Evangelism & The Gospel: The Good News For Today

The minister of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian church in New York City, David Reid, described the challenge that he often faced as an international traveller. He says,

“Those of us enjoy visiting other countries are familiar with that solemn moment when, at the frontier, we encounter a customs official who fixes us with steely eyes and asks, ‘Have you anything to declare?’ ”

“I’ve not yet had the nerve,” says David Reid, “to answer, Yes, as a minister of the gospel, it is my duty to declare that Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord.”

David Reid says that it’s lack of confidence & clarity about the gospel which makes most of us reluctant witnesses.

We have explored, in an earlier series The Gospel & Us, why we are often in guilty silence …because we lack a fulsome vision of Jesus.

We learnt that a big part of what we need, if we’re to move out of silence, is the message of evangelism, the message of Jesus, the vision of who He IS & what HE does ... if we’re to move out of our guilty silence.

We cannot even begin to think about our role in evangelism unless we can grasp two things:

i) the content of gospel message which we are going to share, and,

ii) how we’re meant to present that good news message.

To start with, we have to be very clear on just what the gospel message is.

It’s our lack of clarity and certainty about our message that is one of our greatest hindrances in serving Jesus today.

Of the different present-day causes of our guilty silence, this, for many of us, is probably the greatest.

Many of us — although we’re “grown up”, physically — and one hopes, emotionally — are still like pre-teen children, spiritually...

…so blushingly unsure of ourselves, of our spiritual identity and our spiritual purpose in the world, that we’re tongue-tied.

We shall never evangelize the people around us until we gain a confidence and clarity about the content of our gospel message.

Do you have a great confidence & clarity about: the truth, the power and the relevance of the gospel message?

Have you, like David Reid, got anything to really declare?

In your being witnesses — in your being involved in the work of evangelism — in your being part of this church’s mission — just what does God want you to declare to others?

My answer for you is simply this: THE GOOD NEWS FOR TODAY

…that is to say, THE authentic gospel-good-news expressed in contemporary terms.

We can best gain clarity about our message by contrasting it with 3 extremes we must avoid

The first of these extremes which we must avoid is this:

THE GOOD NEWS FOR YESTERDAY

;

Acts 8:30–31a NASB95

Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Hebrews 6:1–3 NASB95

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.

In other words, it’s possible to present Biblical teachings, out of their current context, and, it’s possible to present Biblical teachings not only in misunderstood categories but in misunderstood language.

This type of message sounds not only ancient but alien and strangely inapplicable in modern ears.

This smells musty in modern nostrils.

This message makes little attempt to understand the pains or the sins or the confusions of today’s people.

This message comes across as obsolete or irrelevant, when the good news itself is neither obsolete nor irrelevant!

In every era, and in the midst of every surrounding culture, Christian disciples have had to face this hurdle and address the problem of speaking into their own day.

Even Charles Spurgeon in 19th century England had to speak on this problem:

Spurgeon spoke of far too many an unfortunate minister who is “great on the ten toes of The Beast, and the four faces of The Cherubim, and the mystical meaning of badger skins, and the [typological] meaning of the staves of the Ark and the windows of Solomon’s Temple …but the sins of businessmen, and the temptations of the times, and the needs of the age, he scarcely ever touches upon.” [Lectures To My Students]

Such a messenger is irrelevant to the situation, insensitive to the contemporary context...

He or she only has news for yesterday, or so it can seem to modern listeners.

Well, that’s the first extreme we must avoid: only presenting The good News for Yesterday

But there is a second extreme which is even more harmful…and far more strongly condemned in Scripture.

And that is the danger of giving a message which may be presented very much as a message for today, but which is not truly the Good News.

This message remembers to have perhaps a modern sound, a popular feel, but it forgets that our calling as witnesses is NOT to be innovators, inventing a new gospel message for a new generation, but rather our calling is to be “stewards, faithfully guarding and communicating the one and only true gospel.

READ

It’s especially THE Gospel that we are called to be stewards of...

You know, there have always been false gospels in the church from the beginning...

Paul spoke of them in

[READ ]

He spoke against “another Jesus” and “a different gospel” as opposed to the Jesus and the gospel which the Christians there in Corinth had first been taught by Paul.

In Paul calls down the judgement of God upon anybody — angel, human, or even himself — anyone who announces a gospel contrary to the one he had received and passed on to them in Corinth.

And in our day, the churches are still burdened by false gospels, distortions of what the true good news really is.

Many church people, these days, contradict important truths of the Biblical gospel, so that their message ceases to be the authentic gospel.

Even some of us, without any malicious motive, misunderstand the gospel; we muddle the relationship between God’s Law and God’s Grace, or between intellectual belief and repentant faith.

Of course many of us have been confused about some post-conversion issues, like: serving faith versus saving faith OR contentment with God versus crying out for the Saviour to come now and intervene in our insufferable situation...

It’s not surprising that there are lesser issues, less gospel-issues, which do not cause as much devastating harm when we get them wrong.

So, we do face lesser temptations with gospel truths:

not so much to flatly contradict the truths of gospel-grace,

but rather to neglect or even forget some of the gospel message.

In this case, the gospel message we share is not so much a completely alien message, as it is a cut-down, inadequate message.

It’s what we call a reductionist message.

Some people cry out for the simple a,b,c’s of the gospel.

They tell me I should be easily able to present the gospel in public today, in 5 minutes.

Likewise they ask me, “What’s the irreducible minimum message we need to believe and pass on?”

But an irreducible minimum gospel is NOT what people today really need!

And such a minimum gospel is NOT what we’re called to pass on!

We need the fullness of the Biblical gospel!

We cannot and we must not neglect, nor divorce the gospel from, the overall themes/message of the WHOLE Bible.

Our message will not remain the Biblical gospel — the good News which is so desperately needed today.

We’ve been considering this second extreme: it substitutes another message for today for the real good news message.

And the process whereby people fall into this act of extraordinary folly — of bringing a false gospel with a fake Jesus — usually springs from a smaller error which we must also avoid.

Let me sum up.

So far, I’ve been saying, that,

in passing on the gospel-good-news for Today, we must avoid

#1, passing on the good news expressed for yesterday, and,

#2, passing on a message for today which is not the true good news

And now I’m warning you of the slightly lesser danger —

— which has so often led people into extreme #2 — the danger,

the danger

#3, passing on some of good news for Today — but only the “good” parts of the good news.

Outstanding Christian theologian Carl Henry says:

“the good news is good news only if (all of) it arrives in time.”

In other words, the good news is good because of the good it may bring people —

— iff they respond to the good news message in its fullness before it’s too late for them.

The reason for this is that the good new message is not good because it only contains good elements, upbeat announcements, palatable truths; it doesn’t!

The good news has some tough parts to it, some unflattering home truths about us and about our terrible wrongdoing before God.

The good news has tough parts to it, some unflattering home truths about us and about our terrible wrongdoing before God.

The good news has in it some bad news concerning us — but when it’s combined with the good news of what our Saving God has done, the bad news can do us great GOOD!

So there are unpalatable truths under-girding the message of the gospel!

Ǝ are some frightening realities about our holy & just Θ and our obligations to Him

∵ He really is our Creator & our rightful leader; He has a perfect character;

His word is our rightful Law; surprisingly, He’s worthy of our love and trust;

But we have ignored and at times defied Him; we’re alienated from Him.

These realities cannot be separated from the good news message; they’re part of the gospel message.

People cannot have peace with God thru’ the gospel without accepting something of these hard realities.

So the irony is this:

The good news does not become good news to us —

— not until we accept the hard truths as well as the glad truths of the gospel.

Jesus said the truth will set you free

— but I remind you that first it will see you saddened & broken.

The good news as a whole does set you free

— but those gospel truths will first of all disturb & unsettle you.

Some budding evangelists here may disagree with me by claiming that when they first spoke the gospel to some folks they were just immediately filled with joy.

But not so fast, my friend, if those folks were really converted, keep in mind that they may have already become aware of some of those harder gospel realities before you showed up.

One thing is for sure, God, thru’ His Spirit and His Gospel-Word, DOES bring conviction of sin to people He is saving.

Just because some people have become aware of some aspects of the gospel truths before we may come along does not mean that the whole of the gospel is not needed in time. [ QUOTE from Carl F. Henry ]

Remember that when Jesus spoke His uplifting word about His truth producing freedom, He also courageously spoke to His hearers the tough truth about human sin and human bondage.

, , , ,

Jesus doesn’t just massage our flagging self-esteem does he?

People cannot have peace with God thru’ the gospel without accepting something of these hard realities.

Jesus doesn’t just massage our flagging self-esteem does he?

Yes, the good news *does* include re-assuring declarations

The good news does not become good news to us —

— not until we accept the hard truths as well as the glad truths of the gospel.

Jesus said the truth will set you free

— but I remind you that first it will see you saddened & broken.

The good news as a whole does set you free

— but those gospel truths will first of all disturb & unsettle you.

Some budding evangelists here may disagree with me by claiming that when they first spoke the gospel to some folks they were just immediately filled with joy.

But not so fast, my friend, if those folks were really converted, keep in mind that they may have already become aware of some of those harder gospel realities before you showed up.

One thing is for sure, God, thru’ His Spirit and His Gospel-Word, DOES bring conviction of sin to people He is saving.

Just because some people have become aware of some aspects of the gospel truths before we may come along does not mean that the whole of the gospel is needed in time. [ QUOTE from Carl F. Henry ]

Remember that when Jesus spoke His uplifting word about His truth producing freedom, He also courageously spoke to His hearers the tough truth about human sin and human bondage.

Yes, the good news includes re-assuring declarations

of God’s love toward us,

of God’s provisions for us,

of God’s plans for us...

BUT the good news also contains hard news

about human sin &

about human sin & human resistance & human inability & human need of the good provisions of the gospel.

human resistance &

human inability &

human need of the good provisions of the gospel.

We have to search our hearts today, or better, ask the Holy Spirit to sift & sensitize our consciences.

Are we neglecting parts of THE holistic good news message for today?

Remember, the last series we had on evangelism, Evangelism & Us.

There was a fourth point to seek to end our guilty silence with a fresh vision of Jesus; it was this:

we need the message of evangelism.

The message is the good news about Jesus: who He is, what He’s done & what He will do.

We need a grand fresh vision of Jesus’ identity & work …and how that addresses our condition.

We need the message that embodies this vision of Jesus.

It is the good news message for today.

Not a good news message for yesterday.

Not a false message for today, but the authentic message.

AND

Not some good parts of the good news, but the whole of the good news for today.

“the good news is good news only if (all of) it arrives in time.”