In our last blog post we took a sidestep from the series on looking at the
fact that the early church had no one particular ‘method’ of preaching the
gospel. In this posting, we will return to that subject. Though the gospel message is unchangeable, the most effective method of communicating
it to others depends on the people that we seek to preach the gospel to.
Missionaries who go to cultures where people think and live in a way that is
very different from their own, know this very well. They must seek to discover
how to communicate the gospel in a way that the people will understand fully
and then be in a position to respond with their minds and their hearts.
In this
posting we will look at how the Apostle Paul successfully presented the gospel
message to the Gentiles in Rome. He wrtes:
“I have brought the Gentiles to God by my message and
by the way I lived before them. I have won them over by the miracles done
through me as signs from God -- all by the power of God's Spirit. In this way,
I have fully presented the Good News of Christ all the way from Jerusalem clear
over into Illyricum.” (Romans 15:18b-19)
His
strategy included three things:
- The gospel message
- The way he lived his life before them
-
The miracles
done through him (as signs from God).
IOn verse 19, Paul said, “In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ…” He said that
he did this all by the power of God’s Spirit. All of these things
got the attention of the Romans and won them to Christ. This is a different
approach that we see Paul using in other gospel preaching situations-it was the
right approach for this particular situation. Let’s not get locked into one particular
method of sharing the gospel. By not discerning the approach that will best bear fruit,
we could miss out on a harvest.
Until the next posting, "occupy until He comes."
