This unpublished homiletical biography of Ray Stedman (±80 web pages) is a late addition (2007) to the Ray C. Stedman Online Library. With his unique sermon-style approach in this memoir, Dr. Wade Whitcomb brings out some jewels, both his and Ray’s, that will absolutely sparkle and impact your thoughts . He brings home the importance of clear Biblical preaching in the ministry of the church which can in no way be overstated even today.
It is indeed difficult to try to sum up the life of one of the great expository teachers of the 20th century, and especially of a shepherd who let the Lord live so vibrantly in and through him; but Whitcomb performs a yeoman’s service in bringing together Ray’s life and ministry as a concise, memorable, and informative read for everyone even though he aimed it at pastors. Wade Whitcomb wrote this paper as his Doctoral Dissertation for his seminary. Read Wade’s 1998 Introduction.
For a fuller biographical view of Ray Stedman's life see: Portrait of Integrity.
FORWORD by J.I. Packer REFERENCES
FOREWORD
There are some people with whom one bonds ("clicks," as we used to say) very quickly, and at a very deep level. For me, as for many others, Ray Stedman was one such. Our first conversation left me feeling we had been buddies for years, and that was not just because I had told him of my long-standing, whole-hearted agreement with the vision of the local congregation set out in his book Body Life which he was implementing at Peninsula Bible Church.
At Ray's invitation, I visited Peninsula Bible Church (PBC), taught a little in its Scribe School, and shared in Sunday worship there. Later I was with him on the Council of Biblical Exposition (COBE) and took part in the big conference for preachers that it mounted in Houston. Ray aimed to be a teacher of teachers, as do I, and our cooperation was for me, at least, a delight.
He was laid-back; he was genial; he was wise; he was well-read, thoughtful, and sharp as a tack in discussion; he was theologically aware, and thoroughly God-centered; he was a commanding person, though unassuming and without conceit; and his relaxed intensity in exegeting and applying Scripture made you listen to every word, and search your heart constantly. He was, as we say, a fine gentleman, and a fine minister. Such men ought to be remembered, and it is therefore with great joy that I introduce Wade Whitcomb's memoir of him.
I would pay tribute also to Ray's wife Elaine, who supported him magnificently throughout his ministry.
"Remember your leaders who first taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and trust the Lord as they do. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:7-8, NLT).
J.I. Packer
1. PROLOGUE
A curious phenomenon is taking place in churches across the country. Churches that have been around for fifty, seventy, even one hundred years are radically changing their form of worship. Pews are being removed and replaced by theater style seating. Drama and professional contemporary music are becoming a regular part of the morning worship service, and every reminder of the "boring" theological church of the past is being eradicated.
Churches with a long tradition of denominational affiliation are dropping the words "Baptist", or "Presbyterian" from their names. New names such as "Hard Rock Community Church" are replacing First Baptist or First United Methodist Church.
Some of these churches are experiencing amazing growth; the kind of growth that can make a pastor an instant celebrity; the kind of growth that even makes denominational leaders happy about the deletion of the denominational designation, "if that is what it takes to grow." These churches, known as "seeker sensitive" churches are being planted in growing communities with a core group of about thirty-five excited, energetic people ready to win the community for Christ and ready to build a church that fulfills the great commission and pleases God.
We are told by one West Coast pastor that this is a wave that is supplied by the Holy Spirit at this time in church history. After observing the California surfers, he comments that the surfers will wait patiently for a swell to come and then, having caught the wave, will ride it, propelled by the mighty power it releases. He suggests that this is what is happening today with the seeker sensitive movement: it is a powerful wave provided by the Holy Spirit, and we should be catching and riding the wave.
As an Orange County California pastor, I minister in a unique environment. The church I have been privileged to lead for the last three years is a three-hundred member American Baptist Church in Garden Grove. When it comes to megachurch models, I do not have to look too far to find one to emulate. About five miles from my church is the Crystal Cathedral under the strong vision and leadership of Robert Schuller. About 30 miles south is the dynamic Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, one of the largest churches in North America which began in a tent with a small group of beach kids who responded to the more informal style of worship. In the city of Anaheim, less than 10 miles away are two more famous large churches: Anaheim Vineyard, known for its exciting worship and manifestation of the gifts; and Melodyland Christian Center, where miracle services or new phenomena such as "laughing in the Spirit" are common. These two churches evidence a much more visible, "outward demonstration" of the Holy Spirit's power.
Clearly, many different types of megachurch models exist right in the backyard of our congregation. Like most pastors, I would like to see First Baptist grow. It is one hundred years old and has been a faithful witness to the community for all those years. Growth should be relatively easy. I am the recipient of a great plethora of promotional materials, highlighting the benefits of one church growth seminar after another, promising principles which have been used by other megachurches, and which can practically guarantee growth from thirty-five to 10,000! I strive to be teachable and non-judgmental, but I must admit to some skepticism. I just don't see the same techniques that exploded the growth of one church in southern California transferring over to the hundred year old First Baptist. I am, however, familiar with many of the principles. The first thing I am told is that I should perform a demographic study of Garden Grove to begin understanding the members of the community, and to ascertain what style of church they prefer. Second, I give a fictitious name to the typical resident of my community; something like "Garden Grove Gary." As a result of my study, I learn that "Garden Grove Gary" earns about $40,000 per year, is thirty-eight years old, and prefers a low-key, casual type of church. One of the difficult tasks of this step is to convince my church that certain changes are necessary if we are to reach "Garden Grove Gary." Perhaps I gently explain that the word "Baptist" conjures up images of Elmer Gantry to unchurched Gary, and repels him before he even hits the front door. A name like Sea Breeze Community Church references our proximity to the beach, and has no discernible labels. The third step is a complete revamping of our worship services, making them more contemporary, more entertaining....
After fifteen years of ministry, I am becoming overwhelmed. Is First Baptist Church a relic of the past, doomed to either hop on this wave or fail? Is First Baptist just like the Mom and Pop hardware store I used to frequent as a kid, but can't find today because they can't compete with Home Base or Home Depot? Is this the wave supplied by the Holy Spirit and I better be on it or miss out?
As a surfer myself, I realize that swells occasionally look really good, the wave seems to be forming perfectly, and many surfers "drop in" only to find that the wave had no shape and "closes out" on them. If you watch southern California surfers long enough, you'll notice that many of them catch a wave, realize that it is not what they thought it would be, and quickly 'kick out." The words of Dr. Dick Hillis, one of the most significant influences in my life before I entered the ministry, have stayed with me these last fifteen years. "Don't worry about being a Billy Graham or a Bill Bright or a Chuck Swindoll," he warned; "Just be faithful to what God has called you to do." As a pastor, God has called me first and foremost to preach the Word, and I am afraid that this swell may not be producing the perfect waves we thought we saw. In Ken Hemphill's book The Antioch Effect, he demonstrates that when all is said and done and the dust has settled, the facts actually reveal that the church growth movement is not keeping up with the population growth. 1 Of course, as he points out, we could ask how much worse would things be if it were not for this emphasis on growth? We must also ask, however, is the salt losing its savor?
All of us want to carry out God's will. All of us want to see fruit. We must be careful, however to accomplish God's will in God's way. We must always be cautious of the temptation to accomplish His will in the flesh. The obvious question arises: "What is God's method for declaring His Word?" Too often the temptation for pastors and church leaders today is the same as it was for Aaron and the golden calf…give the people what they want, a temptation that has plagued leaders ever since.
What follows is not a critique of the "seeker sensitive", "user friendly" churches that are springing up today. It is, however, an appeal that whether the church is First Baptist, or Hard Rock Community, whether it's high church or low church, and whether it is target oriented or baby boomer oriented, that the preaching is not compromised. It is easy in our megachurch mindset of today to focus so much on being managers that we forget our calling. We run the risk of leading our churches to be secularized. Os Guinness says in Dining with the Devil,
Secularism is a philosophy; secularization is a process. Where the philosophy is obviously hostile to the body of Christ and touches only a few, the process is largely invisible and touches many. Being openly hostile, secularism rarely deceives Christians. Being much more subtle, secularization often deceives Christians before they are aware of it, including those in the church growth movement. How else can one explain the comment of a Japanese businessman visiting Australia? "Wherever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Wherever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager."
The two most easily recognizable hallmarks of secularization in America are the exaltation of numbers and technique. Both are prominent in the megachurch movement at a popular level. 2
We need to remember that preaching is still the primary means by which the kingdom of God advances. Paul said: 'How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14)
Jesus himself came preaching (Mark 1:14). Matthew says, "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 9:35). During His lifetime, Jesus sent the apostles out to preach. "And he appointed the twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach." After Pentecost, the apostles also gave priority to preaching. In Acts 6:4 they say, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
Peter wrote later in his first letter about the salvation that is found in Christ. Telling his readers that the prophets who spoke before were "not serving themselves but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit" (I Peter 1:12).
Many of us feel like Moses when he was asked to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He realized how ill prepared he was to do such a great work. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" God, however, assured him that He would provide the necessary power to accomplish this monumental task.
Ken Hemphill stated: "Preaching the Word is the centerpiece of worship. Preaching is declaring the truth of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul expressed his conviction about the centrality of preaching in the first two chapters of I Corinthians. The Jews, Paul said, clamored for signs: —some spectacular evidence of God's presence and power (ref. 1:22). Sounds a little like the "signs and wonders" movement in church growth. The Greeks, he continued, sought for wisdom (ref 1:22). Thus, Paul determined to preach the cross of Christ because it was the power and wisdom of God (ref 1:23). Paul could have been tempted to meet the "felt need" of his day, for dramatic signs and wisdom, but rather chose to meet the real issue of human need through the preaching of the cross." 3
Fortunately for those of us who struggle with being faithful to our calling yet still desire a church that grows, we have a model that gives us hope that a church can grow without state of the art sound systems and professional quality actors and actresses. In 1948, Ray Stedman came straight out of seminary to a small church in Northern California. In many respects, he began what easily could be considered the first seeker sensitive church, if not the prototype. Ray and the elders led a church that was loving, caring, and accepting of everyone. It was a church where the seeker could feel free to visit. There was a more "casual style" of worship and young adults, college and high school kids were quickly filling the pews. It is crucial to remember however that preaching was central to this ministry. The Word, not the audience was sovereign. Ray Stedman sympathized with the frustration of the proponents of the "seeker sensitive" philosophy. Long before many of these pastors were out of grade school, Ray said:
One reason why so much of the church today is written off by people who have come to see what Christians are like is that they are turned off by the morbidity and dullness of what we call worship. In many church services across this land today the diet is what can only be described as predictable pabulum, dished-up Pollyanna, as dull and unexciting as it can be! Many services are so totally predictable that, without being present, you can look at your watch and, at any given moment, say what is happening. 4
Certainly Stedman's assessment of the church is valid. Many are "dead." In this, Ray and the "seeker sensitive" proponents would agree. However, where the two would disagree is that Stedman understood that the real problem lies not in the presentation but in the preaching. How then does a church capture the excitement and joy? With drama, drums, bells and whistles or anything else? No, it is when preachers cease to be shallow and repetitive. The authentic joy found in churches is when they are confronted with and conformed to the majesty of the Word of God.
The church Ray Stedman pastored for over forty years was a lively, joyful church. The fruit produced is amazing. Peninsula Bible Church was founded in Palo Alto in 1950 by five businessmen who had only intended to establish a low key fellowship. The group quickly mushroomed and called Stedman as its first pastor. Within the first 20 years, PBC became one of the largest evangelical churches in Northern California. However, the pulpit was not moved aside for drama. Instead, preaching was central and the joy that was present was not because of guitars and drums or comfortable theater seats. Joy was present from God's Word being expounded and people discovering the gospel of Jesus Christ. The music at times was far below the professionalism demanded in many of today's churches. Yet worship was certainly there.
Years later, Stedman and his long time friend Howard Hendricks would talk about their concern over some of the seeker sensitive churches. They worried that they were "about sixteen feet wide and one sixteenth of an inch deep". 5 Perhaps pastors today could learn from Martin Luther. He advised young preachers with these words: "Look solely to His honor and not to applause—Although I am old (he was 48) and experienced, I am afraid every time I have to preach."
Why was this? Was it merely a matter of "stage fright" for this great reformer? Could it be that he was timid? The one who stood at the Diet of Worms in the presence of all the power that the ecclesiastical world had to offer and said, "unless I am persuaded by reason and the Word of God, I cannot and will not recant." Could he have been worried about the approval of men? No, the one thing that caused fear in Luther was not the disapproval of men, but the disapproval of God. Somewhere, we have lost this attitude.
If Martin Luther trembled as he announced the Gospel, how much more should preachers today? The problem of course is not that the modem preachers feel superior to Luther; the problem is they don't understand the importance of the preacher's calling. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, the great preacher from Westminster chapel (to whom J.I. Packer compared Ray Stedman in some very distinct ways), said: "to me the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." 6 If we understood the preacher's calling as Martin Luther and D. Martyn Lloyd Jones did, preaching in today's churches would radically change. Preaching would return to its proper prominence.
Unfortunately, the passion for the Word of God that was so much a part of Ray Stedman has not been carried over into all churches and all pulpits. Consequently, we are living in a world where it appears the salt is beginning to lose its savor. Our passion to grow churches is at an all time high, but our passion to preach seems to be at an all time low.
After traveling around the country and observing different churches, Ray came back to the pulpit in Palo Alto and said:
Here on the West Coast we are seeing much new life coming into the churches. But in the rest of the nation this is just barely beginning in a few spots. For the most part, the evangelical churches are carrying on in a very sterile, dry, dull, empty shell of performance, with services which are appallingly dull, and are turning off most of the youth of their areas. Young people are frankly saying so all over the country. What is the reason for this? Well, it is largely because we have substituted for the intended power by which Christians are to live the processes which the world lives on around us. We have substituted slick organization and electronic techniques and high gear promotion and pressure tactics as the means by which we hope the church will affect the world. But God's people have never moved successfully on that basis, either in the Scriptures or in subsequent history. 7
Why is this? Perhaps we are falling into the age-old trap of trying to accomplish God's work in the flesh. In Genesis chapter 16, Sarai, Abram's wife made a self sacrificing and generous offer. Because God had promised her husband a son, and after ten years there still wasn't one, she decided to help carry out God's will. It made perfect sense to her that the best thing to do would be to give her maid Hagar to him. Abram, also aware of God's promise, was anxious to see the fruit that he knew would one day be his. Now, after considering his wife's offer and, both of them optimistic about the fruit that they hoped would follow, the decision was made. Verse 3 tells us: "And after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife." The result of their effort was in fact fruit. Ishmael was born. The problem of course was that God intended the fruit to be Isaac. In a 1966 sermon, Ray commented on Genesis 16:
We find in our Bibles what we call "the Great Commission." (Mark 15:16). "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." This is the goal he wants us to fulfill. We say: now the rest is up to us. We must plan all the strategy; we must raise the money, and determine where it will be spent. We must convince candidates that they should go. It is all up to us to carry out God's will.
And we do get some fruit from this; we get results. We hold our meetings and plan our programs and put on our pressures and we get results, but oh, they are so unsatisfactory. Do you know why? We've gotten Ishmael instead of Isaac!
We hear our Lord say in the first chapter of Acts, "You shall be witnesses," and every truly Christian heart says, "All right Lord, this is what you want me to do—I will do it." We never bother to find out how he wants it done, or whether he has a program to carry it out. We start out in fleshly zeal and pass out tracts to everyone we meet, or buttonhole people at meetings. When it all fails, we recognize that something is wrong and we wring our hands and quit. We say, "I've tried to obey the Lord, but it doesn't work, so I quit!"
We read in Scripture that we should have elders in every church, and God's plan is to direct his church through these men. So we hold an election and put up the wealthiest members or the most popular ones, and these men run the church as they would a business, stumbling on in total disregard of the Living Head who is completely capable of running his own church quite successfully. We never bother to find our how he makes known to us the men of his choice, and how he proposes to declare his will through them. So we have a church filled with divisions and strife, and realize we have Ishmael on our hands instead of Isaac. 8
The fact that, in much of Christianity today, we have Ishmael on our hands can be seen from the rather alarming statistics that we are now learning about the church. In Dining with the Devil Os Guinness reflects:
A very large part of church-growth success in the West (as much as 80 percent in America, some say) is growth by transfer, not conversion. As Jim Petersen of the Navigators says: "Increase of this sort isn't church growth at all. It's just a reshuffling of the same fifty-two cards."
What does it say of the church when Newsweek can note that "the least demanding churches are now in greatest demand?" Or when one church can advertise: "Instead of me fitting a religion I found a religion to fit me?" 9
Certainly this is a problem and quite possibly the problem is the pulpit of America.
How else could we explain one professor's sorrowful assessment of pastors today? In 1987, Eugene Peterson, a professor at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. wrote these words:
The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns—how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money. Perhaps no one has so bluntly stated a significant problem within the church today.
Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, and develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same. The marketing strategies of the fast food franchise occupy the waking minds of these entrepreneurs; while asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists. "A walloping great congregation is fine, and fun," says Martin Thornton, "but when most communities really need is a couple of saints. The tragedy is they may well be there in embryo, waiting to be discovered, waiting for sound training, waiting to be emancipated from the cult of the mediocre." 10
It could never be said that Ray Stedman was guilty of becoming a shopkeeper. One also could never level the charge against him of being an entrepreneur. Instead, Ray was completely committed to the importance of good Biblical preaching. It was a commitment that he carried with him all through his ministry. The fact that Ray Stedman never wavered from his view of the primacy of the Word of God is admirable when we consider that the "temptation" to make the audience sovereign instead of the Word, was so prevalent when Ray was beginning his ministry at PBC.
During the late 40's and early 50's a new way to accomplish God's work was being presented by a seminary professor in Germany. This way, like many others that would follow, promised results of church growth and also made the audience not the message sovereign. His name was Rudolph Bultmann and he would end up becoming perhaps the most influential theologian of the century.
During the war, Bultmann published a forty page essay entitled, "New Testament and Mythology," which catapulted him into the center of theological controversy and introduced into theology the term "demythologization." Although Bultmann retired from his professorship in 1951, his years of greatest influence have come during his retirement because of the debate his essay stimulated. 11
This perhaps was the beginning of modem man's attempt to "help God" accomplish his goals by producing Ishmael instead of Isaac. The typical evangelical of today would be appalled if they realized how much the seeker sensitive movement actually reflects the liberalism of the 19th Century and Bultmann of the 1950's. The goal behind Bultmann's theology was to get the good news of Jesus Christ to the modem thinker. To him, Christian faith is not concerned with Jesus as a past event in history. As such, Jesus was just another martyred hero. Christian faith is interested only in the risen Christ who brings new life to man as he is met today in the words of preaching and in the sacrament of the church. The important thing about the Gospels is not what they tell us about Jesus "as he really was," whatever that might mean, but that they show us what Jesus meant to the first Christians and thus what he can mean to us. As William Hordern has summed up, "Bultmann is concerned with how men today can understand the Bible as a Word addressed to them." 12
This almost sounds like the war cry of the modern seeker sensitive movement. The problem is Bultmann was actually partially right, and so is the seeker sensitive position; men today need to understand the Bible as a word addressed to them. However, he misses the mark when he assumes that Jesus as 'He really was' is not important. The baby boomer and the seeker need both. They need to see who Jesus really was, and how the risen Christ and his word apply to them today. Not only do they need both, they actually are fascinated by God's word when it is not watered down, not made more acceptable, not even defended but simply set free to defend itself.
Preaching has fallen on tough times today. Many argue that the idea of one man standing up proclaiming God's Word is too archaic for the sophisticated computer and MTV generation of today. Others tell us that if we do not get in line with the high energy, high production, entertainment oriented avenue for communicating the gospel, then we will not have an audience to preach to. We would agree with John Stott, himself a faithful preacher who said: "The very reason that preaching is the primary means of advancing God's kingdom is because it is 'foolishness' —therefore all the glory goes to God."
Instead of faithful preaching the emphasis today is too much on the audience and not on the message. We continually hear from the seeker sensitive camp, almost a mantra, that "theology is no good without an audience." Therefore we need to market the church.
Os Guinness has astutely pointed out:
One church growth marketer claims that the difference between "growth" and "evangelism" and "marketing" is only semantics. He is absolutely wrong. As historian David Potter pointed out in his penetrating analysis of advertising: once marketing becomes dominant, the concern is not with 'finding an audience to hear their message but rather finding a message to hold their audience.' After all, when the audience and not the message is sovereign, the good news of Jesus Christ is no longer the end but just the means. 13
Aware of the danger of weak preaching in churches Ray stated to a group of pastors at Glen Eyrie: "I believe that preaching in general has fallen on rather evil days. I don't hear a great deal of good solid biblical preaching today. In fact I was in a seminary just a few weeks ago where I spoke in chapel on the subject of preaching today. Afterward, the professor of homiletics took me aside and he said: "you know you were talking about the content of preaching, and what we should preach, but the problem at this seminary is not what but whether we should preach at all." 14
What a sad commentary on the CEO mentality of much of the church today. We are riding a wave that right now looks great; however, if preaching—the primary means of advancing the kingdom is not foremost in our churches, the "wave" will "close out" on the church.
Os Guinness said it well: "The church of Christ is more than spiritual and theological, but never less. Only when first things are truly first, over even the best and most attractive of second things, will the church be free of idols, free to let God be God, free to be herself, and free to experience the growth that matters." 15
Pastors have been given the wonderful privilege of preaching: "the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." What follows is a model for all of us to learn from. Ray Stedman understood that calling and had great appreciation for the wonder of the Word of God. Perhaps it's time to kick out of this wave and learn from the faithful model that Ray Stedman leaves behind. The story, however, does not begin with the pulpit. It begins long ago in 1917.
2. BEGINNINGS
The most basic quest of our life is to belong to someone, to be identified with them, to be loved by someone and to be accepted and possessed and owned by someone else. And nothing is more pitiable and pathetic than someone who feels that no one loves him, that he doesn't belong to anyone, that no one cares for his soul. — Ray C. Stedman
In the fall of 1917, German offensives were routing the Italians and destroying the Russian army. In the United States, millions of men registered quietly with the local officials whom the War Department authorized to supervise the draft. President Wilson made General John J. Pershing head of the American Expeditionary Force, and the world was in the midst of a violent war.
Theologically the world was being shaken up as well. Modernism had crept into such schools of theological training like Princeton and Yale. Union Theological seminary was gaining a strong reputation as a school of modem thought. Albert Schweitzer's book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus had been written eleven years before, and the theological world had embraced many of its themes. Like other books of similar nature, it did not describe Jesus, the Galilean carpenter of the first century, but a figure who taught and acted like a nineteenth century intellectual. American thought regarding sin, the person of Jesus, miracles and other matters of orthodoxy was being affected by European Christianity. Profoundly influencing these discussions were the teaching of people such as Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). Schleiermacher insisted that the great debates over proofs of God, the authority of Scriptures, miracles and the like were all on the outside fringe of religion. The heart of religion was and always had been feeling, not rational proofs and discussions. 1
In 1917, preaching was still strong in many churches and in many denominations! Sunday morning worshippers still eagerly anticipated hearing God's herald expound the Scriptures. Throughout the country however, many preachers were no longer "earnestly contending for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)." Charles Hadden Spurgeon had warned during his last great controversy (1887-1891) that Christians needed to wake up to the danger of the church "being buried beneath the boiling mud showers of modem heresy." Apparently, we hadn't listened.
Far away from the great war raging in Europe and equally distant from the confusing transitions in theological debate, Ray C. Stedman was born, on October 5, 1917, in a small town in North Dakota. Certainly, no one could have imagined the impact he would one day have in the Christian world as a preacher and a contender of the faith. Many years later, Ray Stedman would accept the responsibility of leading a Christian fellowship group of 35 which eventually became one of the fastest growing churches in Northern California, swelling to a community of over 3,000. (In addition, five "spin-off' churches were planted on the Peninsula.) The impact of this church for the cause of Christ was significant. Billy Graham once referred to PBC as: "One of the most dynamic companies of Christian believers on the West Coast." 2
Peninsula Bible Church would grow without all the trappings that many modern church growth movements consider essential. PBC thrived in the back yard of Stanford University, at a time when church growth clinics and seminars were non-existent, before the proponents of the modem "seeker sensitive" movement were out of grade school, and without the sophisticated contemporary Christian pop worship prevalent in many churches today.
Ray Stedman's book Body Life which defined the philosophy of PBC's community, was cited by church growth expert C. Peter Wagner as being one of the most significant books written in this generation. What was the foundation for this church's great success? Many people assert that it was because of the success of the "body life" principle, a principle that, simply duplicated in another setting, would easily produce growth. Those who assume this have missed the real strength of Ray Stedman and the ministry at PBC. Body life was clearly evident. The fellowship and care that is lacking in so many churches was certainly present at PBC. People were welcomed and accepted and loved. The focal point, however, was that God's Word was proclaimed, believed and treasured, and the church community was loved and nurtured into a fuller understanding of God's Person, and His design for this world and their lives.
When Ray Stedman came into the world on October 5, 1917 in Temvik, North Dakota, no one could have known that God would put His hand upon him and use him in such a mighty way. There was certainly no way that his parents or older brother could have imagined the trials and heartache that lay ahead, or that through all of it God would use those experiences to mold a man of God who would not just pastor a church, but faithfully preach the Word.
A look back at the rough childhood of Ray quickly dispels any notion that he was born with a "silver spoon in his mouth." Ray's father, Charles Leslie Stedman was born in Woodstock, Minnesota on July 21, 1889 to Guy and Mary Jane Stedman. Traveling by covered wagon, the family relocated to Blunt, South Dakota. The trip was long and difficult for the entire family. It was during this move that one of Charles' brothers was born. The trials and struggles that the Stedman family went through were almost beyond comprehension for most people living a century later.
During the early 1900's (1904-1905), Guy Stedman decided to homestead west of Temvik, North Dakota. Although what the family established was literally a little house on the prairie, it was nothing like the Hollywood rendition. The older boys labored long and hard, assisting their father with the construction of a sod house, a home for the family. That house would eventually become the final residence for their mother, Mary Jane Stedman. She died in 1907, leaving nine children. Charles was a teenager when his mother died and in time started working as a building contractor. Some of the barns he built are still standing today. In 1912, Charles married Mabel Allen of Ipswich, South Dakota. Three boys would eventually follow: Allen, Raymond, and Donald. The Stedman boys were also dealt a difficult hand early in life. Their father Charles had difficulty finding work and keeping the family settled in one spot, and their mother Mabel's health was failing. After seemingly endless moves, Charles finally found a job in construction in Denver Colorado. A short time after settling his family, the most pivotal episode in Ray Stedman's life occurred: his father left, abandoning his wife and sons. Perhaps the strain of raising a family during tough times, or the worry about his sickly wife caused him to leave. No one really knows. He left abruptly and was never heard from again. His brothers and sisters were shocked and angered. Although many efforts were made to locate him, none was successful. In her letters Mabel declared her continued love and faithfulness to him. She always hoped Charles would return. That day never came.
By this time, Mabel's health had deteriorated badly. Bertha Abrahamson, Mabel's niece, stated: "I remember when Aunt Mabel and Donald, who was about two, visited us one winter. At that visit, I remember her awful siege of asthmatic attacks when she inhaled the flames from some burning substance that helped to partially relieve her discomfort. In time she developed a heart condition, and that more or less, confined her to the lighter air in Denver. I also remember mother receiving letters from her telling that she had cut short her visits to see her sister Beulah and Raymond." 3
Because his mother could not care for all the boys, Ray and his older brother were put into an orphanage. After a few years in the orphanage, God's providence would again become evident. Ray's aunt and her husband, Fred and Beulah Sheets, picked the boys up and assumed the responsibility of caring for them. Since Ray's aunt and uncle were Methodists, Ray was exposed to the great teachings of the mystery that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ray would also end up living in Montana, the state that he affectionately referred to as home. Now for this young boy, the dreary walls of the orphanage had given way to the big sky country of Montana. Even in Montana, Ray did not feel that he really belonged, or fit in.
He once confided in his friend and "son" Luis Palau that his uncle would introduce the family, identifying each of his boys as 'my son," and naming them, and then refer to Ray as "my sister Mabel's son Raymond." He told Luis that he hated his name Raymond, despised his middle name Charles and even disliked his surname Stedman. Throughout his adult life, he was known as Ray C. Stedman. 4
At ten years old, Ray's entire life changed. He became a Christian. Of this time, Mrs. Stedman says:
When he went to live with his aunt and uncle, they always lived in little towns where there was rarely ever a church. In those days in Montana there were often evangelistic tent meetings. You wonder what they would have been like...With the sawdust floors and the whole thing…they were just exactly as you would picture. It was at one of those meetings a fire and brimstone preacher was preaching from something in the Old Testament about the sins of the fathers, and it really got to Ray. 5
Ray tells it in his own words:
This is the way that I came to Christ. I read and heard quoted from the Bible, some wonderful promises. I read of One who spoke as no other man spoke and I heard him speak enticing words to my heart:
"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11: 28-29).
"He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
"I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9).
As I heard such verses, hope flared in my heart because this is what I longed to find, as it is what you and every man and woman longs to find today: rest, fulfillment, supply, companionship, blessings, and light in place of darkness. These are the things hoped for, but then I heard the story of some unseen things. I heard of the cross in all its wonder and mystery; that simple story of how they lifted up the son of God and how in the darkness of that scene, God accomplished some strange and mysterious transaction. Somehow the sin of the human race was lifted off men and laid upon Jesus Christ, that his righteousness might be imparted to them. I couldn't understand it fully, since I was only about ten years of age when I heard this story and believed it—but I realized that here was a God who could do something about my problems. I believed His Word and when I did so, the course of my life was altered. I didn't look any different on the outside, and I didn't act very differently for a while, but I found a new capacity to love and I had new attitudes. Though there has been stop and go progress along the way, the course and direction of my life from that time has never altered. 6
After Ray's conversion to Christ, he began to grow. Fortunately for the cause of Christ, Ray wanted to grow both as a man and as a Christian. Once while preaching he looked back to his childhood and this desire.
I had a happy childhood, but I would never want to go back into it because, as I recall, when I was a boy I couldn't wait to be a man! I found the restrictions of childhood rather irksome and frustrating; I felt so inadequate and incompetent, and I was always fearful of failure and of not being quite able to handle a situation. When I grew up I gloried in the sense of adequacy and liberty that being grown up gave me. I do hope as Christians we begin to see that salvation never really begins to make sense until we start acting as mature sons of God. This is when our salvation begins to count—when we enter into the wonderful liberty of the sons of God. 7
Ray did grow and he sensed even then a desire to preach. What few people know is that the first sermons Ray "preached" were to the cows he worked with on the ranch. From early in his life the call upon Ray Stedman must have been strong. Already God was putting into his heart the desire and the calling to proclaim God's Word. We can only imagine what the content or style of those sermons was like. We also must be content simply to speculate on what his "captive audience" thought of this young man's preaching!
These young days also influenced Ray in other ways. In some sense, it gave him his identity. For most of his life, when people would casually ask Ray what he did, he would say, "I'm a sheep herder." As a youth, he did in fact herd sheep; as a preacher, he also was committed to his responsibility to "herd the sheep" (Palau interview). Working on the ranch to contribute to the family budget also helped to toughen Ray, and he became a strong, seasoned cowboy. Elaine Stedman is quick to point out that he was a real cowboy—"not the dime store kind that we see romanticized today." He was a real cowboy, toughened by hard work.
As Ray grew up his life went into two areas that would later change. First, he attended a Pentecostal church in Montana. Second, he began to pursue a career in medicine as a surgeon. Ray entered college in the mid 30's. With the Great Depression grinding on, most people were postponing college until "Happier Days Were Here Again." However, Ray chose to attend college, the logical first step for an aspiring surgeon. The first school he went to was a little college in Helena, Montana called Rocky Mountain College. Ray spent one year there, taking pre-med classes. A second year, however, would prove to be impossible. A huge earthquake did so much damage to the campus that it had to be closed, and later it moved to Great Falls.
Ray was about 20 years old, and unable to find suitable employment in Montana. He had secured employment in Chicago, and had to take a bus for the long trip from Montana to Illinois. Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary remembers Ray relating this experience at a Bible study group in Dallas.
It was cold; it was dark; it was snowy and he was leaving everything he knew. He was scared, it was hard, and he was becoming nostalgic. While on that bus, however, God communicated with him. God spoke to him and said: "I will be your father." I really think that was an immense key to Ray. The big issue in his life was the fact that he didn't have a father. He didn't have a father from the time he was 11 years old. I mean, it's kind of like looking for that void to be filled, and God said: "I will be your father." Ray's story basically is that God was his father. 8
This experience had a lasting impact on his life. Many years later, Ray told his congregation about the impact of that bus ride.
Almost fifty years ago I left the little town in Montana where I had attended high school to go to Chicago. I had never before visited a city as large. Through the intervention of a friend I had obtained a job there in the days of the Depression, when jobs were as scarce as hens' teeth. I knew only one person in Chicago, my uncle. I didn't want to show it but I was scared. I was leaving all my friends. The town I came from was so small you could locate it right between the second and third Burma Shave signs! It was a thousand-mile journey by bus to Chicago, but all through that long trip I was strengthened and comforted by the sense that Jesus was with me. Although I was heading into the unknown, I look back on that as one of the most joyful bus rides of my life. When I arrived in Chicago the city was blanketed in a great blizzard that tied everything up for several days so that I had to sit alone in a hotel room for the duration of the storm. Looking back, however, my memory of that period is one of fragrant companionship with One who was with me, strengthening me and helping me throughout. For fifty years His companionship never left me. There has never been a moment of pressure and trial that I could not feel his presence with me. 9
The reason that Ray was a father figure to so many young men could directly be traced to his own heartache as a young boy, and his redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ. Ray's wife Elaine says: "Mentoring just came naturally to him. That's another of the ironies... his father deserted him. In these days, if you have that kind of dysfunctional parenting, you are a victim and you have to live out your life as a victim. Ray turned it into something totally redemptive. He became a father to others. I loved that." 10
Still desiring to be a surgeon, and finding that his college campus was in the process of relocating, Ray himself decided to relocate to Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington.
While continuing his course of study in pre-med, Ray's education would again be interrupted by another "earthquake" which caused the aspiring surgeon to leave Whitworth. As was so common in those days, Ray found his family in need of financial help, which necessitated his withdrawal from college. In the latter part of the 1930's this was not an uncommon scene. Many young men had to give up their desires of college to do what was right with regard to their families. Ray was one of those men and perhaps it was another one of those lessons that Ray learned from. Perhaps it was even part of the secret will of God. While employed at the railroads, Ray performed clerical and accounting functions. It was something at which he was competent, and it also prepared him for a significant internship with Dr. Ironside later in his life. This may have been the first step in redirecting Ray from medicine into ministry.
Ray continued to work for the railroads for a little over a year. Then another "earthquake" hit. This earthquake however was rumbling for years before it finally hit. Ray, as well as the rest of the world could see it coming. It began September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and the beginning of World War II. December 7, 1941 the United States would be involved and young men all over the country hurried to join the war effort. Ray and his brothers were among those. Allen and Donald joined the army and later Ray would join the Navy.
It was 1944 when Ray entered the Navy, and as God's providence would have it, Ray was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During this desperate time in world affairs, the 27 year old navy man found his first opportunities to preach God's Word at a small Southern Baptist church in Honolulu.
Ray describes these days himself:
...back in the days of World War II when I was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor... I had been teaching a Bible class in a church for some time before that and had become interested in and fascinated by the Scriptures. Many sailors of the U.S. fleet came through Pearl Harbor, so I had a Bible class on Tuesday nights for the servicemen and was attempting to teach the book of Romans. Because I wasn't yet very skilled, I looked around for helps. I began to run into books by an expositor who soon became my model and whose name is familiar to all of you—Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. Shortly after I finished Romans, I started Matthew; I would lie on my bunk and read G. Campbell Morgan and then that evening teach what I had read, not trying to steal Morgan's outline or his approach, but to gather the truth that he had so diligently put together. In his day Morgan was known as "the prince of preachers," and he was a wonderful expositor. I learned from Morgan something of the beauty of language, but I learned more than that. I learned that it is not oratory or rhetoric that carries the point, but that it is necessary to work first at understanding the text. I was startled to read that Morgan never began to expound a book of the Bible until he had read it 50 times! After 50 readings of a book, you begin to catch on to something of its message. It seeps down and permeates you, and, to use Spurgeon's term, "your very blood becomes Bibline." 11
Ray became fascinated with the Scriptures and developed a deep love for it.
While in Hawaii, on October 22, 1945, Ray married his sweetheart: Elaine L. Smith from Montana. Decades later he would tell his congregation about those days: "Some 22 years ago when, as a much younger man, I was in Hawaii, I found myself engaged to a lovely girl who lived in Montana and whom I hadn't seen for three or four years. We were writing back and forth in those lonely days, and she sent me her picture. It was a beautiful picture and I showed it to all my friends dozens of times. I propped it up on the desk and I would look at it at least three or four times a day. It was all I had to remind me of her and it served moderately well for that purpose. But one wonderful day she arrived in Hawaii and I saw her face to face." 12
Ray continued his study of the Scriptures and by the time the war ended, the call of God upon his life was clear. He would not return to college and he would not be a surgeon. Instead he and Elaine sensed the clear leading of the Lord to attend Dallas Theological Seminary. Here the boy from Montana would gain the necessary tools to become an effective expositor of God's Word. Here he would meet some of his life long friends, and here he would come in contact with men of God who would confirm for Ray the need for expository preaching. Ray and Elaine arrived at Dallas in 1946. Their home for the next four years would be a place called "Trailerville," also nicknamed "Conception Park" by those who lived there. If it sounds elegant, it wasn't. It was simply a group of about 17 trailers under pecan trees in the area of the seminary where the Chafer Chapel is today. The school installed two showers and the dirt area that surrounded them soon became a mud area/hole during the winter. Boards were placed throughout "the city" so people could walk. The rule was simple: if you stepped off the boards, you were in trouble. People customarily lined up for the showers, which was a tough thing during cold winters. As is often the case in circumstances such as this, humor was not far away. Those emerging from the showers were often met with the sounds of "Why do you tarry?" from a not-so-harmonious-sounding "choir" of those waiting their turn.
Life was difficult for the residents of Dallas Seminary in those days. Only a few students owned cars and life was full of work and study and very little extra money to go around. It was a time, however, of great significance for Ray Stedman because it was at this trailer city that Ray met the man who would be his best friend. Dr. Howard Hendricks remembers those days. "I met Ray the first semester I was here and of course we became very, very close friends. I would say he was more like a brother to me. We bonded together early on. We thought alike, and we had the same vision." The two friends quickly adjusted to life in the seminary. Howard Hendricks came to Dallas directly after graduating from Wheaton College. Ray came directly from the Navy. Of Ray's ability as a student, Hendricks says: "He was gifted intellectually: a man with a razor sharp mind. He constantly dialogued with the professors and whenever there was a test, Ray was almost always the first one done and out the door. Often times we would argue issues with one another. It could be anything. If eschatology, Ray would take one side and I would defend the other. Then we would switch. This helped us develop and understand what it was that we really believed and what we could defend."13
Ray and Elaine, and the Hendricks would cherish those days. Yes, life was tough but as Dr. Hendricks says: "Those were different days than today. People accepted hardship and adversity and simply made the best of it." Ray and Howard did make the best of those days and God brought significant opportunities for Ray to learn.
During two summers Ray had the privilege of working as a youth intern in Pasadena, California at J. Vernon McGee's Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church. The third summer, he served as a youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pasadena. Those summers would prove to be times of tremendous learning for the young Stedman. As he was acquiring tools for ministry at Dallas, he was also acquiring a new respect for God's Word and for expository preaching in Pasadena.
Ray watched and learned as Dr. McGee preached. He saw the tremendous power of the Word of God when it is let loose to a hungry world. The experience also proved to be another one of those "life lessons" that Ray was learning from. Each summer when Ray arrived in Pasadena, fresh from the trials of final exams at Dallas, he would find himself in another trial: a trial that was all too common for most theological students in those days. He was out of money. Ray decided that the best solution was to take the only thing he had of value to a pawn shop and pawn it for whatever cash he could get. This would prove to be just enough money to last him until he got his first paycheck from the church. Once he was paid, Ray would return to the little shop and purchase his typewriter back. This life experience not only taught Ray about God's care and provision for his life; it also taught him a significant theological lesson. It occurred to Ray that is just what God does with us in redemption. To "redeem" means to "restore to usefulness that which previously was useless." While Ray's typewriter was at that little shop, it just sat on a shelf. It was not being used for its intended purpose. However, when Ray came back, a price was paid and the typewriter was "redeemed" and restored to its intended purpose. God was teaching Ray at Dallas, at Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church, and even at a little pawn shop in Pasadena.
Naturally, while in school, there was the usual seminary diet of Greek and Hebrew and hermeneutics, etc. However, for Ray, the highlights were those special men who would significantly contribute to his education. In 1982 he thought back to the Dallas days and said:
The highlights of my years there were the visits of special expositors who came for two weeks at a time and lectured to the students. One of them was Dr. Jack Mitchell from Portland, Oregon, who is now in his ninety-second year and still expounding the Word of God. Another was Dr. H.A. Ironside, the long-term pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, a member of the Plymouth Brethren and a great Bible teacher. 14
After graduation in 1950, Ray was given one of the most significant opportunities of his life. He became the chauffeur and secretary for Dr. Ironside for three months. It would mean a three-month separation from Elaine and their daughters Sheila and Susan (ages 2 and 8 months), but again, those were different times. Ministry came first and everybody sacrificed, including Elaine and the children. Ray told his congregation about those months:
In September of 1950 I came to this area, to what was then called Peninsula Bible Fellowship, to begin a ministry, after three months of travel and close companionship with Dr. H.A. Ironside. Dr. Ironside (who was often called "The Apostle of Fundamentalism") was well known as a great Bible teacher. He had been pastor for eighteen years at the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. I had long admired him as a model of expository preaching.
It was a great and choice privilege to be with Dr. Ironside for three months. It was a fascinating time for me. Because he was almost blind with cataracts in both eyes, I was his constant companion. I was his chauffeur, his secretary, and his companion. We lived, ate, bled and died together for three months. Because I was young I listened to him with great interest, and watched everything he did. I saw his great strengths as a Bible teacher. I saw his warmth and compassion as a human being, and I saw some weaknesses. Though all this was thirty-three years ago, I have never forgotten any of the events of that three months. He made an unforgettable impression on me. As the saying goes, "I could write a book." 15
With his seminary education complete, and significant internships with Dr. McGee and Dr. Ironside behind him, Ray was now ready for the next step.
While Ray was studying in Dallas, a group of businessmen had begun a small Bible study, prayer and fellowship group in Palo Alto, California. By 1950 the group was known as Peninsula Bible Fellowship, and had grown to the point where the participants saw the need for pastoral care. Three letters arrived in the PBF mailbox on the same day. The letters were written by John Walvoord of Dallas Seminary, J. Vernon McGee now of Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles, and John Mitchell, one of the founders of Multnomah School of the Bible. All three were unaware of each others' correspondence, and all three recommended that PBF consider calling Ray Stedman as their first full time teacher. These three were not alone in their assessment of the great potential of Ray Stedman. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer also saw something in Ray that convinced him that God was going to give this young seminarian a great ministry. Ray remembers what a significant encouragement that was to him.
I will never forget an incident in my own ministry when I was a young man. I was still a student at Dallas Seminary, but was spending my summers in Pasadena. I worked one summer as a youth minister in a church there, when Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the President and founder of Dallas Seminary, a great man of God, a great man of faith, came to town. He was gracious enough to spend an afternoon with my wife and me.
I took Dr. Chafer to the church where I was working and showed him around the very impressive, beautiful building. The congregation at this time did not have a pastor, though they were seeking one, so Dr. Chafer said to me, "Do you think you might end up here in this church?" I said, "I don't know. Who knows what God will do? I don't have any particular plans for that." "I don't know either," he said, "but it would be a great place for you because I believe God is going to give you a great ministry." I do not know what he had in mind by that. He may have been impressed by the beauty of that building. (I am sure he did not realize that someday I would end up in a building like this, where the architecture is clearly early Safeway!) But his words have been a great encouragement to my heart. Many times as a young man I remembered Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer had seen something in me, that was an encouragement. 16
While on a business trip to Texas, Bob Smith, one of the original members of PBF stopped in Dallas to meet Ray Stedman for the first time. Soon after, a call was extended. There was no mention of salary, only a promise that "all your needs would be met." Ray never candidated and the members of PBF never heard him preach prior to his arrival. Ray and Elaine accepted the call and moved to Palo Alto in 1950.
3. THE CALLING TO PREACH THE WORD
A congregation meets so that they might hear the Word of God, taught by a man of God, led by the Spirit of God, implanting that Word into every individual life and heart. — Ray C. Stedman
When Ray arrived in Palo Alto, he came with one main purpose in mind: to preach the Word.
By the time I graduated from Seminary, I was already deeply immersed in the world of biblical exposition; I believed in it and I was anxious to get my teeth into it. Then I came to Palo Alto to a church that had just begun. In fact, it was not even a church when I arrived. I didn't actually come as a pastor but as a kind of director of activities. During this time I eagerly began to go through books of the Bible and preach from them, using much material from others, but about four months after I arrived I found my barrel was totally dry. I had to dig in and begin to learn for myself what the text of Scripture actually said and how it related to contemporary life. 1
As the new pastor/teacher of PBF, Ray's concern was that the church community come to know God through His Word, and do God's work in God's way. No shortcuts. No compromise. Throughout his ministry, Ray's pervasive belief was that his first and most critical task was to preach the Word. He was committed to following the instructions left by Paul to Timothy: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4-1-5 NASB).
Ray Stedman had a very distinct opinion about preaching: good preaching and bad preaching. He spoke often and extensively about the effective church, and sympathized with many in the community at large that had given up on church altogether.
The preaching which comes forth is so shallow and repetitive that people have turned off their ears and no longer listen. Why they subject themselves to coming at all, I do not understand. I honestly do not blame those who do not come. Church people complain that men are out playing golf and boating on Sunday morning. But until the church recovers the excitement and joy of a wedding feast, and the people are gladsome of heart, they cannot be blamed for not coming. 2
Through effective preaching and Bible studies centered in God's Word, Ray and the leaders of PBC strove to produce saints who were soundly trained. The original intent of PBC was never to produce a megachurch. In many ways the opposite was true. Ray says this of the five original members. "They did not have any intention whatsoever of beginning a new church, but merely wished to supplement the spiritual diet they were getting. To do this they rented a small room in the Palo Alto Community Center and began holding Sunday evening meetings, while they were still attending their own churches in the mornings. It is now possible to look back and see that what they were hungering for was koinonia, the body life of the early church. This they achieved to a considerable degree and the meetings were so warm and enjoyable that they attracted many others who dropped in regularly for Bible teaching (often by visiting pastors) and the songfests and informal atmosphere." 3
So acceptable was the ministry that at the end of one year, the people approached the five leaders and asked if they would consider having a Sunday morning Sunday School, as well as the evening meeting; since their children needed the biblical instruction, which the parents were receiving in the evenings. This was done, and on the first Sunday in Palo Alto, the number of regular attendants, both adults and children, was 90.
When Ray came as pastor, his purpose was to preach the Word and emancipate people from the cult of the mediocre that was so prevalent in churches in the early 50's.
Instead of concentrating on the size of the church, Ray believed people should be equipped for the work of ministry as they are empowered through God's Word.
In the 1950's when PBC was really beginning to grow, Ray and the others had to decide what kind of church it would be. As these men began to establish how the church would be structured they were careful to do everything according to God's Word. Their desire from the start was simply to be faithful. Certainly none of the men had a megachurch model which they sought to emulate. In 1950, schools of church growth were almost non-existent, and no yearly church growth seminars were offered by the highly successful churches. Ray and the other leaders determined to be faithful to God's Word. Consequently, as an outcome of their understanding of I Timothy, PBC was established as a church administered under elder rule. The leaders felt that although a congregational or democratic form of church government was more American, it was not necessarily more biblical. Ray Stedman assumed the role of the teaching elder, avoiding the title of "senior pastor" altogether.
Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary said of Ray, "I think what Ray stood for number one, was his absolute total commitment to the Word of God. Unswerving in every way. I learned theology here (at Dallas Seminary), but I learned the reality of inspiration there (PBC), because everything that happened was done biblically. I didn't always agree with his hermeneutic and I wasn't always confident with his interpretation, but I was absolutely certain if he was going to do something, it was going to be in the Word. If you were going to make a proposal to Stedman and you didn't have the Word to back you up, then you might as well not bother. His model was phenomenal in that area. His commitment was to expository preaching." 4
The first sermon Ray preached was on Ephesians 4: "…and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:11-13).
Ray remembers back to those early days:
"The only thing clear to me at the time of my arrival was deep conviction derived from Ephesians 4, that the work of ministry belonged to the people and not to the pastor. I was rather vague as to what that ministry was, but felt from the first that my task as pastor was to unfold the Word of God in its fullness, as best I could understand it, and leave to laymen the major responsibility for visitation of the sick, presiding at and leading church services and evangelizing the world." 5
Elaine Stedman later remarked on Ray's comment: "This is the basic premise behind keeping the "pulpit" ministry focused on the Word—not evangelism, not evangelistic messages—but training the people to be Christian, winning the lost to Christ by living and speaking the Word of Truth at home and in the marketplaces of life."
Howard Hendricks adds: "We thought alike, we had the same kind of vision; we often used to meet under the pecan trees and develop what we called "pecan theology." He went on to implement it at the church; I went on to implement it here at the seminary (Dallas). It grew out of a commitment to Ephesians 4 and 2 Timothy 2:2, basically based on equipping the saints for the work of ministry."
Part of the "pecan theology" was the understanding that everyone is useful to the body (the church). Everyone should be discovering and using their gifts. The leadership's primary role is not to build the biggest church possible using whatever means available.
Instead it should be the pastor's desire to equip and train the saints. In his book, Body Life Ray says: "There seems little doubt that this is where the early church began with new converts. Whenever anyone, by faith in Jesus Christ, passed from the kingdom and power of Satan into the kingdom of God's love, he was immediately taught that the Holy Spirit of God had not only imparted to him the life of Jesus Christ, but had also equipped him with a spiritual gift or gifts which he was then responsible to discover and exercise. The apostle Peter writes to certain Christians and says, "As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 6
As the years progressed, people continued to come to PBC and sit under the majesterium of the Word of God. Small group home Bible studies including non-Christians were formed long before they were fashionable. Men and women were discipled and expected to live out God's Word. Through Bible studies, discipleship, and Ray's preaching, people were equipped and grew as disciples of Jesus Christ. As people grew in their knowledge of the Word and in their faith, the natural outcome was a church that was fulfilling the dream Ray had way back at Dallas Seminary. PBC became known as a caring church where people were truly loving one another and using their gifts "to the building up of the body of Christ." As a result they were "attaining the unity of the faith." Pecan theology became known as body life: a simple concept that was by no means unique to Ray Stedman and Howard Hendricks. Others had also come to the same conclusions from studying Ephesians. Among those people was J.I. Packer who remembers his friend Ray this way:
Our relationship was one, I think, of mutual appreciation. It wasn't either of us giving the other person something they haven't quite got; rather, it was each of us recognizing in the other qualities that we very much appreciated—as I know I recognized in his body life material, things I had been saying almost since I was converted. Early on I did a year on the faculty of British Seminary, in 1948-49, where I became friends with Alan Stibbs, who was probably Britain's best Bible teacher. Alan had been a missionary to China and at that time, C.I.M. had Brethren leadership and Alan picked up from that source the body life idea. Alan was very much church oriented and he used to insist that no church should have more than 200 members, because if it did, it would be carrying passengers and passengers are not using the gift for ministry that God has given them. So I recognized this in Ray and was just delighted to hear it. 7
Evangelism, nurture of the saints... all functions and responsibilities of the church germinated from a true understanding of God from the Scriptures, and His design, His methodology for the ministry of the church. Many years later, after 37 years of preaching, Stedman still considered preaching to be his primary task. He lauded the examples of great preachers of the past and present, such as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Dr. J.R.W. Stott and Dr. Stephen Olford. "The fact that these are all British preachers speaks well of the quality of British preaching, and perhaps of the relative weakness of the American pulpit. To the degree that this is so I would attribute it to the fact that British evangelicals tend more toward expository preaching than their American counterparts. For it is expository preaching that constitutes, in my judgment, the only true form of preaching." 8
Stedman's mentor Stott remarked: "Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching, a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity; or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us, namely by a word and words; or that he calls upon those who have heard His Word to speak it to others. 9
Ray considered great preaching to be the pivotal point around which all other activity in the church revolved. Great preaching, he asserted, was an essential foundation to great worship. "It has been my experience that the most worshipful moment in any congregation is when the congregation has sat under the Magesterium of the Word of God and there's a holy silence that falls upon them as the words of the living God have penetrated their minds and thoughts." 10
Since PBC was built on a simple principle of doing God's work in God's way, as much as possible, they tried to avoid the trappings of the flesh. Ray once said:
When I look at Christianity today, I am sometimes appalled at the degree that we depend upon the flesh. I am amazed and intrigued as we look at the Scriptures to see that God always works in simplicity and with a low-keyed approach. God loves that. Our attempts, the flesh's attempts are almost always characterized by high gear, high promotion, and complexity. I learned long ago that when things start getting very complex, when you need finely tuned organizations to carry them out and hundreds of people—somehow you've missed it; for God's work is characterized by simplicity. Paul wrote in II Corinthians 11:3, "I am greatly concerned about you lest Satan should woo you from the simplicity that is in Christ." It is only by a sense of weakness that rests upon the power and wisdom of God that we can accomplish anything. When we do, we don't need high gear, high power machinery. We don't need expensive approaches. One of the things that turns me off about Christendom is to see how much of it depends upon the power of money. I believe that God never needs money, but He uses money. Money is always available when God is at work. But if a project depends on money and people are thinking in terms of money, they have missed the simplicity that is in Christ.11
Ray's concern that the integrity of Scripture be preserved in all aspects of Church ministry, and that the pastors of tomorrow not lose this focus was instrumental in his participation in the formation of the C.O.B.E. (Committee on Biblical Expostion) conferences. These meetings, known as conferences of biblical expositors, were designed to bring pastors back to "the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." Ray Stedman and other participants of C.O.B.E., such as J.I. Packer, John Stott, R.C. Sproul, Chuck Swindoll, all understood that God's method today remains the same: to speak through the man of God as he proclaims His Word.
As it turned out, the three men that wrote to PBF, recommending Ray Stedman for their teacher were discerning. Ray preached faithfully for 40 years in that one pulpit. What he learned during those years he passes on to us with these words:
I'm very much persuaded at the power of preaching and the fact that it is by God's design the most powerful motivation of a congregation that you will ever use. Nothing turns people on like God's truth, and when they see the remarkable plan of God for the functioning of His people, they can hardly wait to find opportunity to put it into practice. And much of the artificial prods that we use today to get people going are simply a confession on our part that we have not found the way to motivate people by the power of the preaching of the Word of God. 12
4. CHARACTER
A pure life is the platform from which an effective ministry proceeds; without that all the words mean nothing. — Ray C. Stedman
Ray Stedman preached the Word of God, and invariably, the Word fell on receptive ears. Why was he so successful at communicating God's message? Surely one reason was because Ray believed the Word, and he believed that what he learned from the Word and taught to others also applied to his own life. Howard Hendricks says,
I would say that was probably the thing that attracted me most to Ray. What you saw was what you got. In fact to his death he despised people in the ministry who tried to be other than what they were, who would put themselves on a pedestal and so forth. He even got shook up with the seminary, that the faculty always remained on the platform. He felt that wasn't Christian; they should be down in the audience with the students. So he would talk to me and he would always say: "When are you going to get those guys off that platform?" That attracted me to him because it is somewhat my own personal commitment. I just rush in the opposite direction in the face of someone trying to impress me with himself or herself. 1
This is something that Stedman learned at an early age while a boy in Montana. One of his boyhood memories was of a man who used to lead in prayer at the Methodist church.
When I was growing up as a boy in Montana, we used to have Methodist services only once a month because there was no Methodist church in town. Each month when the service was held you could count on the fact that a lean, tall man would always lead in prayer. His prayer was anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes in length. Almost everyone went to sleep on him. But what made it worse was that he was widely known in the community as the biggest rascal in town. His sharp business practices had turned everybody off, so that his prayer was hypocrisy, and he was despised in the community as a hypocrite.... When men pray in public they must live in private what they pray. 2
Perhaps that man thought no one saw the contradiction in his life. In reality, he didn't even fool a ten-year old boy named Ray. One of the most dangerous pitfalls for preachers is in this area of consistent obedience. Ray didn't make the mistake that is too frequently charged against pastors. Many who have been so careful to accurately interpret the Scriptures have neglected the daily weeding of their own gardens. The same care and watchfulness preachers extend to guard against misinterpretation and heresy is critical in the evaluation of their daily thoughts and actions. John Stott has said:
We make great claims for Christ and his salvation while up in the pulpit, but when we descend from it we deny Him and give no more evidence of being saved than anybody else. Then our message lacks credibility. People will no more accept our Christian message if our life contradicts it than they would take a cold cure recommended by a salesman who coughs and sneezes between each sentence. We greatly hinder our own work, says Baxter, if for an hour or two on Sunday we build up with our mouths, and then during the rest of the week pull down with our hands. 3
Ray's closest friends attest to his consistency. Luis Palau reflects: "I cannot think of one moral flaw in Ray Stedman. He was utterly consistent in his life and his preaching. The one thing I remember in his character (is found in) the words in Galatians: if I was a servant of men I would not be a servant of Christ. Ray was no servant of men; I can tell you that. I'm not drooling at stars, but Ray... I can't find a flaw." 4
Ray's genuineness made him attractive and believable to others. "What you see is what you get. His sincerity is something that everybody was attracted to," said Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary. Again John Stott states:
A strongly fascinating power is exerted by those who are utterly sincere. Such believers attract unbelievers, as with the case of David Hume, the eighteenth century British deistic philosopher who rejected historic Christianity. A friend once met him hurrying along a London street and asked him where he was going. Hume replied that he was going to hear George Whitefield preach. "But surely," his friend asked in astonishment. "You don't believe what Whitefield preaches, do you?" "No, I don't," answered Hume, "but he does." 5
That was Ray. He never watered down the message to make it easier to accept. What he did was preach it fully and live it faithfully. He lived in such a way that even though people might disagree with the words preached, they would have no doubt that Ray believed them.
Cohn Morris said: "It is not from a pulpit but a cross that power filled words are spoken. Sermons need to be seen as well as heard to be effectual. Eloquence, homiletical skill, biblical knowledge are not enough. Anguish, pain, engagement, sweat and blood punctuate the stated truths to which men will listen." 6
Once while reading through the journals of Francis Asbury, the young Methodist missionary, this quote caught Stedman's eye:
The Lord is pleased to show me the danger in which a preacher is of being lifted up by pride and falling into the condemnation of the devil. How great is the danger of this! A considerable degree of ballast is highly necessary to bear frequent and sudden puffs of applause. Lord, fill me with genuine humility that the strongest gust from Satan or the world may never move me. 7
Many of Ray's closest friends commented that Ray was very concerned about falling into this trap and was very careful to watch for it. Dave Roper remembers: "His humility stands out for me. You know Jesus said come to me because I am meek and lowly in heart. To me the best communicators are humble. He was never threatened by anyone else's success. He was always happy when somebody else got recognition. I never saw him do a dishonest thing. He was never caught in a lie. I saw him walk with the Lord."
Howard Hendricks reflects on the personal power of Ray's presence and his focus on humility:
When Ray Stedman speaks, it's like E.F. Hutton. Everybody listens. He was the kind of guy that when he walked into the room, the whole dynamics would change. Everyone talked, but when Ray would talk, the room would get quiet because everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. He was a very commanding individual, and being committed to humility, as he was... it was an interesting combination. 8
Stedman did not give in to the temptation to "believe his own press clippings" or become preoccupied with his own importance. Humility characterized him, and was for most who knew him one of his most endearing qualities. While eulogizing Ray during a 1994 Insight for Living Bible program, Chuck Swindoll stated: "He never polished his own trophies." 9
So aware of the pitfalls of pride and the need for humility, Ray once wrote:
No teacher has the right to teach whose life does not exemplify his teaching. If he tries to say one thing and be another, the Chief Shepherd will suddenly pull the rug from under him and his ministry will be despised.
Again, the ministry of shepherding and teaching must be done without desiring personal glory. How well pastors know that right here is where the full force of temptation to pride can strike. There is something very pleasing to the ego to stand in front of others and have every eye fastened on you and every ear open to what you have to say. It is terribly easy to learn to love that feeling and to find subtle ways of nurturing and encouraging it.
As a pastor I must confess that I had to stop the practice of going to the door after a service and greeting people as they went out. I found that when I did it regularly it ministered to my ego in such a way that I had a terrible battle with pride. People were saying nice things to me and I found myself loving to hear them. It is very easy for a pastor or teacher to carry on his work for hidden reasons of personal prestige or glory. Pastors love to be regarded as dedicated, mature Christians. 10
Hendricks speaks of Ray's commitment to humility and Roper echoes the fact that this was something that Ray really worked on. "Ray said one time that he made a vow that he would never do anything that would seek praise." As a testimony to Ray's "success" in his commitment to humility, J.I. Packer observes:
Even though he built up PBC from virtually nothing, it was a big work, a significant work. Yet he was just the same unassuming man. Never at any stage was Ray anything other than Ray Stedman. He never threw his weight around and there was a certain transparency about him. You never felt that this chap had a hidden agenda. You felt that he was an honest man. He was happy to share with you any wisdom he had and happy to get from you any wisdom you've got. He was a lovely man to talk to. Like a professional preacher, he loved to talk about preaching. It was his life. But never as I've said did he act the public figure, which impressed me very much. I think that is a great testimony to his character. 11
Because of the sheer size and popularity of PBC, the success story of the growth of that congregation and the fact that Stedman was sought after as a speaker and a leader, the lure of power that has caused the shipwreck of so many could have netted him in its trap. Bill Hull wrote:
Popularity will erode human veneer. The pressures that come with success will drive the true nature of a person to the surface. That may require years as culture slowly eats away at one's biblically based perspective, leaving behind essentials for the esoterics. The tragic fall of many evangelical leaders can be attributed to their leaving behind their fundamental doctrinal convictions and simple devotion that brought them success in the first place. Nevertheless, many gifted pastors and leaders have remained faithful. 12
Ray Stedman was one of those that remained faithful to the end.
The display of such character often points back to the influence of godly parents on the life of a young and developing child, whose personal security is nurtured first in context of the family relationship, and also in the understanding of what it means to be a child of God. Stedman's strength in this area is remarkable considering the difficulty of his childhood, and the absence of his parents. Perhaps some credit could go to his aunt and uncle. Perhaps the rough life of a rancher contributed to Stedman's determination to make it through, and to live what he believed. In that sense, he was an ambitious man. His ambition, however, was not that of a pastor who wanted to be approved of by men. Ray understood the difference and once told his congregation:
There are two kinds of greatness, two kinds of ambition. There is the ambition to be approved and applauded by men, and the ambition to be approved and applauded by God. These are as different as night and day. There are those who want to gain fame and attention and influence and power. The measurement of the ambition to be great before men is always: "How many serve me? How much power do I exercise over others? How wide is the extent of my influence? How far has knowledge about me traveled?" Who of us has not suffered many times this desire to be known, to be admired, to be considered important and great in the eyes of men?
But Jesus points out that true greatness is never found there. The measure of true greatness is: "How many do I serve? How many am I willing to minister to? How many can I help? This is the mark of greatness in the eyes of God. This is enduring greatness. You can see how disparate these two views are, how widely they diverge. Christianity is a radical faith! It will completely revolutionize our thinking. It is exactly the opposite of the natural instincts of the heart. 13
That is key to the character of Ray Stedman. He understood that Christianity is a radical faith. He understood that it should completely revolutionize the thinking of the follower of Christ, and he understood that it was "the opposite of the natural instincts of the heart." He therefore determined and simply set his mind and heart to live in obedience to the revealed Word of God, strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
In Genesis 18 the Lord is about to bring judgment upon Sodom. In verse 17 we read, "The Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? No, for I have chosen him'..." Commenting on this verse, Ray said in 1968:
Do you see the parallel of the Christian today? Every believer in Jesus Christ stands in exactly the same relationship with God. We have been given by grace—not on our own merits—a favored position before God. We have been called into the family of God and made sons of the living God by faith in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we are being taught by grace how to walk righteously before him and as we learn that lesson, we become the people to whom God tells his secrets. It is not enough to have the favored position. I think many Christians believe that because they have accepted Jesus Christ, all God has is now open to them. But there must be the walk, the daily appropriation of what he is so that we learn to walk in righteousness. When we do, then God begins to share his secrets. I think the reason some people get a lot more out of the Bible than others is that they have learned this two-way relationship: God loves to tell secrets to his people. 14
Perhaps this explains why Ray had such a dynamic understanding of the Bible. He was committed to "the walk, the daily appropriation of what He is—and God loves to tell his secrets to his people."
Howard Hendricks said:
I think his character affected his preaching in the sense that it was sort of the underlay of the whole ministry that he had. I saw it in his leadership. I saw it in his preaching. I saw it in the boards that we served under. It's just that he was trusted by people. Ray wouldn't promise something that he wouldn't produce, if it was humanly possible. And I think it gave a reality orientation to his preaching that made him very attractive. 15
As the years went on, Ray Stedman and the preaching that was going forth from PBC were having a tremendous impact on the people of Palo Alto. Non-believers were coming to know Jesus Christ and put their faith and trust in Him. Christians who had been hungering for more than a diet of watered down theology were discovering the unfathomable riches of the Word of God. Even in the backyard of Stanford University, PBC was beginning to have a profound impact on the modern mind.
5. AUDIENCE—REACHING THE MODERN MIND
Surely the first mark of greatness is that you learn increasingly to have no respect of persons, to welcome people simply because they are people, to take no consideration of whether they can do something for you or not, and not to be concerned whether knowing them enhances your own prestige so you can drop their names where it will do you the most good, but simply to be interested in people because they are people, and because, potentially at least, they are sons and daughters of God himself. That is the first mark of children of God. — Ray C. Stedman
One of the most remarkable qualities Ray Stedman possessed was the ability to reach the great variety of people he interacted with personally, or through his preaching ministry. J.I. Packer reflects: "Right from the first sentence you knew this chap was a very attractive human being who has been where you are, who understands people like you. . . Few preachers I have known have had as much honest, unpretentious humanity to them." Luis Palau stated that PBC was full of recent converts, and reflected that throughout its history, this ministry drew a great number of unbelievers. He observed that Ray, and the others on his staff were transparent, and straightforward. You could see them in public or in private, and they were the same persons. This personal honesty and genuineness attracted and reached people.
Ray also loved people, and reacted strongly against the lack of care he saw evidenced in the church:
I have just returned from traveling across the face of this country from coast to coast, and have been ministering in the Middle West, I have come back with the deep conviction that this is one of the most grievous ways in which we have offended today. We evangelical Christians across this land have been prejudiced and biased in the name of Jesus Christ! We have been loveless against one another in the name of Christ, and have thought we were honoring God in the doing! As a result our churches are filled with people who are going through empty religious forms and ceremonies, all because they think God wants this, while their hearts are very, very far from him. No wonder this has "turned off" 8 out of 10 youths in this country today.
A letter was waiting for me when I came back. I want to share some of it with you because I think it expresses this so well. I don't know the girl who wrote. She is a student in a midwestern university. She evidently got my name from an article of which I am unaware in a paper she had read. She said,
Dear Pastor Stedman,
I can't understand this drive within me to write you, but I can't study or think about anything else but writing. I must be ill, because I don't even know what I'm going to say. I read an article in a "Today" paper about your church. I'm usually really turned off by articles such as this, but I read it anyway. I guess I feel they're fake or really making up about 99%. Things don't happen that way. Church is a place you go and see all these people sitting all "religious" and then they pass their bodies out the church door, noses straight up in the air.
If someone is having problems, something is immediately assumed to be wrong with them, and it's best to stay away so as not to pick up any of their deadly germs. Or if one should mention a problem, they are weak; and putting a wet blanket on the fun, or they're no fun to be around, since they are so depressing.
Sure, I go to church. But lately I go back to the dorm sick. This past week I have really come to doubt my sanity. Emotionally I am a wreck—afraid, confused, depressed and alone. I've talked to God, and even found a cool verse I memorized: Psalms 18:18-19. "On the day when I was weakest, they attacked. But the Lord held me steady. He led me to a place of safety, for he delights in me." But I still feel the same way. It seems I need more.
Then she describes her family life, which is very difficult, and finally says,
Therefore, I really think it's neat if everything in the article is on the level, that people in your church really talk about their problems and care for one another. It sounds like Christians are allowed to have problems. I wish your church a continued blessing, and in this family-type concern, even more growth.
Well, I have to answer that letter this week. I don't know quite what I'll say, except to point out that I'm afraid the condemnation is justified. There has been a great deal of unwitting harm done in the name of Jesus Christ. And when we see it, we need to repent and make restitution, to try to correct it as far as possible, reaching out to others who are in need. 1
Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church, made this observation. "One prerequisite to effective preaching to non-Christians is that we like them (emphasis his). If we don't, it's going to bleed through our preaching. Listen closely to sermons on the radio or on television and often you'll hear remarks about 'those worldly secular people.'
Unintentionally, these speakers distance themselves from the non-Christian listener; it's us against them. I find myself wondering whether these preachers are convinced that lost people matter to God. It's not a merciful: 'let's tell them we love them,' but a ticked off, 'they're going to get what's coming to them.' These preachers forfeit their opportunity to speak to non-Christians because the unchurched person immediately senses, they don't like me (emphasis his)." 2
One of the unique aspects of Ray's ministry was his ability to attract and reach the modern thinker, the existentialist, the agnostic and the theological extremist. Howard Hendricks says of Ray: "I think his great ability was his ability to accept people, even people who didn't agree with him or didn't understand him." Ray Stedman's genius was in his ability to balance that love and acceptance with truth. "Ray was unswerving but not inflexible. I saw in him a flexibility that enabled him to relate across a lot of barriers. He didn't change his convictions. He just didn't raise barriers," reflects Lawrence. On an individual level, he loved to interact. He'd take on anybody. Gary Vanderet, one of the pastors at PBC, observes that Ray was always honest but was very respectful of the person. "He could fit in places others didn't. He could just blend in because he spoke the truth." 3
A striking example of this occurred in the spring of 1975, at a Gay Pride Rally sponsored by the gay students' union at Stanford University. The particular object of their anger was the Christian church. Ray tells about the event himself:
I saw in the newspaper an announcement of a meeting of the Gay People's Union, at Stanford University. Two prominent speakers were featured—one a woman homosexual, a professor at San Francisco State University, the other a young man, also a homosexual, who had been ordained to the ministry in the United Church of Christ. They were speaking on the subject, "Homosexuality in the Church." One of our interns and I went over to the meeting. We found about a hundred young people, with a few older ones here and there, fairly evenly divided between men and women. We listened an hour or so to these two speakers. The woman was very vitriolic. She denounced the church in almost every form, in every way. She said that it had to be destroyed, that it was the enemy of human liberty and freedom.
The young man was milder in his approach. He told of his own desire to find a place within the church, but of how, nevertheless, he found himself struggling because of the homosexuality he endorsed, and of how he had been mistreated on occasion because of misunderstanding on the part of others. 4
When opportunity was given, Ray Stedman went up to the microphone to speak. With the previous speakers having fired up the audience to the wickedness of the church, there was probably not a more difficult audience for this conservative pastor to speak to. In addition, there was probably not a man on the campus that day with a background further removed from those of his listeners. After all, this was Ray Stedman, the cowboy, the orphan, the kid who grew up in Montana working on a ranch, the "man's man", now facing a group of homosexuals adamantly renouncing the body of Christ whom Ray loved. The scene is really quite remarkable.
Brian Morgan, an intern at the time, says that when Ray took the microphone, it was perhaps one of his greatest moments... not because he lashed out at all those opponents of the church; not because he out-argued, or out-shouted the previous speakers. It was a great moment because on the platform, Ray exhibited the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.
Ray spoke into the microphone and said: "I'm Ray Stedman, the pastor of Peninsula Bible Church here in Palo Alto. On behalf of the church, I want to apologize for much of what I have heard here today. You are right... the church has failed you in many ways. We often times have not shown the love of Jesus. For this I apologize. However..." 5 He then went on to explain the new life that is found in Jesus Christ. Because Ray really loved people he was able to see through their weaknesses and personal failings and notice things about them that others missed. Ray said later about one of the speakers:
I could agree with a great many things he said about the church and its weaknesses. And I noticed one thing in particular as he spoke. He referred several times to Jesus and his ministry with people. And it was true... that no one who uses his name will soon after be able to speak evil of him. Whenever this young man spoke of Jesus, it was with great respect and obvious admiration of his ministry. 6
Roper reflects on this same incident: "Ray could be so... sweet. I don't know how else to say it. He just had a gentle way of talking and he had very kind eyes. He would state truth—and I mean truth that would really inflame the crowd, but he would state it in such a way... they sensed he loved them. When it was over, they gave him an ovation and a number of people came to him." Roper adds, "He understood what Paul meant in 2 Timothy 2:24: 'The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but kind, able to teach, patient when wronged.' Non-Christians were not the enemy but the victims. Ray could 'duke it out' with the best of them, but I remember him talking about the different ways that Jesus spoke to people. With the Pharisees he tended' to be very harsh, and Ray's belief was that He did that because they were so into themselves... but with the 'garden variety' unbeliever, He didn't do that." 7
The love Ray demonstrated was genuine. He loved people and viewed them simply as people for whom Christ died. In answer to Warren Wiersbe's question: "you may love to preach, but do you love the people you preach to?" Ray's affirmative was communicated in a lifestyle that was characterized by that love. Ray once referred to something he learned from Dr. Ironside, that stuck with him throughout his ministry:
I remember Dr. Ironside used to say to me on many occasions, "Remember, Ray, don't ever insist that other people walk in the light of your conscience." That is a good rule. Don't try to get somebody else to walk in the light of what you feel free to do or feel restrained from doing. In these areas we stand as individuals, alone before the Lord. The Christian who insists on exercising his liberty at the expense of somebody else is turning liberty into license. The action of love, you see, is to restrain yourself deliberately.
Did you ever see a father walking down the street with his little boy? How he walks slowly and takes small steps and goes along adjusting himself to the little one by his side? He has perfect liberty to walk out in full, free stride if he wants to; but if he did he would walk away from his little boy and leave him alone. So love limits. And love limits in these matters. 8
Ray had a special gift. He understood life. He was a wise man and his preaching always connected with and spoke at a deeper level of life. He really ministered in an age of existentialism; he ministered to those dark sides of emotion, the confusion and emptiness. (Lawrence interview) Ray, however, was uncompromising in his respect for the sovereignty of the Scriptures and his commitment to the truth. Ray was certainly not alone in his desire to reach the modern mind. He just took a different approach.
Many who desire to be faithful defenders of the faith and effectively win the lost have mistakenly fought this battle in the area of argument alone. There are those who seem to think that if they just have the right answers, if they can simply "win" the argument, then even the most hostile critics will eventually yield their lives to Christ after absorbing a well reasoned and persuasive defense.
Others argue that what the modern critic needs to see is an outward demonstration of the Spirit of God, namely signs and wonders which will attract unbelievers and draw them irresistibly to God. They will be compelled to respond to the "evidence" of the reality of God by confessing faith in Christ. "In June 1982, at a meeting of the consultation on the relationship between evangelism and social responsibility (sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship and the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelism), fifty evangelical leaders from twenty-seven different countries gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan to discuss social signs of the gospel. In their final report, they said, "We believe that signs should validate our evangelism." 9
Ray understood that it is not a wide-eyed signs and wonders presentation of the gospel that necessarily moves people to conversion. He once referred to the raising of Lazarus as the greatest miracle of Jesus, apart from His own resurrection. He points out however that after this great sign, Scripture states: "Many therefore of the Jews, who had come to Mary and beheld what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done." What was the response of the Pharisees? John 11:53 records, "So from that day on they planned together to kill Him."
Acts 7:8-10 reports, "And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen, and yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Clearly they had lost the argument. Did they respond by giving their lives to Christ? Verses 11-12 state: "Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.' And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council." Stephen's irrefutable arguments and the signs and wonders he performed did not convince the people of his time to believe in God.
Ray's approach can be clearly differentiated from the ones just described. He followed Acts 6:4, which says, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." During a sermon on 2 Timothy Ray asked: "How do you defend a lion?" and responded with: "You don't. You just let it loose and it will defend itself."10 Ray believed like Spurgeon and Luther that Scripture was a lion. He loved it, was enthralled by it and was constantly amazed at the unfolding mystery of Christ revealed in its pages. His approach to evangelism was to dedicate himself to prayer and the ministry of the Word—to let Scripture loose and leave the results to God.
Ray was not tempted to soften or change the message in order to make it more attractive to the unbeliever. In contrast, early in his ministry he made a startling discovery:
We began a series of outreach Bible classes distinctly aimed at non-Christians, held in the homes of brand-new believers who were all excited about their Christian life and who had a whole host of friends who knew
nothing about the Lord. We all sat down in an informal way and I began to open up the Scriptures, usually beginning with the book of Romans. I began to see the powerful attractiveness of Scripture to the non-Christian, which surprised me. I had thought that Christianity was something which would only interest religious people and that you could only teach the Bible to Christians. But I discovered that these people were fascinated by the word of God. Many of them, of course, were typical men and women of the world. The air was often blue with smoke and we sometimes had to deal with someone who had drunk a little too much. When I would announce a Bible book such as Romans, I would often hear someone whisper, "Where in hell is Romans?" Many of them became Christians, and out of that I began to see that the word of God is an intensely practical thing, and very attractive to the non-Christian world." 11
Rather than being offended or turned off by the Word, unbelievers were attracted to it and even fascinated by it. Dr. John McIntyre, a young nuclear physicist who later left Palo Alto and became a professor of nuclear physics at Texas A&M University, came to faith in Christ through the ministry of PBC. In an article that was printed in "HIS" magazine, he told how he came to Christ and what it was that reached him.
I began to attend a home Bible class where the Bible was studied in the same critical manner that I was accustomed to in my daily work in physics. The class assumed the Bible to be consistent and understandable, just as the scientist considers nature to be consistent and understandable. We wrestled with portions that were difficult to understand or to reconcile with other parts of the Bible and compared them carefully with other pertinent Bible passages. We considered a Scriptural difficulty a challenge to the understanding and an opportunity to modify our present incomplete ideas, rather than consider that the Bible was in error. This approach to studying the Bible closely parallels the scientist's attitude toward nature. He expects, even welcomes difficulties, and finds persevering study rewarded by deeper understanding. In brief, a person should investigate God's Word, the Bible, with the same methods, even excitement, that he would use in investigating His handiwork, the physical world around us. 12
God's Word was assumed to be consistent and understandable, just as the scientist considers nature to be consistent and understandable. That simple and uncompromising approach reached Dr. McIntyre.
Ray understood humanity, and his humility placed him in the ranks with every other man. He loved and accepted people, and he gave each person who met him access to the majesty of the Word of God and to the God portrayed in it. It was the Word and the Christ, laid bare by the messenger, which gripped the hearts and minds of people in all walks of life and would not let them go.
6. ILLUSTRATION
The key to true teaching is first to awaken interest and arouse attention. — Ray C. Stedman
Most people who work their way up the corporate ladder, hope to one day have that coveted window office. Most hotels, apartments, and houses will pull in a much higher price if they have a "room with a view". We are people who love to see, feel and even smell the beauty around us.
As Ray continued to preach week after week, he learned an important aspect of preaching. In his book Body Life he explains what he came to realize.
Paul describes his own ministry in these terms: Him (Christ) we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). The process Paul followed in shaping up the saints was first to warn them and then to teach them. Teaching alone—the imparting of correct doctrine—is not enough. It must be preceded by the ministry of warning. Does it seem wrong to you (as it did to me) to put warning before teaching? Surely one teaches first, and then if the teaching is not received it is appropriate to warn of the results. But when I looked more closely at the original word translated "warning", I found that it is the Greek word for "mind" combined with the verb "to put". It means to put in mind or to call attention to something. It indicates that the first task of a teacher or pastor is to capture the attention and interest of his hearers.
There is a very old (perhaps even odorous) story about a man who wanted to train his mule. The first thing he did was to pick up a big stick and hit the mule a resounding wallop between the ears. As the mule staggered about someone asked the man, "Why did you do that?" And the man said, "In order to teach a mule anything, you must get his full attention first." That is exactly what the apostle suggests is the proper order of teaching; interest must be first awakened, though certainly not as cruelly as the story of the mule suggests.
When Paul went to Athens to preach to the sophisticated Greeks he did not begin by mounting Mars Hill and saying, "Ladies and gentlemen of Athens, I have come to speak to you on the moral superiority of Christianity to paganism." That was the subject of his address but he did not begin that way. He had been walking around the city noting certain things first, and when he got up to speak he said, "You people of Athens are certainly very religious. As I have gone about this city I have seen nothing but altars everywhere. I even found one erected to an Unknown God, which clearly indicates there is something about God which you don't know yet and that is what I come to talk to you about." (From Acts 17:22-23). Thus he had their attention, "putting them in mind" of what he wanted to announce. The key to true teaching is first to awaken interest and arouse attention. 1
Achieving the balance between the closet with no windows to the world, and the glass rotunda made exclusively of windows, is an arduous tightrope act for a minister of the Word. There are few who have mastered the delivery and artful use of illustrations, which virtually grip even the resistant listeners and propel them into the heart of the message of the Word of God. Ray Stedman was one of those preachers.
J.I. Packer noted in Ray Stedman a certain style of illustration: "His illustrations were down to earth stories from real life." 2 Spurgeon once told students at his pastors’ college: "windows greatly add to the pleasure and agreeableness of a habitation, and so do illustrations make a sermon pleasurable and interesting. — To every preacher of righteousness as well as to Noah, wisdom gives the command, 'a window shalt thou make in the ark.' You may build up laborious definitions and explanations and yet leave your hearers in the dark as to your meaning; but a thoroughly suitable metaphor will wonderfully clear the sense." 3
In the final chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says: "In addition to being a wise man, the preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly." During a sermon in 1982, after more than thirty years of preaching, Stedman commented on this verse.
In this rather revealing verse he reminds us how carefully he has recorded what is in the pages of this book. First, he himself learned to be wise. The only source of that wisdom, he tells us, was the Word of God, so he sought through the Scriptures, learned them and then taught the people.
This knowledge of the Scriptures enabled the Searcher to teach with great power and influence, but only after careful preparation. Notice what he did: 'He arranged these proverbs with great care.' We have noted throughout this book the many proverbs he uses to illustrate the truth he was setting forth.
They were not lightly chosen. We must take them seriously. They are not mere one-liners, meant to amuse. They are carefully chosen and carefully arranged to illustrate what he had to say.
More than that, he sought for arresting, accurate words by which he could express this wisdom. I am going to preach on this verse to preachers. This is a great way to help them understand that what is necessary in preparation for public ministry is not only an understanding of the subject, but a thinking through of how to say it in such a way that people will listen. That is what the Searcher did. 4
This is one of the keys to Ray's wonderful ability to bring Scripture to life. He chose his words carefully. He not only understood his subject but "thought through how to say it in such a way that people will listen."
Spurgeon commented:
Our congregations hear us with pleasure when we give them a fair measure of imagery; when an anecdote is being told, they rest, take breath, and give play to their imaginations, and thus prepare themselves for the sterner work which lies before them in listening to our profounder expositions. 5
Haddon Robinson says it this way: "When preachers stand up in the pulpit... they must turn ears into eyes and free listeners to think with pictures in their heads. Appropriate illustrations do that. 6
With 40 years in one pulpit, it is easy to wonder where Ray Stedman got his illustrations, and how he kept his material fresh and relevant. Ray used a great variety of pictures, and a casual reading of his sermons suggests that his favorites ranged from anecdotes from personal experiences or the experiences of others—to current events—to thoughtful excerpts from books or articles which he had such a great appetite for... whatever would help his listeners understand the passage. Once, while preaching on the subject of God's care for us, he used an example from his own experience:
While we were in Colorado Springs recently, we drove up to Denver for a day or two. We had planned to take the superhighway that runs between the two cities, but we ended up taking a gravel, wilderness road. The day before, I had taken the family fishing in the mountains behind Pike's Peak. My wife caught a record trout, and we got so excited over the trout that we forgot the baby's stroller and left it by the side of the lake. So we had to go back up and get the stroller. While we were there, we saw that the gravel road we were on eventually led to Denver, and having plenty of time, we decided to take that road to Denver. It was a wilderness road that went through the mountains away from civilization, but we were used to California wilderness roads, where there is a gas station at every other bend in the road. We went for thirty-two miles and didn't see a thing and were beginning to run very, very low on gas; still there was no sign that we were arriving anywhere!
Finally I saw a car stopped along the road coming from the other direction so I asked the man what was ahead. I said to him, "Can you tell me how far it is to a gas station on up ahead?" He looked at me and said, "Oh, I don't know. I have been riding around in these mountains all morning and haven't found one." So we went on a little farther, and there was another car; so I asked this man and he said, "Well, it is at least twenty miles on to a gas station." Since the needle on my gauge was already resting on the empty mark, I said, "I'm sure that I can't make that." He said, "I'll tell you what to do. You go up the road about two or three miles until you come to a fork in the road and there is a sign that says there is a campground about a half a mile away. There are lots of campers there; perhaps one of them may have some gas." So we began to ask the Lord for enough fumes to get us down the road three or four miles. We got down there all right and asked the first campers if they had any gasoline. The man said, "Well, no, we don't have any gas, but we have an empty can; maybe I could drain some out of the car." We were talking about it when another man walked across the road and said, "You-all having trouble?" I said: "We are running pretty low on gas and it doesn't look like we are getting anywhere where we can get some." "Gas?" he said, "I've got ten gallons on the back of my pickup." So he took us over and gave us two gallons of gasoline, plenty to get us to the nearest gas station. Our need was provided. As we were riding along I just thought to myself, "I don't know why this happened, but I imagine it was one of those delightful things that the Lord Jesus throws in to show you how well he can take care of you when you need it; even poor California tenderfeet wandering around in the wilderness can be taken care of. It isn't all heartache, by any means; there are so many delightful surprises.
Incidentally, the next day in Denver a man who had been at the conference in Glen Eyrie, and was greatly troubled about circumstances in his life, heard that I had gone up to Denver. He chased me all over town and finally found me. We talked for two or three hours, and when I had occasion to relate this little incident to him his face just beamed as he realized how true it was that God could take care of him. I think that is why the Lord allowed this incident to happen. 7
Everybody has life experiences, but Ray was really a student of life. As he traveled and talked with people or even during the day to day routine of the pastorate Ray constantly reflected on and examined life. These events were then applied to God's Word in a manner that connected listeners with the message.
Ray loved to read, and he read a wide array of material. Although his reading simply sprang from a desire to know and understand people and events, they formed a major portion of Ray's illustrative material. Often, during Ray's 40+ years in the pulpit, he used books or articles he had read to "turn ears into eyes and free people to think with pictures in their heads."
During one sermon, while preaching on a portion of Scripture where Jesus is being mocked, Ray said:
Just this week I was reading of an interview with Lynette Fromme, the girl who took a shot at President Ford in Sacramento a few weeks ago and who has been a member of the Manson family. She told the interviewer that the thing that attracted her to Charles Manson was that when he came to her he said that his philosophy was "get what you want whenever you want it—that is your God-inspired right." Now that is a widespread philosophy in our day and there is no question that if Jesus were crucified here in Palo Alto again, there would be representatives of this philosophy around who would mock him and revile him as these robbers did. 8
While preaching in 1963 he said:
I was reading Eternity magazine this week, the January issue, in which there is a review of all the world events of 1962. William Peterson, one of the editors, comments about the national scene in this way:
Christianity became in 1962 more of a class religion. For those who couldn't afford a second home but who didn't feel uncomfortable in a white shirt, church attendance was still fashionable. The labor movement peacefully coexisted with the church and neither bothered each other very much.
There may be a great deal of truth in that. We tend to be cliquish and to think of our church as being restricted to those in our income group, but we must always remember that within the church of Jesus Christ there are no distinctions at all. There cannot be, for God has received a man and this must be our basis of our receiving him as well. I had a couple introduced to me one day with the words, "These are our kind of people." It made me wince when I heard it, because the clear word of God is to welcome all who come in the name of Christ, because God has received them. 9
Ray pulled warnings from current trends and redirected the attention of his listeners to their responsibility to mold their attitudes and behavior to match biblical imperatives.
Another favorite source of Ray's illustrations was the stories and experiences of other people. Since Ray loved people, he loved to talk and listen and learn from their struggles and victories. One of the advantages of being a caring, personable pastor that treasured the fellowship of his church family was that it kept him in touch, and provided a lot of illustrative material. During a sermon where Ray was trying to get his congregation to understand the risk of making provision for the flesh, he told the people:
I heard of a Christian man who was delivered from tobacco addiction. He took all his paraphernalia—his pipes and his tobacco and his cans and everything—then dug a hole in his backyard and buried them there. Then he put a stone over the spot so he would know where to dig in case he couldn't hold out! You see, that is making provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. You say, "Because I died with Christ, I see that I no longer need to permit this hot temper to rule my life, and I will appropriate him. I will count on him for continual victory in the hour of temptation—except when someone does me dirt! If they go too far, I think that is justification to lose my temper." Well, that is making provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. You rest on the flood tide of his indwelling life to keep you free from lust and passion, but occasionally you read a sex magazine just to see if you can resist it! This is making provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
I had a friend who was a printer, and one day a man brought to him a pornographic card to be printed—one of those filthy, lewd things which he wanted printed for his own personal use. He handed it to the printer, who was a Christian, and said, "I would like you to print this for me. I will pay you very well for it." The printer looked at the card, saw the nature of it, and handed it back, saying, "No thank you. I don't print this kind of stuff." The other fellow said, "Oh come now. Don't try to pull this pious stuff with me. You know that you really enjoy this kind of thing. Just be honest." The printer looked at him and said, "You're right. I do. I have a nature that likes to feed upon this kind of thing, but I don't feed it." 10
Ray often quoted the words of popular hymns, quoted poems and used children's stories such as Humpty Dumpty and his great fall to illustrate the fall of mankind and despite man's best efforts, "all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty together again."
Sometimes in an illustration he would use a variety of images. Using a compelling metaphor when explaining to his church the need to be committed to really living out the Christian life, he said:
Someone has said that life is like a funnel. There are two ends to a funnel and you can enter it at either end. The non-Christian enters at the broad end and wants life at its fullest. As he proceeds in life, he finds that inexorably the funnel grows more narrow, limited, and restricted, until at last it is nothing but a tiny aperture in which there is barely room to live. That is why so many finally take their own lives, because life is no longer worth living. But the Christian enters life at the other end of the funnel. At first it seems narrow, as though he is being denied some things. But, as he goes on, it begins to broaden out becoming wider and wider, until at last, as the Apostle says, "All things are yours" —the universe and all that is in it. As John says, "The world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." This is the effect of faith.
Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries who laid down their lives in Ecuador among the Aucas... writing to his parents he says: "Mr. and Mrs. Blank have a nice home, and belongings, two cute kiddies, but are so like the rest of us that it is disheartening. We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace. We profess to know a Power the twentieth century does not reckon with, but we are harmless and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, nonmilitants, conscientious objectors in this battle to the death with the principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brash, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the cross. We are sideliners, coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers, while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us; we are too much like its own. Oh, that God would make us dangerous!"
I don't know what your heart says, but, if I know my own heart, I am so aware that this is the great need of this hour in which we live—that men may see Christians for what they are; that they may see something else than this namby-pamby, watered-down, milksop kind of Christian living that is content with defeat. It is time that we take seriously the possibilities that God in Christ offers us, to be a disturbing factor in our generation. That is what God calls us to. 11
Like the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, Ray sought for arresting, appropriate pictures which he used to create a need to hear and study the Word of God, capture the mind, and demonstrate the power and relevance of Scripture.
Illustrations were never the most important part of his message; they served the text, not the other way around. Ray simply used them in the manner in which Spurgeon had instructed his students to many years before.
"We use them first to interest the mind and secure the attention of our hearers. We cannot endure a sleepy audience. To us, a slumbering man is no man. Sydney Smith observed that although Eve was taken out of the side of Adam while he was asleep, it was not possible to remove sin from man's heart in the same manner."12
7. UNCTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The provision of power begins with the knowledge of the unshakable, unchangeable fact. Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ." All my old self, all that I am in Adam, was crucified and buried with Christ. God finds no good in it, reckons no good of it, and expects nothing but failure from it. We must do the same. — Ray C Stedman
As Ray diligently studied God's Word and looked for ways to awaken interest and arouse attention, he also came to understand that preparation is not enough. Stuart Briscoe tells this story:
A young preacher went to preach his first sermon. He'd done so much work on this masterpiece that he was full of his own importance. He entered the pulpit with tremendous confidence, but once up there, he blanked out and couldn't think of a thing. Finally he came down from the pulpit utterly humiliated. As he slumped down the steps, an old preacher said to him, "If you'd gone up there the way you came down, you'd have come down the way you went up."1
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones said:
Careful preparation and the unction of the Holy Spirit must never be regarded as alternatives but as complementary to each other. We all tend to go to extremes; some rely only on their own preparation and look for nothing more; others, as I say, tend to despise preparation and trust to the unction, the anointing and the inspiration of the Spirit alone. But there must be no either/or here; it is always both/and. These two things must go together.
What is this (unction)? It is the Holy Spirit falling upon the preacher in a special manner. It is an access of power. It is God giving power, and enabling through the Spirit to the preacher in order that he may do this work in a manner that lifts it up beyond the efforts and endeavors of man to a position in which the preacher is being used by the Spirit and becomes the channel through whom the Spirit works. 2
We see this modeled for us in the New Testament. The word translated "filled" basically means controlled. When Scripture says we are not to be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), Paul is saying that we are to be controlled by the Spirit; we are to let the Spirit be dominant in our lives. We see examples of this in the book of Acts. The Jews in Acts 13:45 were filled or controlled by their jealousy; the result was that they started to blaspheme. "But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming." In Acts 5:17 the Sadducees were filled (controlled) with jealousy so they threw the apostles in jail.
"But the high priest rose up, along with his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy; and they laid hands on the apostles, and put them in jail." (Acts 5:17,18).
In the same manner when someone was filled with the Holy Spirit they were controlled or empowered to speak/preach with boldness. In Acts 4 the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered in Jerusalem asking Peter and John, "By what power, or in what name have you done this?" (healed a lame man). Verse 8 says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them: Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health." Again in Acts 13 Elymas the magician was opposing Paul and Barnabas and was trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Verse 9 says: "But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, "—and then Paul, being controlled by the Spirit, preached the Word with power.
Finally in Acts 4:31 we again see the effect of the Holy Spirit in preaching: "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." What happened next? Luke tells us, "and they began to speak the word of God with boldness."
Ray Stedman understood the significance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. He learned early in his ministry the importance of diligent study of God's Word. It wasn't until later however that he also learned the extreme importance of understanding that the power of the message delivered lies not only in the preparation and delivery, but with God. Thinking back to those early days of ministry and the hard lessons he learned he said:
When I graduated from seminary I thought that the power needed for ministry lay in the man of God—so I studied men. I followed them. I saw men that were being used of God and I said, "What is the secret of their power?" When I thought I found it, I tried to imitate it and adapt it to myself. I caught myself aping men. Some of you will remember how, coming fresh from the influence of the ministry of J. Vernon McGee, I used to talk like him. I wore bright red shirts, because I thought that was the source of his power. Finally, I realized that the power did not lie in the man.
Then I thought the power lay in the message. It must be what men say that is so moving, powerful, and potent. So, I listened to men and read books, and when I ran across a passage that I felt beautifully stated some truth, I would almost memorize it so that I could repeat it. When I had a message that was particularly blessed of God, I'd say, "Well that worked. I'll put that one aside, and the next time I am invited to speak at a conference I'll bring that message out. That is the one that will do the trick." I would go to the conference and, in all confidence, I would bring the message out and preach it—and it would fall flat! I would go to the Lord and say, "What is wrong? I am simply trying to do what is the right thing. Here is a message that you blessed before. What is wrong?" At last, baffled and defeated, I learned the lesson that power does not reside in the man or the message. "Power belongeth unto God," and God never gives it to anyone. He will live it through men, but power belongs only to God. 3
It has become increasingly difficult for ministers to focus on the Holy Spirit's critical role in preaching in the midst of the pressures of church growth expectations, and all the efforts seemingly necessary to entice people to come out to church. A Los Angeles Times Magazine dated December, 1995 featured an article on the megachurch movement and made this startling observation: "Methodology, not theology, is the secret behind the latest boom in the church business." Most startling of all was a quote from one Southern California megachurch pastor who annually holds a church growth conference for pastors. During the four day seminar, "founding pastor Rick Warren outlined the nuts and bolts of expanding a church. First of all, he informed the crowd, theology is nothing without audience. We hear a lot of pastors say, 'Well if you just pray, if you just preach the Word, then your church will grow.' Folks, it's just not true." 4
Certainly preaching to empty churches is not very effective in reaching the lost. Equally certain is the recognition that Rick Warren is a dedicated pastor who himself is committed to the Word of God and to reaching out to a lost and dying world. We would even agree that prayer and preaching alone won't grow a church. Naturally the need to belong (fellowship) is important, and certainly childcare and adequate youth programs etc. are all part of growing a church. However, what is of concern is a growing attitude that seems to forget that "preaching is indispensable to Christianity" and "without preaching a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God." 5
In his book Dining with the Devil Os Guiness speaks about the mega church movement and says, "Because the management insights and techniques are so good, you don't need God in the preaching, you don't need Him in the growing. You can grow a church and flourish a church without anything supernatural at all." 6 Ray Stedman and the people of PBC proved that you can grow a church through prayer, preaching, and caring. Broken men who will acknowledge their own weakness and depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to bless the Word of God may not produce the large attendance common in the megachurch, yet it will produce fruit that is Isaac and not Ishmael.
The apostle Paul's assertion that there is power through weakness is apparently not for this age. John Stott expresses the idea as well as anybody can:
In order to be filled with the Spirit, we have first to acknowledge our own emptiness. In order to be exalted and used by God, we have first to humble ourselves under His mighty hand (l Peter 5:6). In order to receive His power, we have first to admit, and then even to revel in, our own weakness.
It is the last paradox which I confess, has struck me most among all the varied ways in which the New Testament authors express the same truth. 'Power through weakness.' It is a recurring theme, perhaps even the dominant theme in Paul's Corinthian correspondence. The Corinthians badly needed it too.
For they were proud people, boastful of their own gifts and attainments on the one hand, and boastful of their leaders on the other, indulging in a disgraceful personality cult, playing one apostle against another, in a way which horrified Paul. They were giving him a deference which was due to Christ alone. 'Was Paul crucified for you?' he cries out in dismay. 'Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?' (I Corinthians 1:13). He will not allow them to go on boasting either of themselves or of any human leaders. 'Let no one boast of men,' he insists. Rather, 'Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.' (I Corinthians 3:21; 1:31) 7
It is against this background of Corinthian conceit that Paul's power through weakness theme stands out in clear relief. There are three main passages in which it occurs:
'And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.' (I Corinthians 2: 3-5)
'But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;' (2 Corinthians 4:7)
'And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.' (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 NASB)
Rick Warren and other pastors in the megachurch movement are not denying the need of the Holy Spirit in their preaching; to suggest that would be unfair and would misrepresent their theology. Their methodology, however, appears to be the emphasis rather than a dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit. As John Stott remarks:
Let Spurgeon express it with his usual wit and force: "I shall not attempt to teach a tiger the virtues of vegetarianism; but I shall as hopefully attempt that task as I would try to convince an unregenerate man on the truth revealed by God concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment to come.
Only Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit can open blind eyes and deaf ears, make the lame walk and the dumb speak, prick the conscience, enlighten the mind, fire the heart, move the will, give life to the dead and rescue slaves from satanic bondage. And all this He can and does, as the preacher should know from his own experience. Therefore our greatest need as preachers is to be 'clothed with power from on high' (Luke 24:49), so that, like the apostles, we may preach the gospel... by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven (I Peter 1:12), and the gospel may come to people through our preaching not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (I Thessalonians 1:5). 8
Ray Stedman remains a model to preachers today of what John Stott reflects. Ray both acknowledged his own emptiness and "humbled himself under God's mighty hand."
Throughout his ministry Ray allowed God's Word to reprove and correct him. His heart and character was such that he was constantly trying to line his life up with God's Word. Once he said: "I have never dealt with a book of the Bible without having to stop in the preparation of the message to kneel in prayer and confess to God and deal with something in my own heart."
Because Ray allowed God's Word to mold and shape him, he increasingly understood how unimportant he was and how vital the Holy Spirit was. The most significant lesson for him in this regard came at his first Bible conference where he was invited to preach.
You know what that does to a preacher? He wants so much to succeed, to do a great and wonderful thing, to preach a great and powerful message that will never be forgotten. I had prepared and worked very hard on a message about the revelation of God in the world of nature. I thought I could preach a powerful message that would sway the people, but everything came apart. I could not say anything right, the message ground on and on, and when I finally finished, I stumbled out of that place into the dark. I walked around the corner of the lake, dejected, feeling lower than the proverbial snake's belly.
Standing on the other side of the lake in a swampy kind of place, with croaking frogs all around me, I heard the voice of God—a still small voice that said to me, in the words of Scripture, "He that thinks he knows something, knows nothing yet as he ought to know it." And then the Lord gave me three things that have guided my ministry ever since. "There are three things I want you never to be concerned with," the voice intoned within; "I don't want you ever to be concerned with how many people you're preaching to. I don't care if it's two or three, you preach the message I give you." And second, God said, "I don't want you ever to be concerned about how much they're going to give when you get through. Never worry about that." And third, He said, "I don't want you ever to be concerned with how well you think you've done." I can't say that I've always followed those, but when I've departed from them I've felt the Spirit of God depart from me as well. When I've been faithful to them, I've left it up to God and He's done his usual wonders with some very feeble work on my part. But that's the Lord, isn't it? That's the way He works. It's both the mystery and majesty of ministry that God picks up our human efforts and uses them. 9
This is the insight and the attitude that Ray learned that became such a significant part of his commitment to the Scriptures. It is a mystery that God is willing to use human efforts for His glory. It seems clear from His Word that the efforts He blesses most significantly are those rendered by servants who are broken before Him, relying on diligent study of His Word and the unction of the Holy Spirit.
8. PROBLEM PASSAGES
When it seems that perhaps the Biblical record is just a dream and cannot be trusted, remember the words of Jesus: "Heaven and earth will pass away—as solid and as real as they appear, but these words will not pass away. This is absolutely certain to happen. History is going to end this way. Remember this regardless of what secular voices all around you have to say. — Ray C. Stedman
In Ephesians 20:27 Paul tells the Ephesian elders, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God." Ray Stedman, like Paul, could have said the same thing to his congregation in Palo Alto. He did not shrink from preaching all of God's Word. He understood all Scripture is inspired and all is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). Consequently, Ray preached even the "problem passages" of the Bible.
In 1794, Thomas Paine's book, The Age of Reason was published. Paine wrote, "The New Testament compared with the old is like a farce of one act, in which there is not room for the very numerous violations of the unities. There are, however, some glaring contradictions which... are sufficient to show the story of Jesus to be false." 1 George Smith, in his more recent book, Atheism The Case Against God agrees with Paine and adds, "Most modem theologians would agree with Paine that the New Testament contains a mass of contradictions and that the Gospels (or at least three of the four) are of unknown authorship, written anywhere from 40-150 years after the death of Jesus." 2
Smith's position is not an isolated case, nor is it just the dogma of atheistic philosophers in general. Many modem theologians do believe that the Bible in general, and the New Testament in particular, contain a mass of contradictions. One such theologian is Bishop John Shelby Spong. In his book, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism published in 1991, he writes:
I could not believe that anyone who had read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Yet the claim continued to be made and continues to this day. Have these people simply not read the text? Are they hopelessly uninformed? Is there a different Bible? Are they blinded by the combination of ego needs and naiveté? When one turns from the ancient Hebrew texts to the New Testament, the problems do not disappear. There are passages in the gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matthew 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matthew 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matthew 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matthew 23:33), "blind fools" (Matthew 23:17). He called Gentiles "dogs" (Matthew 15:26). He said he had come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother (Matthew 10:35). He disowned his own family (Matthew 12:46-50), hardly obeying the commandment to honor your parents. These do not appear to be the words of one dedicated to preserving and strengthening the family, as the fundamentalist preachers have constantly asserted. 3
The problem passages of the Bible have caused many preachers to simply ignore them. Usually these people will argue that they don't want to weigh down their congregation with unnecessary theological arguments about things that really are not important anyway. Instead, they want to concentrate on the more positive themes and issues that will keep their "audience" interested. This is particularly tempting today when preachers begin with a premise that the audience is sovereign rather than the message. When that occurs, as Os Guinness observes, preachers no longer look for an audience to hear their message, but rather they look for a message to hold the audience. An example of this is revealed in one popular book on church growth. The author cautions:
Don't preach sermons. You can introduce people to the distinctive beliefs of your church after they enter the pastor's classes, but don't try to sell them on your peculiar doctrines in a sermon on Sunday morning! They are not ready for it yet.
Let your Sunday morning services aim at inspiration, entertainment and a basic commitment to Jesus Christ. Then get them into a small classroom setting where they will be more receptive to the deeper doctrines of your church. Witness to the experience you had with your God this past week. 4
This is advice that was completely foreign to Ray Stedman, since it was the message that was sovereign and not the audience. He constantly unfolded God's Word, never avoiding difficult doctrine. While preaching on Romans 9, Ray did not skip doctrine so he could be more entertaining or inspirational. Conversely, he exhorted his congregation with words like: "Your quarrel is with God if you cannot agree with this passage."5
Romans 9 is a chapter that many Christians and certainly many ministers avoid, because it apparently teaches that God chooses who will believe. The common wisdom of today would recommend bypassing this chapter, perhaps saving it for a small pastor's class where the words could be gently explained. Ray, however, preached the whole council of God, and believed it was the pulpit where God's Word should be declared without apology.
While introducing a sermon on Romans 9, Ray stated:
Romans 9 is the meatiest passage in the Bible that deals with this matter, and in a sense, it is the test of a man's theology. It is very, very basic. As I read through this chapter in preparation for today, I was more and more impressed that this chapter, to many, will seem like a violent roller coaster ride. It begins rather slowly—you know that long pull to the top—but then it takes a steep plunge that leaves many people breathless. Let's see if we can survive the ride!
There are two things that I would like you to keep in mind: First of all, I did not write this—Paul did. I think the best that we can do is simply to work our way through the clear argument of the apostle. Follow with me and try to understand what he is saying; then if you differ, your quarrel is not with me but with the greatest theologian the church has ever known. In fact, since we believe that Paul spoke and wrote by the inspiration of God, your quarrel is with God if you cannot agree with this passage. 6
For Ray Stedman, all of Scripture—the doctrinal as well as the problem passages of the Bible were not ignored. Instead they, like the rest of Scripture, were preached and believed. Ray said of the Bible, "It confronts me with paradoxes of revelation which intrigue me and challenge me." 7 As already mentioned, Dr. John McIntyre, a nuclear physics professor at Texas A&M University said about Ray's approach to the study of the Bible: "We considered a scriptural difficulty a challenge to the understanding and an opportunity to modify our present, incomplete ideas, rather than consider that the Bible was in error. This approach to studying the Bible closely parallels the scientist's attitude toward nature. He expects even welcomes difficulties and finds persevering study rewarded with deeper understanding."8
Ray's passion was expository preaching. Bernard Ramm has said:
Whether preaching is textual or topical or expository, it rests ultimately upon the minister's interpretation of the Word of God. That theological discipline which takes as its goal the proper interpretation of Scripture is hermeneutics. A solid hermeneutics is the root of all good exegesis and exegesis is the foundation of all truly Biblical preaching. Therefore a sound hermeneutics is an absolute desideratum for the minister of the Word of God. 9
Ray took up the challenge of problem passages as he faithfully preached through book after book. The best way to understand his perspective of and approach to problem passages is to look at a few common problems. From these, Ray's hermeneutic is evident and it is that he did not shy away from exploring these problems. It will also be clear that a great deal of thought and effort went into working through these verses and using them to preach the whole council of God's Word.
For the most part, Ray's hermeneutic and consequently his handling of problem passages followed the classic seminary pattern. He took into account the context, performed word studies, and allowed the clearer passages of Scripture to interpret the less clear. A sermon he preached on 1 Corinthians 15 is an example of Ray's use of context to understand a difficult passage.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:29
"Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?" (NASB)
Question: "This seems to imply that if a person gets baptized on the account of a dead person, then the deceased will be saved. But this is in conflict with the clear teaching of Scripture that anyone old enough must believe for himself or herself (John 3:16, Romans 10: 9-13, Ezekiel 18:20) to be saved."10
Stedman: "The Mormon church bases a major part of their religious activity on this one verse. Unless you are a "good" Mormon you are not permitted to enter one of their temples. People ask, what goes on in them? Well, one of the things is that they are being baptized on behalf of the dead. The Mormons believe that you can go back through history and be baptized for all your ancestors. That is why they put great reliance upon genealogical tables and spend a lot of time tracing their ancestry, because they believe they can be baptized on their behalf and thus save them. I met a woman once who said that she had saved more people than Jesus Christ because she had been baptized for so many thousands of people! Some Mormons pick out the well-known figures of history and are baptized for Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, etc., all based on this one verse; there is no other reference in the Bible to being baptized on behalf of the dead.
Well, what does this verse mean? I do not know. It evidently refers to some form of proxy baptism, but it is noteworthy that the Apostle does not refer to it as though it was something that the Christians of Corinth practiced, because he puts it in the third person: "Otherwise what do 'people' mean" (not what do 'we' mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead), but what do 'they' mean. That is literally what he says. "If the dead are not raised at all, why are 'they' baptized on their behalf?" He returns to the first person in the next verse, so that it is clear it is some practice that some people were engaged in that he does not necessarily approve of or disapprove of. He simply refers to it as a practice. It would be a shame to miss the significance of the point he is making because we do not understand what the practice he refers to was." 11
Rather than jump to the heretical mistake of the Mormons, Ray simply systematically interpreted the verse in terms of the context. Who was Paul talking about? Once put in its proper context, the solution was straightforward.
Another example of Ray's handling of problem passages is Hebrews 2:14. In this passage, Ray demonstrates his use of word study
HEBREWS 2:14
"Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil..." (NIV)
Question: Does the devil have the power of death or does God? 12
Problem: The writer of Hebrews speaks here about Christ's coming so "that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil." But in other places the Bible asserts that only God has the power of life and death. "I kill and I make alive (Deuteronomy 32:39; Job 1:21).
Stedman: Is the devil destroyed? Do you think he has quit working? If we mean by this "eliminated," obviously the answer is No. Bishop Pike recently said about the devil, "If there be such, he is still doing very well, as anyone reading the daily papers can know." Thus he disposes of the victory of Jesus Christ. But the word "destroy" here does not mean "eliminate." The word means "to render impotent; to nullify; to render inoperative, inconsequential." That is the idea. The devil has not been eliminated but the devil has been rendered impotent. Not to everyone! Not to everyone! Only under certain conditions is this true, but those conditions are available to all men in Jesus Christ. That is what he is saying. When we enter into the conditions we discover that what he says is thrillingly true: there is a freeing from lifelong bondage.
The devil does not have the power of death in the sense of determining who dies and when life shall end; only God has that power. But the phrase "the power of death" means the grip of death, its fearsomeness, its terrible quality. Bondage therefore is that of the reign of sin, the flesh. This is what Paul means in Romans 8 when he says, "the mind of the flesh is death." Death is the absence of life. Death is not something in itself; it is simply the absence of something.
Someone gets hit by a car. The crowd gathers around and wonders if there is any life left. A doctor may come and examine the body. What does he look for? Evidences of death? No, he looks for evidences of life. If he can find no evidence of life as he searches the body of that person, he finally looks up and says: "I'm sorry. He's dead." Death, in all its forms, is the absence of life. That is what boredom is. That is what distress is. That is what fear is. That is what anxiety is. These are forms of death because they are the absence of life of the Lord Jesus.
It is this death that Christ sets us free from. The fear of this death is the devil's whip, the writer says, by which he keeps us in slavery and bondage all our life. Non-Christians, of course, have no escape from this, but even Christians, because they do not understand the kind of freedom that Christ brings, frequently experience death: defeat, waste, limitation, despair. 13
Ray's use of word study revealed that the word "destroy" does not mean eliminate, but "to render impotent." An understanding of this word guided his interpretation of the passage. Ray avoided the common mistakes made by many simply by applying the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture. How many cults have been spawned as a result of taking a problem passage by itself, and using that as a focal point of theology. Ray was careful to avoid this mistake and Mark chapter 10 is an example of his use of the hermeneutical principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.
MARK 10: 17-18
"As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. 'Good teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good except—God alone.'" (NIV)
Question: "The rich young ruler called Jesus 'Good Teacher,' and Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is God.' Why did Jesus appear to deny that he was God to the young ruler?" 14
Stedman: "Many people reading that will say, 'this is a denial on Jesus' part that he was God. He was saying to this young man, 'Do you call me good? There isn't anybody good but God, and I am not God so don't call me good.' But look at that carefully. Think about it with me for a minute. Was he denying deity? He either meant that there is none good but God, and I am not good therefore I am not God, or he meant, there is none good but God, but I am good, therefore I am God. Either he was saying 'I am not God' or 'I am not good.'
Do you think he meant to say, 'I am not good?' Do you think he was denying His goodness? Remember, this is the One who stood before his enemies and said, 'Which of you convinces me of sin?' Everywhere he demonstrated that he knew what he was doing.
As far as the record goes, he never made a mistake, never repented, never had to say he was sorry. He was worshipped by those who knew him best, as one without sin, and about him it is recorded by his closest follower, 'In him there is no sin' (I John 3:5), and by his most prominent disciple, 'He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips' (I Peter 2:22).
What he was affirming to this young man was that he was God. He is saying, 'Do you see me as good? Remember, there is none good but God.' Link that with what he asked of this young ruler. He was a young man who had everything, but one thing. Jesus put his finger on that lack when he implied, 'What you need is a king and the only king a man ought to have is God. He is the only One who can fulfill and realize a young man's life, and bring the potential wrapped up in his being into fulfillment. That is what you need—a God. Behold your king! Think through what you said to me. You saw goodness in me? Then what you saw was God. You call me good? Then, if you realize what you are saying, you are calling me God. Now, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come and follow me. That is the one thing you lack." 15
It is clear from these passages that Ray Stedman preached the whole council of God's Word. It is also clear that each "problem" was well thought out. Certainly not everyone is going to agree with Ray's interpretation; however, what should be noted is that he did not avoid problems. He also did not simply give a few words of explanation, trying to gloss over these difficult verses. Instead, he approached them as the scientist approaches nature, and considered problems simply as a chance to dig deeper and to "modify our present incomplete ideas." It demanded a great deal of work and much time. It also called for greater care in sermon preparation. Ray knew that the Word of God, and the congregation deserved nothing less.
9. WEAKNESS
Pasted on the front of my Bible are the words of Henry Van Dyke which I often pray:
"Grant us the knowledge that we need,
To solve the questions of the mind.
And light our candle while we read,
To keep our hearts from going blind;
Enlarge our vision to behold
The wonders Thou has wrought of old!"That is the prayer for the wholeness of man: mind, emotion, and will. Let us pray it often till we see its answer in our lives. — Ray C. Stedman
Ray traveled with Harry Ironside for three months, and of this experience, Ray said: "I saw his great strengths as a Bible teacher. I saw his warmth and compassion as a human being, and I saw some weaknesses."1 Ray does not mention what these weaknesses were. Ray Stedman also had his weaknesses. They are not easy to find; they are not readily obvious to those that casually knew Ray, or even to those who sat under his preaching. As far as Ray's ministry was concerned, there were some weaknesses noticed by those who knew him best.
Ray was rarely well organized in his sermon delivery. His style was exegetical, but often more of a running commentary. J.I. Packer says that Ray's style was basically "to chat it over with the congregation." This quality that was so endearing to many people also became homiletically a weakness. He would break many rules. Often, Ray's sermons didn't begin with an illustration that introduced his text, followed by a proposition statement with supporting points and a conclusion that tied it all together. A typical homiletics professor may have found many of his sermons frustrating in their organization, yet still excellent in their content. Howard Hendricks observed, "Weakness is a relative term. I'm well organized in preaching. He (Stedman) used to tell me that 'man, I wish I could preach like you do—you're able to put it down… ', and Ray was more of a storyteller type of thing. I mean, he'd weave and maybe his outline didn't necessarily fit. I mean, people had a hard time following him unless they got infected with his style and how he did it." 2
Two of Ray's great strengths as a preacher were his intellect and his love for men. It is ironic that these same characteristics were also points of weakness. Brian Morgan reflected that because Ray had such a love for men, he would frequently keep people on staff at PBC that really did not belong. They were either not skilled, or for other reasons, were not a good match for the ministry. It was almost as if he had a blind spot, deliberate or otherwise, for men that he met and "adopted." Elaine would see the incongruity, the staff were well aware of it, but Ray kept giving the guys another chance. 3 Bill Lawrence referred to the phenomenon as "Ray's kennel." "Like stray dogs to a kennel, he kept bringing people in, and the people in the church who had to figure out how to fund this would get real(ly) unhappy." 4
The other weakness which Ray's colleagues commented on directly affected his preaching. Because his mind was so sharp, he sometimes saw things in the text that nobody else saw. Howard Hendricks said, "I'd say that is probably the one area that we disagreed on. I'm pretty literalistic. I mean I stick pretty close to the text and I don't do much of what I'd call spiritualization. But he got into some of the books, like Esther, and man, he lost me and I used to give him gas about it. I'd say, 'Ray, where the heck are you going?'" 5
Bill Lawrence also noted the same thing: his hermeneutic was affected by his intellect. "It's amazing, but you know Ray had a hermeneutic... well a king and three queens is a great title whether the book of Esther says what he says it says or not. What he had was sort of a floating decimal point at times. But what he also had was a keen sense of theology." 6
That "floating decimal point" in Ray's hermeneutic got him into trouble periodically. Again, Bill Lawrence says this, "There was a period of time when Stedman wasn't very welcome here (Dallas Seminary); wasn't welcome at all. He came here and he did a lectureship on the book of Hebrews, and he referred to the people in Hebrews 6 as 'still born'—they had come all the way up to the point of new birth. That hit Unger the wrong way, and raised a big fuss." 7
Hebrews 6 is perhaps one of the toughest of all the problem passages. Ten different commentaries likely suggest ten different solutions. Ray's solution illustrates his thorough handling of the Word, his intellect, and perhaps also the "floating decimal point" in his hermeneutic.
HEBREWS 6:4-6
"For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame." 8
Question: Does this passage teach that it is possible for Christians to lose their salvation?
Problem: Hebrews 6:4-6 seems to be written for Christians because it contains certain characteristics that would be true only of them, such as "partakers of the Holy Spirit: (verse 4). But it declares that if they fall away, it is impossible "to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (verse 6). Does this mean that Christians can lose their salvation? 9
Stedman: What a sobering passage! There is, first, the elaboration of an awful possibility. It is impossible to restore again to repentance these who experience certain Spirit-given blessings, if they shall fall away. The problem of the passage is: how can anyone experience all of this and not be Christian? And if he is Christian, how can he fall away, without any hope of restoration? It is over these issues that the battle has waged hot throughout the Christian ages.
It is important to see that all of this passage hangs upon the three words, "if God permits." "This we will do, if God permits." Here is the danger of prolonged immaturity, of remaining in one place all your Christian life. It suggests that you may be one of those whom God will not allow to go further; we have already seen in chapter three that God has said of certain ones, "I swear in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest."
Can we take these expressions here as describing anything other than Spirit-produced, authentic Christian life? Look at them again. "Those who have once been enlightened." That means, to have their eyes opened to their own desperate personal need, to realize they are in a lost world and need a Savior. That is being enlightened. "And have tasted the heavenly gift." What is the heavenly gift? Obviously, it is the gift God gave from heaven. "God so loved the world that be gave his only begotten Son." These are those who have known a personal encounter with Christ, they have "tasted of the heavenly gift." "Become partakers of the Holy Spirit." That is more than to be influenced by the Holy Spirit, it is to become companions of him, fellow travelers. "They have tasted the goodness of the word of God." That means to enter into the joy of the promises of God. "And the powers of the age to come," i.e., they have already experienced the miracle of release and deliverance in their life. Yet the sentence stands, when they commit apostasy" (not "if," there is no if in the original Greek) it is impossible to restore them. Their case is hopeless!
The immediate question here is not, why can they not come back? We will look at that in a moment, but first we must ask, how can they fall away after such a God-honored start as this? I should like to propose an explanation of this which has long haunted me. I would like to raise a question for you to wrestle with which more and more suggests, at least to me, the correct explanation of this phenomenon. We have already noted that Scripture frequently uses the analogy of human birth and growth to explain spiritual birth and growth. We have that even here. The use of milk by children is an analogy drawn from the physical life.
Here is the question I would like to ask. Is it not possible that we frequently confuse conception with birth? If the spiritual life follows the same pattern as the physical life, we all know that physical life does not begin with birth. It begins with conception. Have we not, perhaps, mistaken conception for birth and therefore have been very confused when certain ones, who seemingly started well, have ended up stillborn? Is there in the spiritual life, as in the natural life, a gestation period before birth when true Spirit-imparted life can fail and result in a stillbirth? Is there not a time when new Christians are more like embryos, forming little by little in the womb, fed by the faith and vitality of others? Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul means when he writes to the Galatians, "My little children, I stand in doubt of you. I am travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in you."
If this be the case, then the critical moment is not when the Word first meets with faith, that is conception; that is when the possibility of new life arises. But the critical moment is when the individual is asked to obey the Lord at cost to himself, contrary to his own will and desire. When, in other words, the Lordship of Christ makes demand upon him and it comes into conflict with his own desire and purposes, his own plans and program. To put it in terms of what is used of the Lord Jesus in chapter five, we are called upon to learn obedience at the price of suffering. That is the true moment of birth. "If any man will come after me," said Jesus, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." In grace, the Lord may make this appeal over the course of a number of years. But if it is ultimately refused, this is a stillbirth. The months and even years that may be spent in the enjoyment of conversion joy was simply Christian life in embryo. The new birth occurs, if at all, when we first cease from our own works and rest in Jesus Christ. That is when the life of faith begins.
If this step is refused and the decision is made to reject the claims of Christ to Lordship and control, there follows, as Hebrews points out, a hardening, blinding process which, if allowed to continue, may lead such a one to drop out of church, and in effect, to renounce his Christian faith. Though only God knows the true condition of the heart, if that occurs the case, he says, is hopeless. Is this not what the Lord Jesus describes in that parable of the sower in Matthew thirteen? "Some seed," he says, "fell on rocky ground" (not gravelly ground, but ground where there was an underlying layer of rock). These are those who receive the word with joy and endure for a while, but when persecution or tribulation arises, immediately they fall away.
This brings us to the explanation for this hopelessness, this impossibility of return. "It is impossible to restore them if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt." Why is it that God will not permit them to go on in understanding more truth? It is simply because, as far as they are concerned, they are recrucifying Christ. They are repudiating the principle of the cross. They become, as Paul terms it in Philippians, "enemies of the cross of Christ." From that point on their lives deteriorate and they shame the profession they once made.
Years ago, at the close of World War II, I frequently attended Saturday night meetings in the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, sponsored by Youth For Christ. A brilliant young man was the leader of the meetings and a frequent speaker at them. His name was Chuck Templeton. He had a gift for articulation and I heard him give several wonderful messages, simple, dear expositions of the meaning of the cross of Christ, and the offer of life in Christ Jesus.
Saturday after Saturday I saw young people come down the aisles to receive Christ in those meetings. But some time after that Chuck Templeton entered a seminary, where he began to drift from his faith. He served for a while as a national evangelist for his denomination. Finally he quit the ministry entirely and later openly and publicly renounced all faith in Jesus Christ and went back into secular work. I do not know where he is now, but he no longer makes any Christian profession.
Is he a case like this? Only God knows the answer, but he could be. John tells us there are certain ones "who went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us." There is a conversion of the head that never reaches the heart.' 10
There are some who will see here the "floating decimal point" in Ray's hermeneutic. Some will see from this how easy it was for Ray's tremendous intellect to cause him to see things in the text that weren't necessarily there. There are some, however, who will agree with Ray's interpretation, and consider it to be a valid understanding of the text. Indeed others might side with Bill Lawrence who stated, "I didn't see what the problem was." 11
Ray Stedman was a gifted man. His intellect was the envy of many preachers who so much wanted to expound the Scriptures like Ray did. His intellect, however, occasionally affected his hermeneutic, and sometimes caused him to be stubborn but never arrogant. Fortunately these minor weaknesses rarely showed up in his preaching. Luis Palau sums it up well:
He was stubborn, you know, and we used to have endless arguments about typology, or usually a doctrine, but it was fun discussion and I did it to pull out the best of him. I would annoy him, contradict him on purpose to get it out of him because to him, everything was so logical and obvious. He had a great mind and a transparent life, so to him what appeared obvious was not obvious to the rest of us... so you'd have to needle him, I felt, to get it out of him. As an expository preacher, I can't think of any weakness. I couldn't wait to hear him. I'd give anything to hear him. I cannot think of one moral flaw in Ray Stedman. He was utterly consistent in his life and his preaching. 12
Footnotes:
10. FORMING THE SERMON
In traveling around this country, which in my judgment probably has the best taught churches of any country in the world—it is shocking to realize that for the most part, we have a biblically illiterate church in America. People do not know the Bible. It is not being taught; it is not being unfolded before them in useful and compelling ways. People are given surface truths that everybody knows; Sunday morning messages become a parade of the obvious which everybody understands anyway. Little challenge is given to understand and see what is producing the world in which we live, and how vital it is that we function as God intended us so that our world might be changed and liberty and beauty be released into human society once again. — Ray C. Stedman
Brian Morgan is one of the pastors of PBC South in Cupertino, a church plant of the original PBC After graduating from Stanford, he attended a two-year internship under Ray Stedman. Brian was one of literally hundreds of young men whose life and ministry were impacted by Ray. Brian remembers:
The most powerful sermon I ever heard him give was to a group of pastors on the nature of discipleship in the early 70's. He wrote five things on a napkin and he took it to the pulpit and it was one of the greatest expositions I've heard. First he created the need. Instead of saying we are going to talk about discipleship, he started talking about the present evil and especially in California... divorce, cults, etc. He said that today 'evil is open'. Then he said, 'How are we going to change lives?' then he goes back and he makes an historical transition saying that's exactly what it was in Jesus' day… evil was escalating. Israel was still in demonic possession; the religion wasn't meeting anybody's needs. 500 preachers are listening. I'm 23 years old at this time and he's preaching from a napkin. Then he goes on to give his five steps of discipleship. That sermon, not only the message, but the form shaped me and I still basically use that kind of methodology. But I'll never forget the difference between that message and the other preachers who basically came in and just started teaching a topic without even really creating a need, asking a question or using language with questions people aren't asking today; —a lot of seminary jargon. Ray came in and it's reality, and I would say that's the one dominant thing about his preaching—reality and accuracy. 1
This was really the way that Ray Stedman taught people how to preach—by example. Again Brian says that Ray never sat him down and explained how to put a message together. "I learned though," says Morgan, "that the pulpit was the driving force, and I learned exposition. 2
For the hundreds of men that Ray mentored, he taught them largely by example and encouragement. Steve Zeisler is currently one of the pastors at PBC in Palo Alto. He remembers when he preached his first sermon. Exegetically it was terrible, and homiletically probably worse, but there was Ray Stedman, sitting in the front row, taking notes. 3 "Ray was a tremendous encourager," said Bill Lawrence. "I remember Labor Day 1968 he had me preach at the church. It was really what got me started in terms of ministry. You know, it was a passage that has been a very critical passage in my life ever since, but it certainly wasn't the same as Ray, and the people really liked Ray... (but) it opened doors for me which eventually led to the start of another church. But that was typical of Ray. He would take risks with young guys. 4
Dave Roper was one of the first men that Ray mentored, and they were very close colleagues for many years. Dave began at PBC in the 1960's and had a significant role preaching in Ray's absence. When asked if Ray had ever taught him how to put a message together, Dave said, "No, because I don't know if Ray could have told you. He had this wonderful conversational style where you felt he was talking to you. He just talked, but he talked out of the Word. (But) he probably broke all the rules. He didn't illustrate a lot, but when he did illustrate, his illustrations were very clear. He had a photographic memory. I don't think he ever filed anything in his life. He just remembered things. He would simply say what the passage said, and he would say it—it's hard to describe—he just had an uncanny ability to take complex truths and state them in simple terms and relate truth to life in a way that never connected for you before. 5
Teaching others how to preach was not something that Ray Stedman did. Instead, he set the example and he encouraged. Much later in his life, however, Ray did write an article on the mechanics of putting a message together. The article was found in a C.O.B.E. file folder. In this article we get a brief glimpse of how he formed a sermon. What follows is Ray's own description on how to put a message together.
Ray strongly believed that the greatest contribution the Church could make to what he called a troubled and frightened generation was to return to a consistent and relevant preaching of the Word of God. He reflected on the consensus among Christians that a loosing of the power of God among believers was sorely needed, and then stated that what is often forgotten is that the proclamation of His word has always been God's chosen channel of power. "He sent his word and healed them," the psalmist declares. And it is not so much preaching from the Bible that is needed, as it is preaching the Bible itself—in a word, expository preaching." 6
Ray described expository preaching as having four characteristics: (1) it derives its content from the Scripture directly; (2) it seeks to discover Scripture's divinely intended meaning; (3) it observes the effect of Scripture on those who first received it; and (4) it applies it to those who seek its guidance in the present. In Ray's words, "It consists of deep insight into and understanding of the thoughts of God, powerfully presented in direct personal application to contemporary needs and problems." Ray reacted against what he considered stereotypical expository preaching, namely a dreary, rambling, shallow verse-by-verse commentary, or a dry-as-dust presentation of academic biblical truth. He depicts it vividly as "a vigorous, captivating analysis of reality, flowing from the mind of Christ by means of the Spirit into the daily lives and circumstances of twentieth century people."
I first came to understand and value expository preaching from the writings of G. Campbell Morgan, the Prince of English expositors in the early decades of the 20th century. I ran across his books while trying to teach an evening Bible study class of sailors at Pearl Harbor during World War II. I learned from him not only how to discover the patterns of thought development from a biblical passage, but how to organize those patterns into contemporary presentations that would touch directly upon the issues of life today. In 40 years of preaching and teaching I have never been able to match Morgan's beauty of language and richness of literary allusions, but I have had him continually before me as a model to follow.
Ray absorbed the significance of simplicity of style and warmth of illustration from observations of Dr. Harry Ironside of the Moody Church of Chicago, with whom Ray spent a summer as his chauffeur, secretary, and constant companion. "From him I learned simplicity of style and warmth of illustration." Ray was widely read and connected, and credits Campbell Morgan's successor at Westminster Chapel, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones with raising his appreciation of the Bible's relevancy and authority. He learned what he called "preaching power" through his relationships with men like J. Vernon McGee, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Richard Halverson, Stephen Olford, John R.W. Stott, Frances Schaeffer, and J.I. Packer.
Reflecting on his own experience in the pulpit, Ray tried to keep an even balance between the New Testament and Old, usually alternating from one to the other. His goal was to complete a whole book before moving on. He considered this to be one of the great advantages of expository preaching over textual preaching in that it forced him to handle the difficult themes of Scripture as well as the more popular ones. It also kept the truth of these difficult sections of Scripture in balance and in context, resulting ultimately in meeting the apostolic goal of "declaring the whole counsel of God."
Ray was cognizant of the limitations of the congregation, and if a series was becoming too long, and was beginning to weary the congregation, he would break it off in favor of another, though he committed to coming back at a future time to pick up the thread and finish the original series. Since all of his messages were recorded and transcribed the complete coverage of a biblical book could be put in print and become as a unit for private or group study.
Sermon preparation for Ray began with the selection of a book. He considered the needs of the congregation, the level of doctrinal instruction they might lack, and the tenor of the times in his selection. He then began to read the book through several times in various versions, with the intent to create a general outline of the book, as a guideline to his preaching. He would isolate the broad divisions of the book, and the major changes of subjects, looking for a bird's-eye view of the whole. His division of John, for example was very simple: Prologue – 1:1-18, The Manifestation of the Messiah – 1:19-4:54, Growing Unbelief – 5:1-12:50, The Unveiling of the Church – 13:1-17:26, The Murder of the Messiah – 18:1-19:42, The New Creation – 20:1-21:25.
Moving forward, Ray would choose a section from the first division upon which to base his first message. He looked for a section short enough to be manageable in the time available (30-40 minutes) but one that constituted a single main theme. The second step was to check out all lexical or linguistical problems that might be present, and read the historical background for custom or color that would need explaining or emphasizing. Then he would begin the development of a detailed exegetical outline of the passage. He focused on expressing the textual truth into his own words, clearly revealing the logical development of the author's thought. This outline became the backbone of his message. It frequently took several hours of work to produce, but it was essential to maintaining clarity and faithfulness to the text.
Ray determined not to consult any commentaries, or other preachers' messages on the passage until after the outline had been completed. This consultation served as a check on his own exegesis and allowed him to make changes or add insights (with due acknowledgment) to his own work. Ray had now reached the halfway point of his preparation, having invested approximately 8 to 10 hours of work into the text. Ray states: "The exegesis is not complete. I know what I am going to say, but I do not yet know how I am going to say it."
The work of the presentation followed. Ray developed preaching notes, based on the exegetical outline. A difficult part of the process was determining what to include and what to leave out, which themes to enlarge on and which to touch on briefly. Illustrations were added to make the text stick in people's minds and hold their attention until the end was reached. Developing the introduction to the passage, usually by using a personal story or reference to some current event, came next.
Ray took his notes to the platform, but tried to know them so thoroughly that he needed only to glimpse at them briefly from time to time to stay on track. He was a master at maintaining eye contact with the congregation, and used this to pull them in to the message.
Ray tried to complete his preparation by Friday afternoon, or at the latest, Saturday morning in order to let his notes alone for at least half a day. He used this time to prepare his body and heart with rest and prayer and other work. In Ray's words:
Following this approach, through the years I have gained a growing sense of the grandeur of preaching. I have seen many examples of its power to transform both individual lives and whole communities. I have increasingly felt a divine compulsion to preach, so that I know something of Paul's words, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!" But even more—I feel a deeply humbling conviction that I could never be given a greater honor than the privilege of declaring "the unsearchable riches of Christ." I often hear in my inner ear the words of the great apostle: "This is how one should regard us; as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God!" A servant of Christ. A steward of mysteries. I can think of no greater work than that. 7
Footnotes:
11. IMITATION
There are Christians who, because they are Christians ought to know better, but they are conforming to the movements of the day and the spirit of the age and are involved in things they have no business being involved in. It is because they have not fed upon the Word of God. This is absolutely essential. — Ray C. Stedman
Ray Stedman understood the often-neglected biblical truth expressed in Paul's words to the Corinthians, "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." (I Corinthians 1: 21-24 NASB).
It was Ray's conviction that "the greatest contribution the church can make today to a troubled and frightened generation is to return to a consistent and relevant preaching of the Word of God." In a world such as this one, where people are constantly being deceived, lied to, and "hustled", the need for the truth of God's Word—plainly and simply put without fear or favor—is at an all time high. Too many preachers, however, are abandoning the proclamation of the whole council of God's Word for a "kinder, gentler" message that centers on the needs and desires of the audience rather than on the whole truth of God's Word. As Ray realized,
The truth is not always easy for us to hear. Sometimes it pierces me and convicts me. Sometimes I wish I could evade it, and then I am reminded that it was sent to heal me. Often it encourages me and enheartens me. Sometimes it restores me when nothing else can do so. It confronts me with the paradoxes of revelation which intrigue me and challenge me. It exposes the secular illusions of the day and reveals the destructive ends to which they lead. It deals honestly with the uncomfortable concepts and opposes the strangleholds of tradition, correcting them with the authority of God.
I have learned to appreciate the Bible most because it brings me face-to-face with my God! Or at least the relationship is so real and personal that it seems to be a face-to-face encounter. My heavenly Father becomes more real and close than any earthly father. I can all but see my Lord and Savior standing beside me and talking to me as I read his words in the Gospels. Sometimes the words of Scripture become so vivid and luminous that I feel like kneeling or even falling on my face before the majesty of God. No other book has such power to transport me beyond earth to heavenly places. 1
Being so convinced of the truth of God's Word and its impact on the lives of others, Ray faithfully embodied what it means to preach. For over 40 years Ray never got sidetracked from putting his primary efforts into knowing and proclaiming God's Word. Why was he so effective behind the pulpit? What does he leave behind for preachers to imitate today?
We have already seen that Ray Stedman was unique in many ways. He was a man's man, and often described himself as a "sheep herder". He had a tremendous intellect which caused many who knew him to assert that he was a genius. He had a photographic memory than enabled him to retain volumes of facts and figures from the tremendous number of books and articles he read. Dave Roper commented that he never knew Ray to file a thing in his life, but he could bring accurate facts and figures to mind from his readings or interactions in an almost unbelievable manner. In addition to all this, he had a commanding presence in the pulpit that riveted the attention of his listeners. Chuck Swindoll remarked that his eyes seemed to pierce through you to the back of your cranium, which gave members of the congregation the sense that he was singling each one of them out. His humor was down to earth and had a certain "country charm." His life experiences in the orphanage and in Montana gave him a love for men and a wit and courage that appealed to many. Ray Stedman was unique, and is a strong model for preachers today. The hazard of attempting to emulate a preacher such as Stedman is the temptation to impersonate rather than to imitate his faithful example. Bill Hull was an area minister for the Evangelical Free Church in America and expresses this phenomenon well:
The distressing truth about contemporary pastoral role models is that in large part they cannot be reproduced. The men who are presented at conferences as worth listening to are charismatic, highly gifted servants, and I wish them well; but they are uniquely gifted in their natural talents. Their personality and gifts cannot be folded up, placed in a box with wrapping paper, and sent home for the price of registration. Much of the content of conference presentations by evangelical luminaries results in the presenters impressing the crowd. Pastors in smaller, unadorned churches, with less personal charisma and fewer rhetorical gifts dream, 'if only I were like this person!' Of course, that is not to discount lessons we may learn from their experience, but the fact is, such encouragement as 'Look what I did! and you can do it too!' is ego-centered and unrealistic. The danger, therefore is impersonation instead of imitation (emphasis his). We are familiar with the embarrassment we feel for an Elvis impersonator: Get a life! we say to ourselves. The ecclesiastical equivalent is the less equipped pastor who impersonates a successful pastor or tries to duplicate his high-tech entertainment with his average resources. 2
Ray Stedman was a unique and highly gifted person, and many of his personal qualities and skills are worthy of imitation For example, pastors can strive to be widely read and prepared when they step into the pulpit, though they may not be geniuses or have photographic memories. They can show warmth and personal attention by making deliberate eye contact with members of the congregation, though they may not be able to create that special presence that singled each individual out, making them feel that they were the only ones in the congregation. In addition, they can resolve to love men and women, and have the courage to give them what they need, even though this drive may not come from experiences of abandonment. Most importantly, they can all come to the same realization that Ray Stedman came to: that people desperately need God's Word, and the call upon the preacher's life is to faithfully unfold that Word. Ray's deep respect and love for the Bible is eloquently expressed in an article that Ray was to present at the 1982 C.O.B.E. convention, and which was found among several items in his garage.
Ray's stated purpose was to describe the desperate need for biblical truth in our churches. He sets the stage by describing man as he should be—a fully functioning human being.
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!" These sturdy words, addressed by Jesus to the devil during the famous temptation in the wilderness, clearly do not deny the need for bread (food), but, equally clearly, they insist that something more is needed to truly live.
Living is what God made man for! He designed him to function at three levels: physical (the body), mental and emotional (the soul), and religiously (the spirit). The proper functioning of all three constitutes living—living as God intended living to be.
He further addresses what he terms man's descent into meaningless by illustrating what occurs when the knowledge of the word of God and a resolve to follow it is not present.
If the body is crippled or diseased, living is impaired and made more difficult; if the soul is hampered, crushed or limited, living is even more seriously reduced; and if the spirit is deprived of its functioning essential (faith), man's capacity to truly live becomes primitive and animal-like.
Nothing can prevent the twisting of the soul in man, the limiting of his mental powers, the upset of his emotional balance, and the devastating impairment of his judgments. Even his body soon manifests the terrible effects of a mind deprived of the guidance and security of the divine word. The proof of this is found in the state of the world today, the present state of many churches, and the horrendous problems that beset us both in the world and the church.
Sometimes with the best of intentions and often at great personal cost, men and women in all walks of life continue to practice activities that destroy, and to make decisions that render their own existence either drab or dangerous. Witness the traffic in drugs which is caused, not by foreigners flooding our cities with cocaine but by Americans who simply want a cheap thrill and find themselves hooked in the process. Or pornography, which degrades God's gift of sex, murderously exploits young boys and girls, yet is too often supported by well-dressed businessmen and women. They openly or furtively buy and read Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and other "soft porn" magazines, or rent X-rated videos for home viewing. When you add the problems of abortion, easy divorce, homosexuality, racial bigotry, corporate and judicial corruption, tax evasion, and the looming threats of genetic engineering, the AIDS plague, growing acceptance of euthanasia, and the ultimate horror of a nuclear holocaust, it becomes more apparent that we have lost the secret of living. Nothing can restore it but the creative, illuminating, healing Word of the living God! "He sent forth his Word and healed them" (Psa. 107: 20).
Ray attributes the problem not so much to the evil inherent in fallen man, but rather to the ignorance of the truth that has the power to deliver the individual. He defines the business of churches as proclaiming and teaching that delivering Word, as well as demonstrating its power by a capacity for true living among the members. That true life is made visible in the believer, (as it was also in Jesus) by the continual exhibition of love, joy and peace,
• Love, finding expression in helpful deeds of service and care to those who do not necessarily deserve them.
• Joy, shown by a thankful spirit and in positive, encouraging, hopeful words.
• Peace, appearing as lack of panic and anxiety, exhibiting great patience and forgiveness.
This treatise is an excellent example of Ray's technique of communicating the message. He not only states what should be, but asks and answers the obvious: how are these qualities produced? He warns of the danger of exhorting church members to practice this lifestyle, portraying it as "throwing them back upon the flesh—that tainted source of self-serving motivation that can produce nothing but a cheap imitation of the real thing." He suggests instead that pastors, teachers, and youth leaders must "expound with persistence, clarity, and power the dynamic of the New Covenant—the mystery of "Christ in you, the hope of glory," which Paul develops at length in several of his epistles (Rom. 5-8; 2 Cor. 2-6; Eph. 3-4; Phil. 3; Col. 1)".
This truth is the very heart and soul of the Word of God. It is that "secret and hidden wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 2:7) which Paul sets in sharp contrast with the wisdom of the world. It supplies the lost secrets of human behavior, which are necessary to live as man was intended to live. Since it is grounded in the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and the presence in the believer of the Holy Spirit, all other truths flow out of it, as water flows from a central spring. It exhorts us to the daily practice of our union with Christ and reminds us of the availability of his power and comfort at any moment. It should, therefore, be the chief subject in the curriculum of every church, and the central theme of most pulpit preaching. Though it is illustrated frequently in the Old Testament, it is not explained there. It is pictured by type and symbol, but the process is never made clear for it is "the mystery kept secret since the world began" (Rom. 16:25), but now is to be made known to the nations.
In contrast to this, Ray depicts the church as a place of "frightening biblical illiteracy," even in churches where the Bible is regarded as central. Much is said but little truth is taught. Stedman says, "they are often drowning in words but thirsting for reality." He decries the loss of an understanding of terms such as justification by faith, sanctification, the kingdom of God, the new covenant, the walk in the Spirit, the flesh, or even faith. He asserts further that they do not even understand their own condition.
Because they do not know the biblical concept of "flesh" they do not know how to recognize it in themselves and it therefore rages in unrestrained destructiveness throughout their thinking and living. Because they know nothing of the nature of the new covenant, they live continually in the legal bondages of the old. Because they do not understand "the wisdom of God" they succumb constantly to the pompous pretensions of the wisdom of the world shouted at them daily through the media of television and magazines. Knowing little of how to use "the shield of faith", they are besieged daily by "the fiery darts of the wicked one." Lacking the excitement of true spiritual conflict, church services become dull and repetitious in the extreme, attended finally by only a handful of the faithful. Even in large cities, only an occasional oasis of life and vitality is found where the Word "runs, has free course, and is glorified."
He describes the change that results when the light goes on and individuals in a church are taught to grasp and practice this New Covenant dynamic. They are transformed from spiritual cripples, to those capable of ministering to others and manifesting the refreshing qualities of love, joy, and peace to all who touch their lives.
They learn to revel in the daily adventure of expecting the Lord to use them in the most ordinary activities, but producing often-extraordinary results. With their non-Christian neighbors they learn to use the universal quests (for transcendence, for significance, and for community) as access points to build relationships that lead at last to faith. I have seen ministries begun from individual contacts by lay men and women grow into institutions of social help that involved many others and ministered powerfully to pressing human needs. Such grass-root ministries can reach ethnic groups far more effectively than organized witnessing approaches.
The key is a commitment on the part of the church to disciple their people to live by the Word and the Spirit. When this occurs, the often-artificial denominational, racial or geographical distinctions dissipate. In contrast, there will be continual evidence of growth in maturity, openness, friendliness, moral purity, and personal integrity among the members, and a consequent penetration of the community at every social level toward increasing understanding of how to deal with problems and how to achieve unity and morality.
Ray concludes with the statement that this is God's plan to change the world.
He (God) marks success in a church, not by impressive buildings, or massive congregations, but by people who are becoming warm, loving, secure individuals, able to reach out to others in need and offer a model of healing to the broken, hurting lives they come in contact with. The need around us is desperate. The time is very short indeed. Let us pay careful heed to the word of the apostle: "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold forth the Word of life." (Phil. 2: 14-16)
Ray's point is abundantly clear. The top priority for every minister is to proclaim the truth of God and assert the need for consistent obedience to it. This can be imitated by every pastor in every setting.
Ray's particular style can also be imitated. He described the desired reality—a person fully alive and functioning at every level. He painted a graphic picture of what the neglect of the pervasiveness of the Word has wrought both in society as a whole and in the individual personally. He provided a solution and described what needed to be done to get there practically, including what the wonderful result can be. He concluded by emphasizing the desperate need and called for ministers to respond.
Preachers today should not attempt to impersonate Ray Stedman, but they should imitate his preparation, his warmth, character and love for the Word of God, recognizing that it is this Word that the world needs.
Footnotes:
12. COBE (Committee On Biblical Exposition)
I find so many men have lost their consciousness of the important task to which they are committed. They do not see that they hold in their hands the very information that their congregation desperately needs to work out and solve their problems. Until they see this, they are not motivated to do the work that is set before them. — Ray C. Stedman
Thomas Becon once wrote "As there cannot be a greater jewel in a Christian commonwealth than an earnest faithful and constant preacher of the Lord's Word, so can there not be a greater plague among any people than when they have reigning over them blind guides, dumb dogs, wicked wolves, hypocritical hirelings, popish prophets, which feed them not with the pure wheat of God's Word, but with the wormwood of men's trifling traditions." 1
Ray's passion for preaching, combined with his love for the church, caused him in 1982 to found and chair the "Committee on Biblical Exposition" (C.O.B.E.). As he stated to those gathered at the national congress conference in Anaheim, California in March 1986, "My plea is for expository preaching! Sermons which derive their content from Scripture itself. They borrow their structure and thrust from a specific passage. They make the same point the passage makes and apply that point with directness and urgency to contemporary life. What modem preaching often lacks is biblical content! We're drowning in words, but thirsting for knowledge. Proof of this trivializing is found in the widespread biblical illiteracy that exists today. Hardly anyone in the average congregation knows the meaning of terms like: justification by faith—sanctification—the kingdom of God—the New Covenant—walking in the Spirit—the flesh—or even faith, and love, and peace!" 2
Ray Stedman is not alone in his assessment of the problem in most churches today.
John R.W. Stott, the honorary international chairman said,
Undoubtedly the greatest and most powerful organization in the world today is the Church. Its supernatural power knows no bounds. Tragically, however, this work of God often lies enmeshed and entangled by humanism, and sluggishly wanders along ignoring its divine call.
Throughout history, great revivals in the church have always been preceded by a renewed interest in clear teaching and the application of God's Word to daily life. However, a strange phenomenon has occurred in churches throughout the world.
On the one hand, pastors and teachers acknowledge the need for great preaching, usually defined as expository preaching, but on the other hand, expository preaching and teaching have seldom been more lacking. Many people sitting in church pews hunger for a minister who teaches the Bible faithfully and embodies what he teaches. There is a great need for the people of God to hear His voice—through the exposition of His Word by men and women committed to clear teaching and application from the scriptural text. 3
The purpose therefore of COBE was "the strengthening of Bible exposition, revival in the church, and effective evangelism in the community and throughout the world." (COBE pamphlet). It was the hope of Ray and others that COBE would not be just another one of the many conferences offered for pastors to attend. Instead their desire was that these conferences would be used by God to bring pastors back to expository preaching.
Ray kept in his files a folder simply called COBE. In this file are minutes from various meetings, maps, itineraries, visions for the March 1986 conference in Anaheim and many other items. The most significant find among everything in this file are three items:
1. A paper he wrote entitled: What the Bible means to me
2. Another paper entitled: The desperate need for Biblical truth in our churches
3. An outline for a message he would deliver at the 1986 COBE (Congress On Biblical Exposition) conference in Anaheim.
These three items along with the inception of COBE itself are a strong indication of the passion Ray Stedman had for the truth of God's Word and the need to let it loose in our churches today. The outline for his message was simple and persuasive. It began with a definition: "Biblical exposition is communicating the full meaning of a text or passage of Scripture and applying it to our contemporary culture, with the specific goal of helping people to understand and obey the truth of God." The text Ray chose to preach from was 2 Timothy 3:10-16. From this text Ray defined both the problem and the solution. The problem: What will keep a young pastor steady and effective in the midst of the terrible pressures of a godless culture? The solution: a model to follow and a message to preach!
The simple outline was as follows:
The model: Paul himself (v 10-13): "But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions indeed I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me! And indeed, all who desire to love godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."
The message: The Holy Scriptures (v14-l7) "You however continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 4
…that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
- the Nature of Scripture (14-16a)
builds character (14)
imparts wisdom (15)
discloses the thoughts of God (16a)- the Process of change (16b)
teaching
rebuking
correcting
training
The outline is simple and the message is timeless. Ray also included a quote from Alan Redpath that not only (supports) conveys what Ray wanted to communicate in this message, but also reveals Ray's heart and why he formed COBE.
To declare God's word to this generation does not require education only, nor great knowledge of theology, nor a vast capacity of intellect. But it does require a heart in which God's word burns like a fire, a spirit that is restless until it sees his Word triumphing, and His will dominating the lives of others.
In the prologue of Rev. Hemphill's book The Antioch Effect he clearly conveys what might be the attitude of individuals toward yet another pastor's conference such as COBE.
Whether it be conferences or books or seminars, they all seem to tell us something different.
Hemphill clearly relates his frustration:
"You've got to be kidding! Another book on church growth? I have a library full now. I haven't read most of those I already own. I haven't begun to put into practice all the steps and principles and methods recommended in those books. Why do I need to collect any more books I can't use? Which brings me to another issue that bugs me. How many steps and keys and principles can there be? One author lists three, another seven or ten or twelve ad nauseam (emphasis his). I've covered enough steps now to climb the Eiffel Tower and what do I have to show for it?
It's all a bit confusing. One writer assures me that cells are the wave of the future, another espouses Sunday School, while still another pushes "seeker friendly" worship. One author pleads the case for biblical and expository preaching while the next opts for topical, need centered, short sermons.
I'm told by one to organize for visitation while another argues that visitation and confrontational evangelism are fossils of a past generation. One conference leader cites statistics to show that worship is the front door through which most "seekers" first come to church while another argues that the "front door" is closing; people want to enter through the "side door", a needs related cell group. Truth is, I'm still having a little difficulty finding the door to my office.
This brings me to another pet peeve. Who are these "experts" talking to anyway? Seeker-friendly services with drama, praise singers, and theatrical lighting—they must be kidding! It would be an item worthy of praise if I could find somebody to help type the bulletin! Theatrical lighting and state of the art sound? I would be happy to replace a few of the burned out bulbs and use a microphone that is not a reject from the Ted Mack Amateur hour." 5
Hemphill reflects the frustration of many a contemporary minister. How many steps and keys and principles can there be to grow a church? What needs to be understood about COBE is that Ray's purpose was not to supply one more conference on the already bloated church growth conference list. Ray's purpose was simply to exhort pastors to be faithful to their calling. Church growth wasn't the emphasis; faithfulness was. In fact the stated mission of COBE found in Ray's file is "COBE views its mission as a solemn commitment to stimulate and challenge pastors and teachers to demonstrate careful, thoughtful exposition of Scripture." 6
Whether pastors are convinced of the seeker sensitive, target oriented, small group emphasized, front door or side door church, they still need to be faithful to their calling. That is why the list of individuals taking part in the conference were from all different ecclesiastical backgrounds. All of them however, had the conviction that the faithful preaching of God's Word, was foundational to all church activity and ministerial efforts.
An article in the Idaho Statesman in 1984 during one of the conferences states Ray's position well: "The problem with Christians and church congregations today is they treat God the way the British treat their king—as a sort of constitutional monarch who's not expected to do anything! That's the assessment of the Rev. Ray Stedman, nationally known pastor-lecturer and author."
"The biggest problem facing the church today is a lack of awareness that Jesus is the head of the church, opening doors of opportunity, shutting others and directing outreach activities," he said. "It is the lack of any expectation that he can and will send out people and put them where he wants them that I find missing in most churches. The church has become nothing but a human organization, attempting to do something helpful in the community. Its power is no longer the unique power of God." 7
Stedman, whose books include Authentic Christianity and Body Life said the church has traditionally been the most powerful institution on earth but little power is being manifested today. "We believe it's because the Word of God is not being proclaimed as it should. The Word of God has always been God's instrument for change. We need to take Scripture seriously again, to act in ways that grow out of an expectation of what the Lord can do." 8
That is what Ray learned as he pastored PBC—to take God's Word seriously. He did it in his ministry and he did it in his own life. After the 1984 conference in Houston, the 225 delegates that attended were given a questionnaire to see if the intended purpose of C.O.B.E. was being carried out. The overall evaluation was very positive. Perhaps the best evaluation of C.O.B.E. comes from one participant who says this: "As a young pastor I have found myself under tremendous pressure. I had to compete and be successful in a culture crying out for 'quick fixes'. Painfully, I confess I'd almost given up the task of careful Bible study. That's what leads to practical exposition. It became too easy to rely on human cleverness and popular psychology. I'm glad for the impact C.O.B.E. has made on my life."
In March 1986, during the Anaheim conference, Eternity Magazine carried this article titled "Unsheathing the Sword."
On the surface, the Congress on Biblical Exposition (COBE) meeting this month in Anaheim, California, represents just another seemingly endless list of conferences and conventions of which the leadership of America's churches may avail themselves at any given moment. But a quick look inside the pages of COBE's registration kit reveals that it is undoubtedly the conference to attend in 1986. Perhaps not since Amsterdam '84 or the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in the early 1970s has so much theological horsepower been assembled for one event. A small sampling: Briscoe, Colson, Guinness, Halverson, Hubbard, Hayford, Kesler, Packer, Patterson, Radmacher, Stott, Swindoll, and Wilkerson. And the list of workshop offerings could compete with a seminary catalogue.
What could possibly be so important as to lure such a respected group of evangelical heavyweights away from their busy ministries? At the heart of the answer are two words: "Bible preaching." The stated mission of the interdenominational nonprofit organization formed in 1982 is this: "To motivate and encourage Christian leaders in the essential discipline of biblical exposition (which is) straightforward and powerful communication of truth from the Scriptures in such a way that speaks its message accurately and relevantly—without addition, subtraction or falsification."
In other words, COBE members think the preachers of America, in their pursuit of cultural pertinence and enraptured flocks have, for the most part, left their swords sheathed when going to battle. COBE wants to change that. 9
That perhaps is the key to understanding Ray Stedman. Are we going to focus so heavily on cultural pertinence and enraptured flocks that we neglect the faithful preaching of God's Word?
Ray Stedman learned from the beginning of his ministry to the end, never to leave the sword of God's Word sheathed when going into battle. He worked constantly at placing study and proclamation of Scripture at the center of his ministry.
13. THE PASSING OF THE TORCH
One of Ray's first interns, Chuck Swindoll, remarked about Ray in a 1995 sermon:
The month of October in the year 1992 will forever be a sad memory in my mind. It is the month that my long time friend Ray Stedman died, and when I heard it, I felt that time sort of stood still. I found myself replaying wonderful memories. I went back over 30 years and remembered my wife and my trip out to Palo Alto after seminary and beginning a brief but life changing internship. I remembered those eyes. They just had a way of looking right back to the rear of my cranium as he probed me with questions about character, commitment to ministry, love for wife and family; as he challenged me to be the man I so wanted to be and that he was. I thought about the laughter we have had together over three decades of time. As he would bring up stories he had learned from Harry Ironside, with whom he had traveled as a young seminarian—a graduate of seminary, and those stories seemed to keep coming—and so full of zest for life and joy in the Lord and authentic masculinity; such a touch he had on my life.
I thought of times he charged me to think theologically. I don't know of anybody I've ever known who thought theologically more than Ray Stedman. His insights into the biblical text and his practical wisdom, but never in a style of arrogance or needless dogmatism. He was a man of strong character and firm convictions but I never knew him to be insulting or intolerant. He was comfortable being alone and he spent hours in the books. He was a real student of the Scriptures, but I never found him inaccessible or aloof. He was a man's man but I think the thing I loved most about Ray was his vision for young men and women thinking about ministry, and his touch on our lives. He seldom if ever traveled alone and always, there was this young man in training. And when I would see them I often would identify with the thrill that was theirs to be with someone like that. Yet he never pulled rank, never polished his own trophies.
I loved Ray Stedman. My life is richer because our paths crossed. I always admired his adoration for the Lord and his affection for his wife Elaine and their daughters. I loved his love for the church: the churchman to the very tips of his toes. And perhaps more than anything else I am grateful that he ended his course faithfully.
He had fought a good fight and he finished well. He kept the faith. 1
It is difficult to imagine just how many men were influenced and molded as preachers by the example and discipleship of Ray Stedman. Luis Palau said:
One month before the Lord took Ray home, we had a very touching visit. I was in Grants Pass, and you know Ray didn't care about statistics, and I said: "OK Ray, how many guys did you disciple and bring close to you like you did me? Perhaps not as much time, but in your mind, they were your boys."
And he kind of looked at me like saying, you know, you don't want to talk about it—he said, I suppose, and he looked at Elaine, I suppose about 700. Now guys that he really took in, not to mention hundreds of others he had an influence on! He loved men. I think it was God's call on him. I looked at Elaine and I said, "Elaine, 700!" She said, "Yup."
Ray became like a father to me. I could call him from anywhere in the world and he would do anything, I'm sure. And I bet 700 other guys felt the same way. I think he was repaying in his mind, or doing for these boys what he didn't have when he was a kid. 2
Dave Roper remembers his friend and mentor and says: "The thing I miss most about Ray is his counsel. My last personal contact with Ray was when he was coming through Montana and he had about a one and a half hour layover and we just sat on the porch in my backyard and talked and I asked him a whole lot of questions. And I still remember him sitting there with his cardigan sweater on, and I was just grateful for what he had been in my life and I said, "thanks." I don't want to lionize him. He wouldn't want that." 3
Bill Lawrence, like Ray Stedman, was also an orphan. From his office at Dallas Seminary he reflected back on the significant relationship he had with Ray and commented:
I wasn't even aware that I had done this, but I had basically appointed Ray to be my father and really needed a lot from him—some of which he could give me and some of which he couldn't. But you know, his values became my values... I miss his presence. I'll tell you, I just miss that sense of stability and strength that was there. I just miss seeing him, checking in with him. You know Ray opened up some doors for me, in my own struggles. My last conversation with Ray was a strategic one because I used to work like crazy trying to get his approval. I was like a fourteen-year old trying to get his father's approval and I didn't even know what was going on. Finally, I thought, why do I do what I do? I only do it around Stedman. Why do I do it? And finally the last time I saw him which was May before he died in October. He hadn't been diagnosed yet, but he was saying, "I'm just so tired. I can't do this anymore," and I said to him, "Ray, I think I've finally grown up. I don't need your approval anymore. 4
From the time Ray was diagnosed with cancer to the day he went home to be with the Lord was just a few months. He reflected often on his ministry throughout his years at PBC, the part of his ministry that would stand up to the fire of God's judgment. Seven years before he died, he told his congregation from the pulpit where he so faithfully declared God's Word:
Thirty-five years ago this year I came as a pastor to Peninsula Bible Church. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back now I must confess that I was motivated more by personal ambition than any other thing. I thought I was dedicated to the work of the Lord and to some degree I was. But on reflection I can see how much of it came from an urge to be a well-known pastor, to make a name as a Christian leader, to see an effective ministry begin with a great congregation. Through these 35 years, through much pain and struggle, those dreams have been fulfilled. But I want to tell you this: they do not mean very much to me right now. As I look back, what means more to me are the hundreds of lives that have been changed as people heard the Word of truth, right where you are sitting now. Homes have been revitalized, marriages have been restored, young people have been turned from hurtful and destructive practices, such as drug addiction, alcoholic abuse, false doctrines, and led into purity and righteousness. I think of the great number of printed messages that have gone out to the far corners of the earth, and the hundreds of letters that keep coming back telling of dramatic, life-altering circumstances that have come out of reading these messages. I want to tell you that is not my work, nor is it the work of anybody associated with us here, loyal and helpful as they have been. That is the work of Jesus, his mighty work, conducted from the throne of power at the right hand of the Majesty on high, carried out through the Spirit by means of willing men and women who saw themselves in the same relationship to him as he is to the Father. "You in me and I in you." That is the greatest truth in the Bible.
How ignorant the world is of this. It is by far the greatest, most magnificent miracle that has ever taken place on this planet—this mighty work of reaching, changing, healing and restoring. Yet the world sees nothing of the magnificence of what is happening here and in other places like this. But we know. This is what ought to lead us to give thanks to God, to joy in the ministry he has given us, you and I alike. Let us carry on in His name. 5
That is an assessment of Ray's ministry that is honest and humble and characterizes the man himself. In a more candid moment, he met with his long time friend Luis Palau in 1992. Luis shares: "Ray said, 'I hated the name Stedman. When I look back on my life,... I think I've redeemed the name.' And I said, weeping, 'Ray, absolutely, man.'" 6
When the apostle Paul wrote his final letter to Timothy, he included these words: "As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5). Like everything in Ray's life this was a verse that he not only preached on, but one which he strove to apply to his life. It was his intention right from the start to "fulfill his ministry." Referring to this verse in a sermon on June 6, 1982 Ray says:
Do not quit until the end, keep on until you have done all that the Lord has sent you to do. You have reached that time when the Lord takes you home; that is the end of your ministry. I have always been sensitive about the word "retirement". I do not like it. When I suggested a couple of years ago that I might be changing my base of operations from Palo Alto to Southern Oregon, the word went out that I was retiring. Everywhere I travel around the country now, somebody will say to me:
"How are you enjoying your retirement?" No, I am not retired, and I hope I never do retire in that sense. Although it is perfectly proper for those who grow older—which I perhaps will some day—to slow down a bit and take time to do other things, we must never forget that we have a ministry until we die. Our ministry is to be a Christian, to live as a Christian, to walk and talk as a Christian wherever we are, whatever we do. 7
Ray Stedman fulfilled his ministry, he preached right up the end. After he did "retire", he continued to speak. In fact, he was invited to take a cruise with Elaine, but as she says, "He decided that was not our style at all." Appropriately, when others would have been retired, Ray was at the pulpit he filled for so many years at Peninsula Bible Church. Just a few years before his own death, he preached on 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18: "But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." He concluded his message with a scene from his beloved Montana:
At Christmas I received a beautiful painting of a mountain and lake scene in Glacier Park, Montana. I have stood by that lake and looked at that mountain and the painting brought back to me the majesty and beauty of that scene. I remember thinking to myself: "1 wish I could live here and look at this every morning." Last year I stood at the edge of a cliff in Mendocino County, looking out over the great breakers of the Pacific that were dashing up one hundred feet or more into the air. It was a scene of awesome power. I thought, how great it would be to live here all the time. But if creation makes us turn on with anticipation, what will it be like to behold the Creator face-to-face? If we tingle at that shadow, what will it be to see the substance Himself? If we revel in nature's masterpieces, what will it mean to be face-to-face with the artist Himself?
Samuel Rutherford was one of the Scottish Covenanters of the seventeenth century who served the Lord during times of persecution in Scotland. A poet took some phrases from Rutherford's beautiful letters and put them together in one of the most popular hymns of the nineteenth century. It was D.L. Moody's favorite hymn and it has always been a great favorite of mine:
The sands of time are sinking
the dawn of heaven breaks
The summer morn I've sighed for,
the fair sweet morn awakes.
Dark, dark has been the midnight,
but the dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory, dwelleth
in Immanuel's land.O, Christ, He is the fountain
the deep sweet well of love,
The streams on earth I've tasted
more deep I'll drink above.
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand
And glory, glory dwelleth
in Immanuel's land.The bride eyes not her garment
but her dear bridegroom's face
I will not gaze at glory
but on the King of Grace
Not at the crown He giveth
but on his pierced hand
The Lamb is all the glory
of Immanuel's land.What a marvelous hope we have! When we face the thought of our own death, or when we stand at the grave of a loved one, we are comforted indeed by this tremendous vision of the tomorrow that awaits God's own. That is the apostle's purpose in giving this revelation. Let us revel in the comfort it brings in the hour of death—our own or that of a loved one. 8
Less than four years later, those words were true of Ray Stedman. On October 7, 1992 he gazed "not at the garment, but at His face." He now revels not at the "shadow but at the substance Himself."
Ray looked upon Paul's death as his graduation day. He referred to it with these words:
Graduation is a time when we move out into new things. What an appropriate time to examine the great passage in the fourth chapter of 2 Timothy, where the apostle Paul is looking on his graduation day. Writing to his young son in the faith, Paul exhorts Timothy to certain endeavors in view of the fact that he must soon take Paul's place. That must have been a frightening prospect to Timothy. But some of us too must pass on eventually and leave the work to others. 9
With his passing, he leaves an example of what it means to preach the word, and he leaves the work to others. The torch has been passed. May all of us who have been entrusted with being heralds of God's word learn from the faithful example of Ray C. Stedman.
References:
Geisler, Norman & Thomas Howe. When Critics Ask Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1992.
Green, Michael P., Ed. Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989.
Guinness, Os. Dining with the Devil Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1993.
Hemphill, Ken. The Antioch Effect Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994.
Hordern, William E. A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1955.
Horton, Michael Scott, Ed. Power Religion Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1992.
Hybels, Bill. Mastering Contemporary Preaching Portand, OR: Multnomah Press, 19
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Preaching and Preachers Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1971.
Peterson, Eugene, H. Working the Angles Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987.
Ramm, Bernard. Protestant Biblical Interpretation Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1970.
Schuller, Robert A. Your Church has a Fantastic Future Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1971.
Spong, John Shelby. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1991.
Stedman, Ray C. Body Life Palo Alto, CA: Discovery Foundation, 1972.
Stott, John R.W. Between Two Worlds Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982.
