July 17, 2005
Morning Worship
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Subject: Perseverance Part 4
Title: Perseverance, Preaching and Power
Have you noticed what the recurring theme is for the past few weeks? I think that it is important for us to be serious about persevering. Now when I talk about perseverance, I’m not speaking of just hanging on till Jesus comes. His intention for the church is to continue to move forward in building His church till He comes. The idea of perseverance, to me, carries the concept of maintaining a bulldog attitude towards the promises of God, the will of God, and the word of God. Perseverance is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. Perseverance is for the strong and strong willed.
Today I want to emphasize perseverance in the preaching of the word. I’m not strictly speaking of my ministry (though that is part of it) but I want to speak to you about your role in the church as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. WE have had the opportunity to talk about witnessing often and often I hear the same objections; I’m not adequate, people don’t listen, people don’t want to hear, people get angry and the list goes on and on. Does anyone ever feel like sharing Christ is the one thing that they just have to do before the sun goes down? I doubt it.
The one thing that seems to fuel our fear of witnessing is the probability of rejection. It is almost a certainty that if you share the gospel you are going to get shot down. So we try it once or twice then give up. I’m not faulting anyone. I’m making an observation. But the one thing we need to get a grasp of is that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. And we need to persevere in our witnessing.
From the diary of John Wesley. . .
Sunday, A.M., May 5 Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5 Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said, "Get out and stay out."
Sunday, A.M., May 12 Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19 Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19 Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26 Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow, as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2 Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2 Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.
John Wesley.
Today I am going to look at three foundational concepts that the apostle Paul wrote of to the Corinthian church. 1) It’s God’s word. 2) You are God’s vessel. 3) You operate in God’s power. As we study the word today pray that God will bless you richly with all that He wants you to receive.
I. REMEMBER THAT IT IS GOD’S WORD. Verse 1, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.” Paul could have taken the opportunity to remind the church in Corinth that he was well educated. He could have been a name - dropper and told them that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He could have shown them his expansive knowledge of Greek history and poetry. But instead he simply tells them about the testimony of God. As a Christian, one of the things that always burned in my heart was how to share the gospel in some inoffensive way. I never wanted to make anyone feel bad or get in an argument with them. I just wanted them to hear the truth about Jesus and then make a decision for themselves. I have seen some who would try to make a great theological presentation about the truth of heaven and hell but it would become more than anyone could understand. Paul could have gone to Corinth with excellence of speech and wisdom. But he understood something that most Christians don’t understand. The cross of Calvary is enough. “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That simple message is enough. Remember the two elements of witnessing that I told you to would be effective? 1) Who Jesus is and 2) What He did. Many in the church at Corinth, because of their Greek background, placed a premium on knowledge. They wanted to hear a convincing argument for Christianity. But Paul wrote in 1:22-23, “For the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified…” Do you see how simple the message is? 1) Heaven is a free gift. 2) Man is a sinner and cannot save himself. 3) God is love but is also just. 4) Jesus came into the world to save us from sin. It’s a gift. 5) We receive that gift by faith. It is so simple that even I can understand it.
II. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE GOD’S VESSEL. Verse 3, “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.” First he came in weakness. If you look at Acts 17, you see a chain of events in Paul’s missionary journeys that transpired over a short period of time. He preached for three weeks in Thessalonica when the Jews became envious and stirred the crowds up against him, and in essence drove him out of the city. He went to Berea for a short period of time and had success until the Jews came down from Thessalonica and again stirred people up against him. Then he went to Athens and tried to reason with the “Philosophers” with little success. No wonder he was weak. Second, the threat from the Jews probably had him fearing for his life. When full gospel churches begin to have success don’t you know that the religious people can’t wait for something to happen that can put an end to all this Holy Ghost Revival “stuff”? Third, his trembling was in recognition of who he was and the work that was given him to do. He didn’t tremble because he was afraid or weak. He trembled because he knew that to him was given the responsibility of be a steward of God’s message. He took his call seriously and he made up his mind that he was going to persevere till the very end. One of the great problems in the church today is that pastors come to a work to which they claim they were “called by God” And when they have little or no success God calls them somewhere else. The same holds true for churches. I know of churches who claimed to be Spirit filled who voted in a pastor, believing it to be God’s will, and then two years later ask him to resign. I don’t doubt that God uses people in certain places for a season and then may call them somewhere else to do the same work, but isn’t it amazing how often God changes His mind before the work is done? It takes a different kind of mindset to see the work completed. It takes the type of mind that Paul had when he trembled at the enormous responsibility given him as he was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Nothing was going to stop him. Do you recall when Paul was stoned and then dragged out of the city of Lystra and left for dead? I think that he was dead and when the disciples gathered around him and prayed he rose up and went right back into the city. (Acts 14:19-20) Folks, that’s perseverance; that’s being used by God! We give up to easily. Here are some sayings about perseverance. There aren’t any hard-and-fast rules for getting ahead in the world -- just hard ones.
- You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days.
- There is no poverty that can overtake diligence. -Japanese proverb
- By perseverance the snail reached the Ark. -Spurgeon
- Triumph is just "umph" added to try.
Source Unknown. We have to set our minds, hearts and spirits to believe that God has a specific work for us and as His vessels He will pour Himself out into us to see the work completed.
III. REMEMBER THAT IT IS HOLY SPIRIT POWER. Verse 4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and power…” Paul never said that the preaching shouldn’t be persuasive. What he did say was that the preaching should not be persuasive because of human wisdom but should be persuasive because of the evidence of Holy Spirit power. That power should be demonstrated in the preaching itself and also in the manifestations and signs and wonders that follow in order to confirm the preaching. Verse 5, “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of man but in the power of God.” Preaching style and fancy words should never take priority over the simple but powerful message of the cross. Human wisdom will make the message of no effect. But Holy Spirit power will prove God’s word over and over. So now we see the three main points of this sermon in inverse order. The power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of God’s human vessels will effectively proclaim His word.
In his book Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee describes a preaching mission to an island off the South China coast. There were seven in the ministering group, including a sixteen-year-old new convert whom he calls Brother Wu. The island was fairly large, containing about 6,000 homes. Nee had a contact there, an old schoolmate of his who was headmaster of the village school, but he refused to house the group when he discovered they had come to preach the Gospel. Finally, they found lodging with a Chinese herbalist, who became their first convert.
Preaching seemed quite fruitless on the island, and Nee discovered it was because of the dedication of the people there to an idol they called Ta-wang. They were convinced of his power because on the day of his festival and parade each year the weather was always near perfect.
"When is the procession this year?" young Wu asked a group that had gathered to hear them preach.
"It is fixed for January 11th at 8 in the morning," was the reply.
"Then," said the new convert, "I promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th."
At that there was an outburst of cries from the crowd: "That is enough! We don’t want to hear any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God!"
Watchman Nee had been elsewhere in the village when this confrontation had taken place. Upon being informed about it, he saw that the situation was serious and called the group to prayer. On the morning of the 11th, there was not a cloud in the sky, but during grace for breakfast, sprinkles began to fall and these were followed by heavy rain.
Worshipers of the idol Ta-wang were so upset that they placed it in a sedan chair and carried it outdoors, hoping this would stop the rain. Then the rain increased. After only a short distance, the carriers of the idol stumbled and fell, dropping the idol and fracturing its jaw and left arm.
A number of young people turned to Christ as a result of the rain coming in answer to prayer, but the elders of the village made divination and said that the wrong day had been chosen. The proper day of the procession, they said, should have been the 14th. When Nee and his friends heard this, they again went to prayer, asking for rain on the 14th and for clear days for preaching until then. That afternoon the sky cleared and on the good days that followed there were thirty converts. Of the crucial test day, Nee says: The 14th broke, another perfect day, and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met again at the appointed hour. We quietly brought the matter to the Lord’s remembrance. Not a minute late, His answer came with torrential rain and floods as before.
The power of the idol over the islanders was broken; the enemy was defeated. Believing prayer had brought a great victory. Conversions followed. And the impact upon the servants of God who had witnessed His power would continue to enrich their Christian service from that time on.
Roger F. Campbell, You Can Win!, 1985, SP Publications, pp. 35-36.
Are you ready for that kind of power in your witnessing? God, who called you and commanded you to preach the gospel, will enable you.
I want to take the opportunity to allow God to demonstrate His power today. We don’t believe in healing because we like the concept. We don’t believe in salvation because it sounds nice. We don’t believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit because we want to be different. We believe it because it is God’s word. And if it is God’s word then we are going to act on it and allow Holy Spirit power to confirm His word.
