For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient.
Paul’s success
I. Its extent.
1. Matter of notoriety.
2. Needed no attempt on the part of the apostle to exaggerate it.
II. The means.
1. Word.
2. Deed.
III. The power.
1. Christ’s.
2. Exerted through the Holy Spirit.
3. Displayed in signs and wonders. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The work of missions
I. Its object. To make the Gentiles obedient to the gospel.
II. Its agencies and means.
1. Christ, the Supreme Director, who works in us to will and to do.
2. Converted men, the instruments by word and deed.
3. The Spirit of God, the efficient power displayed in signs and wonders.
III. Its sphere.
1. Commencing at Jerusalem.
2. Embracing the Gentile world.
3. Throughout which the gospel must be fully preached. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Invincible power
One of Satan’s artifices is to induce men to attempt to reduce the gospel to a mere system within the reach of human intellect; and in this attempt they have gone far to deny and reject everything supernatural. But so long as we have the Book of God in our hands, and the power of the Spirit of God to accompany its hallowed truths, we shall dare to insist upon thee gospel being “the power of God unto the salvation of every one that believeth.” Paul always advocated the old-fashioned doctrine, “It is not by might or by power,” etc. Note--
I. The success of Paul’s preaching the gospel
1. “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19). Then it was a pure gospel (Galatians 1:8-9). He did not mix law and gospel together (Romans 3:20; Ephesians 2:8). In his preaching I mark four things prominent: and a man does not preach a pure gospel who does not preach all four.
(1) Principles (1 Corinthians 3:11). What principles? They are summed up in “By grace are ye saved” (Ephesians 2:8). Well, then, there is nothing for works, as he urges elsewhere (Romans 11:6).
(2) Privileges (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:16).
(3) Promises. Paul dwelt on these with delight, but he never set them forth as dependent upon creature doings, or as subject to contingencies (2 Corinthians 1:20).
(4) Precepts. In his Epistles, which he commences with doctrine, and proceeds with experimental godliness; but he always closes with the most pressing exhortations to “every good word and work.”
2. His success in the pure preaching of the gospel. He talks about “mighty signs and wonders” and names one in the preceding verse, viz., that the Gentiles should be made “obedient by word and deed.” It is one of the greatest miracles when God brings a poor ruined sinner down to obedience to the sceptre of Christ. Paul’s success lay in--
(1) The rescuing of Satan’s slaves.
(2) Refreshing and establishing the Churches of the living God, so that they were “built up in their most holy faith.”
(3) Thus the glorifying of Jesus’ name.
II. Its efficiency. It was by the power of the Spirit of God--and truly such “mighty signs and wonders” are never accomplished by any other power. This power--
1. Is invincible--it is sure to conquer, and accomplish that for which it was designed. Every other power is found to be conquerable! The power of the Holy Ghost is so invincible, that the most stubborn hearts must yield, and the most confirmed habits of idolatry, or of licentiousness, are vanquished.
2. Defies all hostility.
3. Is new creating. All creation, in a spiritual point of view, is a chaos under the fall, until the Spirit calls to a new state of existence the souls that were destitute of it.
III. Paul’s triumph concerning his success.
1. The wonders of God’s grace, the miracles accomplished, the triumphs of the Cross, and the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, made Paul rejoice. Here is a criterion by which we are to judge of every faithful minister of Christ.
2. Moreover, in all his exultations he took care to neutralise and give the negative to the boastings of proud free will. (J. Irons.)
The power of the gospel
I. Its source, God.
II. Its medium, the Spirit of God.
III. Its evidence, “Signs and wonders”--miraculous, moral and spiritual. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
So that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.--
The preaching of the gospel
I. In what light is the gospel to be preached by its ministers. Surely in the same in which it was preached by the apostle, viz.
1. As it reveals the ground of a sinner’s acceptance with God.
2. As it furnishes the only perfect rule of moral conduct, and the only efficient motive, love.
3. As it unveils the mysteries of a future state.
II. How the apostle preached the gospel.
1. Fully. He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God; he instructed, exhorted, and warned that they might grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ (Acts 20:20). The gospel should be thus fully preached.
(1) Because it is connected with the spiritual and eternal interests of the hearers. A physician would be considered in the last degree criminal who trifled with his patient; but the gospel minister is charged with the cure of souls.
(2) Because failure here will contract awful guilt upon the preacher (Ezekiel 3:17-21).
2. Extensively. Paul carried it from Jerusalem to Illyricum. He was not weary in well-doing, but continued active and diligent to the end. “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” But how many places are there yet destitute of sufficient means of grace! This, then, is a call upon our zealous exertions.
Conclusion: Note--
1. That natural and acquired talents may be efficiently employed in promoting the cause of religion. This is well illustrated in the case of Paul. What are the talents God has entrusted to you? Wealth? Influence? Zeal? Use them all for God.
2. The gospel is worthy of all acceptation. (D. Jones.)
The evangelisation of the world a practicable work
I. Let us estimate Paul’s missionary work. Note--
1. The length of time during which it was done. He began very shortly after his conversion, and carried it on till his martyrdom; a period of about thirty years. From those thirty years the time spent in Arabia and in prison has to be deducted.
2. The helps by which the work was done.
(1) His strong faith that the gospel was the power of God to every one who believed.
(2) His fervent love to Christ.
(3) His great love to mankind.
(4) His good natural capacity and education.
(5) The gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon him so largely.
(6) His companions.
(7) His Roman citizenship.
3. His hindrances.
(1) He was a Jew, and the great contempt in which the Jewish race was held by the Gentiles must have been an immense hindrance to the apostle as he went about preaching salvation through a crucified Jew.
(2) He was by no means a strong man physically. He suffered much through infirmity of the flesh.
(3) His speech was not acceptable to some. Not only did the unconverted Athenians ask, “What will this babbler say?” but there were Christians at Corinth who pronounced his speech “contemptible.”
(4) His ungenerous critics did acknowledge that his writings were weighty and powerful; but in regard to them he laboured under a very great disadvantage. The art of printing had not been invented, and if he wrote an epistle intended for more Churches than one, well, then, it was slowly passed from one to another. And not only so; those who had the charge of Churches did not always like to read Paul's epistles to the people (1Th 10:27). Here in the apostolic age is the germ of the evil practice of withholding the Word of God from the laity.
(5) Travelling in those days was very slow, difficult and dangerous, whether by land or sea.
(6) The apostle chose to labour for his own support at his trade as a tent-maker.
(7) He was hindered by Jews and Judaisers wherever he met with them.
(8) The other apostles were not very much in sympathy with him.
4. The extent of his work. To say nothing of his preaching at Damascus and neighbourhood, from Jerusalem, substantially through Asia Minor together with Macedonia and Achaia, westward to the shores of the Adriatic, the apostle preached the gospel of Christ. “And not only so” he could say, “I have fully preached it.” This work was by no means of a superficial character. As to the results, they were various; sometimes very few were converted, sometimes very many. The power of the gospel was acknowledged by enemies of Christ at Thessalonica and Ephesus. Therefore the apostle really did so evangelise that large tract of country, and if the Churches planted in those regions had done their duty, most certainly all the inhabitants would have been brought to Christ.
II. From this summary of the apostle’s work we may learn that the evangelisation of the world is really a practicable thing. This is not universally acknowledged. Of course, a very large proportion of those who do not believe the gospel, utterly deny it, and there are Christian people who do not seem to be very strongly convinced of it, for if they were, surely they would think of it, pray for it, and give towards it more.
1. Here was a great work done through God’s grace by this one man in a space of thirty years. Sixty periods of thirty years have passed by since. Now, supposing that, during these periods, there had been in each--that is in each generation--just one man like Paul, the world would have been more nearly evangelised than it is.
2. Compare--Paul’s helps with our own.
3. Whatever Paul’s helps might be, his hindrances were greater than ours. Conclusion: Then the evangelisation of the world has not proceeded just because Christians have not done their duty. But for the apathy of our forefathers we should not be held accountable. Let us cheer ourselves with the thought that the work is really practicable. And certainly the results of Christian missionary effort in modern times are such as to encourage the most sanguine hope. The evangelisation of the whole world is quite within the reach of practical religion. It can be done: it ought to be done: let it be done! (H. Stowell Brown.)