Good Morning, All,
God be with you this day. Molly and I watched an excerpt documentary on YouTube last night that blessed us. It is called, American Gospel, and if you are interested this is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocHm18wUAGU.
American Gospel is about the watered down gospel being preached in so many churches today. It was truly edifying and had some good information. If you watch it, let me know what you think.
In Christ,
~Al
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
Act 17:2-3
Paul's ministry
Notice—
I. The chief object of Christian faith. "Jesus"—Savior from sin, and fear, and hell, through the power of His sacrifice, and the prevalence of His intercession. "Christ," anointed by the Eternal Spirit, and set apart to kingly, prophetic, priestly office forever. No redeemer for man can be imagined of a nobler type, of a fuller efficiency Granted that redemption is necessary, then we have no choice of persons. "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." When the gospel began, Jesus Christ was the one object of faith, and He is so now. By no rearrangement of the materials of revelation, can you have a system of Christianity without Him. The central attractive power gone, the forces will strive with each other, and the motions will be incalculable. There is a throne; someone must sit on it. There is a gate; someone must stand at it to keep it open into the way that leadeth unto life. There is a peril towering high above all other dangers; we need someone to break it and roll it away, and there is no one but Christ. Never was demand more reasonable than this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
II. The means used to produce faith are now the same. Our apostle met them on the Sabbath day—the day of rest, when they frequented the synagogue, and "he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." We, too, open the Scriptures as our book of authority. It is the duty of those who set forth God's mind in the Scriptures, to "reason" with men. The Greek word originally means to carry on an argument by way of dialogue. That was the apostolic method of serving Christ; not at all like that of putting on and off clothes, turning the back to the people, going up and down altar stairs. Different, too, from that of the strong doctrinal dogmatist, who asserts and does not "reason." To preach Christ is to "reason out of the Scriptures," and, in a secondary degree, out of the great book of human life and experience, and also out of the great book of material nature; but in any case it is to "reason," to lay out the matter as it seems to ourselves, to press it home upon all whom it concerns; to remonstrate, expostulate, entreat, and then to leave the issue with God. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
…III. We have an example of the best means of fixing our thoughts on Christ; securing clear conceptions concerning Him, and certitude of faith in Him. Paul "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Reason in man is the apex of his spiritual nature—the point at which he touches the infinite in God, and the infinite in God touches and enters into finite man. Man is rational, because he is spiritual in living relation to God, who is a Spirit. He reasoned with them; he appealed to them by facts, by illustrations, by arguments, by principles, that they might know, understand, and believe the truth which he had to proclaim as a rational message from Jesus Christ to them and to all men. He "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." When we reason, we commence from things which are admitted as true in fact, or in principle, on both sides, and then proceed to show that something else must also be true, on the ground of what has been already admitted. Paul and his hearers had things believed in common. Gods Moses, the prophets, the Scriptures as the veracious history of God's thought and purpose in the past ages. He got the premises, grounds, foundations of his arguments, his syllogisms, in the records of God's thoughts and deeds, as he reasoned with them to prove that Jesus is the Christ, and that their instant duty was to believe on Him and obey Him as their Savior King. So it must be still, from the sacred Scriptures, from human experience, that the true preacher must reason, and by reason and reasoning convince the gainsayers, convert the careless, and lead the inquirer to faith in the Lord Jesus. (Prof. Wm. Taylor.)
Paul's preaching at Thessalonica
His preaching—
I. Was evangelic.
1. His grand theme was Christ.
(1) He showed the necessity of His suffering and His resurrection. He exhibited the Cross of Christ in all its high aspects.
(2) He showed that He was Messiah. "Is Christ."
2. His grand authority was the Scriptures. He did not attempt to derive his arguments and illustrations from general literature or philosophy. He would, perhaps, quote the old prophecies (Gen_49:10; Isa_40:1-10; Isa_53:1-12; Dan_9:24-27; Mic_5:6, etc.), and show that in the life of Jesus those wonderful prophecies were fulfilled. Reasoning with the Jews, his authority was Scripture, and with the Gentiles, Nature, as at Athens.
3. His grand method was reasoning. He "reasoned with them." "Opening" means to explain, to unfold. "Alleging" means laying down the proposition. He laid down his propositions, and he argued their truth from the Scriptures. This is model preaching. Let ministers give to men now the Christ of the Scriptures, not the Christ of their theology.
II. Won converts (verse 4). The "devout Greeks" were those who had become proselytes to the Jewish religion, "proselytes of the gate." The "chief women" were members of families of high rank. The converts were—
1. Numerous. "A great multitude."
2. Influential. "Chief women." Some of the leading women of the city.
3. Thoroughly united. They "consorted with Paul and Silas." Common beliefs awaken common sympathies. Christ gathers men of different types of character and grades of life together.
III. Awoke opposition (verse 5). In this we see—
1. The force of envy, This malignant passion of evil natures had been excited in the Jews by the moral conquest which the apostles had won in their synagogue. This passion has always been the inspiration of all persecutions. It shows itself now in a thousand forms.
2. The servility of mobs. These Jews took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, unprincipled idlers that are found lounging about places of public resort, the lazy rabble that fill workhouses with paupers and jails with prisoners, who are always ready instruments to the hands of evil men in power. The demagogue can cajole them, and the rich can purchase their services with cash.
3. The revolutionizing power of the gospel (verse 6). These men spoke a truth, though unintentionally. The gospel does turn the world upside down, for the moral world is in the wrong position.
4. The falsehood of wickedness (verse 4). The charge they brought against them was that of sedition and rebellion against the Roman emperor, high treason against the crown. These men covered their envy under the garb of patriotism. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Comments
Post a Comment