PREACHING THE GOSPEL

“And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
Romans 10:14

    Christianity is made up of believers and unbelievers, the converted and unconverted people all claiming to be Christians. The Bible teaches that one does not need to be a theologian to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles were not learned, well-educated men or seminary graduates when they began to preach the Gospel. All they needed was the power and illumination of God's Holy Spirit to "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6).

    The message of the Gospel of our Lord is the Good News the world desperately needs to hear. It is concerning the Person, life, death and resurrection of the Son of God and what these things mean in the framework of God's Plan of the Ages for the blessing of all the families of the earth (Genesis 22:18). If these things are not preached together, or if parts are left out, it is not the full Gospel of our Lord being preached, but one that is fragmented.

    The message of the Gospel must make clear that every human being is lost, incapable of liberating himself from the power of sin and death or from Adamic condemnation. It must affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer sent by God for man's salvation and the only Mediator or Reconciler between God and man, and between man and his fellow-man. It is the only message that proclaims the forgiveness of sins and the gift of abundant and eternal life. There is no racial or social discrimination in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile, educated and uneducated, oppressed and oppressor, rich and poor, all need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    But as the text above points out, "How shall they hear if there is no messenger, no preacher?” Will God send His angels down here to preach? Certainly not! He communicates His Gospel through human beings who are members of His family here on earth. However, there are qualities that we, as God's messengers need to have. The disciples had these qualities and are examples for us.  Reading the book of Acts, we discover principles which have permanent value for all Christians. The only people through whom God speaks are those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are filled with His Holy Spirit and who faithfully proclaim the Word of God.

    In Matt. 28:19, the Lord gave a mandate to His disciples, "Go, therefore, and teach all nations." They were the ones who had been with Him since the beginning of His ministry; they had seen and heard Him personally, and believed. They had seen Him dead and His resurrection affirmed them in their faith and hopes. The doubts and fears they experienced when Jesus was on the cross and lay in His tomb were all left behind in the exhilaration of His resurrection. Now this group of disciples had the assurance that Jesus Christ was Lord indeed to the Glory of God the Father.

    Today in a world of uncertainty and fear, God speaks through men and women who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and obey Him. This is of the greatest importance in the work of evangelism. People who have not experienced the transforming power of Jesus in their lives cannot be God's preachers, regardless of their education or eloquence. They don't know Christ's true Gospel because they don't have a personal knowledge, relationship, and dependency on the Lord. God speaks through people who know Him intimately, who love Him and desire to serve Him, who are aware of Christian discipleship, and have a saving knowledge of the true Gospel, desiring to be His witnesses wherever they are.

    Today in the power of God's Spirit, we can go forward and proclaim the Truth in His Word, not to impose our will on others, or tell them how they should think and act. This would be contrary to the Scriptures and the Spirit of the Lord; but rather to let the Lord's Spirit work in their lives to guide and teach them, helping only when asked. We must encourage others to unconditionally surrender themselves to His will; to let Him control their mind, emotions, and body, so that they can be used by Him according to His sovereign purpose. They should be guided and taught by HIM, not us.

    Members of the early church held the scriptures in high esteem. They believed that the Scriptures were inspired by God and submitted themselves to the authority of the written revelation of God. So should we and so should we teach others. To preach to others we must live a new life (Acts 2:42-47); we must remember the unity of those early Christians was based on the teachings of the Apostles.

    Those early Christians had brotherly communion, true koinonia fellowship in the New Testament sense of the word. Those who believed were of one heart and soul. This reminds us of Psalm 133:1 so often quoted by brethren everywhere: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"

    The early disciples were ready to live and to die for the Gospel. They were not Christians in name only. They were deeply committed to the Lord and to His people, and to the ones to whom they preached the Gospel, and we must remember those times were often a great deal harder than now. There was much anti-Christian persecution, philosophies, idolatry, violence and poverty. Nevertheless, the Apostolic Church won great victories because they were true believers in Jesus and were ready to pay the price of discipleship.

    May the Lord inspire each one of us, who know Him and have a know-ledge of His Truth to become His heralds so others may hear and believe the glad tidings of the coming Kingdom and have the opportunity to become His disciples. May He empower us to boldly speak and deep in our hearts make us sensitive to give a testimony of genuine unity and love to a world profoundly divided by hatred and violence.                                  
            G. Boccaccio  ©CDMI