Faithful Heralds of the Gospel

0:55Shortly after being elected, Carter traveled to Poland and hired a translator there named Stephen Seymour. Now, Stephen Seymour was one of the world-renowned translators for the Polish language in writing. But he didn't have really any experience translating orally on the spot for someone. And so during the speech, Carter said that he'd be leaving soon for the United States and that he wanted to know about the Polish people's desires for the future. Stephen Seymour translated those phrases.

1:30I have abandoned the United States, and I want to know about your lusts. On a separate visit to Japan, Carter was speaking at a Japanese university, and he thought he would break the ice with these people who he'd never met before with a little joke. And so during the beginning of the speech, he told the joke, and the translator just kind of stood there for a couple of moments, and then he said just a few words in Japanese, and the audience burst out laughing.

2:03And so Carter leaned over to the translator because he didn't think the joke was that funny. And he said, What did you tell them? And he admitted that he didn't know how to translate the joke. So he said, President Carter told a funny story. You must laugh now. Those mistranslations are funny, but a lot of times mistranslations have serious consequences. They can lead to political strife, to economic sanctions, even to war. As Christians, we are called to the serious business not of just translating for an earthly king or ruler, but for translating for God Himself, to proclaiming His message.

2:55That's who we're speaking on behalf of. And so it's critical that we actually. Accurately and faithfully present his word. Now, Paul understood this, and that's why he conducted himself the way that he did when he went to Corinth. That's the reason that he writes what he writes in chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. It's because he understood that his job was to accurately convey the message that God had given him to convey. And so, friends, we're going to be reminded in this text this morning that we must present the king's message to the king's people without distortion or distraction. We must present the king's message to the king's people without distortion or distraction. So, let's pick up here in verse 1 of chapter 2.

3:48Here in the first verse, Paul recalls his 18-month stay in Corinth, which ended about three years prior to him writing this letter. He wants the Corinthians to remember his ministry not just for what he said, but also for how he said it. Now, look, in the ancient world, the people didn't have all these options for entertainment that we have today. And so, what they would do is they would often go and hear someone speak. That was a form of entertainment. And for those people in the ancient world, they weren't really judging so much the content of what was being said, as much as they were judging how it was being said.

4:28So, they were judging the structure. Of the sentences, the beauty of the language, the listening pleasure that it brought to the ears of the hearers. And so Paul reminds them that when he came, he didn't try to emulate these great orators, these wise men, these great debaters that he mentioned back in chapter one. He wasn't trying to impress them with lofty speech or wisdom, as he says. That's pompous or high-sounding words that are meant to draw attention to the speaker and the speaker's abilities rather than to the content of the message itself.

5:05No, Paul didn't do that. And that's because he viewed himself as a herald. A herald is a messenger sent on behalf of the king to deliver the king's message to the king's people. That's how Paul saw himself. He didn't go there to impress them with his delivery. And so, if you are a herald, the only measure of success is whether you accurately deliver the king's message to the king's people. Heralds are awarded no points for impressively conveying an inaccurate message.

5:42That's not the measure of success if you are a herald. So Paul was not trying to impress them. And as it turns out, it seems that he achieved his goal because the Corinthians were not impressed with him. According to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, many of the Corinthians said that his speech was. Of no account. It just did not mean anything to them. They weren't impressed with his delivery. But Paul didn't care. Because Paul didn't travel all the way to Corinth to try to impress them with his speaking ability.

6:16He traveled all the way to Corinth to do one thing and one thing only, and that is faithfully proclaim the message of the gospel. That's why he says what he says. Look at verse 2. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, please don't misunderstand what Paul is saying here. He was not saying that he came to Corinth like Jonah went to Nineveh. If you're familiar with Jonah the prophet in the Old Testament, you know that God called him to go to the Ninevites, these age-old enemies of the people of Israel. And Jonah did not want to go, so he actually ran in the opposite direction.

7:00Well, there was a bunch of things that happened, including a huge fish swallowing him and all of those kinds of things. But Jonah ends up going into the city finally in obedience. But what is recorded in Scripture is this one-sentence sermon: yet 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown. Miraculously, the people repent because the word of God is living and active. But it wasn't because of Jonah or anything about him in that moment. And so, what Paul is saying is. Listen, I didn't go into Corinth like Jonah went into Nineveh. I didn't just come and say a few words to you about Jesus Christ and his life and his death and his resurrection and just walk out shaking the dust off my feet. No, Paul did not do that in Corinth.

7:44Look at what Acts 18 says about his ministry there. It says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. Paul was no Jonah. He didn't walk into the city, preach a one-sentence sermon, turn around, and walk out. He stayed there for a year and a half, reasoning with them, trying to persuade them, engaging in apologetics, answering their questions, forcefully and yet respectfully trying to argue that Jesus was in fact the Christ.

8:24So, what Paul means when he claimed to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified is that he refused to distort the gospel and he refused to distract from the gospel. First, Paul refused to distort the message of the gospel. And that's what we were talking about last week in chapter 1. He refused to distort the gospel to accommodate either the Jews or the Greeks. He wasn't going to change the message of the gospel so it sounded more appealing to their ears.

9:00If you look back at verses 23 and 24 in chapter 1, Paul reminds us, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Paul says, Look, I'm not going to change the message of the gospel to accommodate the unbelieving Jews who could not deal with a suffering Savior. And he wasn't going to change the gospel message to deal with and accommodate the secular Greeks who couldn't deal with a resurrected Savior.

9:41He was determined not to distort the gospel, but to preach Christ crucified. But second, Paul refused to distract from the gospel. And that's what he's saying here in chapter 2: that he was not going to allow himself to become a distraction. The great wise men and debaters of the day, they distracted from the content of the message with their soaring oratory, with their beautiful language, with the sonorous tone of their voices. And Paul did not want anyone receiving his message because of his speaking methods. He did not want to distract from the content of the message. With his style. He wanted them to receive the gospel because of its substance, not because of his style, not because of the way that he delivered it, not because of the way that he spoke. And that's because Paul viewed himself as a herald of the king. And the only measure of success for a herald is to faithfully and accurately deliver the king's message to the king's people. So that's what he did in Corinth. He refused to distort the gospel, and he refused to distract from it.

11:02And friends, that's a very important message for the church today, especially for the church in the United States today. You see, over the past 40 years, many churches have, perhaps, unintentionally distorted and distracted from the message of the gospel by their methods. And here's what I mean by that: instead of preaching Christ and Him crucified, many churches are now preaching topical how-to sermons on Sunday morning. So, how to overcome bad habits, how to have a more fulfilling marriage, how to deal with stress at work.

11:48And all of that is because what people want is good advice. People want good advice, but what we need is the good news. News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we really need. We need the good news of Christ and Him crucified and its implications for our lives every day. See, we don't need another list of three or four or five more things to do. We already have a list of things to do. It's called the Mosaic Law. And the whole point of the Bible is that we have not done the list of things to do. That's why we needed a Savior. We needed someone to complete the list for us. We don't need more good advice of three or four or five things to do. We need a Savior who has kept that list of God's requirements and commands for us. We don't need good advice. We need good news. We need a Savior. And that's what Paul came preaching.

12:55And instead of making God and His revealed word the focus of worship, many churches have, perhaps unintentionally, made the desires of the people the focus of worship. So over the past four decades, the question has shifted from how does God command us to worship Him to what kind of an experience do people want to have on Sunday morning? That's a very important thing. Important and concerning shift because the focus has shifted from God and what He commands to people and what we want. But, friends, worship is not about us, it's about God.

13:45And so, we have to ask that question: what does God command, not what do we want to experience? What I'm saying to you is that methods matter. It's not like, well, some churches just prefer to preach topical how-to sermons, and other churches prefer to preach verse-by-verse through the Bible. It's not like, well, some churches observe the Lord's Supper and have pastoral prayers and are very intentional about the kinds of songs that are chosen, and some churches just prefer more freedom in worship. It's not like that because methods matter. And the methods that we choose to use can, even unintentionally, distort the gospel or, at the very best, distract from the gospel. And we don't want that. Paul didn't want that. See, the Corinthians had scores of orators coming through their city every single week. They were offering good advice and they were delivering it in beautiful, captivating language.

14:56But, friends, Paul didn't come there to offer good advice, he came to the office. To offer good news, the undistorted good news of the gospel. And Paul wasn't offering beautiful oratory. He was offering a beautiful Savior who came to obey all of God's law, the to-do list, to keep it on our behalf so that we could be saved. That's what Paul came to do. That's what we must also do, whether we're talking about what goes on in here on Sunday mornings or we're talking about our own personal ministries. We have to be sure that whatever methods we use, they don't distort the gospel message and they don't distract from the gospel message.

15:48Now, I think a lot of times we start talking about gospel proclamation, whether on Sunday morning or at our jobs or out in the community with our friends or family. We start talking about those kinds of things. And I think we all, all of us who are believers anyway, have this reaction like, yes, that's exactly right. We want to preach Christ and him crucified because that's the only good news that there is. But I think if most of us are honest, we feel scared about that. We feel scared about approaching family members and friends and coworkers and neighbors with the news of Jesus Christ. Because what we said last week is true. There are only two types of truths. Of people in this world. Those who care about what others think about them, and those who lie and say they don't. We all care about what others think. And so, when we think about evangelism, when we think about proclaiming the good news of the gospel, many of us are afraid. And we read about people like the Apostle Paul or Billy Graham, or even we think about our friend, that guy or girl in your life that just shares their faith with everybody. And we think, you know, I just wish I were fearless like them. Then I'd be in a better place to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

17:07But, friends, the fearless evangelist doesn't exist, it's a myth. And that's what I think we're going to see and be reminded of here in verses 3 through 5. Look at verse 3. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

17:55The Apostle Paul, the greatest evangelist. And church planter, the world has ever known or will ever know writes that when he came to Corinth, he was weak and he was so afraid that he was trembling. If that doesn't encourage you, I don't know what will. Paul says that he was afraid, he was weak and scared when he was in Corinth. And so God, in his kindness, came to him to encourage him. Look at what God said to Paul when he was having these fears: Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people.

18:58You see, friends, Paul had the exact same fears that all of us have. He was afraid of getting yelled at again. He was afraid of being mocked again. He was afraid of getting beaten, whipped, thrown into prison again. He was afraid that he might be killed. He was afraid of all of these things because he is a human being just like the rest of us. He had the same fears, the same anxieties. And so, God, look at what God does. He comes to him and he encourages him with two important words. Paul, I. I am with you. I am with you.

19:34He wants to remind him that just as Jesus promised in the Great Commission, when he told us to go and make disciples, to go and proclaim the good news to everyone, he says, I am with you. Jesus said he'd never leave us, he'd be with us even to the end of the age. And the second thing that he tells Paul is, I have many in this city who are my people. Do we believe that? Do you believe that God is with you? Do you believe that God has many in this city, in College Station, in Bryan, wherever you live? Do you believe that God has people in that city who are his?

20:19This is so encouraging because it reminds us once again that it does not depend on us, it depends on God. God uses us as tools and instruments, but it all depends on him. And we see that in what he tells Paul in Acts 18. He says, go on speaking. Go on speaking. Don't be silent. Keep proclaiming the undistorted message of the gospel. Don't distract from it in any way. Preach that word. And so Paul says in verse 4, look at what he says: my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

21:05He says, I just preached the simple message of the gospel. I didn't distract from it with any wise or persuasive words. And friends, that's because the gospel itself is powerful. A lot of times we buy into this idea that we can add some power to it with our own human wisdom and our own human ingenuity, but anytime we do that, we detract from the power of the gospel. We don't add to it. He went on speaking boldly. And as he preached the simple gospel, look at what he says. It was backed up with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Here's what he means: they were used to going to hear all of these famous orators when they came through town. And they went and did that just like you and I go to football games, just like you and I go to baseball games, just like we go to the movies. You go and you're entertained for a while, but your life is not changed.

22:05Paul, however, comes in preaching the simple, pure message of the gospel, and it is backed up with a demonstration of the Spirit and power as lives are changed, as people pass from death to life, as they go from being enslaved to sin to being free in Christ. When Paul preached, it was. Wasn't entertainment that distracted you for a few hours. It was good news about a person who changed your heart forever. What that meant was that for anyone who believed, their faith was not resting in the wisdom of men. It was instead resting in the power of God.

22:56Friends, that should encourage you. That's great news for us because what that means is that God can use anyone who's willing to be a faithful herald for Him. If you are willing to faithfully and accurately deliver the King's message to the King's people without distortion or distraction, God can use you. You don't have to be a great speaker. In fact, if you are a great speaker, it might detract from the message of the gospel. Especially if you're not a great speaker, God can work through your weakness. Because then what are you going to attribute it to? What are you going to attribute it to when your proclamation of the gospel is backed up with a demonstration of the Spirit and power as your friends, your family members, your coworkers, their lives are changed? It can only be attributed to the power of the gospel.

23:49So don't think that you have to be a great speaker. You don't. Don't think that you have to have all of these right methods. You don't. You just have to be willing to. Preach the gospel faithfully without relying on human wisdom or human tactics. That's what Paul did. He refused to distort or to distract from the message, simply preaching Christ and him crucified. He did not distract from the message. He just resolved to speak in plain language that could be understood, and he would leave the results to God. He wouldn't manipulate anyone with his words or with his style. And we must do the same thing.

24:30We must do the very same thing, refusing to distort the gospel, refusing to distract from it, but presenting Christ and him crucified simply and plainly, and calling people to repent and believe. We can leave the results to God because only he can bring about the results that we want to see anyway. Friends, there's an old story about a group of American Christians who traveled to England in the 19th century. This was at the height of London, and so they were excited about seeing the sights and sounds of the city. But perhaps even more than that, they were excited about hearing two particular preachers who were very, very famous. And one of the men who was on that trip recounted and recorded their experience. And he says that after they left the first worship service, they walked out and they looked at one another and they said, What? A magnificent preacher.

25:35And then they went to that second worship service. And as they all walked out together, they looked at each other and they said, what a magnificent God. Friends, that's what we want for you. We don't want you to come on Sunday mornings and walk away. saying, what a magnificent preacher, or what magnificent singing, or what magnificent instrumentalists, or what a magnificent facility, although I don't think we're in danger of that. We want you to walk away saying, what a magnificent God. He is worth all of my life, all of my energy, all of my time, all of my hopes, all of my resources. He's worth everything because he is glorious. He is magnificent.

26:34If anyone ever leaves walking away talking about whoever preached that day or whoever led worship in song that day or any other part of our facility or the methods that we use, we have failed because we are not trying to distract from the gospel. And we're certainly not trying to distort it. We're trying to preach Christ and him crucified. And so, whether we're talking about Sunday morning worship or your own personal ministry, that's what we must resolve to do: to preach Christ and Him crucified, nothing less, nothing else, and to leave the results to God.

27:16Our calling is to present the King's message to the King's people without distortion or distraction. May God help us to be faithful heralds of the gospel. Let's pray. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.