“Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:19-21).

Many today say that simply teaching the word of God will not draw people to Christ. All kinds of artificial lures have been invented to try to trick people into becoming “religious.” The fact is that only the preaching of Christ and Him crucified will draw men to Christ (1 Cor. 2:1,2). Paul would not use human wisdom nor oratorical skills as appeals to draw men, because he did not want their faith to stand in anything except the power of God (1 Cor. 2:4,5). The gospel of Christ is the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16), and any other appeal is a man-made enticement and is weak. Those lures may appeal to the flesh, but the only appeal that we need, or that we can scripturally use, is the appeal of God’s word.

When the word was preached in Antioch, “a great number believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21), then verse 24 says, “a great number were added to the Lord.” When people turn to the Lord through hearing the truth, they are added to the Lord. When men lose faith in God’s way, they decide that their artificial lures are more attractive to the modern mind and decide that “the end justifies the means.” One brother told me, “I would not be opposed to having a circus on the church property, if it got the crowds there.” My reply was that Paul would not use human wisdom or oratorical skills to draw crowds to the Lord, but he probably would have used a circus!!!

When people ask, “how do you draw draw and keep young people?” My response is with the gospel! They sometimes say, “but what kind of activities does the church have to appeal to the youth?” My response—Bible study! The same power that draws men to Christ will hold them. There is no greater challenge, nor anything more thrilling, than learning more about God’s word. Remember that whatever men are drawn with, they are drawn to!

God’s way always works, when men  work it. It has well been said that men do not turn away from God’s way to their own inventions, until they lose faith in God’s way. God, through Isaiah, said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8,9). We cannot even grasp the distance between earth and heaven, but too many are content to follow the earthly way—because God’s way just doesn’t seem to work for them!