A restoration took place in the days of Josiah, king of Judah. He sought to restore the practices of the Law of Moses that had been abandoned.
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Reasoned Preaching
In Paul’s preaching, he appealed to reason. We see this example in his two visits to Ephesus. During his first brief visit, he “entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews” (Acts 18:19). When he returned to Ephesus, after being forced to leave the synagogue, he was “reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9).
This style of preaching was not reserved for the people of Ephesus because of their particular background or circumstances. Instead, this was the kind of preaching Paul did everywhere he went. When he went to Thessalonica, Luke records: “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…” (Acts 17:2-3).
Paul’s preaching was very different from the preaching done by many in the religious world today. Notice what Paul did not do:
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Offering an Invitation in the Assembly
Typically, at the end of a sermon, the gospel preacher will offer an invitation. I do it and I know many others who do as well. But why? Is there a reason for doing it, or is it just a long-held tradition that we mindlessly practice?
Before we consider this question, we should be sure we understand what we mean by an invitation (as it is commonly called). The invitation is two-fold. First, it is to invite non-Christians to come to Christ. Second, it is to admonish erring Christians to repent.
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Shortcuts to Bible Study
A few months ago I was sent an article that was written by a Catholic. The beginning of the article talked about the great burden it is to study the Bible. After all, the author reasoned, we are all just so busy. There is just not the time for us to study the Bible on our own. He then talked about the great blessing we have in the Catholic Church. He argued that we really do not have to study, we can just listen to what the Church tells us. And what a comfort to know that we do not have to bother with taking the time ourselves to study God’s word.
This is an example of a great problem in religion – many do not want to study. They come up with different excuses – they are busy, they do not understand, etc. So instead of studying the Bible, they look for shortcuts – ways to get around having to study much themselves. I want us to consider some of these “shortcuts” and notice what the Bible has to say about them.
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Tradition in Worship
Many of the things we do in worship are a matter of tradition. Some may be surprised by that admission. They read of “traditions” being condemned in the Bible and think that all traditions must be wrong. But the fact is, not all traditions are condemned by God in His word. In fact, some are even required.
There are basically three types of traditions. We will notice each to help us see what sort of traditions are right and which are wrong.
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