Great Themes No.1 Effective Communication

Paul, standing in front of a pagan king, instead of pleading for his life, pleads for the king to come to Jesus. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself, I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straight sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come, for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought, a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem.

And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities, whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me.

And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the arch goads. Then I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both the small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

And as he thus spake for himself, Festus with a loud voice said, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.

For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, or if you please, do you persuade me to be a Christian, Paul? And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou but all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these chains.

And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up and the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, this man doeth nothing worthy of death or of chains. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar.

In tenderness he sought me, weary and sick with sin. On his shoulders brought me back to his fold again. Angels in his presence sang until the courts of heaven.

O the love that sought me, O the blood that bought me, O the grace that brought me to the wondrous grace that brought me to. He found me bruised and dying, and poured in oil and wine. He whispered to assure me, I found thee now art mine.

I've never heard so sweet a voice. It made my aching heart rejoice. O the love that sought me, O the blood that bought me, O the grace that brought me to the wondrous grace that brought me to.

He pointed to the neck, for me his blood was shed. A mocking crown so sunny was placed upon his head. I wondered he saw in me to suffer such deep health that brought me.

O the love that sought me, O the blood that bought me, O the grace that brought me to his fold, wondrous grace that brought me to his fold. I'm sitting in his presence, the sunshine of his face. While with adoring wonder his blessings I retrace.

It seems as if eternal days are far too short to sound his praise. O the love that sought me, O the blood that bought me, O the grace that brought me to his fold, wondrous grace that brought me to his fold. Acts 26 and verse 22 have words there which are engraven on my mind.

Words which I've reflected on many, many occasions and preached on from this pulpit more than once. Paul standing before King Agrippa in the company of Roman nobility testifies to what Jesus Christ has done for him and how he has become a believer miraculously and how he has continued to follow Jesus down the years of his life. And he says, King Agrippa, and all who are listening to me, manacled, chained, prisoner that I am, I tell you this, having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

It's not my intention this evening really to preach a sermon as to share some thoughts that are moving round in my head as I try to reflect upon these last few weeks and indicate in part what they have meant to me and the challenge that is in my heart for you and others for whom I'm privileged or to whom I'm privileged to preach. I say I'm not intending a sermon so much this evening inasmuch as I had quite enough opportunity for those, sometimes five and six a day, when in Uruguay, it wasn't to the same congregation, you would not be surprised to learn twice a week is enough for the majority of people. But there were lots who came on board the ship and listened to ministry, not only from myself but from more adequate people who were bringing words to conferences of pastors and so on and so forth.

Well what I want to do this evening is to try to share with you what is the main burden that I have at this moment and I think that if I were looking for a couple of words just to encase it all, they would be effective communication, effective communication. I have got a file of notes which I typed up or scribbled down from various places where I was, just recording what I had experienced of men and women living their lives for the glory of God, communicating the gospel to others. And as I say, it's basically that that is my burden to share with you at least in part, only a tiny fragment tonight.

It was only on, where are we now, Sunday, it was only on Thursday last that I was being driven by an Argentinian through the capital city of his country, which for the uninitiated is Buenos Aires, which means the city of fresh air. How they gave it that title, I don't know. Anything fresh about it lost its flavor some centuries ago.

However, we were driving along and we were coming into a suburb which wasn't exactly the most pretty that I have ever seen in my life. And because the driver was a Christian, when the traffic lights at an intersection got to red, he actually stopped, which again is rather strange in Latin America. And as we were waiting for the lights to flash to green, I whiled away the seconds, if you please, by counting up at that intersection the number of visible adverts for Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

It's amazing how many one could see. On the top of a relatively small block of flats was a structure supporting a big advertisement saying, drink Pepsi. The other side of the road, the opposition, drink Coca.

And then a little lower down, just, what, ten feet or so above the pavement, suspended by some inadequate looking piece of metal, were more adverts instructing us to buy Pepsi or Coca-Cola. And then in front of cafes painted under the window frames, again, the same sort of thing. Drink more Pepsi.

Drink Coca-Cola. Later on, when I was flying up to Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, I opened one of the American magazines for, I was flying with Pan Am, and what should I find but a page given over to a particular advert which says, read all about it. The story of the competition between Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

Read of the Cola War. And the advert went on to say that this multinational industry not only has two particular rivals vying for public attention and presumably consumption of their liquid, but also it's got political involvement. Went on to say how Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola and their boards of management were involved at some stage with the CIA, how they've affected the political situation in various parts of the world.

I was absolutely astonished to discover that a plain drink of Pepsi-Cola had so much political connotation. Read all about it. And I gathered from other information that Coca-Cola have got the edge on Pepsi-Cola, and if the Americans ever colonize the moon, God forbid, then Coca-Cola has got the rights to sell their liquid on the moon.

Can you believe it? What the Americans will go to in terms of effort to sell their product? Effective communication. If you were to ask the Apostle Paul to describe his life's work, he might have used such biblical terms as apostle or disciple. He could also have said that he was a traveler, for he went from place to place.

He could have said that he was a writer, for he authored a dozen, two dozen, who knows how many letters the Apostle actually wrote, if they had all been collected. And of course he was a preacher. But if you put together those last three descriptions, author, traveler, and preacher, they all dovetail into one word.

Just one word would describe it. The Apostle Paul was nothing if he wasn't a communicator. He had a product.

Not to be compared with the secular commercial world of America and what various American managers and salesmen might like to push. The Apostle Paul had something infinitely greater and more necessary for people to embrace and to participate in. I refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was that gospel that God poured into his heart on the Damascus Road and changed him. At the human level you can take some liquid and pour it into your system and it creates different patterns of behavior and personality. And some have known what it is to have got themselves addicted to various alcoholic drinks and so forth, and their lives have spiraled downwards and they've gone to gutter level as a result.

But the gospel of Christ, often referred to in Scripture as living water, when that's poured into the heart of someone, when they receive it, when they drink, when they say, Lord Jesus, cleanse my sins. Take me and make me your child. That completely transforms them.

And I wish, and this is the reason why I use my opening observation and perhaps cast it in a humorous, though partly serious, fashion. I wish in the name of the Lord that for some of us there was as much enthusiasm in promoting the gospel of Christ as American management has in promoting the blessings or otherwise of Coca and Pepsi-Cola. I've been in the most squalid villages and hamlets that Mexico can give you example of.

I've been in several countries in Latin America, and it doesn't matter whether it's just five or six houses in a hamlet, there's a Coca sign or there's a Pepsi sign. Around the world, wherever you travel, it is the objective of American management of these two firms to ensure that everyone knows of their product. I wish to God that Christian people, trading in something that is far more beneficial than some drink, had the same enthusiasm to wish to tell others of Jesus Christ.

Now, it seems to me from this verse of Scripture, as we consider Paul standing before these illustrious people, that there are at least two or three things that spring to mind when you work out what effective communication really requires. Because when Paul speaks, he speaks with authority, he speaks with conviction, and he gets a reaction. It's either a negative or a positive reaction, but one thing is sure, one thing is consistent, in the ministry of Paul, when he preaches the gospel, something happens.

And it appears to me that one of the major necessities in communicating anything is to appeal to an authority, is to appeal to an authority. In verse 22 and in verse 23, the apostle does this, I obtained help of God, King Agrippa, and the very message which I preach, King Agrippa, is the message of the Old Testament Scriptures, for they predicted the coming of the Christ. And Christian people should perhaps realize even more that the message that we are to broadcast around the world is a message that has the signature of Almighty God upon it.

This gospel desperately needs preaching. It needs preaching in Uruguay, a city of less than, or a country of less than 3 million people, with only 30,000 or so, rather 60,000 or so, born-again Christians. It's a message that needs preaching in Mexico, with in excess of 60 million, moving towards 65 million people, a birth rate that is greater than the land of India, a country that's engulfed in sometimes a very strange presentation of Catholicism.

Here are lands which desperately need the gospel of Christ. And when missionaries come, and when the indigenous and native church preach the gospel today, they can do so with an appeal to a great authority, far greater than the management board of any American company, be it ever so grand. We have the authority of God.

And this is why so many, many people came aboard the MV Dulas during the last three or four weeks as she was birthed in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, which happens to be a port as well. Sometimes as I looked out of my cabin window, I could see thousands, literally, of people queuing to get aboard the ship. On some days, more than $40,000, £20,000 of literature was sold to people who wanted to come aboard the Dulas, many of them concerned to learn more about Jesus, others just to get educational books and finding that they were given a gospel of Christ.

And when these gospels were given, when the word of God was communicated, it was done so with an authority because there was an appeal to the God who is behind the gospel. And we want to impress upon young people here in the congregation this evening, and all the friends too, that this gospel that Paul was talking about, that cleanses men and women from sin, is a gospel that is so vital for everyone to receive that God sent Jesus Christ into the world to make possible the cleansing that His blood can become in the life of those who will say, Lord Jesus, I commit and commend myself to you. It's amazing what the gospel of Christ does.

I've seen Chinese, Japanese, people from Muslim countries, people from India, all merged together, living aboard the MV Dulas, some 300 of them, communicating the gospel of Christ to people in Latin America. The captain on board the Dulas is a very interesting figure. Some of you may feel that OM and mission work in general is just for young people.

You couldn't be much more wrong than that. The captain and his wife were both in their sixties. He came out of retirement to become captain of this particular ship, the oldest sailing ship of that dimensions afloat today.

And it's interesting to hear this man, when he testifies to some of the nobility in Latin America, appeal to the authority of God. Perhaps someone would quieten those boys outside, please. On one occasion, he was brought in front of the president of the Republic of Chile.

They weren't able to get the ship into one of the main ports in Chile. And the Chilean navy, they had got some naval activity on regarding the defense of that particular country. And it was impossible for the Dulas to get into the particular port.

And so the American captain, with all the confidence of an American citizen, goes along with two or three more modest Britishers and gets an audience with the president of Chile. And the president says, well, look, this ship, the request to come into berth, it's gone to some of my men in government. They've stopped it for some reason.

And we've got this naval blockade of our particular ports, blockaded as much as no commercial ships are allowed into Chile. And the captain said, but ours is a different ship. Ours is God's ship.

And the incredible thing was, when the Dulas was in Chile, it came past all the naval ships outside the harbor and those in the harbor, and one moved out of the way so the Dulas could be there and the program of evangelism from the ship could continue. You see, there's an authority, an authority in the proclamation of the gospel, an authority in the presenting of the word of God, even today. And it has power.

The book exhibition, an exhibition of thousands and thousands of books, which is on the main deck of the Dulas, was opened by the minister of education from Uruguay. And he came, first of all, down into the lounge, he and some of the dignitaries from the military, some of the men from the army, and they sat there, about 20 of them, and some other of the Dulas company that were invited to this particular ceremony. And there the captain got to his feet again, and I knew he was going to say, I'd like to tell you, he said in his deep tone, speaking to the Uruguayan minister of education, this is godship.

And he went so far as to offer the man a Bible. And when the fellow went upstairs to the book exhibition, he brought about half a dozen illustrated New Testaments for his children back home. Because he said when he'd come across these before on a previous occasion, he'd found them so fascinating and so educational that he wanted his children to read.

This is godship. There is an authority in communicating the gospel today, because we have all the resources of an infinite God in front of us. And that's why the apostle was able to say to King Agrippa, I obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.

And what I preach, it's not my own theorizing, King Agrippa, it's found, predicted in the Old Testament scriptures. So he has a twin authority to God Almighty and to the book, which God caused to be written. But in effective communication, it's not just an appeal to an authority, which is necessary, it's clarity.

Clarity, being able to communicate what you have to say in a word and in a way that's understandable. It's one of the reasons why I was so glad the minister of education in Uruguay took some illustrated Bibles, some illustrated New Testaments for his boys and girls back home to read, so that at their level they could come to some understanding of what the Bible is teaching. And today, it's so necessary here in England, when you preach the gospel, to communicate in a way that people understand what you're talking about.

You know, communication is a very difficult thing, very difficult. We perhaps tend to pitch gospel proclamation at a height which is much, much higher than the average person can really understand. That's why the most popular newspapers in this country, if you read them, and I don't suggest that you do, but they're at such a level, they're right for people with an IQ at about 10 or 11 years of age, believe it or not.

So that means all of you will be reading the Daily Telegraph tomorrow, because you'll be so, so proud of the fact that your IQ is higher than those who read the Daily Mirror or other papers that pretend to be news communicators. To communicate is not an easy thing at a level that people can understand. But this is what Paul was doing when he gave his testimony to Agrippa and Festus.

It's not easy when you're standing in a pulpit in Uruguay, or Mexico, or anywhere else, and you've got an interpreter alongside you. Because your words in English have to be put into Spanish or into any other language or dialect of the main congregation. Sometimes you've got two people translating at the same time.

It's a very interesting experience indeed. Remember, talking about this whole difficulty of communicating clearly, one of my interpreters in Mexico, a dear brother by the name of Enrique, and he was telling me the embarrassment of one of his colleagues who also had the questionable privilege of translating for an Englishman. And the British preacher, when he got to Mexico, said how glad he was to be with the people.

But he used an expression that perhaps we understand, but the Mexicans don't, and in Spanish it's almost ridiculous. He said, I'm tickled to death to be here. And do you know how the translation came through in Spanish? You must give him an award for ingenuity.

I am so happy to be here, I shall scratch myself until I die. The problems of communicating in a way that's understandable. And when you're in Mexico or any other country, trying to speak through interpretation, somehow or other, and it's very difficult to do this, you've got to get all the English expressions, all the proverbs out of your mind, and have a vocabulary which is relatively limited.

Otherwise, the poor interpreter is really at sixes and sevens, which is a classic illustration of another English proverb. He doesn't know what to do. And in gospel communication, ought to simply tell of Jesus, so that they who run might be able to read it.

That's a quote from the Old Testament, which speaks of one of the prophets being instructed by God to so proclaim his word that it's like an advertisement on a board, and the man who rushes down the street will still see those letters. Drink Pepsi-Cola. You see, that illustration I used right at the beginning, just to get your interest and to emphasize the point, it has some value.

We ought to communicate this gospel in a way that's understandable to people, so that whether they're in our street, whether in our school, whether they're in our office or in our shop, they shall come to a realization of who Jesus Christ is. Says the apostle Paul to Agrippa and to Festus, I've received help from the Lord, I have his authority, and this is the reason why I'm testifying to you, and I'm doing so in a clear way, so that you might all understand. Authority and clarity.

But finally, and this is the thing that hits me when traveling amongst Mexican brothers and sisters and Uruguayan Christians, sincerity. Sincerity. Remember one translator of mine by the name of David, wouldn't like to try to pronounce his surname, something about this fellow that really impressed me.

There has to be a sympathy that develops between the preacher and the interpreter, because unless that sympathy is there, that union of emotion as well as intellect, then things just fall apart. The interpreter's got to get the emotion of what you're saying and the intonation of what you're saying, the very sound of what you're saying. He's got to reproduce this in his own language, and David, in the most remarkable way, was able to do this.

One day he came to my cabin, and we had some time of fellowship together. And I said, David, I do appreciate what you're doing. And I said, let me compliment you.

You always look so smart when you're on the platform with me or in the churches, wherever I go. I appreciate that. And he said, Pastor, do you know something? He said, I prayed for 12 months solid for that suit, that God would give me one, because I hadn't got one.

I'm the son of a couple of missionaries from Chile who've come to Uruguay. We don't have much money. But he said, I prayed that God would give me a suit so that when I stood in the pulpit and interpreted for anybody, I would be dressed in such a fashion that would bring honor to Him.

You see, there was a sincerity in that lad. Not just in his ability to handle language, but his very lifestyle was caught up with this whole business of communicating the gospel. Do you know what sincerity really means? It's a word that you really can push back into the Greek, and it means without wax.

Sincere. So how can a word come to mean without wax? Well, in Corinth, the Greek city, sometimes if you got a vase which was a little bit cracked, and a merchant wanted to sell that ornament, he would take some wax, and he would put the wax over the crack, and then he would paint it. And the passerby, who didn't realize what had happened, would think that he was buying something perfect, whereas it wasn't.

There was wax. There was a crack there. What God wants from you and me, this whole business of communicating the gospel, is for us to be sincere, without wax.

Like the Apostle Paul, when he stands before Festus, and stands before Agrippa, and is able to tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he has done for them, for him. On board the ship Doulas, the sincerity of so many people just came through, in a way that compelled me to write in some of the notes that I made as I was going along, that the Doulas itself has become for me a sermon that has tremendous eloquence. Because people's lives speak.

People and the lifestyle that they adopt, they communicate the convictions that they cherish. So then, with my time almost gone, here are three aspects of effective communication. The person who indulges in such must appeal to an authority.

The Apostle Paul does this. He speaks of God. He speaks of the Scriptures.

He must proclaim his message clearly, so that all can understand. As we here try to tell people of their great need of salvation, and tell you that a little child can entrust himself to Jesus, because Jesus bled and died to save him. But an effective communicator also needs sincerity, so that people pick up what you are, and that becomes an illustration of what you preach.

You see, Paul was not just a communicator. He was a liver. The man and the message, they're bound together.

The message, says Paul, is simply this. Woe am I, if I preach not the gospel. The man for me to live is Christ.

Both bound together, the man and the message. And when people saw Paul, they reacted to what he had to say, either with a yes, or as in this case, with a no. But he was a fine representative of the gospel of Christ.

I ask you, are you the same? Do you recognize the value of this gospel? Do you realize that it's only the living waters of Christianity that can bring you salvation? And you've committed your life to Jesus? You've done that? You're not in the first category that I outlined a moment ago. You are a member of the Christian church. Then if that's the case, why is your enthusiasm less than the purveyors, the sellers of Coca and Pepsi-Cola? Because I've seen their wares advertised around the world in virtually every village that I remember going in.

But I haven't seen a church in every village. I haven't seen a church in every town. And we've got more people who are convinced as to the necessity of the gospel being pushed forward, surely, than what Coca and Pepsi have salesmen.

Effective communicators. May God make each one of us in this congregation such a type of person who appeals on preaching the gospel to the authority of God, who speaks simply with clarity, who lives with sincerity, and whose life, therefore, can be used by the Lord. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for what your word does around the world. Thank you for people that you've delivered from bondage in Mexico and Uruguay. Bring that continent of Latin America to you.

Thank you for so many millions of Christians. And yet, Lord, there's such a need of a missionary spirit to be born in those churches, for Latin Americans to leave their shores and to preach the gospel elsewhere. And as this has been the main message of the ship to Latin America, we pray that the echo of that message may hit this tabernacle.

For, Lord, from our ranks, there are probably, there are certainly, some occupying pews this evening who should not be here, but be out serving you in lands which are desperately needy of the living water. Burden us, Father. Help us to get our priorities right.

Take away attention from secondary issues and place attention where it is asked to be put by Jesus in going out and telling the gospel at least once to every man and to every woman and to hasten the return of the King. Father, build into our lives authority and clarity and sincerity. And may we get a response to what we have to say for Jesus' sake.

Amen.