Lessons from Paul on Revival

Lessons from Paul on Revivals

We have in the biblical texts examples of how Paul addressed both Jews and non-Jews. It will be interesting to see how his messages to these quite different audiences compare, particularly since in the West Christianity has been so effectively pushed from the public sphere for so long that it is debatable whether a new wave of Christianity will require revival of known but abandoned faith or proclamation and conversion to a previously unknown religion. Indeed I have heard it argued that Paul's missionary work among Gentiles is a more accurate model of what will be required.

1. Paul speaking to fellow Jews.

Soon after the dramatic conversion of Paul (aka Saul) he preaches in the synagogue arguing a) that Jesus is the son of God and b) that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah (Acts 9. 20-22). This brings threats to his life both in Damascus and Jerusalem and he is shipped off to safety in his native Tarsus.

In Acts 14 we have a detailed account of the sermon Paul gave in the Synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. The audience there was both Jews and “God-fearers” - People who were attracted to the monotheism and moral uprightness of Judaism but had not yet become full converts. After carefully laying a preliminary foundation Paul comes to the crux of his message: 

Jesus is the promised saviour descended from David: 

the elders of the nation did not recognise him and had him executed:

but God raised him from the dead: 

Now in Jesus is proclaimed forgiveness of sins – forgiveness not available under the Mosaic law. 

He concludes with a warning against scoffers. Some Jews and God-fearers believe and join him, but the remainder are incensed when they see Gentiles become interested and expel Paul and start a persecution which drives him from the town.

There are two interesting points come out of this episode. 

First, Paul presents it as a fulfillment of God's promises to the people of Israel: “What God promised to our fathers he has fulfilled for us their children by raising up Jesus …. from the dead.” 

Second, there is not the call to repentance we heard from Peter on the Day of Pentecost, but there is the same stress on forgiveness of sins through Jesus: “Therefore, brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”

In Thessalonica (Acts 17) Paul began as usual in the synagogue. “He reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving to them that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. 'This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” 

Fleeing persecution to neighbouring Berea they again spoke to Jews and God-fearers: “they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

In Corinth (Acts 18) Paul began by preaching to both Jews and Greeks. “Testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ” until they rejected his message and expelled him.

His defence to his fellow Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 22) moves from how he was at first violently opposed to “the Way” but then confronted by Jesus and converted. Then his speech is terminated when he mentions Gentiles. Before Felix his message is: they cannot prove their charges but “I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way...” 

Before King Agrippa part of his defence is the narrative of his previous persecution then conversion to believe in Jesus of Nazareth. Concluding “I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen – that the Christ would suffer and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the gentiles.” At that point Festus interrupts and the speech is terminated.

In Rome (Acts 28) Paul met with the local Jews and “explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince then about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.”

2. Paul Speaking to Pagans.

In Acts 14.8ff Paul gets to address a group of pagans who seeing a miraculous healing have taken Paul and Barnabas for their gods Hermes and Zeus! Their message, which is cut short by the arrival of hostile Jews who win over the crowd and have Paul and Barnabas stoned is: “We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made heaven and earth ...”

In Philippi (Acts 16.22ff) Paul and Silas are in prison praying and singing hymns. There is an earth quake but the prisoners do not try to escape – saving the jailer from having to kill himself. He asks: “What must I do to be saved?” to which they answer “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household” Then they spoke “the word of the Lord” to them.  

Thus their call was for belief in Jesus, filled out with teaching about Jesus.

In Athens (Acts 17.16ff) we learn first that Paul was “preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.” In the famous speech at the Areopagus the argument goes:

 

* Praise for their being religious:

* “what you worship as something unknown I am now going to proclaim to you”:

* There is a living God whose offspring we are so he is not an idol:

* “in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands men everywhere to repent...”:

* The man he has appointed to judge the world he has accredited by raising him from th dead.

                     (Here his speech is terminated by scoffing at the idea of resurrection from the dead.)

In Ephesus (Acts 19) as well as the statement that he preached “the word of the Lord” we get an inkling of at least one item of the content of this from his opponents: “He says that man made gods are no gods at all” This was brave preaching in the very home of the worldwide cult of Artemis and the place of its most holy idol!

So it seems that to Jews Paul's message was Jesus: that he was the Messiah: That his rejection and suffering were the fulfilment of prophecy: that God raised him from the dead.

To those who knew nothing of Judaism Paul's message seems to have been a call to leave behind idols which are no gods at all and worship the living God through Jesus whom he raised from the dead. 

It is significant that Paul preached against idols even when – as at Ephesus – this was bound to be met with hostility and that he preached the resurrection from the dead even when he knew – as at Athens – that the audience would reject this concept out of hand. It is clear from both the time he spent on teaching believers, and the content we have in his letters, that the message about salvation through faith in Jesus was spelt out in full.

Both to Jews and Gentiles the message seems to have been presented positively as “good news” not negatively as the “repent or perish” of earlier times. Especially to non-Jews the thrust was “God has overlooked idolatry in your ignorant past … but now he commands obedience”

This suggests to me that if the West is granted a revival; to a generation separated from Christianity by both the success of progressivism and the failure of churches to present the Gospel the message would be along these positive lines.