Is the Medium the Message?
Introduction: Marshall McLuhan is viewed as a sort of prophet of the Electronic Age. A Canadian communications theorist who died in 1980, he is perhaps best known for coining the slogan, “the medium is the message.” By that he intended to convey (if I as a communications layman understand him at all) that the way in which information comes to us—whether radio, T.V. movies, books, or a live speaker—the way it comes to us so shapes our environment that, without our being aware of it, the message is subtly molded by that medium to the point that in some sense the medium actually becomes the message.
McLuhan was particularly concerned about the electronic media and pointed out that everything about us—our language, our values, our philosophy of life—everything is being enormously influenced by mass communications. Nor has the Church escaped this influence. In fact, as we see the growing popularity of the electronic church and the accompanying emergence of evangelical superstars, one wonders if the Church hasn’t to a certain extent bought into the slogan that “the medium is the message.”
One of the great temptations in the Church today, particularly in evangelicalism, is to put the communicator on a pedestal and minimize the communication. We have been weaned on television and movies, where the message nearly always takes a back seat to the messenger, and we have come to expect the same kind of skilled acting and dynamic speaking when we come to worship. The result is that a certain class of charismatic communicators has risen to the top in the Church and has achieved an inordinate amount of influence and attracted an inordinate amount of the Church’s financial resources.
Nor is this phenomenon limited to any certain denomination or movement. The charismatics may have an unusual number of gurus, like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, and Kenneth Hagen, but the Baptists have their Charles Stanley, the Presbyterians their Francis Shafer, the Reformed Church its Robert Schuler, the Free Church its Charles Swindoll, the independent churches their John MacArthur, and the para-church movement its Bill Gothard.
By mentioning these names, I am not suggesting that these leaders have acted unethically or that they have consciously attempted to accrue to themselves a following that views them as possessing super-sainthood, but I am willing to say that in the case of nearly every ultra-popular Christian leader there is a very real danger that the messenger will become larger than the message.
That is, in essence, just what happened when the Apostle Paul, Barnabas, and their retinue, entered the city of Lystra while on the first great missionary journey. They had just been run out of the Antioch of Pisidia and again out of Iconium, and had fled to the Lycaonian city of Lystra, where they continued to preach the Gospel. Let’s read the account in Acts 14:8-20:
In Lystra a man was sitting whose feet were incapacitated. He had been disabled from his mother’s womb and had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul looked at him intently and saw that he had faith to be made well, 10 and he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” And the man leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us!” 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. 13 Moreover, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men, of the same nature as you, preaching the gospel to you, to turn from these useless things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them. 16 In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 And even by saying these things, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking that he was dead. 20 But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
This story took place in Lystra, a rather insignificant city not located on any major trade route. The population was made up of a few Romans, some Greek-educated merchants, and the rest were uneducated native Lycaonians. The Romans spoke Latin, and everyone else used the trade language, Greek. The natives, however, had a vernacular language with which they were much more comfortable, as we will see in our story.
The story of the evangelism of Lystra begins with the healing of a lame man.
The healing of a lame man (8-10)
This lame man was in a hopeless and helpless condition, as indicated by a threefold description in the text. First, he was “without strength in his feet.” Second, he was “lame from his mother’s womb.” And third, “he had never walked.”
But he could listen, and that is exactly what he was doing while Paul was preaching the Gospel. For some reason he attracted Paul’s attention, and the Apostle fixed his gaze upon him. I assume he actually saw into the man’s soul, recognizing that he had faith to be made well. So, Paul said to him, “Stand upright on your feet.” That the lame man had faith was made plain by his ready obedience to Paul’s command to stand up. He leaped to his feet, found that they supported his weight, and began to walk for the first time in his life.
A most unexpected thing followed this remarkable healing.
The resultant attempt to worship the benefactors (11-18)
The miraculous cure struck amazement into the crowd of bystanders. They concluded that the gods had become incarnate and they began to refer to Barnabas as Zeus and to Paul as Hermes. Even the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the city gate, began to arrange for a great sacrifice to be made to Paul and Barnabas. The Apostles had no idea up to this point what was happening, for they could speak only the trade language, Greek, and all this was going on in the Lycaonian language, as noted for us in verse 11. But finally, they put two and two together and realized that they were being deified.
Paul and Barnabas are “deified.” The people’s excitement is made more understandable with the help of a story narrated by the Roman poet Ovid in his famous Metamorphoses, a story undoubtedly familiar to these very people. It relates what happened to an old couple in the Phrygian hill country not far from Lystra. Listen to Ovid’s story:
“The Greek gods Zeus and Hermes came to this area disguised as men. They tried to find hospitality in a thousand homes, but no one offered them a place to stay except a very poor, aged couple, Philemon and Baucis, who gave them everything they had to eat. When the empty wine bowl on the table refilled itself, the peasants recognized that these men were gods! The couple were then taken up to the top of a nearby hill where they saw the gods inundate all the countryside which had denied them hospitality. They also saw their tiny hut transformed into a large marble temple with a gilded roof.”
No wonder the Lycaonians desired to offer homage to Paul and Barnabas; they wanted to escape judgment and be appropriately rewarded.
Now to be made the recipient of divine honors was a coveted recognition to the pagan mind, but it is the farthest from the desire of a godly person, or, for that matter, even of godly angels (Rev. 22:8,9). Upon learning what was afoot the Apostles were appalled.
Paul and Barnabas resist the “honor” by word and deed. (14). To say they resisted is really an understatement. They actually tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd to protest. That’s important. Some religious leaders make verbal protest to the virtual idolatry practiced by their followers, but by their actions they show that they enjoy the attention immensely. Paul and Barnabas made protest both verbally and by action.
Their verbal protest deserves some careful examination. I think it is notable that the apostles did not poke fun at the crudity of the people’s idolatry and thereby needlessly offend their audience, but rather they were content to point out its futility and then pass at once to an exposition of the “better way.” Not that it is always wrong to poke fun at idolatry. Elijah absolutely scorned the idolatry of the priest of Baal, and the Psalmist heaps scathing criticism upon idolators in Psalm 115. But the Scriptures seem to distinguish between the ignorant idolator, as these people were, and the committed idolator, such as a pagan priest or a false teacher.
The Apostle’s message to the Lystrans involved a statement about himself and a statement about God. Concerning himself Paul says in verse 15, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you.” Apostles put their pants on one leg at a time, like everyone else; they have struggles; they have weaknesses. In fact, Paul had once tried his own variety of “vain things” to justify himself before gods of his own making.
But it is what Paul says about God that is most important. First, he says, the God whose gospel he is preaching is a living God, in contrast to the dead idols of the pagans. Second, He is a creating God. The trees and the stones that the pagans worshipped are actually creations of the true and living God. Third, God once permitted the pagan nations to go their own way. This is a similar idea to that expressed in Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, where he stated that God overlooked the times of ignorance, but He is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. This permissiveness on God’s part speaks not of indifference but of patience. He chose not to exterminate the wicked because His plan was to provide a solution to their sin.
But even while God was overlooking the pagan’s sin, the individual pagan was guilty and liable for punishment because of the fourth truth about God, as seen in verse 17: “He did not leave Himself without witness.” Even the pagan person who had never heard a prophet and had never seen a Scripture scroll should have known God because of the natural revelation He gave of Himself. “He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Unfortunately, as Romans 1 tells us, the pagan responded by worshiping the creature rather than the creator, and God so holds him guilty.
The attempted deification of the Apostles having barely been derailed by Paul’s strong protest, we find the populace instead turning against them.
The stoning of Paul (19-20)
We learn in verse 19 that certain Jews arrived in Lystra from the two cities the apostles had already evangelized—Antioch and Iconium—to oppose the Gospel. To accomplish their purpose these Jews first had to win over the people of Lystra, which they did. We learn a strange truth about human nature here, namely that a spurned idolator can be a very dangerous enemy. At any rate, Paul was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead.
Though Paul experienced a great many hardships and sufferings, this was the only time he ever suffered a stoning, according to 2 Cor. 11:25, and it must have made him reflect on what had happened to Stephen, in whose stoning he himself had played a part. Some have suggested that Paul really died here at Lystra and was raised from the dead, though the text does not actually say so. If this was an example of resurrection, it is possibly this incident that Paul refers to in 2 Cor. 12:2ff:
“I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”
The stoning of Paul marked the end of his ministry at Lystra for the time being. Yet that ministry had not been in vain, for a band of “disciples” (very possibly including Paul’s future companion and protege, Timothy) gathered about Paul’s form, no doubt in mourning. Imagine their joyful surprise when he stirred and rose to his feet and walked back into the city with them. The same power of God that had been efficacious through Paul to heal the cripple was potent to restore his own physical powers. God had vindicated His servant.
It did not seem expedient to continue working there as long as the atmosphere was so hostile, so Paul and Barnabas left for Derbe the following day. But Paul was not afraid to go back to Lystra on his return trip to Antioch of Syria a short time later so that he could strengthen the disciples, encourage them, and appoint elders in their churches.
Such is the story that God has left us in Acts 14. What does it mean for us today? What is the lesson that we must learn so as not to have heard the Word in vain?
The lesson for the Church today: making matinee idols out of Christian communicators is harmful.
It is harmful to the Church. At Lystra the people faced the subtle evasion of the message through idolizing the messengers. That is happening a great deal in the church today as well. People are seeking to be entertained. They flock to the best act in town on a Sunday morning. They are not interested in emulating the Bereans “who searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things they were being taught were really so.” I find a disturbing number of Christians accepting as “Gospel” virtually anything their favorite guru tells them, with the result that they are led into some very strange and harmful viewpoints. In order to make this as practical as I can, though I realize I risk hurting someone’s feelings, I’m going to use three examples: Robert Schuller, Bill Gothard and our own Chuck Swindoll.
Robert Shuller is a fascinating, charismatic individual who has built a remarkable church in Southern California. Many of his ideas and emphases are helpful, but I fear that many people have not listened to him with discernment because they have been blinded by his powerful delivery. Several years ago he sent to nearly every pastor in the country, myself included, a copy of his book, Self-esteem–The New Reformation. In that book he shares his real theology, a theology that has some serious problems, but a theology that those who just listen to him on TV often miss.
Schuller says, and I quote him directly, “Pride in being a human being is the single greatest need facing the human race today … do not fear pride.” The Scriptures, on the other hand, say that God is opposed to the proud and that pride goes before destruction. Schuller says that “the purpose of the good news is that God wants all of us to feel good about ourselves,” but that’s hardly the message one picks up from such statements of Jesus’ as “blessed are the poor in spirit.” Schuller goes on, “To be born again means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self-image—from inferiority to self-esteem,” but the Scriptures describe the new birth as spiritual, not psychological. Schuller says, “God’s ultimate objective is to turn you and me into self-confident persons,” but Phil. 3:3 sets before us the goal of putting no confidence in the flesh.
Sometimes the preaching of Schuller, as well as that of many preachers in mainline churches all over the U.S., reminds me of an article written by the great evangelist Charles Finney, entitled, “Mastering the Art of Preaching so as to Convert Nobody.” Here are some of the 42 ways he gave to accomplish this, as paraphrased by John MacArthur:
1. Aim at pleasing rather than correcting.
2. Let your sermons be literary, flowery, ornate, flowing beautifully, so
your hearers never remember the lack of content.
3. Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the carnal mind.
4. Deal with sin in the abstract and make no allusions to the sins of
your audience.
5. Preach salvation by grace; but ignore the condemned and lost
condition of the sinner, lest he should understand what you mean
by grace and sense his need of it.
6. Make no appeals to the fears of sinners; give them the impression
that they have no reason to fear.
7. Preach the love of God but ignore the holiness of His love.
8. Do not rebuke the worldly tendencies of the church, lest you should
hurt people’s feelings.
9. Ridicule solemn earnestness in pulling sinners out of the fire and
recommend by precept or example a jovial, fun-loving religion.
10. Make the impression upon sinners that their own safety and
happiness is the supreme motive of being religious.
11. See to it that you say nothing to any hearer that applies to him or
her, unless it be something flattering.
Perhaps I have been too critical of Schuller; I certainly do not want to misrepresent him, but at the very least his trumpet has emitted a rather uncertain sound. But now I want to come closer to home and comment briefly on Bill Gothard as regards this matter of virtual deification of the Christian communicator.
There are few individuals in the history of Christianity who have attained a more loyal and intense following than Bill Gothard. His Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar is attended by millions each year and many of us here today have attended and have profited from it. The problem I see is not in the seminar, nor even in the man; the problem is in the unthinking acceptance of virtually everything he says by some of his disciples.
Gothard comes across as such a godly person and has such a sincere desire to help hurting individuals and families that some people cannot distinguish the messenger from the message. While I do not believe that Gothard is seriously lacking in his understanding of biblical theology, as I suspect Robert Schuller is, still Gothard offers a great deal of advice with a relatively weak biblical basis. When that advice is taken as divine rather than human, the results can be dangerous.
Now I have commented on one person who is some distance from where most of us are and another who is respected by many among us. A third one is actually one of us. Charles Swindoll pastors the largest Evangelical Free Church in the world and is probably the most popular non-charismatic preacher in the world today other than Billy Graham. Is there danger even with him? Yes, I think there is. Oh, I cannot tell you any heresy being taught by Chuck Swindoll. In fact, I think he is a very careful student of the Scriptures and a balanced expositor.
But I recall a woman at the church I previously pastored, a woman who had more than her share of emotional and family problems, who told me once, “If I didn’t hear Chuck in the morning, I would never get through the day.” She was by no means the only one who felt that way. I think that’s dangerous. Chuck Swindoll is not an apostle. He does not speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he should never be elevated to the point that a person has to have a Swindoll fix in order to get through the day. The only one we should feel that kind of dependence upon is the Holy Spirit.
I believe that making matinee idols out of Christian communicators is harmful to the Church because it puts our attention too much on fallible people who may very well disappoint us eventually. But it is not only harmful to the Church; it is also harmful to the message.
It is harmful to the message. That’s inevitable, because the focus is on the preacher, not the Gospel. In Lystra Paul was preaching the good news that Jesus came to save sinners, but the people were so intent on fitting Paul and Barnabas into their previously established notions of what the gods were like that they heard nothing of the message.
Let me read a paragraph written by Lloyd John Ogilvie, pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church:
“I am prompted to make a comparison of Christians in the Church in America with the people of Lystra. Most of us have come to Christ with rigidly set securities. We accept him as Savior out of our need for further security, assurance of his love for daily pressures now, and promise of eternal life for the future. Like the people of Lystra, we keep our other gods. Idolatry of Christ as a historical figure makes us fanatic about the celebration of his birth and death. But idolatry is always adoration at a distance. It’s the ultimate manipulation. We get what we want and need but avoid the penetrating transformation of our lives. We whittle Christ down to our size and fit him into the portfolios holding our accumulation of gods. We deal with him to keep him from dealing with us.”
The message that Christ came to save sinners and to transform them is harmed when the messenger is elevated to a place of prominence. The fact is that there are some very faithful Bible teachers who aren’t uniquely gifted communicators who deserve far more respect and appreciation than some of the superstars who get all the attention but are short on content.
It is harmful to the messenger himself. Many a great person of God, gifted speaker, and dynamic leader has gone down the tubes because he began to believe his own press clippings. Deification is a pressure that not many can handle. Popular Christian communicators need to fight it; they need to avoid the temptation to make pronouncements on every political, social, and religious issue that comes up, because that just furthers the impression among their followers that they are somehow super-saints. They need to turn down speaking engagements where it is obvious that people are coming to see them rather than hear their message. They need to remind their too-easily-impressed followers that they are mere men. That may involve being vulnerable; it may involve resisting the temptation to act like they always have it together.
Now I know that’s easy for me to say. I am never going to have a national radio broadcast and I’m never going to be a best-selling author whose views are sought on every issue of importance. But in a sense every pastor worth his salt faces this temptation to a certain extent, as does every effective S. S. teacher, Christian singer, Christian baseball player, or successful Christian businessman. Ours is a nation of idolators, and God speaks to us today and warns us for our own sake, for the sake of those we would idolize, and for the sake of the Church and the Gospel that “I will not give my glory to another.”
Conclusion: I simply want for us to read a passage from 2 Cor. 4. Turn to it with me, will you? We’ll begin with verse 5:
For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.
When you’re in the hospital they don’t bring your medicine in a silver chalice. They bring it in a paper cup. So what? It’s the medicine that counts. God has sent us the Gospel in earthen vessels, ordinary human beings, fallen creatures like us. So what? It’s the message that counts.
In late June my wife and I had the privilege of staying in the summer home of a good friend of ours in the mountains of Colorado. The home is in a remote area, over 9,000 feet above sea level, and with a gorgeous sight out the huge glass front of the home. What would you think if someone were to stand in the living room of that home, look out at the splendor of God’s creation, and say, “I just love those windows! Double paned glass is my favorite kind, and it has just the right amount of tint in it, and it’s so clear that there’s hardly a single distortion, and it feels so smooth, etc., etc.” No, the window is just a means to observe the beauty that is outside it.
The medium is not the message—it is just a vehicle for the message. May we become Bereans, searching the Scriptures daily to see if the things being told us by our leaders are true.
Tags:
Healing
Preacher worship