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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 5, NUMBER 20, MAY 22, 2005 “PREACH
THE WORD” In Acts 20, the Apostle Paul summoned the elders of the church in Ephesus to the seaport city of Miletus for what can be termed his farewell address to these men. He had spent approximately three years with them, and the love he had for them and the church over which they had the oversight is apparent in the things that he said to them at that time. I’d like to consider the first part of that address, as well as a few additional things that Paul had to say. Acts 20:18-21, tells us, “And when they had come to him, he said to them, You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Down in verse 26-27, Paul said, “Therefore I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (Or as the King James puts verse 27, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” In verses 31-32, we find Paul saying, “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” All faithful gospel preachers take to heart the exhortation of Paul to Timothy found in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” Paul was a man who did not simply tell others what to do, he practiced what he preached. Paul called to the remembrance of the Ephesian elders the fact that fear had not kept him from presenting to them anything from the word of the Lord that would be profitable for their growth. It is undoubtedly true that there are some things contained in God’s revelation that are hard to preach about and difficult to teach. However, if it is part of what God has revealed it must be taught. Holding back a portion of the truth that might have been hard to hear could have been “profitable” to Paul from the standpoint of his personal popularity in Ephesus – but to do so is as sinful as publicly proclaiming a false doctrine. Back in 2 Tim. 4, this time in verses 3-4, Paul made it clear that the time would be coming when it would be easy to find those who would present only what the people wanted to hear, and not always what they needed to hear. He wrote, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” Back in Acts 20, Paul reaffirmed in verse 27 that he had not failed to present anything that was part of the “purpose” or “counsel” of God. Paul presented it all to them. As an apostle and an evangelist, Paul knew that he was not free to pick and choose those parts of God’s will that he wanted to present and that he was comfortable with presenting, and to leave out those parts that he might have found difficult to address or that he knew some of the brethren were not going to like. It was his “job” to present it all, as a matter of fact we could say that it was the “whole “ of Paul to present it all. If he failed to do so, than he was the quintessential failure. As an evangelist, is it possible, or proper, to look at a passage from either the Old or New Testament, and say, “I’m uncomfortable with the message that passage presents or the lessons it teaches” and decide to stay away from it because it is hard to teach? I don’t think so. If God put it in His word, He did so for a purpose – and that purpose is always for our good. Are there lessons harder to present than others? Yes, there certainly are. Are there lessons concerning which I agonize over the choice of words I use to make it as “hearer-friendly” as possible? Yes there are. But one thing I can not do is to stay away from any subject presented in God’s Word because it is hard to preach or hard to hear. Greg Litmer NO TITLE, JUST TO THE POINT
My job is not to
aggravate, Al Diestelkamp
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