If every Sunday morning service is an evangelistic crusade, then the congregation will be a mile wide and an inch deep. Conversely, if no Sunday morning services offer explicit presentations of the gospel, then the congregation will be an inch wide and an inch deep.
Paul teaches a better way:
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 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. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:1-8).
The key distinction in Paul’s thinking here is between “when I came to you” and “yet among the mature.” When Paul was encountering new Corinthians, he preached nothing but the gospel; every conversation was a gospel crusade. But when Paul was preaching to the mature believers, he brought out all the secret and hidden wisdom of God.
When Paul arrived in Corinth, he did not stand on a street corner and distribute Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion.” But among mature believers, he did expound upon what “God decreed before the ages for our glory.”
There is a time and place for everything. On the street corner, let’s not talk about anything “except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” In the Sunday morning service, let’s “impart wisdom.”
“Healthy sheep beget sheep.” I don’t know where I first heard that expression, but it is part of my thinking as I prepare sermons each week. My job as an under-shepherd is to feed Christ’s sheep. Jesus said to Peter, “feed my lambs” (John 21:15), “tend my sheep” (21:16), and “feed my sheep” (21:17), so I take this to be my first responsibility as a pastor. And if the sheep hear His voice and follow (John 10:4), then the sheep will go out into the world and tell others about the Good Shepherd. Healthy sheep will evangelize out in the world all week long.
Sunday mornings are for the gathering of the sheep to hear the Word of the Lord, and oftentimes, the passage of Scripture that we hear will lead us right back to where we started. Scripture often expounds upon the Gospel.
That is certainly the case this Sunday. Romans 3:9-20 is the conclusion of Paul’s indictment against sinful man. It leads us right into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, this Sunday and each Sunday in coming weeks will be very focused on the Gospel. These will be good weeks to bring a friend that might not yet know the Gospel. When we get to Romans 9, that chapter might be better suited for the mature. But we will not skip over it. The sheep will be eager to hear what “God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). There are many doctrines in the Bible that only believers will be interested to hear.
So, remember the principle that “healthy sheep beget sheep.” We impart wisdom when the mature are gathered in the church. Hearing “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) is what keeps the sheep healthy. Evangelism is what healthy sheep do when we are out in the world.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
