Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
The art of spiritual persuasion
Sunday, 12 September 2004
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Bible Talk Text
1. How you sound... or what you say?
Have you ever run foul of a one of those classic salesmen?
You know, one of those legendary used-car salesmen. The kind of guy who could sell ice to the Eskimos, or surfboards in Alice Springs. The kind where you find yourself one minute looking at a car in his caryard, and the next your in his office. You’ve got a pen in your hand and you’re about to sign up for a big car with a bigger loan. You don't know quite know how you got there. It's not the model you want and it's definitely more than you can afford to pay. But somehow he's manipulated you into thinking this car's exactly what you need. And you almost sign. Luckily just before you did, you think about what your wife/husband/bank manger would say if you came home with the contract in your pocket. And so commonsense prevailed.
I'm sure you've been in situations like that.
Someone's been so persuasive that they've manipulated you into a situation you don't want to be in. Maybe they told some half truths to make their argument look better. Left out the downside of taking their course of action - like you won't be able to eat because you're paying back a huge car loan.
Or maybe they were just so smooth that you forgot about the facts. You were overwhelmed by all the technical jargon.
There are plenty of techniques you can use to make people agree with you while disguising the facts. And they can seem so wise, so clever, so competent. I'm sure that salesman sold lots of cars. And it's not just sales people. Lots of people make it to the top of our society by saying smart sounding things that disguise the facts.
And it was the same back in Paul's time. How you sounded could be more important than what you said.
If you wanted to be a popular philosopher or teacher you had to sound good. The content didn't matter so much. If you were persuasive enough. If your language and your style were impressive enough. People would follow you. And the Corinthians are being sucked into this worldly way of thinking too. They're wanting leaders who sound just like the other teachers and philosophers in Corinth. Leaders who'll make Christianity sound philosophical and smart. Leaders who'll minimise the embarrassing bits of the message - like the cross. Leaders who can overwhelm their audience with lots of impressive jargon.
But according to Paul they're looking for the wrong thing.
They shouldn't be looking for leaders like the smart philosophers in Corinth. They should be looking for leaders who'll teach people about the Gospel. And you can't manipulate people into believing the Gospel. You can't use fancy techniques to get people to sign up without thinking. And you can't downplay the unpopular parts. Especially not the cross.
He says to the Corinthians, remember how you became Christians. When I talked to you about the Gospel. I didn't use any fancy techniques. I didn't try and cover up the difficult bits, or overwhelm you with clever jargon.
Follow with me in chapter 2v 1. He says:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
He says I just gave a clear presentation of the message of the cross. And it worked. Even though my message was clear and simple, God's Spirit used it powerfully. You believed"
v2: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And then vs 4: and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
So the Corinthians should know better than to look for leaders with worldly and manipulative techniques. Paul didn't have to use special techniques to persuade them to accept the Gospel - and they wouldn't have helped.
It's not that Paul wasn't a good speaker. But the gospel is different. It can't be explained with fancy or manipulative speeches. You can't con people into believing it with clever techniques.
And Paul goes on to show why that's the case. He shows the Corinthians why you can't manipulate people into believing the gospel. And there's two parts to what he says. Two things he tells them.
First, he tells them the Gospel is hidden, and then he tells them the one way the Gospel can be revealed.
2. The hidden gospel.
Paul starts by showing the Gospel is hidden wisdom. He says the Gospel we speak is wisdom, but it's completely different from the wisdom of this age. It's completely different from the wisdom that ignores God. Wisdom that says “I'm god and I'll do whatever I feel like.”
The wisdom of the cross is so different from that normal human way of thinking, it's secret. It's hidden from people who think in the normal worldly way. Look at vs6-7:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
And he says to the Corinthians if you want evidence that God's wisdom is hidden. If you want evidence, it’s right there in the fact that human leaders with their normal self centred worldview can't understand it.
Just look at what they did to Jesus. Here was the man at the centre of God's wise plans. The man who was bringing God's glory. And instead of trusting him and serving him. They killed him.
As Paul says in v 8: None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
And Paul says, if you're still not convinced God's wisdom is a hidden wisdom, then read your bible. The Old testament says it too. He tops off his argument with a quote in v9:
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
It's like me with those magic eye puzzle books. Where you have to go cross eyed and this amazing picture is supposed to rise out of the page. My Mum hates them because she’s never seen anything. Doesn't matter how much she screw up her eyes or roll them around or go cross eyed. It all stays exactly the same. Those amazing pictures are hidden from her. And there's no way you can talk her into seeing them. People try all the time. Make it sound like she’s seriously missing out. 'Oh... that's amazing! Surely you can see that, its incredible. Don't tell me you can't see it.' But it's not going to reveal the hidden pictures for her. And it can't reveal the Gospel either. Whatever manipulative techniques get used.
There's only one way the Gospel can be revealed, and that's what Paul goes on to talk about next. He says even though God's wisdom is hidden, he can understand it and so can the Corinthians. V 10 says ...it's hidden...
3. The gospel revealed...
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. And if anyone knows God's wisdom, its the Spirit because he searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Paul says it makes sense. God's spirit is the only one who knows what he's thinking. And if we want to know God's thoughts - his wisdom, then his spirit's got to reveal it to us. It works the same with us. If you think of a number between 1 and 10, your mind, your ‘spirit’, is the only one who knows the number you've chosen. The person sitting next to you doesn't know. I don't know.
Paul's not saying our mind is exactly the same as God's spirit. He's saying the only way we'll get to know what someone is thinking is if it gets out of their mind and into ours. For who, he says in v11, For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The Gospel is spiritual wisdom. And people who don't have the spirit can't understand it.
There was a lot of media attention in 2001 when Peter Jensen was elected the archbishop of Sydney. You might have seen it in the paper or on TV. But there was one thing I didn't see reported anywhere. It was the first thing he said at his first press conference. He said 'I want to stake my life on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.' here's the most important thing he's got to say. The thing at the heart of what he's on about. And no one reported it. That press conference made the front page of all the papers. It was on TV and the radio. But I didn't see one single mention of the resurrection.
All anyone cared about was his views on refugees and the prime minister. And as important as those things are, he didn't want to stake his life on them. He wanted to stake his life on the resurrection. But for people without the spirit the resurrection was irrelevant. It was embarrassing. It was foolish.
Only people who have God's spirit can understand God's wisdom. To anyone else it's foolish. Which is exactly what Paul says in v12: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
And v 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
But in contrast, note v 14:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
And if the only way you can understand God's wisdom is to have the Spirit, if the Gospel is spiritual wisdom, there's only one way to speak about it. You've got to use spiritual words. Worldly techniques won't work. You can't manipulate people or overpower them with clever arguments and big words. The spirit doesn't use worldly manipulation. He uses spiritual language. Look at v 13. Paul says: And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Now when Paul says he uses ‘spiritual words’, it could sound a bit weird. As if you've got to use jargon like ‘propitiation’ or ‘sanctification’. Or maybe you've got to say everything with a spiritual accent. You can't just say ‘holy, holy, holy’, you've got to say ‘hoely, hoely, hoely’.
But that's not what Paul is saying at all. The spiritual truth he's talking about is the Gospel. And he's just saying if you're talking about the Gospel, use language that fits.
If you're talking about the cross, talk about the cross!
Don't try and make it sound like you've got some fancy philosophy that everyone will agree with. Don't try and manipulate people, just say it like it is.
That's spiritual language!
And so what Paul's saying is the language and the style should match the message. And if you're speaking about the Gospel that'll mean being be clear and passionate and interesting.
Off on a slight tangent here, but let me ask, how do you speak when you are talking about the gospel to people? Or perhaps I should first ask if you talk about the gospel with people!
Either way, it begs the question how should we be talking about the gospel with people.
At one point, I was heavily involved with an evangelistic tool called Evangelism Explosion – I even wrote an Australian youth version of the training course and gospel outline. But I rarely use it anymore. Why? Because it’s a gospel outline that now assumes too much prior knowledge of Christian and biblical things. And in making that assumption, it’s using language and ideas that simply don’t effectively communicate with Australians today.
Which is one reason why some of us have just finished doing a course learning how to use a different gospel outline – Two Ways To Live. I heartily recommend it – not because it speaks about a different gospel to that of E.E. – but because it is couched in terms that are simple and easy to follow, and that don’t assume prior knowledge of the Bible. There is also strong encouragement to take that outline and ‘make it yours’, telling it in your own language, allowing all that God has done in your life to speak through the words you use...
Most of us actually need to think that through and practise it – which is why a TWTL training course is such a good thing... If you’re lucky Simon might run one next term... 
But you’ll know what I means if you’ve ever heard John Chapman speak, you’ll know what I mean. He doesn’t use big words. He doesn’t try and disguise unpopular parts of the Gospel. He doesn’t manipulate people. He just gives a clear and interesting explanation of what Jesus had done and why people should trust him. He was speaking spiritual truth with spiritual words.
That's the kind of speaking Paul wants the Corinthians to admire. And that's the kind of speaking we need to work for as well.
It's what you should be looking for in our preaching.
Are we being clear and interesting.
Do we focus on Jesus and his death?
Does our language and our style match the Gospel we're preaching?
That's what we're aiming for and I hope that's what you're looking for.
But even if you're not preaching up front, do stop and think about how do you talk about the Gospel with your friends.
Are you clear? Simple? Interesting? Do you make sure people understand the awkward bits, like sin, and hell?
If you spend all your time talking about our cool web site, or the nice seats and the great music, you might make the gospel sound attractive, but you won’t have given your friends the complete picture of what we're on about, and what God’s on about.
4. A challenge and an encouragement
So, we’re left with a challenge and an encouragement:
The Challenge:
Speak and teach the gospel clearly and simply.
That assumes that we actually are speaking about it in the first place! If it’s helpful, train yourself to use a simple and clear gospel outline like TWTL.
The Encouragement:
We don’t need to be super clever and potentially manipulative as we share the gospel. Sure, we can be creative and innovative in thinking of ways to bring under the sound the gospel, but in the end, for people to understand it, God Spirit has to be involved. Which means that whole area of the interchange around the gospel is in God’s hands, and we don’t have to worry about that side of things, other than to be prayerful for the people you speak with...
So don't manipulate people. You don't need to. Just give a clear explanation of the Gospel. That is: spiritual truth in spiritual words. Because that's the way God's Spirit reveals the Gospel.
