While there are many ways of spreading the gospel in the larger context of everything that might take place leading up to sharing the specific message that Christ died for our sins, Scripture provides us with God’s designated means for transmitting the message from one person to another:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?“ – Romans 10:13-15
In a few brief sentences, the Apostle Paul describes the ‘process’ by which anyone is saved! He tells us that the message must be ‘preached’. Somebody has to ‘tell’ somebody something.
We are all quite familiar with the axiom “Actions speak louder than words.” Some of us are also familiar with a famous quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” While there is certainly practical truth in both the axiom and the quote, how can you convey the specific message that “Christ died for our sins.” without words?
What does it mean ‘to preach’ the Gospel? I submit to you that although a kind word spoken, a loving deed done, a physical need met (or any other non-verbal communication) can, and many times does, pave the way for sharing the specific message, all of them are ‘done’ every day, by every sort of person, and often for the vilest of motives, and none of them can save a single soul!
What is the example of New Testament Scripture?
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,” – Matthew 3:1
“Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, Mark 1:14
“From that time Jesus began to preach,. . .” Matthew 4:17a
“They (the disciples) went out and preached that men should repent.” – Mark 6:12
“The gospel must first be preached to all the nations.” Mark 13:10
“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.” – Acts 2:14
The Apostle Paul again:
“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;” – 1 Corinthians 1:23
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, – 1 Corinthians 15:1
“For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake.” – 2 Corinthians 4:5
“Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!.” – 1 Corinthians 9:16
Strip away all the non-verbal activity involved before specifying what must ‘believed’ in order to be saved, and all that is involved in the making of disciples after someone has believed, and we have the message that Christ died for our sins and the need for it’s proclamation by word of mouth.
Furthermore, not only did God designate preaching as the means through which He would save men, it pleased Him to do so!
“It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe“ -1 Corinthians 1:21
Have people been saved without hearing the ‘spoken’ proclamation? Of course they have, but as the exception, not the rule. I am not saying that every believer is supposed to be a ‘called by God’ pastor, teacher, or evangelist. I am saying that ‘preaching’ is God’s designated means of getting the message on the streets. In other words, if I can open my lips and speak, I can tell somebody something about my Jesus! And ‘woe is me’ if I don’t!
The Battle Cry 
This is a great survey. As I said before, when one looks where the gospel is spoken of, in every single instance the verb is proclaim or preach. Someone needs to tell Padgett.
As well, “some” people would look to the concept of ‘witness’ to get around this unavoidably biblical fact. What they seem to miss is that they are using the word in an entirely modern sense, and ignoring both the broader biblical usage and the contextual usage (as with Acts 1:8) of the word.
The biblical message and biblical methods are no longer good enough for these people. That would be doing what is right in one’s own eyes, for those who are keeping score at home.
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That would be “means” and not “methods” within the context of this thread. Don’t want to utterly confuse those who hold others to higher standards of linguistic exactitude than they do for themselves.
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And of course ‘Methods’, as defined in this short series of posts is still to come……..I’m working on it……
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Amen bro.
Right on. I really appreciate the privilege we have here in America of proclaiming the Gospel on the streets. Many people out there would not hear if it weren’t for some street preacher proclaiming Jesus.
Big blessings to you.
Richard
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I enjoyed listening to Keith Green again. I never gets old. Praise God.
Richard
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Nice to see you again, rj and BIG blessings to you! I could say if Keith Green doesn’t stir you heart go get a shovel and bury yourself ’cause you’re dead, but I won’t. 🙂 He sure stirs mine…
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True. But don’t forget 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Visible love is essential for the preacher to be credible, no matter how true his preaching.
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In reading this, your Romans 10 passage really stood out and stuck with me. There are many who self-appoint, or have “man” appoint them to the ministry when it truly is not the will of God. In Romans 1:13 “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.”
I wonder what prevented Paul from going to Rome? Paul being a Jew could have come under the edict that was taking place, or he had a busy schedule….or possibly God’s will and timing. That should be our ultimate concern regardless of how good of an idea we have, and follow where He leads. To gain strength of just to flex his spiritual muscle was not Paul’s desire. In vers 13 he states, in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” NAS and KJV both say “that I might obtain some FRUIT among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.”
I’d have to check with J’man but from what I’m reading the Greek word used for the NIV’s translation of harvest is literally translated fruit…..so I’m leaning toward the NAS and KJV to be closer to the original meaning.
I think this is huge to the growth of the church and evangelism. I hear so much about people who think holiness has nothing to do with the harvest in the sense of gathering souls for Christ. But, to me the fruit of the Spirit works with the gospel message…it demonstrates the power of the gospel; the power of God Himself working in our lives to bear witness that the creator is alive and well and wanting to reach this lost world.
Phillipians 1:22 states “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me…”
This is my prayer. Sorry this is a bit off topic…but it’s what I’ve been thinking on today…
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One of the deals I’ve been making lately with God is to give me a soapbox and an attentive audience. I want to learn how to speak publicly. I’ve done it only a few times, but I didn’t turn out too badly. My public writing isn’t doing too badly, either. It has its occasional flashes of brilliance, but speaking publicly before a live audience is something I’d like to try.
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Thaddeus,
You could make a somewhat of a systematic case for such an idea, but not from 1 Corinthians 13. These passages deal with intent, not external, subjective interpretation or situational credibility.
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I’ve been out of town for a couple of days and chose not to even check email.
Thaddeus,
Good point, A genuine demonstration of love and caring is needed for credibility. We are to speak truth in love. We should not however, avoid essetial elements of the gospel message such as sin and repentance, God’s wrath against sin and judgment because they are ‘perceived’ as ‘unloving’. Because the gospel is, by nature, offensive to the sinner, in no way gives us license to abbreviate or pervert the message.
I would also offer that a ‘visible love’, whether it is a loving act, a loving relationship, or preceding the essential topic of ‘sin’ in the gospel message with ‘love’ words, is not essential to merely sharing the message. Since you have not defined ‘visible love’ I point to all of the evangelistic encounters in the book of Acts. While compassion for lost sinners was most certainly present (the Holy Spirit living in ‘preachers, no a single instance establishes the necissity for ‘visible love’. In fact the message delivered, in not a single instance, is recorded as having included “God loves you.”
There seems to be a tendency in postmodern evangelicalism to omit anything that might be perceived as ‘unloving’, along with placing ‘visible love’ on a pedastel. We want to get the ‘unchurched’ to like us so much (by our ‘visible love’) that when we show them Jesus thwy will like and embrace him too.
The problem with that approach is that as soon as we present the elements of the message that the Holy Spirit uses to convict a sinner of his/her condition apart from Christ, a lot of our ‘visible love’ goes flying out the window.
I think Jason expressed it succintly in his comment.
Deb,
Martin Luther is in full agreement with you concerning the importance of calling. He began his commentary to the Galations with exactly that point. Your expansion of things important in our sharing the good news is a great segue to the next post here about evangelism. Thank you!
Angelbreach,
The next post (Evangelism – the Method) might provide you a hint about your (and all believers’) ‘highest priority’ audience. Thanks for stopping by!
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