by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Of course, there are some exclusive aspects of his preaching – he was an inspired apostle and had the confirmation of his message by the Holy Spirit (cp. Hebrews 2:1-4, etc.). Yet<\/strong>, in preaching to people with no background in Jewish history, how did Paul present this message of salvation?<\/p>\n What I’m getting at is that in today’s world. Well, throughout history, there has been a tendency to favor ‘form over function’. You could also phrase this as ‘appearance over function’. So much effort goes into style, looks, etc., and often little goes into truth and functionality.<\/p>\n Preachers with style, stage presence, looks, mannerisms, etc., normally gain larger followings than others. I remember the first Nixon\/JFK debates on television (yes, I am that old). Nixon didn’t stand a chance!\u00a0Not\u00a0<\/strong>because of his positions or the truthfulness of his presentation – but because we were now confronted with appearance, style, polish!\u00a0But again, this is the historical aspect of public speaking (whether on modern social media or in the Corinthian marketplace).<\/p>\n Paul approached it differently:<\/p>\n “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified<\/em>” (I Corinthians 2:1-2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We see this repeatedly in Luke’s description of Paul’s preaching:<\/p>\n “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ’<\/em>” (Acts 17:2-3, cp. Also Acts 17:17; 18:4, 19; 19:8,).<\/p>\n Are you more influenced by content or style and appearance?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Of course, there are some exclusive aspects of his preaching – he was an inspired apostle and had the confirmation of his message by the Holy Spirit (cp. Hebrews 2:1-4, etc.). Yet, in preaching to people with no background in Jewish history, how did Paul present this message of salvation? What I’m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[118,536],"class_list":["post-97550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-paul","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-aim-of-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":0},"title":"The Aim of Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Himmel Churches that are all about numbers gladly alter their activities to accommodate popular demand. While music usually gets special attention, preaching is no less targeted. Perhaps it would be timely to remind us all what God intends preaching to accomplish. Preaching is to Instruct In His wisdom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/arrow-and-target-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":88166,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/powerful-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":1},"title":"Powerful Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Paul, the apostle, often portrayed himself as weak, ineffective, and even fearful. Sometimes, he felt that his words didn't impress anyone. I can relate. Every preacher has dreamed of doing great things for God with his oratory skills. Some have. Others simply preach the old, unchanging message\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88431,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/keep-it-simple\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":2},"title":"Keep It Simple!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jarrod M. Jacobs The above statement is the \"mantra\" of a friend of mine. When it comes to preaching and teaching God's word, he often tells me, \"Keep it simple.\" This sentiment was further impressed upon my mind when a sister in Christ told me, \"The main problem that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94238,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/two-people-listen-to-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":3},"title":"Two People Listen to Paul","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton You get out of a sermon or Bible lesson what you put into it. This is illustrated by two groups of people toward the same preacher. The first group was from Corinth. They were not \"open\" to Paul (II Corinthians 6:11-13) and justified their lack of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27849,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/conspiracy-theorists\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":4},"title":"Conspiracy Theorists","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gardner Hall via\u00a0Gospel Power, Vol. 14, No. 36, Sept. 9, 2007. \"Richard Nixon is a communist!\" the man told me with certainty. \"Why do you say that,\" I asked. \"He went to China to talk to them. Must be one of 'em,\" was the response. Another man told me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14509,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-i-become-a-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":97550,"position":5},"title":"Why Did I Become a Preacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Stinnett After having preached full-time for only a few years, a good friend exclaimed excitedly at the end of a worship service, \u201cNow, that is what I call preaching!\u201d A visiting preacher spoke that day. My friend was not intentionally unkind, and I did not take it personally,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/praying-over-Bible.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}