Why Paul Didn’t Build a Brand

[David]

Listen to audio here.

Something is just a little bit off in the church today. A certain lust has come into the faith of too many professing Christians, but they don’t realize it’s there because it comes so subtly. The lust to be impressed. To be wowed. To sit under smooth-talking preachers and gospel salesman with slick stages, the latest media technology and a polished “ministry style.”

And the reason it’s wrong is simple. That’s not what God does. It’s not how He has ever worked. And it’s precisely what Paul was writing against in 1 Corinthians 1: 17 when he penned, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Think about that. God sent Paul to go to the world to proclaim the good news, but he said it was with “not with wisdom of words” (1 Corinthians 1:17). In other words, Paul’s message wasn’t supposed to impress anybody. His mission wasn’t to entertain, persuade with fine Greek or blow anyone’s mind with rhetorical skill. Paul was simply to preach. To do the job that Christ had commissioned him to do, namely to proclaim the gospel of God.

Paul purposefully eschewed the cultural, polished techniques of persuasion to leave nothing to obscure the beautiful and piercing power of the one thing needed, namely, Christ crucified.

Imagine that. An early church pastor boldly discarding the world’s platform of showmanship for the simplicity of the Word. Today we seem to think it’s either creative if we don’t sit in a pews or revival if we incorporate a projector, but if the message isn’t there, it doesn’t matter what else is. It’s not nonsense to say that when a church invests more in its media, sermon production quality and a celebrity-style pulpit, while divesting from the scriptural, historical verity of the gospel, it waters down the cross and dishonors God.

Paul made a point of showing that if he were going to preach the gospel, the cross would not be obscured by “wisdom of words.” Today we build social media platforms, blogs and preaching ministries from the same. We size up our sermon performances on how effectively we made a crowd laugh, cry, got them thinking, whether they will be repeatable for our career in “pastoring.” But Paul recognized what’s been lost these days, when man’s wisdom is at the center, the cross is in the periphery. And when the cross is in the periphery of our message, it has no power in the ears of the hearer because God’s Spirit does not give effect to self-centered, fleshly presentations.

Paul was not anti-baptism when he said this. Jesus himself said to baptize (Matthew 28:19). Paul’s emphasis is clear, the priority of his calling was gospel proclamation, to preach. The central job of any pastor is preaching the gospel, for it is through the gospel that sinners are saved. Baptism is not the end in view. That is always the gospel itself (Romans 1:16). The power of God unto salvation is the gospel, not baptism or man’s persuasive wisdom. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

That power is not in eloquent speech. It’s in a bloody cross. It’s in a resurrected Savior.

Paul reiterates the principle later in 1 Corinthians 2: 4 when he says, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” His speech wasn’t to draw men to faith in him or in himself. Faith was to be placed solely in God.

The problem is that preachers have exalted man’s methods, his wisdom, and his words to the point where the cross is lost. Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin, we’re trying to do it ourselves with Hollywood-type productions, music concerts, multimedia packages, and sleeker-than-sleek pastor rockstars.

May God have mercy on our souls. Let’s get back to the biblical cross-centered gospel and humble ourselves under the mighty power of God that it works in the hearts of men by the Spirit of God when preached faithfully and plainly. It’s not about how we sound. It’s about how faithfully we handle God’s Word. If the “gospel” we are “sharing” is not Jesus Christ, His substitutionary atonement for our sins on the cross, His burial and resurrection from the dead, and His impending return in judgment, then we’re not sharing the gospel at all. Let’s quit thinking we’re effective just because we have a slick social media presence. We need to sound so biblical, so countercultural, so wrong, that when our message lands in the ear of the sinner who has no business being there, they hear it in faith from God and are saved.

No amount of Instagram “celebrity” and “culture relevance” can hide that fact that if the cross of Christ is watered down or entirely removed and replaced with church “growth” philosophies that appeal to the “felt needs” of sinners (instead of proclaiming sin and repentance), it’s a desert. The God of the Bible is not seeking impressive sermons. He is not impressed by men. He is looking for obedient men and women who will teach His Word, no matter how countercultural it may be.

When they do, the Spirit brings life from death. The Holy Spirit of God has infinitely greater power over sinners’ hearts than the most polished words. The message of the cross will always pierce to the heart of those God sovereignly sends, far better than any emotion-pumping soul-winning program the flesh ever devised.

Preach the cross. Not with wisdom of words but with the power of God unto salvation. That’s where the power is. That’s where the lost are found.