or deny your name or congratulate ourselves and talk about who we are. Father, Help us today, we pray.
That we might live to the praise of your glory. And may the grace which draws us To yourself, and may the love which fills our lives and flows from us, and may the peace which guards and keeps our hearts and minds. Rest upon and remain with each one who believes. Today And all the days of our lives and then for evermore. Amen.
Thanks for studying God's Word with us today. Have you ever thought about what your legacy will be?
Next weekend we'll consider this sobering thought as we examine the Apostle Paul's remembrances of individuals who were either helpful or destructive to his ministry. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
