Paul the Preacher

Prayer:

Help us to spread your word.

A few weeks ago we looked at how Paul changed from a persecutor of the church to one of its most influential members. This week we'll look at an example of how he preached, in particular his first preaching effort to the gentiles recorded in Acts 13, and most importantly, what we can learn from it.

Paul's first approach was to preach to those with a similar faith, i.e. the Jews. In some ways this may be easier, but we have to remember what effect the early preaching attempts had on Paul prior to his conversion. Yes, it's easier to relate to and there was some common ground, but sometimes people just won't want to change, or resent it.

We'll look at what he said. In order for a presentation to be effective it needs to follow some basic rules;

• start with the simple/obvious
• concentrate on the basics
• show how it can apply to everyone

There's one other aspect (which as a lecturer and tutor) I've found to be very important and that is 'know your subject'. I've seen tutors loose all credibility because they've said something which the students know is incorrect. Paul certainly didn't fall under this category as he was one of the most learned students of Law in his time.

If we break down his speech, Paul

1. starts with the history leading up to the Exodus out of Egypt
2. he moves onto the judges, prophets and kings (notably David)
3. he then mentions the promises made to David, and Jesus and his lineage
4. he looks at how the death of Jesus was prophesied
5. then he looks at Jesus resurrection, showing that
   1. Jesus is more important than David
   2. Through his resurrection we can have forgiveness of sin
6. Paul then ends with warnings and prophesies about those who won't believe.

Stages 1-5 build upon each other, while stage 6 is an alternative result for those who don't believe. The result of this speech was that not only did the Jews of the Synagogue want to hear more, but "the whole city was gathered together" to hear Paul.

So how does this apply to us?

If we are willing to talk to others about God, God will call those who are to be saved. But at least we have tried.