THE MAN WHO BORE THE MARKS OF CHRIST (PART II)

“Paul Preached Christ, Religious Celebrities Build Brand”

By Akin Ojumu

Apostle Paul suffered more for the Gospel than most modern preachers can imagine. Yet unlike today’s religious celebrities, he did not turn his sacrifices, visions, or spiritual experiences into a personal brand.

Paul did not make himself the center of the message. He preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

Many modern preachers constantly boast about their ministerial accomplishments, angelic visitations, supernatural rank, journeys into spiritual realms, and private conversations with heavenly beings.

Paul was different. He did not build a ministry around his experiences. When he wrote about being caught up to the third Heaven, he described the experience in the third person.

2 Corinthians 12:2–4

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third Heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise…and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.”

Paul was speaking about himself, yet he deliberately distanced himself from the experience. He refused to make himself the center of attention. He did not build an international ministry around his visit to Paradise. He did not publish a bestselling book titled Fourteen Years Ago in the Third Heaven.

He did not organize conferences to teach believers how to access Paradise. He did not sell a course on the protocols of celestial transportation and cosmic excursions. He did not establish a “School of the Supernatural” to train Christians in Third-Heaven visitation. He did not parade himself across the Roman Empire as the man who had seen what ordinary believers could never see.

He simply said that he heard things that could not be repeated.

What a devastating contrast to today’s self-styled apostles and prophets, who speak casually about visiting Heaven, drinking tea with God, dining with angels, commanding spiritual beings, entering secret chambers, and receiving revelations supposedly unavailable to ordinary Christians, and even being begged and solicited by Satan to help complete a special project.

Paul had a genuine heavenly experience, yet he refused to exploit it for fame, influence, money, or ministerial branding. Modern religious celebrities claim heavenly experiences and then convert them into books, conferences, speaking tours, subscription platforms, and profitable mythology.

Paul went to Paradise and barely spoke about it. Modern celestial frequent fliers claim to visit Heaven every other Tuesday and never stop talking about it. They set up podcasts, like Sola Fola-Alade’s Beneath the Surface, to regale their impressionable followers about their experiences.

When Paul spoke about his sufferings for the Gospel, he did not present them as evidence of his greatness. He called them weaknesses. Instead of shining the spotlight on himself, Paul directed attention to Jesus Christ—the Author and Finisher of his faith.

Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 11:23–27

“With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked…in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles…in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

These were not stories Paul told to inflate his importance. He mentioned them reluctantly and only because false apostles, whom Paul called “super apostles,” had infiltrated the Church and were boasting about their qualifications.

Paul’s sufferings were not trophies displayed in a ministerial museum of personal greatness. They were the scars of faithful service to Christ.

He did not say, “Look at how great I am.” He said, in effect, “Look at how weak I am—and look at how sufficient Christ has been.”

The next time you hear a preacher bragging about the enormous price he supposedly paid to become successful in ministry, ask him:

How many times have you received thirty-nine lashes for preaching the Gospel? How many times have you been beaten with rods? How many nights have you spent in prison because you proclaimed Christ? How many times have you been chased from a city? How many times have you been stoned and left for dead? How many times have you been shipwrecked? How many days have you gone without food because you had none? How many nights have you spent exposed to cold, danger, and violence because you refused to stop preaching Jesus Christ?

And when the self-appointed apostle or prophet begins boasting about his visions, angelic encounters, heavenly journeys, mystical revelations, and supernatural exploits, ask him why the Apostle Paul—who was genuinely caught up into Paradise—spoke so sparingly and reluctantly about his experience.

Ask him why Paul did not monetize Paradise. Ask him why Paul did not build his brand around encounters, visions and revelations. Ask him why Paul’s message was Christ crucified, while the modern celebrity preacher’s message is so often himself magnified.

Paul did not build his ministry around himself. He did not preach his accomplishments. He did not advertise his sacrifices. He did not market his sufferings. He did not monetize his spiritual experiences. He did not transform his encounters into merchandise. He did not present himself as the central character in God’s redemptive story. 

He preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That is the difference between a faithful servant of Christ and a religious celebrity. 

One points away from himself and toward Jesus Christ. The other uses the name of Jesus Christ to point everyone toward himself.

One bears the scars of service. The other displays the costumes of success.

One preaches the Cross. The other builds a brand and empire.

One is a minister of the Gospel. The other is a Gospel huckster cosplaying as one.