First century evangelism…

As our world rapidly approaches the multicultural, religious pluralism that characterized the first century world of the apostle Paul, many churches seek for new ways to address their changing environment. I recently heard a pastor confess a fear that his church might go “out of business” if it does not change to meet the needs of the community. That kind of thinking betrays an incredible ignorance of the nature of the church and reveals that, for that pastor at least, the success or failure of the church depends on men and not on God.

Interestingly, for the apostle Paul and other ministers who participated in the unparalleled world-changing expansion of Christianity in the first century, the issue was never one of marketing but of proclaiming the Truth. Unlike many pastors in the 21^st century, preachers in the first century made no apologies for the gospel. Those preachers witnessed the gospel’s power to change culture while today’s preachers are subsumed by culture. Today’s preachers are justly afraid of being rendered irrelevant. But first century preachers made an impact. Those first century evangelists faced a myriad of competing worldviews and their audience faced a significant cost to accepting their message: for those in the Roman Empire, a sentence of death could result for confessing Jesus as Lord. Yet in the face of those obstacles, the preachers in the first century achieved a success that our contemporary pastors will never know.

The strength of first century evangelism was not in the new, novel ways that they enticed the culture. It came not from adapting their message to the felt needs or opinions of their neighbors. Instead, they simply proclaimed the facts of Jesus and the gospel:

 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day pin accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.   —1 Cor. 15:1–5

They didn’t share their personal experiences or their opinions, they preached the Word. And they didn’t do it “sensitively”:

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. … Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”   —Acts 2:22–24, 36

 Even to a secular audience with neither an understanding nor a vocabulary of Judeo-Christian religion, first century preachers did not equivocate. They preached the truth:

 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.   — Acts 17:16–18

 Paul did not adapt his message to the pagan world because he knew that the gospel was God’s truth:

 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit….   —Eph. 1:13

 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.   —2 Th. 2:13

First century preachers understood that preached truth generated obedience in response:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God….            —1 Pet. 1:22–23

 When these first century preachers surveyed the world around them, they knew better than to think that what people really needed was a place to belong. They did not believe in the inherent goodness of people, and they had no confidence in people coming to God through the process of doing good things. In the first century, preachers understood people on the basis of God’s Word; they recognized that humanity was depraved because it was deprived of the Truth:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth….   —1 Tim. 6:3–5

So Paul, Peter, James and John preached the truth—and countless nameless others followed them through the centuries. Their languages changed and words varied, but the content never did. They preached the Word of God, the gospel. And in doing so, what was at its beginning a tiny sect within Judaism became a worldwide religion. Not because any of these men in themselves were great orators, and not because any of them did market surveys or customer satisfaction measurements in their congregations. They succeeded because it is God who builds His Church, and He does it through His Spirit and the foolishness of preaching His Word (1 Cor. 1:17–21). If pastors today are genuinely concerned about the church “going out of business,” perhaps they should return to that which built the church in the first place. Let us all pray and ask that God would ignite a fire in the hearts of men around the world to once again preach the Word.