Using the Methods of God, Part 1

Introduction: The Transformation of Ephesus and God's Means

0:03 At last, Lord's Day morning, we are spending several weeks looking into the background of the formation of the church at Ephesus in order that our study in a verse-by-verse, phrase-by-phrase manner of that letter might in some manner be enriched as we understand a little bit more of the church to which that great epistle came. Thus far, we have looked at the city and its people, particularly noting what the letter to the Ephesians itself reveals about the people to whom it came. What were they like before the gospel came to them? And such phrases as these are found in the epistle itself without hope, without God. Aliens, strangers, those who were fulfilling the desires of the free, flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Here were these people in this great city of Ephesus, the capital of that section of the Roman Empire, center of the worship of Diana, a very bastion of heathen religion, a place where that heathen worship, there were the occult arts, for you remember in the record in the book of Acts, it speaks of a great bonfire that accrued.

1:30 Bonfire. After the preaching of the gospel, when people brought their books of magical arts, and as people more and more reject and turn away from the religion of scripture, they will find themselves enmeshed in the occult. And so the city of Ephesus and its situation was as contemporary as the great rise in astrology and the black arts that we see even in our own day. Then we look for a little bit at the labors of the apostle Paul and his associates, as recorded in Acts 18, the latter part of the chapter, and then into Acts 19 and Acts 20.

2:09 And now for the past two weeks we've been seeking to answer this question, how did that great transformation come to pass there in the city of Ephesus? How does a very bastion, a very citadel of heathenism, with all of its outworking in life and practice, how does it become the center of a flourishing, a flourishing church, a center of gospel witness which penetrates that whole area until, in all likelihood, at least seven other strong churches are established during a brief period of time? Well, we've been seeking to answer that question, and in answer to that question we've given a general answer, and then we've been looking at some particulars. The general answer is that what happened at Ephesus happened because the grace of God, worked in keeping with God's eternal purpose and plan. When Paul writes to this church in Ephesians chapter 1, again and again he says, what happened to you people happened because of the God who worketh all things after the counsel of His will and who does all things to the praise of the glory of His grace. And so the only answer, the only explanation for what transpired at Ephesus was the grace of God working in keeping with the eternal purpose of God.

3:37 But since God is the God who uses means, we have been considering some specific aspects of how the grace of God worked, through what means, by what channels, God's grace was operative at Ephesus. And we've seen that the grace of God worked, first of all, through the message of God.

The Message of God and the Man of God

4:00 Secondly, God's grace, it worked through the man of God. And now today we shall conclude our study in this area by considering it was the message of God coming through the man of God, employing the methods of God. It was the message of God that brought about the transformation at Ephesus. A message which Paul calls declaring the whole counsel of God, Acts 20.27.

4:29 A message which comprised two documents, two dominant themes, Acts 20.21, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, was this message a message that had a contemporaneous ring to it? Yes, it did.

4:48 What's more contemporary than the bondage of sin? What's more contemporary than the ascents your sin and my sin brings to God? What's more contemporary, more relevant than God's absolute claim over His people? What's more contemporary than His creatures?

5:03 And so Paul says, sure I was relevant. I preached repentance toward God. God's rights over His creatures. Man's foul revolt against His Creator.

5:14 The necessity of the creature stacking arms and bowing in submission to His Creator God.

5:23 What's more contemporary than a bondage which man cannot break? What's more contemporary than man's sense of guilt and the inability to rid himself of that guilt? With any assurance that he's not merely played a psychological trick on himself and gotten rid of his hang-ups only to meet them again in the day of judgment? Well, Paul said, I preached faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

5:46 He said, I preached of one who came and by his life and death provided a basis upon which sin may be truly forgiven. That guilt may be truly purged away. A guilt purged away in such a manner that I don't need to wonder, well, have I just played a little psychological trick on myself? No.

6:08 As the hymn writer says, bold shall I stand in that great day for who ought to my charge shall lay? And how does the hymn writer come to that confidence? Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Mixed flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head.

6:29 That's what he preached. And it was the message of God. That brought about the transformation. And that's the only message that transforms men out of darkness into marvelous light.

6:40 But it was a message which came through a man of God. It came through a man whom we saw last week was characterized by humility. Characterized by compassion. Characterized by a willingness to face every form of opposition in his selfless abandonment to the needs of others.

7:01 He was a true, true bondservant of Jesus Christ. And that's when the message is powerful. When it comes through men who are a living embodiment of its transforming power. And Paul was just that.

7:15 And so, in answer to the question, how did the church of Ephesus get established? How was it born? How was it founded? Scripture tells us it was the message of God coming through the man of God and now today employing the methods which God gave him by divine direction.

The Binding Nature of Apostolic Methods

7:38 Let me say by way of introduction to our subject this morning that this whole matter of methods is a very tacky area.

7:46 Good Protestants, those who believe themselves to be the heirs of the Reformation, say in their confessions that the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments are the sufficient and only rule of faith and of practice. That is, the scriptures are the only rule to govern us in terms of what we are to believe, that's faith, and what we are to do, how we are to conduct ourselves. And you think there are problems with the first part. Shall we accept scripture concerning all that it declares as to faith?

8:29 And you can get in all kinds of trouble there because we live in a day where the mentality is we will put ourselves up as judges over the word and reject whatever is offensive to our natural taste and inclinations. But you get into even more trouble when you insist that the Bible is the sufficient and the only rule not only of faith, what we are to believe, but also of practice, what we are to do. And particularly with reference to how we are to propagate the faith. And the philosophy that pervades evangelical circles today is, get your message from the Bible and get your method from your own head or from society or any other place you want.

9:10 Method is a matter of indifference. Message, that's pretty important, at least part of it. At least part of it. But method?

9:19 Why? Why be concerned with discerning biblical methods? Well, I would like to suggest to you that the methods employed by the apostles under the direction of the Holy Spirit are as binding upon the faith of the church as is the content of the message which they proclaimed. For the apostles were the peculiarly commissioned representatives of Christ who by their teaching and example were to set the pattern for the church in all of its succeeding ages.

9:49 That's why Paul can say as he does in 2 Thessalonians 3, 6 and 7, he says, if you find anyone walking contrary to the traditions which we delivered unto you, mark that man and deal with him accordingly. There is a binding tradition in the church and it's not the tradition of popes and bishops or ministers, it's the apostolic tradition established by the apostles themselves. And so with this little introductory word behind us, let us consider how the grace of God worked in keeping with eternal purpose to establish the church at Ephesus by means of the message of God coming through the man of God employing the methods of God. And as we do, I would ask you to remember the situation into which Paul came. Put yourself in his shoes. You come to this great city, capital of that section of Asia, center of the worship of Diana.

Rejecting Worldly Methods for Attracting People

10:56 How shall you secure a hearing for your message? You're convinced you have a God-given message, but it does no good as long as it's locked up, locked up in your own heart. It's got to be verbalized. It's got to be communicated.

11:10 Now, what are you going to do to get a hearing? Well, maybe Paul ought to go down to the temple and as he sees people coming from all over the world to see this that was one of the great wonders of the then known world, maybe you ought to think this way. Well, it's obvious that the beauty and the grandeur of this many-columned temple is that which attracts people to its worship. If we're going to get people attracted to the worship of the temple, which is the true and the living God, why don't we try to outdo them and build a fancier temple?

11:41 So maybe I ought to, Paul might reason, I ought to give myself to raising money so that we can have the funds and float some bongs if necessary and get some Christian architects and we'll build a temple that when people come to Ephesus, they'll look at the temple to Diana and say, that's nothing. Look at the temple those Christians have got and then they'll hear our message. Let's build a building that'll get them in so we can preach to them. Well, that's the philosophy some have adopted.

12:08 In fact, that philosophy permeates much of evangelical Christendom today. Let's get a building that'll attract them to get them in, then we can preach to them. That's one possibility. Another is, maybe Paul ought to go by there and say, now let's see how they carry things out that keeps this Diana worship flourishing.

12:29 Why, it's a going thing and it even helps support the economy. You remember the economy got upset. When Diana worship began to decline. And so this was a going thing.

12:39 So he analyzes their form of worship. And he says, well, they have a certain musical pattern that they employ and they have these temple priestesses who were nothing but temple harlots and prostitutes. And if we're going to get a hearing for our message, we've got to take their musical patterns and maybe have a line of Christian chorus girls. I mean, you've got to meet people where they are and if people come attracted there, by these temple priestesses.

13:11 And if there's something about them, you know, let's get all that and let's sort of float on that. Some quasi, semi, veganemic Christian thought. That's the philosophy men are adopting today. What's got the ear of the modern young person?

13:26 Rock music. This is his music. This is his world. So if you're going to communicate the gospel, you've got to take all of his musical patterns, regardless of the philosophical climate that has produced those musical patterns and then float some weak, anemic, semi-Christian concepts on all of this.

13:46 There's one great Christian leader who actually has his own little choreography arrangement with his little miniskirted girls bouncing up and down and around, floating some kind of semi-Christian talk. I've seen it with my own eyes. On the television. That's the philosophy some would say.

14:04 That's how you've got to get a hearing and that method's perfectly alright. Go to the heathens. And learn their ways of propagating their philosophy and their thought and ape them if you want to win them. But when you turn to the book of Acts, you don't find this at all.

Paul's First Method: Seizing Legitimate Platforms

14:25 What do you find as to the methods which the apostle used? I would like to suggest that his whole methodology can be found gathered under three very simple and yet important principles. And as time permits, I hope to cover them this morning. Number one, the first aspect of his method was this.

14:48 He seized every legitimate platform for an uncompromising, unaccommodating communication of the message of God. He seized every legitimate platform for an uncompromising, unaccommodating communication of the message of God. Secondly, he exercised every form of verbal communication of the message of God. And thirdly, he carefully organized the fruits of his communication into functioning churches.

15:26 Alright? First of all, as I look at the clock, I know we won't get through all that, so you know where we're going to end up next week, God willing. He seized every legitimate platform for an uncompromising, unaccommodating communication of the message of God. When Paul came to the city of Ephesus, he was absolutely convinced that his commission was primarily one of preaching the gospel.

15:55 God had said to him, Thou shalt testify of me. And there was no question as to his confidence in the power of his message. He had come to many other towns. He had already been to Corinth.

16:11 He had been to that town so noted for its wickedness, so reputed for its ungodliness, that when you wanted to describe somebody who'd really sunk to the depths, you said he had been Corinthianized. And in that very place, that cesspool of filth and ungodliness and heathen worship, he came determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and intrusiveness, Christ and intrusified. He left the philosophers shaking their heads, saying that poor dolt, that silly little Jew, all he preaches about is his Jesus and the God who sent him and the blood of his cross, foolishness. The Jews over there saying that silly defector from our ranks, following that imposter that came out of Nazareth. He says we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, stumbling block unto the Greeks, foolishness, but unto those who are saved, the power of God. And in the midst of that, he saw people transformed, lives overhauled. And so when he comes from a place like that to Ephesus, there's no question about his confidence in the message.

17:27 He's seen it work. He's seen its transforming power. So he comes to Ephesus convinced of the power of his message, convinced of the commissioning of heaven to communicate that message. Now, what's he going to do?

17:42 And I've said on other occasions, Paul had a fixation on one part of the anatomy of every individual he saw. Unlike the businessman whose fixation is on your pocketbook, and unlike someone else whose fixation may be elsewhere, his fixation was right there at people's ears. And the moment he came to Ephesus, he was jealous to know, how can I get those ears? How can I get those ears?

18:07 The message which can transform them, here they are, without hope, without God, under the wrath of God, blinded by the God of this world, bound by the power of sin. I have the message that can liberate them, transform them. I must get their ears. So what did he do?

Platform 1: The Jewish Synagogue

18:27 He seized every legitimate platform to communicate that message wherever he could do it, without compromise, without accommodation. Notice three distinct platforms mentioned in the record in the book of Acts. First of all, in Acts 18, 19, we see the platform he found in the Jewish synagogue. Acts 18 and verse 19.

18:55 Speaking of Paul and his associates, Priscilla and Aquila, the scripture says, And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. He leaves after a short time, comes back some months later, and the first thing he does when he comes back, after dealing with these disciples of John that we read about in the first seven verses of Acts 19, Acts 19, 8 says, He entered into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God. He spake boldly. The word boldly means unfettered liberty, unchecked utterance, and that's why I've used the term uncompromising, unaccommodating platform of communication. He went to the synagogue.

20:04 This was his custom according to Acts 17, in the first few verses. Now why was it disgusting? Was it because he had a particular, and we might say an unbalanced love for his fellow countrymen, the Jews? No, it wasn't this at all.

20:22 There's a principle behind his going to the synagogue, first of all, and the principle is this. He would start to communicate his message where the soil would seem to be the most conducive to receiving of the message. When he came to the synagogue, he could assume certain things. He could assume a faith in the scriptures.

20:47 He could assume that here were a people who believed in the God of Old Testament revelation, the God who created man in his own image, the God who commanded man to walk before him. He could assume a belief in the doctrine of the fall, the doctrine of the necessity of sacrifice, the doctrine of the reality of prophecy, for these people met together to study the scriptures in the synagogue. He could assume, to summarize it, the basic theism of the Old Testament. Now, it's in that kind of soil that you will find generally the most reception or receptivity to the message of God's salvation in Jesus Christ. And so his method was to seize upon that legitimate platform to communicate his message which would in all normal cases provide the most fruitful soil in which the seed of truth would fall. Now, the principle is the same for our day. There may be sitting in this congregation this morning people who are products of what we would call the humanism of the twentieth century.

22:06 You perhaps came through those doors this morning without any deep-seated conviction as to the reality of the doctrine of creation. Maybe you believe the lie that has been fostered upon our own generation under the guise of scientific fact that you are simply the highest expression of those brute forces that express themselves in the evolutionary process. If so, when you do wrong and you have twinges of conscience you merely look upon that as some kind of hang-up you've picked up along the way in the process of evolution. But if you came through those doors convinced that you are a creature made in the image of God and therefore accountable to God when you do something wrong and there are pricks of conscience you know that conscience is God's little monitor within your breast giving you a preview of the day of judgment when he'll summon you into his presence to give an account of every deed done in the body. Now, if I'm dealing with that first man it's obvious that if I talk about Christ dying for sin to take away real guilt rooted in a real offense of the law of a real God I'm talking nonsense. He just looks upon it as my religious kick. But if you sit there this morning as one who knows that the real God who made you against whom you've sinned can summon you into judgment for your sin and there's a sense of the terror

23:35 and dread of his judgment when I tell you Christ died for sinners to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself I'm preaching good news to you. Because you see there's a structure of thought which makes the reception of the gospel far more likely. Now, Paul recognized that and so he would go immediately to the synagogue wherever possible in the church in order to proclaim the message in that situation which was most likely to yield proper fruit. Secondly, he also knew because of the third point that we'll get to God willing next week that if a church was to be established there would have to be as soon as possible mature spiritual leaders to instruct the people in the truth of God. Now, who would be the most likely ones to become teaching elders in the church? Would it not be those who had this great background of years of instruction in the Old Testament scriptures? That was their only Bible then outside of the epistles that were sent by the apostles.

24:43 So the apostle knew that every synagogue was a potential incubator for future elders. And so he'd go there so that the first converts who would form the charter members of the church of Ephesus and of Corinth would not be, for the most part, uninstructed people who came out of heathenism who had no background in the knowledge of God but who would be either proselytes who attached themselves to the synagogue or Jews who came to faith in Christ and now could be like that wise steward the scripture speaks about who could bring out of his treasure things both old and new. Now, what does this say to us? I believe it says this is a very vital principle to us as we would seek to propagate the gospel with a view to the establishment of churches we should also seize every legitimate platform for an uncompromising unaccommodating communication of the message of grace but if we can find some synagogues that is, if we can find a group of people perhaps a group of people who have been meeting in a home Bible study already convinced that what scripture says is true and the God of the Bible is the true and the living God even though our initial thrust may not be spectacular as long as Paul was traipsing off

26:12 to the synagogue Diana worship didn't look like it was being challenged things could go on pretty well as normal because these people had been going to the synagogue right under the shadow of the temple to the great Diana the great God of the Ephesians for years and the apostle was willing as it were to withhold a frontal attack upon the structure of heathenism in that city if he could gain a strategic beachhead for the long range propagation of the truth of the gospel in the establishment of the church and therein we find a principle that as the people of God we need to be aware of as we seek to proclaim the message of God as true men and women of God using the method of God well you have not only the synagogue as one of those platforms but notice in Acts chapter 19 in verse 9 that soon the center of his witness or to use my word platform was transported from the synagogue to a place called the school of Tyrannus verse 9 of Acts 19 but when some were hardened and disobedient speaking evil of the way before the multitude he departed from them and separated the disciples reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus and this continued for the space of two years

Platform 2: The School of Tyrannus

27:40 so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks now what was this school of Tyrannus well the scholars who have done the most extensive archeological work and historical work are not agreeing but the general sense of what this school was is clear many of the cities of that day would have a special school in which a famous orator or philosopher would gather disciples around him and there propagate his teaching this school of Tyrannus could have been the school of a contemporary of Paul by the name of Tyrannus who owned the school taught in it at certain times and was willing to loan it or rent it to Paul at other hours it could be on the other hand a school named after a man who had previously lived who was a famous person in the city and this was sort of a public monument much as we name our schools and our libraries after public figures who have been of service to the community but in any case it was a neutral hall where Paul could propagate his message unfettered now by the increasing prejudice that had arisen at the synagogue which demanded either a compromise of his message or getting so embroiled in controversy that he could no longer evangelize and establish believers in the truth

29:08 now when it came to that point he said I'm going to change my center preached on for three whole months at the synagogue but it says when they were hardened and became disobedient to the message he knew that to stay on he'd be doing nothing but debating with these rejecters of truth and churches are not founded by debating against error they're founded by the propagation of truth and establishing men in the truth and so Paul said no can't stay or if he was willing to pair off some offensive aspects of his message and he said I can't do that so there's only one thing to do change the center of his witness to the school of tyrannus now the principle I think is clear when the religious church when the religiously oriented gatherings oppose the truth he moved to neutral halls to do two things notice when he left the synagogue it says he separated the disciples that is he marked them out and here you have the beginning of the church of Ephesus where the disciples are no longer those who believe the truth in the midst of a mixed multitude but it says he separated them now the disciples become a visible entity at Ephesus up till now where are the disciples oh they're over there in the synagogue

30:36 but you couldn't call the synagogue a church because you had unbelieving hardened disobedient people who heard the message after this when you said where are the disciples oh that's a little group that meets 10 o'clock every morning with Paul over there at the school of tyrannus there began to emerge a visible entity a gathered body of the church of disciples a church there's the beginnings of the church and the second thing he did was to use this same hall as a platform of continued gospel witness it says that as a result of what went on at the school of tyrannus all that were in Asia heard the word of the Lord probably this happened in two ways as people came up from all parts of Asia to Ephesus to worship as they came up on business trips for this was a center of commerce they would no doubt hear of this man holding forth at the school of tyrannus and so Asians from all over heard the word because here was a preaching center and then no doubt the reverse was true as the disciples were multiplied they would go out and propagate the message of the gospel now what does this say to us as we seek to employ the methods of God in our evangelism I think is a principle that applies to us we as God's people must seek to be enterprising and imaginative

32:03 in finding neutral halls if you want to use the term which may become two things springboards of extensive evangelism and witness and also a center for the formation of churches separation which means loops when there are two groups of man and man at each end and making disciples that they being grounded in the truth might become the functioning church in that given area so he seized upon every legitimate platform first of all the synagogue secondly the school of tyranus and the third platform he tells us in acts 20, and verse 20 I shrank not from declaring anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly synagogue And from house to house, testifying both to Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. House to house. Now does this mean that Paul organized and promoted and led what we would call a house to house evangelistic campaign? I don't think so.

Platform 3: From House to House

33:21 Now it could be, but I don't think so. Well you say, why don't you think so? Well I have reasons, and my reason is primarily found in a statement made later on in Acts 20 where he says in verse 31, Wherefore watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I cease not to admonish every one night and day with tears. Here he calls them to remember that his ministry was a ministry in which, there was individual application and admonition of the truth with deep and earnest compassion and entreaty.

34:05 Now, you can't do that in the synagogue, every one. Any more than I can say, if my only contact with you people was here in this public building, I could not say I admonished every one of you with tears. I could use the general term of the plural, I admonished all of you. There has to be, there has to be an individual contact and I believe this house-to-house has reference not primarily to what may be a legitimate form of evangelism, a systematic house-to-house campaign, but rather he's underscoring the principle that in his communication of the message there was not only public communal communication, but individual and personal communication. As John Calvin says in his commentary on this passage, As John Calvin says in his commentary on this passage, and I quote, This is the second point, that he taught not only all in the assembly, but individuals in their homes as each man's need required. He goes on to say, Not only must preachers learn a principle from this, but disciples should learn, and now I read from that part, Those who learn are also warned that if they do indeed wish to be counted among the flock of Christ, they must admit their pastors as often as they come to them,

35:30 and that private warnings are not to be avoided. For those who do not think it fit to hear their pastor's voice except in the church building, and moreover who cannot bear to be warned and reproved at home, no, and fiercely reject such warning as a necessary function, they are bears rather than sheep. You see what he's saying? He's saying, The whole concept that, Well, the preacher can preach as pointedly as he wants from the pulpit, but when he comes to my home, he's just supposed to have a nice little social visit.

36:05 No, no. Paul says, I was amongst you teaching from house to house the same doctrines and duties that I preach publicly. If I preach publicly repentance toward God when I came into your home, then I told you what repentance would mean for you. I could preach, the general truth in public, that repentance is a turning from sin to God.

36:32 But when I came into your home, I could say, Hey, what about those curious books of the occult art? You say you've repented? What are those books doing on your shelf? And he could come with personal and specific and pointed application with reference to repentance and faith in a way that he could not in public.

36:51 He didn't change his goal simply because he came through the front door of a home. Just as his...

36:57 His goal in public was to proclaim the whole counsel of God, so his goal in private was to have a platform to declare that same counsel of divine truth. The principle involved in this is clear. The apostle knew that the doctrines and duties enforced in public, even with close application, needed to be supplemented by those personal dealings consistent with the same themes. And the application, the revelation of this to us is clear.

37:29 It's a word to those of us who are in the ministry or contemplating the ministry as teaching, ruling elders. A word reminding us that no matter how faithfully we publicly proclaim the truth, even if we could do it with the accuracy, the zeal, and the power of the apostle Paul, something will be lacking unless there is individual application of that truth to the consciences and hearts of men. That's a word to us. It's also a word to you who sit there in the pew and count yourself one of the disciples of Christ.

38:06 If you count yourself the disciple of Christ, what should you expect from your elders, from your pastors when they come to your home? And I confess this is an area that I am utterly frustrated and much of the time just downright defeated as a pastor. I can sense that any kind of pointed spiritual admonition in the home is...

38:28 I'm allowed the liberty to preach as close and discerningly in the pulpit, but let me begin in your homes, close to these of the Christian life, and I almost sense, what in the world are you doing? You're here to pay us a nice little pastoral visit, not to preach to us. Now, do I read you wrongly? I've had eight years to do some reading, and I confess to you this morning, I feel defeated.

38:56 Now, whether the problem is a timidity on my part, a lack of boldness, or whether it's a check in my spirit that I cast not the pearls of my admonition before the swine troughs of your indifference, I don't know. Probably a combination of both. But there's a tremendous principle for the people of God as well as the servants of God that in this matter of the communication of the message of God, there is to be this house-to-house principle, this individual application, of the truth of God. So we see in the Apostle then, the method he used was the method first of all of seizing every legitimate opportunity for the communication of the message of God, and then secondly, and we'll just touch on this briefly, he exercised every form of verbal communication of that message. Now Paul had special miracles done by his hand when he was in Ephesus, for we read in Acts 19.11, God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, very spectacular miracles. And yet when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, and he's going to describe how they became Christians, he doesn't even mention miracles as entering into the picture.

Paul's Second Method: Exercising Every Form of Verbal Communication

40:19 In reality he's saying they had so little to do with the matter of your coming to faith, that he describes the instrument of bringing them into the gospel privileges, in these terms, Ephesians 1.13, in whom also having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He says you were brought to faith when you heard the word of the truth of the gospel. He didn't say you were brought to faith when you saw the gospel lived out in us.

40:59 He didn't say, you were brought to faith when you were exposed to the operations of the application of the gospel in the total spectrum of life. No, he doesn't say any of that. He says you heard the word of the truth of the gospel. Here was the man conscious that the method of God focused upon the proclamation of a message.

41:23 So once he gets his platform, then when he's on that platform, he preaches, he reasons, he argues, he disputes, he uses every form of verbal communication. Look very quickly at seven or eight different words used to describe forms of verbal communication. Acts chapter 18 and verse 20. I'm sorry, verse 19.

41:52 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, and he entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, a form of verbal communication. He reasoned with the Jews. Chapter 19 verse 8. He entered into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God.

42:20 Verse 10. This continued for the space of two years. So all they that were in Asia saw the application of the word of the Lord. No.

42:28 Felt the impression of God. No. Felt the impression of God. Felt the impression of God.

42:31 No. They heard. They heard the word of the Lord. Down in verse 19.

42:39 Not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them. What happens? Verse 20. So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.

42:51 Now in chapter 20 where he's reviewing his ministry. What does he say he did for that entire period of time? Verse 20. I shrank not from declaring a word of verbal communication.

43:04 Teaching you publicly. Verbal communication. Verse 21. Testifying verbal communication.

43:11 Verse 4. Testifying the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 27. I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God.

43:22 Verse 31. I cease not to admonish you. You're getting weary? How often does the Holy Spirit say this?

43:27 How often does the Holy Spirit say this? How often does the Holy Spirit say this? How often does the Holy Spirit say this? Why does the Holy Spirit have to tell us something?

43:32 What is he doing? The apostle is underscoring that the dominant activity of three years in Ephesus by which this mighty work of God was wrought was a work accomplished with his tongue. Reasoning, persuading, declaring, proclaiming admonishing all of them various forms and expressions of verbal communication. A verbal communication.

The Foolishness of Preaching: God's Ordained Method

44:03 And what's the principle involved? The principle involved is the recognition coming from the pen of this very man that God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching or the foolishness of the thing preached to accomplish His mighty work of grace in the hearts of men. And since God ordained it, He was not to be moved from that principle no matter what people wanted, no matter how they may react to it. May I refer you to that passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 1?

44:43 And in all likelihood this letter was written while Paul was at Ephesus.

44:51 Notice what he says. Verse 18, The word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the disobedient, discerning will I bring to naught. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?

45:09 Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching or the thing preached to save them that believe. There are some very precious thoughts on this passage in Lenski's commentary and I want to share several of them with you.

45:40 Here we learn how God proceeded when he made foolish the world's wisdom. He did so in a most astounding way. He did it by the silliness of preaching. Paul writes it was God's good pleasure.

45:55 That is, it was his desire to proceed. It pleased him to choose this means of showing up the wisdom, of the world. In determining his gracious plans, God took into account the condition of the world as Paul describes it. The world failed because it used the false medium of its own wisdom.

46:18 God chose the very opposite kind of medium. Instead of choosing wisdom, he took foolishness, silliness, the last thing anyone would expect him to take, the foolishness of preaching. By employing foolishness, where the world used foolishness, wisdom, God made a joke of the world and of its lofty wisdom. Men come together and say, let us, let us, let us ponder, let us think, let us grapple with the problems, let us observe, let us analyze, let us synthesize, let us make our conclusions, and then we'll make our pronouncement.

46:52 And God says, after all your analyzing, after all your synthesizing, after all of your conclusions and observations, you can't answer the simplest question asked by a little two-year-old child, mommy, who made, what is God? How can I know him? When I do bad, how can I be forgiven? Let all the philosophers come together.

47:19 And when they're all done, they draw a blank to those questions. So God says, all right, I'll answer them. And how will I do it? Not by coming with some great philosophical structure.

47:29 No, no. By the foolishness, the silliness of pronounced message that focuses, in a person who died upon a Roman gibbet and rose in power and now lives to answer every one of those questions. He says, that's how I'll do it. God says, that's the course I'll choose to show up the world's wisdom.

47:53 He was pleased to choose this course. Then the commentator goes on to say, this is the blessed irony of divine love. For whereas the world failed utterly with its tremendous show of wisdom, God succeeded without the least bit of trouble with this tiny medium that looks so useless and even so childish. Preaching is not the act of making a proclamation, but the contents of what is proclaimed.

48:24 And then he goes on to say, and this is so necessary for our day, we should note carefully that in this proceeding God breaks completely with the wisdom of the world. Not even in one slight point does He accommodate Himself to this wisdom. He runs directly counter to it. And that shows the great mistake we make when we try to make Christ palatable to our age, as we call it.

48:46 Try to accommodate the gospel to men and to their wisdom and to their ways of thinking. We try to make the message reasonable to them. The gospel's not an argument, a piece of reasoning that is gauged to convince men. It is only an announcement.

49:03 And the astounding thing about this announcement is the fact that it meets men's needs. Men's hearts square on in a direct clash that it aims to reverse them completely, to set them going in the very opposite direction. It intends to convert, to turn them completely around, nothing less. God doesn't even use a special degree of gnosis or knowledge so that only people who are educated to the necessary philosophic degree may attain to it.

49:33 No, no. In fact, this very foolishness that God chooses differs from the foolishness that God chooses. It differs even from the wisdom He revealed in nature before men's eyes. Search the world of nature as we will.

49:45 It will never put us on the track of the gospel. And yet this foolishness accomplishes the very thing the perishing world needs, the mighty thing which it could not and did not attain to in all of its wisdom. Of what benefit is all the wisdom of the world if it fails to bring men to salvation? I'll leave the answer with you.

Conclusion: The Power of Proclamation

50:11 The foolishness of preaching. You mean to say, Mr. Martin, in a day like ours, with all the great problems sociologically, all the great problems with which we see ourselves enmeshed as a nation, the world, you mean to say that you stand there as a professedly intelligent, adult, educated human being and say the answer is the simple proclamation of the facts of Jesus Christ who is God. He is in what he did.

50:40 That's precisely what I mean to say. And if God is pleased by the Holy Spirit to open your eyes, you'll say, it's true, it's true. I've tried every course to find meaning in life, to find an answer to the problem of identity and purpose and goal and guilt and no answers come. But I see in Jesus Christ God's answer.

51:06 Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ is the power of God. Christ is the salvation of God. And I see it.

51:14 Sitting here this morning, there are monuments to the power of God's silliness. Some of you enmeshed in the very problems that send our sociologists reeling. Some of you bound in the drug culture. Others of you were bound in the culture of lechery that is emerging in our own day.

51:34 Others of you bound in the hopeless confusion of trying to pick your own way through all the various voices that claim to have truth. And yet you sit there this morning, liberated from your bondage, at peace in the knowledge of sins forgiven. Who you are, where you're going and why you're going there. And what brought it all to pass?

51:54 The foolishness of preaching. You heard a message and the Holy Ghost was pleased to take that message and burn it into your heart and enable you to believe it and embrace it. And you found the truth of its liberating power. So he exercised every form of verbal communication. Why?

52:16 He was convinced this was God's way. And by way of application, I think the message to us is clear. As we face the great imposing structures of heathen thought in our day, what are we to do? Are we to philosophize? Are we to philanthropize? Some people say, look, we've got to get out. Christian action is the answer. No, it isn't.

52:40 Christian action is a necessary expression of the reality of your Christian faith. And Paul could say it in the latter part of Acts 20. He said, these hands worked to provide for myself and those with me. He said, I had Christian action but Ephesus wasn't transformed by Christian action. It was transformed by proclamation, by admonition, by testifying. And I'm afraid of this emphasis that's moving the center of concern from proclamation to action. It's unscriptural. God's method is simple but powerful proclamation of a message where people want to replace the message with so-called Christian drama, with singing, with movies, with any form of doing. I say this

53:32 is a deflection from the biblical method and we ought to be afraid of it for it won't be long before there'll be nothing left but the pure humanism from which it derived its very essence and into which it inevitably moves. I say to you who may sit here this morning, to whom much of what has been said has been hopeless religious jargon, confusing, say I can't make head nor tails of it. Why people would sit there for an hour and listen to that is beyond you.

54:04 Friend, I don't say that to be funny or facetious. I once sat where you sit. And if you can't make head nor tails out of much that was said this morning, I hope you go away with one thing.

54:17 That man told us from that black book called the Bible, that my only hope is in a message that it contains. A message that focuses in Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done and lives to do. And if you've got that much, I pray the Spirit of God will burn that into your spiritual hide and make you restless until you find out what that message is. And until you experience its power. And I say to you as God's people, to us as an assembly of his people, do we long to see the extension of his kingdom, the establishment of other churches, the outgoing and increase of the gospel? Then it will only be as we proclaim the message of God, as we ourselves are true men and women of God who find ourselves employing the methods of God. So when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and says, all this happened when you heard the word of the truth of the gospel, it rang a chord deep in their hearts. Why?

55:20 Because this is how they came in. By a man who came. Not doing primarily, not philosophizing, but simply proclaiming. If that's offensive to your pride, then my friend, I'm sorry, it'll have to be offensive. Because that's God's way of getting his work done. May God help us to see his wisdom in it. To admire his wisdom for it. And to walk in the light.

55:46 By the strength and power of his spirit. Let us pray.