One of the greatest cautions for any pastor, myself included, is to understand that we are not God! By this I mean that we must never become angry or frustrated because people don’t respond to the Gospel … or better still, they don’t respond to the Gospel the way we want them to.
One of the biggest lessons any preacher or Bible Teacher can learn is that all he is, is a messenger. His task is to craft a message, that is as accurate as he can produce, reflecting the true meaning of the passage he is expounding. He must deliver the messenger efficiently and understandably so that people can believe it. Once he has done this, his task is completed!
From then onwards, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the after-preacher and He works in the heart and conscience. Sometimes His work is rejected and spurned. Sometimes His work is pushed aside but what He does remains for later use. At other times His work is received, accepted and souls come to faith in Jesus Christ. The preacher must only do his work. He is not the Holy Spirit. God does not call him to do this part of the work. Declaring the Truth as best as possible is his task and there it stops … apart from prayer.
1) A follow up meeting. The Jewish Leaders in Rome decided to meet with Paul on a second occasion, where they brought more Jews with them.
Ac 28:23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
The following five issues are ones each person seeking to convince people of the authenticity of the Gospel ought to use.
(2) The whole day. Paul started teaching / preaching early in the morning and continued to the evening. This does not mean he spoke all the time. It would be common practice to teach and have questions or comments. A point is made and there are questions about the subject matter presented. This could go back and forth for a while. We don’t do this in a Church Service, for preaching is proclamation … “thus says the Lord!” But where there is a causal teaching forum, such as a Bible Study or Sunday School class, questions ought to be normal because it is through such interaction that the best learning takes place.
In Paul’s context a whole day was possible. In our case, in the days we exist, a whole day would be impractical unless it was on a Saturday or Sunday. The point however is that time is required. Too often there are what could be termed … “hit and run teaching”. This is to offload as much as possible within the briefest time. The problem with this is that people cannot digest such bulk teaching. Time is required to think, process, understand and where necessary ask questions. Those who know me will remember me saying … “I don’t mind how long we take, Jesus is not coming tomorrow.” By this I meant that I was prepared to go slowly so that everyone had a fair opportunity to grasp, thinking through to understand the material we covered. Pastors and elders (as well as Sunday School Teachers and Home Group Leaders) need to understand that the Church setting is not a seminary!
(2) Testifying. This word seems to cover both “explained and declared” and means two things.
(i) Expounding the Old Testament passage used. This means unpacking the truth of the text.
(ii) Attesting the truth. Proving the truth of the text through application.
At times we get these two wrong. The explanation or exposition is fundamental because it literally means declaring what the text is saying according to the original language. If one gets this wrong, one cannot even seek to apply the text to the hearers. Paul was well versed which enabled him to be a master at exposing the truth of a passage and then driving it home through application.
(3) New Order. This is the meaning of “the kingdom of God”. It ought not to be something unheard of before because the Old Testament (God) repeatedly speaks of a change that will be coming. God never said the animal sacrificing and the Levitical priesthood would be permanent. He never said the physical temple and the Holy of Holies would be forever. He promised a new order
Isa 43:18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing!
The New Testament supports this:
Rev 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
God promised a Messiah King and He fulfilled this promise in Jesus Christ. He is the King of God’s Kingdom!
(4) Seeking to cause belief. Luke tells us that Paul … “tried to convince them about Jesus”. All Paul’s teaching, expounding and proving had one aim in mind … to convince! This term means “to cause belief in something.” Not that he could persuade or convince them personally … but everything he said was geared towards his hearers clearly understanding the Scriptural passage he used so that the Holy Spirit could work.
Here again we see the importance of preachers presenting God’s Word to people in such manner that the Holy Spirit can take and apply it to the conscience of the hearers. Some are motivational speakers, others entertainers and still other mumble jumblers causing confusion. Sadly, all preachers have such tendencies! Few have the ability to craft messages that when delivered, hit a home run because the Holy Spirit is able to guide what has been said directly to the heart of the hearer.
Building a sermon is hard work. It does not come easy. It takes many hours of prayer and studying the text. This is followed by word study and reading commentaries. Then the preacher will take all the volumes of notes he had written and sift through them to understand the text … to get the central message of the verse or passage before crafting an outline to build upon. Naturally, his introduction and application are equally important.
This is where you and I come in. We need to be in prayer for the preacher each week. We need to lift him up to the Lord asking for help in preparation. Then we need to be praying for ourselves (the hearers), that our hearts will be soft and sensitive and that our minds will be ready to absorb and that as the Spirit comes upon our preacher to expound, so He will come upon us to hear in our souls with understanding and with a willingness to put into practice what we hear.
(5) Their Scriptures. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. Although Paul was an apostle. Although he had personal encounters with the risen Lord Jesus Christ … and although he preached the Gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection … he did not preach without substance! He used … the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. If he could preach the Gospel from the Old Testament, so can you and I!
The point however is, we do not preach what we want to. We don’t make up stories or tell people God told us things not in the Bible. We don’t say we had a dream or a vision where we were given something from God to declare to our hearers. No! Like Paul, everything we say must be from the Scriptures. Failure here is failure to preach the Word of God and will result in cultic teaching. The verse we looked at today is important. We have to get our preaching, teaching and witnessing right … and right means it must flow from the pages of Scripture.
Our Father, keep us true to Your Word for we know Your Word is Truth. We also know that the Truth shall set people free from their captivity to sin and the evil one. May Your Word be anointed in our pulpits. Amen.