The sermon by Peter Allison, titled 'The Method, Mode, and Manner of Evangelism,' examines the approach to evangelism as portrayed in Acts 14, focusing on Paul and Barnabas's mission in Iconium. It highlights that evangelism was conducted in pairs, starting in synagogues, emphasizing spoken proclamation over silent witness. The Gospel is described as propositional truth that must be spoken for conversion to occur. The sermon underscores the imperative nature of the Gospel, contrasting true evangelism with mere opinion or conviction. Boldness is identified as crucial, stemming from the authority of representing Christ and supported by signs and wonders. Paul and Barnabas's commitment to staying in Iconium reflects a dedication to teaching and a deep understanding of the Gospel, advocating for a comprehensive and enduring approach to evangelism. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to emulate this boldness and perseverance in spreading the Gospel.

Our Scripture reading is Acts 14. Beginning at verse 1, here God's word. Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and of the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

But the multitude of the city was divided, part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia and the surrounding region. And they were preaching the Gospel there. May God revive us according to His loving kindness so that we may keep the testimony of His mouth. Heavenly Father, we have heard Your Word.

We ask that it might be mixed with faith within us, that we might be doers of Your Word, and not hearers only. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim the Word of Your grace through Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, as you know, if you've been sitting through our study through the book of Acts, this whole book is dedicated to the account of the evangelization of the Roman world after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, beginning in Jerusalem and extending to Samaria and Judea, and then to all of the world, such that Paul could say that the Gospel had been preached throughout the world in his day. And even places that are beyond what we might normally think of as the Roman world, we know that the Gospel went to them before 70 AD.

We even have records in England that the Gospel went throughout the entire world before 70 AD. Well, this is one city, what we just read, one city in Paul's first missionary journey at Iconium. And it seemed to be a good place to look at the methods, the modes, and the manner of evangelism as it was practiced by the Apostles, and particularly Paul, who takes up all of the greater half of the second and latter half of the book of Acts. So these things are present, these methods, and what he does is present throughout this book. But we have in this passage all of these things in one condensed account.

And so I'd like this morning to just look at These methods, this manner of Paul's evangelism, Paul and Barnabas here. And the very first thing that we see, it happened in Iconium, And we looked at God's providence last week in evangelism. But it happened that they went together. They went together. It could have just said that they went to the synagogue, but they went together because Paul always ministered with one other person.

He took Paul and Barnabas, and when they had a conflict, then Paul took Silas with him. So Paul always went in pairs. There were two that went. This was how Jesus sent out His disciples. You remember when He sent out the seventy.

He sent them out in pairs and commanded them to go and preach. Why? Well, some of it's obvious because two is better than one. The Proverb says two is better than one. You have a help.

This is all the nature of marriage. We have two minds living together with two different sets of gifts and two different constitutions. And yes, sometimes that can create conflict, but when it's rightly utilized, it creates a stronger bond than just one person by themselves. But also, it allows for one to be praying while the other is preaching. And that's a vital part of evangelization, is prayer.

Prayer beforehand, but also prayer during. And so having two going together enables one to be in prayer while the other is preaching. And the second thing we see is that they went together to the synagogue. They started in the church. They started their evangelism in the church.

Now, why begin in the church? If you think of evangelism, you would think, why would you start that in the church? Why not start it where you would expect to meet unbelievers. But this is the pattern that Paul follows. He always went first to the church in Salamis.

In Acts 13, they arrived there, that's the city in Cyprus, and when they first started this missionary journey, and they preached the Word of God, it says, in the synagogues of the Jews. Or in Perga, a few verses later in Acts 14, they departed there from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and they sat down. That's where they first place they went. Or here, even in Iconium now. They get to Iconium, and they went together to the synagogue of the Jews.

And they so spoke that a great multitude of Jews believed. So why did they do this? Well, obviously the first reason is that the Gospel was to go first to the Jews, and the Jews met in synagogues. That was their gathering together. We call it a congregation.

It's where they came together. So this is where they went because the Gospel went first to them. But also, this is the place where they would most likely have converts in the church. The church is the place that we would expect to find people who have heard the Word. This is where we would expect to find people who are living in Christian homes.

This is where we would expect to find people who have heard the Word. This is where we would expect to find people who are living in Christian homes. This is where we would expect to find people who have heard the Scriptures and where The Holy Spirit has begun to work in them. And so this is then a logical place to start from for that reason. The church.

This is where people have been taught the Scriptures. They've been prepared to hear the Gospel message. And yes, people can sit in the church for years and hear the Gospel message, but not hear it. I was running a school a number of years ago, and the board said that one of the requirements that the board had was that the parents had to be Christian, at least one of them. And to me, I thought, well, that means we need to interview the parents to see if they're Christians.

What they meant by it, I didn't know at the time, what they meant, they've been baptized, that's all they meant. Have you been baptized? Check this box. So we would interview parents, and then where people had no understanding of the Gospel, we would send them a gracious letter that said, well, they weren't able to join. And In some cases that was a huge disappointment because this was a school that people would line up at midnight in order to get their application in when we opened at 8 the next morning and they would stay all night in the parking lot.

So to get a letter that their child hadn't been admitted was a big deal. And this one father got a call from his wife on his car phone, this is the early days of car phones, and he pulled over the side of the road and she read him this letter and they were stunned. But it resulted in his conversion, ultimately, and he came back to my office and he was a different person, and he had been converted because somebody had been witnessing to him, unbeknownst to us. Somebody had been witnessing to him. And the letter was the thing that made him realize he wasn't a believer.

Now, this man had been in the church all his life. And I had spoken with his pastor on another occasion, and he was like, well, he's been a member here all his life. But he wasn't a believer until he heard the Gospel. And so Paul begins in the church, his evangelism, because that's the most likely place for converts. But also, the church is the pillar and the ground of truth, " Paul said.

So people that are converted from outside the church need to be connected or joined to a church. And so it was important that The apostles were connected with local churches where they existed. And what better way to do that than to begin your ministry, your evangelism in the church? And so that's what they did. They would go into the church.

And when there were no churches, then they would start a church. They would plant a church and raise up officers. Because the church is the pillar and the ground of truth, it is where believers need to be connected so that they can be nourished and taught and ministered to, and can also minister to other believers. It's probably more important to minister to others than it is to be ministered to, because we learn more when we teach and do than when we sit and listen. But both are important.

So for all these reasons, then, Paul always began his ministry in the church. So this is what they did. They went together to the synagogue. Now the third thing is they spoke. They went to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke, it says.

Now this may seem obvious. What's the point of saying that they spoke? Well, the point is that the Gospel is preached by the spoken word. It's not mimed. It's not memed.

It's not acted out in a play. Even living the Gospel is not evangelism. We must, of course, live consistent with the Gospel by living a life with the Spirit, by living a life that's led by the Spirit, by obeying or pleasing God in the Spirit, and so on. But without speaking, we cannot preach the Gospel. We cannot evangelize.

We can maybe do pre-evangelism, but we can't evangelize. We can't preach the Gospel solely by how we live, regardless of how perfect a life that may be or may not be. Because you see, the Gospel is fundamentally and first of all propositional truth. It is the assertions of the King. It is the truth.

It's not just true. It is the truth. And truth is contained in propositions. And they must be spoken. Notice how Paul describes the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15.

Verse 1, he says, I declare, I declare, speaking. I declare to you the Gospel which I preached. He's got the word speaking in there twice. He's declaring and preaching, emphasizing this is speaking. I declared to you the Gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which you also were saved.

Speaking led to salvation. Speaking the gospel truth, speaking these propositional truths of the Messiah King led to their salvation. By which you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you." Again, he's saying these are words that are spoken. They are truth. They are assertions of God.

And Paul goes on to state what those assertions are. What those propositions are. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. How did he deliver that truth to them? By preaching, by declaring, by speaking.

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. How did He deliver that truth to them? By preaching, by declaring, by speaking. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that's a propositional truth. And evangelism is proclaiming, is speaking that truth.

And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve. Those are truths, assertions of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. See, the Gospel is the doctrine of the grace of God in Christ. And what's a doctrine? It's a dogma.

It's a truth claim. See, the Gospel is not primarily, and first of all, a relationship. Because we have to have some sort of knowledge about God before we can enter into a relationship with Him. Can you have a relationship with somebody that you don't know anything about? You can't.

There has to be a knowledge to have a relationship. And so God first reveals specific truths about Himself, and these truths are recorded in Scriptures. And then the Holy Spirit helps us to understand these life-transforming truths. And we are able to have a relationship. But it doesn't start there.

It starts with the proclamation, the speaking of the Gospel. What happens when we lose this understanding of what the Gospel fundamentally is? What happens? Well, the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church issued a statement on March 24, 2004, saying that the trial of a lesbian Methodist minister does reveal continuing differences in the United Methodist Church concerning the issue of homosexuality and he goes on to say the Council of Bishops is painfully aware of this disagreement and In such moment as this we remember that our unity in Christ does not depend on unanimity of opinion. Rather in Jesus Christ we are bound together by love that transcends our differences and calls us to stay at the table with one another." It sounds kind of good, right?

We're bound by love, transcends our differences, so we can stay at the table. I mean, it sort of sounds right. But you notice what happened here. The propositional truth of the Gospel is called an opinion. We have differing opinions, and those opinions are subordinated to love and staying at the table.

That's what happens when we lose sight of the fact that the Gospel is fundamentally the truth proclamation of the King of Kings. Compare that with what Paul says in Romans 15, verse 5. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded, like-minded toward one another according to Jesus Christ, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." He's saying for there to be unity, there has to be fundamental agreement on the truth assertions of Scripture. There has to be fundamental agreement on these propositional of the Gospel. These assertions of Scripture.

Or in 2 Corinthians 13, Be of one mind. One mind, meaning we are in agreement on the truth that is the Word of God. The Gospel is fundamentally, first of all, the truth. And it's recorded in the Scriptures. And it's recorded as propositions that are spoken.

Another example is Douglas Oldenburg, the moderator of the 1998 Presbyterian Church, to pick on the Presbyterians. He gave a speech in which he portrayed two men who also addressed the assembly that year in 1998. The first was a homosexual Presbyterian pastor who passionately affirmed his sexuality, his call to ministry, and his understanding of the Scriptures. And his speech was followed by an equally passionate address by a man who held utterly contrary views. And once these two speeches had been delivered, the two men embraced each other.

At that point, the assembly plotted with tears in their eyes and lumps in their throats. Although these two men held different convictions, convictions resulting in starkly different behaviors, this man, this moderator, proclaimed that they were quote unquote, reconciled in Christ. You see, here the propositional truth of the Gospel was called a conviction. And it's replaced by being reconciled in Christ. You see, that's to confuse the order of things.

The basis of our union with Christ and our being reconciled to Him and being united to one another and being of the same mind, the basis of that is the truth claims of the Gospel recorded in the Scriptures. There is no reconciliation apart from believing and being of one mind with the Gospel truth. Paul said to the Philippians, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Being of the same accord, of one mind. There has to be an agreement about these fundamental truths of the Gospel, or it's not the Gospel.

We've got the cart before the horse. Yes, reconciliation does come, but only after we are of one mind. Only after we confess with our mouth. That means to come into agreement with the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the truth claims of His Word. The propositional truths.

The fourth thing we can see about their evangelism is that as a direct result of their speaking, people believed. Faith comes when the Gospel is proclaimed, when people proclaim the Gospel, when they declare the propositional truths that are recorded in the Scriptures. Faith is the result of hearing. Now these apostles, Paul spoke in such a way that large numbers of Jews and Gentiles believed. It says there in verse 1, They went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke, that a great multitude, both of the Jews and the Greeks believed.

The Greek grammar here is very clear in indicating that the people that were believing was the result of the Apostles speaking. It's not as obvious in English, but it's very explicit in the Greek construction that their believing was the consequence. It was the result of them speaking. That's the sense behind they so spoke. They spoke in such a way.

But it's saying it was the result of their speaking. It wasn't so much that they had a right way of doing it, but rather it was the result of speaking that these people believed. Sometimes we think that if there are signs and wonders today, then more people would believe. If there was a great sign, if God somehow manifested something, then people might believe more. There was a famous debate between Dr.

Gordon Stein and Dr. Greg Bonson at the University of California Irvine campus in the winter of 1985. And Dr. Stein was asked what personally, he was the atheist, didn't believe in God yet, he had a PhD, very educated, and he was asked what personally for you would constitute adequate evidence for God? And Dr.

Stein answered, well, it's very simple. If the podium suddenly rose up into the air five feet and stayed there for a minute and then dropped down again, I would say that was evidence for a supernatural. It would violate everything we know about the laws of physics and chemistry, assuming there wasn't an engine under there, a wire, and so on. So, violation of the laws. You could call it a miracle right in front of your eyes.

That would be evidence I would accept. Any kind of supernatural being putting in an appearance and doing miracles that could not be stage magic, that would also be evidence I would accept. But Luke is saying, and Dr. Bonson told him the same thing, but Luke is saying here, no, no, you wouldn't. That's not how people believed.

They believed as a result of the Apostles speaking. See, what the unbeliever will do is simply find some explanation for what happened in front of him, some other explanation, because that's what the unbelieving heart does. It suppresses the truth. Now also notice that the Gospel is an imperative. It's an imperative.

Verse 2 speaks about the unbelieving Jews. And that word is not apistos, not saying they didn't have faith, but it's the word for disobey. They were disobedient Jews, but the disobedient Jews stirred up the Gentiles. That's the way Wilbur Pickering translates it in his translation of the New Testament. The disobedient Jews.

That's what the word means. When Paul preached the Gospel in Athens, He said, God now commands all men everywhere to repent. It's an imperative. It's a command. Those who do not believe are disobedient to the Gospel.

They're disobedient to the truth. And this is how the word is translated in many other places in the Bible. Romans 2, 8, but those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, to them is reserved indignation and wrath." It's the same word there, disobedient. They do not obey. Romans 10, but to Israel he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient.

The same word, a disobedient and contrary people. These are people who do not obey the Gospel imperative. For you, Romans 11, for you were once disobedient to God, yet now you have obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they may obtain mercy. These unbelieving Jews are called disobedient because they are not obeying the Gospel imperative.

The Gospel is freely offered to all men. It is a free offer. But it's not an offer that can be politely declined with no consequences. It's like the offer that the Israelites were to give the cities when they were destroying Canaan under God's command. When they approached a city, they were to offer it terms of peace.

And if they accepted the peace, then the city would have been spared. Now the terms of peace were to acknowledge God and to bow before Him and to serve Him. But they were offered. But what happened if they didn't offer? They didn't accept that gracious offer.

Then the city was destroyed. You see, that is the exact picture that's before each and every one of us and everyone in this world. That God comes with a free offer. It's a word of His grace, of His favor, as Paul calls it later, Luke. But It's not an offer that we can politely decline like an offer to go to dinner at someone's house.

We can decline that and that's fine. But we cannot decline this gracious offer of the Gospel without the consequence. It's to disobey God and know that God will bring His wrath on all those who are disobedient to that gospel. The gospel is, though, called a word of grace. The Gospel is the truth that God died for our sins so that we can have peace with God.

And He died in our place. He bore the wrath of our sin for all those for whom He died. And so it is a word of grace. And that's what Luke calls it here. He calls it a word of grace.

But it is not an offer that can be declined with impunity. All those who do not obey the Gospel, Paul said to the Thessalonians, will be destroyed. God will take vengeance in flaming fire upon them. Now we also, I think it's seventh, we see that they spoke boldly in verse 3. They stayed there a long time speaking boldly in the Lord who was bearing witness to the word of His grace.

Their boldness arises first from who they represent. They are sent by the King who is King above all other Kings. They have been sent by the One to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given. The One who is reigning now in the midst of His enemies. The One who, Psalm 2 says, will destroy all of his enemies, those who do not bow before him as a rod of iron smashing pottery." This is the one on whose behalf they are speaking.

This is the one who has commissioned them and sent them. This is the one who has given them authority to speak. And so they can speak with great, great boldness. In the midst of great opposition, the Jews had stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against them. And Yet they are able to speak with boldness because of who they represent.

They are the spokesmen of the Lord Jesus Christ. They've been commissioned by Him. And They don't allow anyone to gainsay them. I think this is especially important for ministers of the Gospel. It's so tempting to be able to omit something that you know will inflame people.

Something that is not popular. And there are a number of things today that are not popular. There are doctrines of the world that are not popular, but that are completely contrary to the Scriptures, one of which is the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the only mediator. I remember watching a program on television. They had a Muslim guy and a Jew and a Christian pastor up there.

It was a set up all the way. And they were all very cordial and very friendly having this discussion until the question came up, is Jesus Christ the only way? And the Christian minister to his great credit on national television said, yes, Jesus Christ is the only way. And you could just see the sparks start flying out of everybody's eyes. The tenor of even the host of the show, who's supposed to be neutral, immediately changes to one of great hostility.

So we have to, all of us, have to learn to speak boldly because we speak for the King of Kings. It's His message. It's His truth. It's by His authority. And secondly, they spoke boldly, we see, because the Lord confirmed the word which He spoke with signs and wonders.

Notice, He didn't confirm the men, but He confirmed the word of His grace that the men spoke by signs and wonders on their behalf. So the Lord gave them boldness through that. Those signs and wonders weren't the basis by which people believed, but they were the basis by which God affirmed the validity of the word that they proclaimed. And eighthly, we see that they stayed around a long time. They stayed around a long time speaking boldly in the Lord.

This is so different, isn't it, from the way evangelism is often practiced today. The big tent ministries, right? There's a big rally. There's lots of stirring speeches. And the Gospel may even be proclaimed.

And it may go on for a couple days, maybe as long as a week, and then it's all gone. The tent's packed up, the evangelist flies out, and it's all gone. But See, this is not what Paul did. They stayed around for a while, preaching and teaching the Word of God because God's revelation is worthy of great study. The Gospel in its fullness is not simplistic.

It's not shallow truth that can be comprehended in one easy lesson. Although it is a simple message that any child may understand, it's not simplistic. Henry Hazlett wrote a book called Economics in One Lesson. I highly recommend it. And it was economics in one lesson.

But he spent the rest of the book applying the lesson. And that you see involves a lot of challenging things he deals with in there as you apply this one simple lesson. And the Gospel is similar. It's worthy of great study. Psalm 111 says that God's wonderful works are studied by all those who take pleasure in them.

God's plan of redemption is a glorious work. It begins in eternity past and goes to eternity future. And of all God's works, this is His greatest work and worthy of the most study. That's why theology was at one time called the queen of the sciences. The highest of them.

God's Word, the Gospel, should involve study. Even Paul at the end of his life in his letter to Timothy said, bring me the parchments. Bring my coke, I think it was, and the parchments. Why? Because Paul is studying this great Gospel.

Something that the angels desire to look into. This is a great privilege. It's a glorious work. It's a great truth. And it's something that ought to be studied.

And so Paul stays around a long time explaining the Gospel and preaching this truth. Now just as we enclose, I want to look just at something of Paul's manner in evangelism. He told Timothy, that you have carefully followed My doctrine. Manner of life. Purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance.

You followed my manner of life. Persecutions, afflictions, which He said which happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me." He's speaking about this exact time in his life. And he's saying, Timothy, you've observed my manner of life. And what was Paul's manner of life in the midst of these persecutions at Iconium.

Well, Proverbs tells us that the bloodthirsty hate the blameless, but the upright seek his well-being. The Jews were bloodthirsty. It was the disobedient Jews who used emotional manipulation to stir up people to oppose Paul. They stirred up the Gentiles. Stirring up, that's emotional manipulation.

And they stirred him up to oppose Paul. But Paul expected this opposition, and he continued to preach in the midst of these people that were opposing Him. There was an element of discomfort and danger in their continuing to stay in the city. Their presence was a continual annoyance to the unbelieving Jews and the Gentiles that were stirred up against them. But Paul and Barnabas and his team continued to stay and teach in this city.

But also, even more than that, they continued to go to the people who had hurt them. Paul cared for the people who hurt him. He didn't swear off the Jews because they stoned him or they were abusive to him, threatened his life. He continued to go first to the Jews. He continued in Romans 9, expresses the great love of his life.

He says, I wish that I myself could be accursed that my brethren might be saved, if that were possible. Paul continued to minister to those who had hurt Him. So I would say to you in conclusion this morning, don't give up when the going gets difficult. Don't give up when it gets difficult. But also, sometimes it is better wisdom to flee.

The apostles didn't flee Jerusalem with the first wave of persecution, but all of the disciples did. All the people fled. But here, in this case, the apostles do flee, rather than allow themselves to be martyred. Both are right in their places. It's not that we always have to stay and be martyred.

It is appropriate at times to flee as we see Paul doing here. But they never gave up. They never gave up. Paul never ceased to minister and bring the Gospel to the Jews. And he did so by the grace of God in his life.

May the Lord give us this holy boldness that we may be proclaimers of the gospel truth wherever we are, wherever the Lord gives us opportunity, that we may do so boldly and fully, and that we may persevere unto the end. Let's pray. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we are overwhelmed that You would know us and love us, and that you would die for us while we were yet at enmity against you. We ask, Father, that you may give to us a compassion as you had for the multitudes.

You give to us a love of our neighbors that are around us, of those with whom you bring us into contact that do not know you. Father, how often I have failed this, to speak to these people. Out of simple forgetfulness, Lord, may You give us a zeal, as You gave to Paul. May You give to us a love of the Gospel truth, that we might desire to look into it and to study it, to search Your Scriptures, that we may never grow weary or tired of these great truths and of searching into and inquiring into your great work of redemption. We ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.