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However, the apostle
immediately explains that in obedience to the command to preach the
gospel to the nations, he “declared first to those in Damascus and in
Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the
Gentiles, that they should repent…”
A survey of
Acts 13 to 28 will reveal that wherever God’s unique envoy to the
Gentiles went in the ancient Roman world, his first port of call in
every city was the synagogue. Luke records in chapter 17 that at
Athens, the centre of Greek culture, Paul’s “spirit was provoked within
him when he saw the city given over to idols. Therefore
he reasoned in the synagogue…” (vss16-17). Why reason in the synagogue?
If there were one place in Athens free from idolatry, superstition and
graven images it would have been the shul. Yet Paul
began his campaign against idolatry there and from there went on to
reason with the Greeks in the market place and at the Areopagus.
The reason
for this apparent disobedience to the heavenly vision by reversing the
priority of his commission is to be found in Romans 1:16 and Acts
13:46. For Paul, although the gospel was indisputably “the power of God
to salvation for everyone” - Jew or Gentile - it was so “for the Jew first” and, for that reason, he was
able to testify to the Jews of Antioch that although he had been sent
as a light to the Gentiles, it was necessary that the word of God
should have been spoken to them first.
Message
Paul’s
message to the Thessalonian synagogue in Acts 17 was that the Messiah
“had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and … ‘this Jesus whom I
preach to you is the Messiah’.” The Gospel records reveal that apart
from John the Baptist (John 1:29), Simeon (Luke 2:34,35) and the Lord
himself, few Jews of the first century had any concept of a suffering
Messiah. This is apparent from the fact that after Peter had received
his momentous divine revelation that Jesus was the Messiah he had to be
rebuked for attempting to dissuade his Master from his ultimate
destination – Jerusalem and the cross.
Jews living
outside Israel were similarly in the dark. Paul’s message in the
synagogues of the Diaspora was that the redemption for which they
longed and prayed had been accomplished through nothing less than the
death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Method
As Saul of
Tarsus, Paul had waged war on the Church, prepared to stop at nothing
in his determination to stamp out the fledgling Jesus movement. The
ascended Christ had appeared to him, blinding him by a dazzling light
that was seen by his travelling companions. Through the power of God he
had been saved, healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. What a
testimony! If the Full Gospel
Businessmen had been around in the first
century, Paul would have been inundated with invitations to tell his
story at their Gospel Banquets. Christian publishers would have been
falling over themselves to obtain his biography. Yet Paul rarely spoke
about his conversion experience. On the two occasions that Paul
testifies (Acts 22 and 26) he does so because he is requested and as a
defence of his missionary activity. His preferred method of evangelism
was to reason from the Hebrew Scriptures.
In this way
he was an imitator of Christ. After he rose from the dead, the Lord
could have allayed the fears of the disciples on the journey to Emmaus
by showing them his hands and feet. Instead, he gave them a Bible
study. When Peter referred to his experience of seeing Christ
transfigured, he urged his readers to heed the “prophetic word” which
was “more sure” than his testimony (2 Peter 1:16-21).
No change
The most
efficient and sure method of Jewish mission is to “explain and
demonstrate” from the Scriptures that redemption is dependent on a
Saviour who suffered, died and rose from the grave. It is this divinely
sanctioned missionary strategy that CWI seeks to follow. Our
missionaries approach the task in their own ways but the bottom line in
each of their ministries is the explanation and application of the
Scriptures to Jewish people.
Paul’s
strategy serves as our blueprint for mission. Like him, we seek to
fulfil the great commission of Christ by preaching the Good News to all
but, in accordance with the mandate of Romans 1:16, we are mindful that
its primary focus is the Jewish people. Our message and the method of
communicating that message remains the same. In one sense, the
principles of twenty-first century evangelism were established in the
first century but, in another, they were formulated before the world’s
foundation. Paul’s method of mission was, like the tabernacle of Moses,
constructed according to the pattern shown him. It may not be the
easiest path but it is the most firmly established and we are committed
to walking it.
This article
was written for the Spring 2000 issue but was not included due to lack
of space
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