Latest / The Daily Word / March 17 – Not by Persuasion, but by Power
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Hey, good morning, everyone. This is Gil Dearman, and I'm the senior pastor here at Lakeshore. once again, let me welcome you to the Daily Word podcast, where we're just taking a little time to share something that stood out to us from our daily Bible reading. At Lakeshore, we're using the Life Journal reading schedule and comes with the SOAP method, scripture, observation, application, and prayer. And we're just using that to connect our spiritual family and all of our campuses around. these scriptures. And on the daily word, we're focusing on the New Testament portion. And so today that highlights 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and the verses that stood out to me were verses 4 and 5. But before I share it with God, I want to give you a little background for 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that will kind of help you understand and appreciate not only what was in Paul's mind as he wrote this particular part of the letter, but what was in my mind as I was reading it this morning. So Paul wrote 1 Corinthians chapter 2 right after preaching to a stadium full of prominent intellectual leaders in Athens, Greece. In fact, you can find that whole story in Acts chapter 17, kind of the back half of the chapter. But for time's sake, let me just pull a few highlights that just seem relevant to ⁓ what I'm going to share this morning. ⁓ So again, seeing the opportunity to preach the gospel in Athens. Paul gives this masterful sermon to a packed out audience of ⁓ philosophers in the great amphitheater at Mars Hill. And the reason all these philosophers came and packed out the stadium was they had been hearing about this strange new concept or theory, or we would probably call it a doctrine, that was buzzing around in their circles regarding the resurrection of the dead. So Paul gets there and once ⁓ you the event comes to an order and he's given the floor. From a cultural standpoint, Paul literally just knocked it out of the park and did everything right. Verse 23 says that he began by honoring their culture and capturing their attention because he used a kind of a really popular, well-known, ⁓ unnamed idol from their city as the centerpiece of his message. Then in verse 28, he quotes their poets and their philosophers proving that he was a man of education, a man of learning, and he was kind of worthy of their attention. And then from an academic or an intellectual standpoint, his message was brilliant. And in fact, it's earned the applause of every seminary and school of theology and ministerial professor as ⁓ just an example. for anyone who wants to invade a new culture or a subculture, whether you're talking about something local or just going to the farthest reaches of the planet here. But what's interesting is in verses 32 through 34, the chapter closes with this kind of a summation. After delivering this master class lecture or sermon, the Bible tells us that some people just made fun of him. And again, these were intelligent people and he presented a very intelligent, structured outline. Other people marginalized, even patronized him, saying, hey, good talk, Paul. Maybe I'll come back and we can talk more sometime. And then there were a small group of people who became believers from that. Well, that's kind of the backstory of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Again, my verses were four and five, but let me just begin reading at verse number one and it'll kind of give us the flow. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, starting in verse 1, Paul writes, Now here's my two verses. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Well, that was my scripture. Here's my observation. Although some people have narrowly interpreted these verses as Paul instructing believers that we should only talk about the crucifixion of Jesus. when we consider the practicality of what Paul had just experienced while walking on the road from Athens to Corinth, possibly pondering his last message, maybe even asking himself out loud, what just happened? I had their attention. They seemed like they were tracking with me. So why weren't there more people like in the book of Acts chapter two that were cut to the heart asking how can we be saved? And even if they didn't believe the message, How could they mock me? How could they marginalize me after such a ⁓ thorough, a masterful presentation of the Gospel? So it seems that as Paul was pondering these kinds of questions, he came to a conclusion. And here is the conclusion. While there's nothing wrong with skillful communication, with cultural relevance, with intellectual wisdom, Paul determined, I will never ever again rely on those kinds of things to accomplish spiritual results. And the reason I come to that conclusion because when I read verse four and five, in verse four he said, speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom. Well, the word persuasive in the Greek is pythos, which literally means to persuade or to entice or to convince, but it carries the notion of sweet talking someone into believing something or taking some type of action. So not deceiving them, but just putting together such an intelligent and a smooth message that it was easy for them to swallow it hook, line, and sinker. But not only that, but Paul said that he wasn't going to use persuasive words of human wisdom. And the word wisdom is the Greek word Sophia, which refers to the wisdom that is attained naturally. And even though that wisdom is highly honored in society and academia and intellectual circles, and the Bible's really clear, that kind of wisdom is completely insufficient. to ⁓ activate the power of God that's needed when you're preaching the gospel. So having concluded that his ministry in Athens was kind of a best effort but a futile attempt to sweet talk or to convince these Athenian philosophers into faith, Paul finishes by declaring this, this is the back half of verse four, he said, but I'm gonna come in a demonstration of spirit and in power. Verse five. so that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So the word demonstration is this Greek word, apodeiknumei, and it literally means to display or to show off, but to do these things in a way that indisputably ⁓ authenticates or proves or guarantees that the facts or the message that you're stating is absolutely true. And he says, I'm going to do this in the power of God. This is the Greek word dunamis. And it's where we get the word dynamite, but it describes something that is dynamic. ⁓ So in other words, in this context, the dynamism or the explosiveness that he's talking about is referring to the idea of this internal strength that happens in the person, the hearer's heart that suddenly erupts and enables them. to have the faith and the courage to make a decision and to see these transformational changes. Well, that brings me to my application, and here's what I wrote, just practically speaking. Paul's not suggesting that I only share the portion of the gospel that touches on Jesus' death on the cross, nor is he saying that I shouldn't be intentional to share Jesus and the gospel in a clear and a structured way that can be easily understood. Instead, Paul's emphasizing that I should recognize and always rely on the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to confirm the message and convince the hearers that God's Word is true. In fact, this is exactly what Jesus said in Mark 16 when he calls his followers to the Great Commission and included in the call he promised them five authenticating signs that would follow every single believer who steps out in faith. to bring the gospel to people that need to hear it. Well, that leads me to my prayer then, and as my kind of custom, I'm gonna broaden it to include you in case some of this resonates and you just wanna agree, and this can be your prayer as well, but here's my prayer. Holy Spirit, thank you for reminding us of this truth again. And forgive us if and where we've ever made the mistake of taking on the pressure and trying to sweet talk people into believing. the word of God or to accepting Jesus in our own efforts. ⁓ Help us to rely on you to empower them to experience that so that transformation can come from the power of God and not from our thoughts or our communication. And finally, Holy Spirit, would you embolden us to step out in sharing our faith? Would you help us to catch the message and to begin to articulate things that we need to? and we promise that we'll trust you for the results. We thank you for all of this in Jesus' name, amen.