Get the Word out!

( Note: I had this done yesterday but I got so busy that I didn’t get it up until now. I apologize for it being late….) 

I need you to imagine with me for a moment. Let’s say you had 5 minutes with about 100 or so people. These were people that didn’t believe in Jesus and, after these 5 minutes were up, you wouldn’t see them again. How would you look at them? What would you tell them? What one thing in your vast array of knowledge would you pass on to them?

With the Easter holiday just past, most people may answer something about telling these people about Jesus. Ok…but, what would you tell them? Many would say that it’s not possible to tell someone the gospel in 5 minutes. Many would say that you need to form a friendship with these people and get to know them. Many would say that you can’t be confrontational about it and just have to wait it out and see what they seem to be ready for. I disagree. As a matter of fact, I’ve given the gospel to people in 5 minutes. To complete strangers. That I have never seen again.

Ok. Now, let me change the scenario a little bit. Let’s say that you had these same 100 people for two hours. What would you tell them then? Would you still try to tell them about the gospel? How would you do it? How would you work it into a conversation? What would you do to make sure that these people had the only thing that could truly save them? How much time in those two hours would you spend telling them about the gospel? What gospel would you preach?

The fact that we don’t seem to be spending enough time telling people about Jesus bugs me, but it’s this last question that I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple days thinking about. What gospel do you preach? If I were to ask that to any number of Christians, I could tell you without a doubt that the number one answer I would get would be “the gospel of Jesus Christ”. But are you really preaching the same gospel? Most of the messages that I’ve read or heard lately sound very little like the gospel. I hear about how God wants us healthy, wealthy, and wise. I hear about how God has a perfect plan for your life. I hear about how if I “pray a simple prayer” that I can have Jesus as my Lord and Savior. He’ll be the answer to all of my problems and my life will get better, all from a “simple prayer”. Is this the gospel? Is this what you would be telling people if you shared the truth of Jesus with them?

It goes deeper than this for me though. Let’s say that you do tell people this. Let’s say that you tell them that God has a perfect plan for their life. Let’s say that your “gospel” is that God wants us all to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Or let’s say that you tell people that if they just “pray this little prayer” Jesus will answer all of their problems. They can have Jesus in their life and all of their sins will be washed away. Here’s my number one question for those of you that do this: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO SOMEONE WHO IS LOST???

It’s hard to do, but imagine that you didn’t know anything about Jesus Christ. Even worse, imagine that you had heard it all before numerous times through the years and have yet to experience what everyone else seems to find. What would those words mean to you? If someone were to tell you that you “need Jesus in your life”, what would it really mean to you? If they were to tell you that He can free you from your sins, would that matter? Would it make sense? What would you do with it once you heard it? How confident would you be that the little prayer that you prayed would actually work? More than that, what would keep you from just praying that little prayer (again) and then going on living your life how you want?

This is the product of the modern, man-centered gospel. We have a large number of people who have been told this “gospel” and instead of being changed by the truth of the Word; they are just inoculated to the fear of the Lord and the judgment to come. The church is at least partly to blame for the condition of many of the “backsliders” we see in the world. We have not given them the true gospel. Instead, we’ve given them some kind of placebo that has no real power to help them but makes them feel better anyway. We spend our time entertaining people with games and events, and never give them what they really need. The “purpose” of the event is just a façade to help us justify the money, time, and effort spent on doing things our way and hoping God blesses them.

You may be reading this and wondering what I would tell them. Well, I’ll tell you that but let me explain a few things first. Paul says that anyone that preaches another gospel is to be accursed…that should be enough to get our attention. If we’re not preaching the truth, then we are pushing people away from God instead of leading them to Him. Second, many people will say that Jesus is the answer to all your problems. That’s not true and I’ll tell you why. All of our problems are not problems. They are the symptoms of the problem. All of the teen pregnancies are not the problem. They are a symptom. All of the killings going on in schools and elsewhere are symptoms of the problem. All of the sexual immorality (homosexuality, adultery, lust, etc.) is just a symptom of the problem. Man has one problem and that problem is sin. It is sin that has brought about all of these other things and, tragically, the church spends 95% of its time focusing on treating the symptoms instead of treating the problem! We try to help people through divorce, and we should, but do we treat the problem? We try to help people fight lust and pornography, but do we treat the problem? Man’s problem has been sin from the beginning and will be sin until Jesus returns to put an end to all of this. We need to take the time to treat the symptoms, but we need most of our focus to be on the problem.

So how would I treat the problem? Well, it’s simple really. In Romans 7:7, Paul says that he wouldn’t have known sin but by the law. In Galatians 3:24, he says that the law is our tutor/schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. God’s standard hasn’t changed from the beginning. In the beginning, His standard was the law and it still is. It is this standard that He will use to justly judge the whole of humanity. That means that we can use this same standard to help people see where they stand in the eyes of God. If they’ve ever lied, they have sinned and fallen below God’s standard. If they’ve ever stolen anything (regardless of size, value, or time since the theft), they have missed God’s standard. If they’ve taken God’s name in vain, they will be found guilty. If they’ve even looked at someone with lust, they have committed adultery in the eyes of the Lord (Matt. 5:28) and have broken the law. This is what the law was meant to be used for. Is it hard? Sure. No one wants to hear that they are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. But it is the truth from God’s point of view. The Bible says that sin is lawlessness, and this is man’s problem. We want to look at things from our point of view and, when we do, we see that we’re not so bad. But in comparison with a holy, just, righteous, God; we are not at all good. By using God’s standard to show people what sin is and how they are guilty before God, they can understand how desperately they need something (or Someone) to take them out from under God’s wrath. This is what the gospel is. It is not the “prosperity gospel”. It is not the “make you comfortable where you are and hopefully you’ll get closer to God” gospel. The gospel is simple when you understand the law. When someone sees that they have sinned against God and, because of that, are destined to find themselves in hell for eternity, the truth of the gospel makes sense. They see why they need a Savior. They understand why Jesus died on the cross. And they know what they have to do, without having someone lead them in a little prayer. The cross and the sacrifice of Jesus make sense to them and because they see and understand (Matthew 13:23) and the cross becomes precious to them. The first message Jesus preached in Matthew is “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. If you are reading this and never really understood the gospel; if you never realized that you need Jesus to save you because of what you’ve done; then you can know that right now. If you will repent (turn and walk away from your sins) and put your complete trust in Jesus to save you, God will give you a new heart with new desires. It won’t be an easy road at times, but that’s not something Jesus promised anyway…