1Cor2s1
Effective Preaching
11/12/06 CC/AM
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
(1 Cor. # 4)
Introduction: Have you ever considered becoming a preacher? Many of you have probably never considered it but perhaps a few of you have wrestled with that question at some point in your life. If you have ruled it out or never even considered it, what might be the reasons that you would give? How many of you might answer:
a. I can’t get up in front of others
b. If I could get up in front of others I wouldn’t know what to say
c. I am not academically trained for the position
d. I have not gotten any kind of special invitation from God
e. All of the above
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians there was some dissention going on because those in the church were identifying themselves as being followers of those who were well known in the ministry. Instead of realizing how the ministries of these me complemented each other they were making a competition out of it. Human reasoning had began to replace the pure message of the Gospel and the church was in danger of becoming a powerless organization. Paul takes the opportunity to bring them back to ground zero as he explains the centrality of the mystery of God.
This passage can be a great help to us not only when we are evaluating preaching but also when we are living out the great commission of sharing our faith. We to can be effective preachers!
Prayer/Text
1. What it is not:
a. It is not based on oratory skills.
Paul explains that he did not come using fancy words nor was he an impressive speaker from the human standpoint. He probably did not have a real good repertoire of funny pulpit jokes to tell. He probably did not simply read a verse and then tell stories for the rest of the service. He didn’t try to capture the audience through some spell binding story that was developed through the latest communication techniques to manipulate them to a response.
Actually those who heard Paul speak and did not respond to his message could not understand what the draw with him was at all.
2 Corinthians 10:10 NASB95 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”
For us to be effective as preachers of the Gospel it is not necessary that we be great communicators.
b. It is not based in human intellect
Paul also told them that he did not come with some deep intellectual teaching that only the smart people could understand as the message. The roots of this message were not based upon the wisdom of man, in fact as we looked at last week, the message of the Gospel makes no sense at all to those who rely upon human logic!
Paul is not saying in verse 2 that he was some kind of ignoramus. That of course is what some people think of Christians, that you must have some kind of handicap if you believe in a God whom you cannot see.
Paul was a highly educated man. What he is saying is that in all of that education he did not find the answers to life until Jesus Christ educated him on the road to Damascus when he came face to face with the Savior!
If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior then you have all the education that is needed to begin to preach the good news! Salvation did not come from man being smart enough to figure things out. It is the result of God doing all the figuring and the work. What man must do is to respond in belief.
c. It is not based on man’s courage
From reading verse three we might be surprised to learn that Paul had any weakness or fear when it came to preaching! We are sometimes guilty of thinking that those in ministry are not like the rest of us! We look at the super heroes of the faith and we just know that they are a whole lot different than us. (When I say us, I realize that some would not include me in the us, that pastors are not really the same as other human beings!)
A pastor friend of mine, actually he is a college president now, told me that he used to get sick every Sunday morning and lose his breakfast before he went up to preach because he was so nervous it made him sick!
Paul said that he could relate to the fear that the Corinthians expressed because he had experience it too. The difference was that he did not allow the fear and his own weakness stop him.
Neither should we! And we really don’t have that much to fear. We are not likely to be killed for opening our mouth and sharing the gospel! We don’t have to be brave, be scared but open your mouth anyway!
Can you imagine standing with God when the dead are judged and saying when they are condemned to hell, “I was afraid what you might have thought about me”?
d. It is not based on good sales techniques
Paul calls it persuasive words of wisdom. Some communicators are able to elicit a response from a crowd because they are good at sales. I would say that the secret to being good at sales is all about passion. If you are passionate about something and it can be anything, eventually other will try it just to find out what the attraction is!
Those good at sales are normally good at heading off and dispelling objections. When I was in sales, briefly, I found out how that worked. People had common objections for why they didn’t want to buy the product that I was selling. When I did a presentation with a flip chart on the back side of the chart was a list of their possible objections and the answers that I was to give to make them feel more comfortable with their purchase. It worked, and people bought the product.
Paul says this, I didn’t try to talk you into the message that you accepted, I simply shared it and you responded.
Sometimes we don’t witness because we think we will mess up the sale and it is best left to the “professionals”.
Trans: Remember it is not about us at all. It is not about how good we talk, about how smart we are, about how courageous we are or how good a salesperson we are. Paul reminds us that it was not about him and neither is it about us!
2. What it is:
a. It is revealing the mystery
Paul says that it is about sharing the mystery of God. A “mystery” was something that had not been revealed that now has been made known. In the Old Testament although the birth, life, death, and resurrection of a savior is found, the revelation of the Messiah is made in Jesus Christ.
Paul desire was to publicly make know to all that he possibly could that what one had been a mystery had now been fulfilled and was ready to be realized by all.
We are to be revealers of the mystery too!
b. It is a focused message
Paul was more of an evangelist than a pastor. He was a church planting missionary who went from place to place preaching the message of the cross.
Some of us pastors have been known to repeat ourselves. I want to take this opportunity to thank this congregation for you patience and understanding when I repeat myself. Having multiple services even makes it more of a challenge. Did I say this before? Was it at this church? Was it in this service? One of the nice things about having short pastorates, is that you can just rotate your messages. Of course if you stay somewhere long enough, the people will have Alzheimer’s right along with you and so you can use the same material each week!
Paul preached the same thing a lot! He preached Jesus the Messiah and Him crucified! He also taught doctrines and church polity but his favorite theme was the gospel.
That should be our favorite as well. How can it not be? We were lost without hope and God made the way through His Son for us to be restored to Him forever! There is no greater message. It should be our passion to share it!
Some churches today, even evangelical ones, can get all wrapped up into messages that might be fine but it is not the most important one! Some issues surface that become the central focus of the church and replace the gospel. It is easy to lose focus.
c. It is authenticated by the Spirit of God
Paul wanted the people to understand that his messages were not done as a performance but rather as a demonstration of the Spirit of God.
Their lives had been changed not because Paul had made some kind of enticing message but because it was the truth even though it made no sense to some.
Lives are changed when the Spirit of God takes control. People were leaving the darkness that is in the world and coming to the glorious light of the gospel as the Spirit of God had compelled them.
It was not about man’s efforts it is all about God. It is His plan. It is effective. It is the only thing that works!
God’s Spirit is still striving with men to change their lives today. What a marvelous thing it is to see when people surrender their lives to the Lord.
One day His message with be completely authenticated when He comes again and fulfills the remainder of His promises. For most, their realization of who He is will be too late. There is an urgency to reveal the mystery!
d. It is faith based and God powered
Our faith does not rest on the wisdom of men. It was not designed by man who is flawed in his reasoning’s, tainted by sinfulness.
Man even when he legitimately tries to do what is best falls short.
God’s plan is one of faith. He asks us to trust in something that we cannot experience with our human senses. That is what make s it faith. Man asks us to respond in faith that he is right and we do so each and every day. To put our faith in man is a very shaky proposition. God is the only one where I am willing to place my faith when it comes to the destiny of my soul.
When we put our faith in Christ we are trusting in the power of God! There is no better location.
We are called upon to share our faith. The power to transform a life rests with God. The pressure is off of us. To be an effective preacher we simply have to share the powerful words of the Almighty God. He will do the rest!
Conclusion: If you know Christ today it is because someone shared with you the simple message of the gospel and you responded in belief to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Our passion should be to make that message known to as many people as possible. Is that your focus as an individual? Is that our focus in this ministry?
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NASB95)
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
