 Sharing
What does it mean to “preach” the gospel? This is probably a bigger, more detailed question than I want to tackle in today’s post. Sharing the gospel, or engaging in evangelism, is not simply about communicating facts. Sometimes, we can believe that merely disseminating the contents of the gospel message is the point of evangelism. The content of the message is essential to the work of evangelism. Certainly any gospel message must involve the communication that Jesus Christ, the son of God, who is God in the flesh, came to earth, born of a virgin, to live a sinless and virtuous life on behalf of sinners, and that He died a vicarious death on the cross for our sins, that He was buried in a borrowed tomb, and that He rose by the power of God victorious from the grave to give life to everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Him (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Without the content of the gospel, it is not evangelism. However, along with the content is the goal and that is what I want to consider today. Convinced The first point that I want us to consider is that the distinction between saved and unsaved people is what they do or do not believe. But believing is not so much about a choice to believe but being convinced of the reality and rightness of a claim. This means that as Christians we should be engaging with people, not simply to give them the content of the gospel message, but to convince them that it is true (2 Corinthians 5:11-20). We must seek to persuade people to believe this good news. I must admit that I believe that I have at times failed to seek to be persuasive because I didn’t want to manipulate. Manipulation will not bring about true salvation, but rather a false sense of having received the fire insurance policy for the lake of fire. But people are going to be judged with Christ and so we must warn them and seek to convince them of the truth so that they can come to genuine faith and freedom through Jesus Christ. Compelled In Jesus’ famous parable about the wedding banquet where those who had first been invited had failed to come to the feast, He then tells His disciples to go to the streets and lanes and bring in the infirmed and the outcast. However, after this there was still room so the Master of the house commanded them to go and compel people to come in so that the house would be full (Luke 14:15-24). In this parable, Jesus is pronouncing judgement on old covenant Israel and specifically those first century leaders who had rejected Him. They are the ones in the parable that refused the first invitation. Then the “poor and crippled and blind and lame” are the believing Jews who were oppressed by their leaders who had rejected Jesus. Then, when the servants are sent out the second time to the highways and hedges, this is talking about the proclamation going to the nations. Now, the gospel is meant not only for the Jews but for everyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior! Notice, Jesus tells them to compel them to come in. This word means to place on them a necessity. We must show people that they must believe in Jesus because everything depends on it. Converted One definition of "converted” provided by the AI Grok says: The term "converted" in the context of religious conversion refers to a person who has undergone a change in their religious beliefs, affiliations, or practices, adopting a new religion or a different form of spirituality. It implies a deliberate shift from one faith (or none) to another, often involving a personal transformation, commitment, or formal acceptance of the new religion’s doctrines, rituals, or community. Isn’t this what we are after when we proclaim Christ’s gospel to people? We don’t just want them to know what the gospel is or to be able to recount the facts, but rather we want them to change their beliefs, affiliations, and their practices. Salvation always brings about transformation in the life of any genuine believer (Romans 12:1-2). This also means the acceptance of new doctrines, rituals, and community. This is also what we want when we tell people about Jesus, because we want them to believe and obey the teachings (doctrines) of King Jesus. We also want them to begin experiencing the practices (rituals) of prayer, study and fellowship. Finally we want them to love and be committed to the community of people who also obey Jesus called the local church (Acts 2:40-44). So as we engage people with the greatest news ever, let’s do so with a commitment to passionately persuade them to believe and know the truth!
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