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As Christians, the topic of preaching
the gospel has always been a common one in church, according to the Bible,
preaching the gospel is a call for all Bible believing folks. The Great
Commission which is in Matthew 28:19-20 - “Go therefore and make disciples of
all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely
I am with you always to the very end of the age” is a very common verse known
to all Christians. This verse alone tells us that preaching the gospel is the
duty for all Christians not just for the evangelist or missionaries who have
been called by God to these specific offices of service.
There are essentially a few ways that
the Gospel can be preached. The first way is through evangelising either
through a missionary or simply by sharing ones faith with another, another way
is through the pulpit ministry (done by our Pastors on our regular church
services), sometimes through media and the finally the last one which most
Christians are not aware of – preaching the gospel by the testimony of our
lives.
There have been varies of reaction to
the preaching of the gospel, these different reactions comes from not only the
pre-believers but also from within the church among God’s family. There have
been cases where pre-believers are being offended by the preaching of the
gospel, and there are Christians, who are not willing to preach the gospel
because of fear. There are hard core evangelists who push the gospel message
with a lot of fire and passion and some pre-believers get offended as a result
of it. Sometimes people are offended by the message and a lot of times it is
because of the way we do it, although the gospel itself could be offensive.
Different people use different technics
and styles to get the gospel across to the pre-believers, some do it gently,
some are more forceful and less tactful (and get people offended) but no matter
how you do it, the message is the same – “For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but
have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the
world, but that the world would be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is
not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” - John 3:16-18.
The Gospel has always known to be
offensive and defensive, but offensive as it may sound, (“For the message of
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:18), it still has to be
preached as it is the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some Christian are
afraid of sharing the gospel for the fear being “rejected”, some lose their
friends as a result of preaching the gospel, or sometimes they are just afraid
of being laughed at.
However, what we do not realise is this,
when people reject the gospel, they are rejecting the God of the gospel and not
rejecting the messenger. Jesus has this promise for us however, “If the world
hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world,
but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the
words I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master, if they persecute
me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours
also.“ – John 15:18-20.
We have been promised persecution as
Christians whether a not we chose to share the gospel, therefore sharing the
gospel should not be an excuse at all, because sharing the gospel has got no
co-relation with persecution. Persecution
is part and parcel of the Christian living because we chose to follow the ways
of Christ which is ultimately very different from the world and we are bound to
face a lot of conflicts, and therefore as a result of that, meet with
persecution for our faith and our conviction.
In fact, a Christian who is not being
persecuted is questionable about whether he/she is a true disciple of the Lord.
Some are afraid of sharing the gospel because they don’t know how to do it, in
fact sharing the gospel is actually just talking to your friend about Jesus and
it could be as simple as sharing your testimony how you got to know Him and how
knowing Him has helped transformed you.
We forget that when we share the gospel,
we are planting seeds of God’s word into their lives, and we learn in the bible
that there are different soils (read the parable of the seed in Mark 4: 3 -25)
representing the different condition of the person’s heart. Therefore, we must
be not be discouraged if our audiences reject the message, the seed planted in
their hearts takes time to take root, but we must be faithful to water it with
prayer and constant sharing.
Most of us also forget that for many who
do not have access to the bible, they will be “reading” our lives to see the
testimony that we carry on Christ's behalf. Remember we are to be ambassador of
Christ and we are to represent Christ to the world. It is therefore, important
to reflect on our actions to see if we have been good testimonies to the
unbelieving world. We would be to them
the “living and walking Bible”, and if we are not careful in the way we conduct
ourselves, we may be actually turning them away from Christ instead of drawing
and leading them towards Him and are doing a disservice to Christ. Therefore, at
the end of the day, the way we conduct ourselves among our pre-believing
friends and family members is a form of sharing the gospel as well.
To conclude, sharing the gospel is not
just for the evangelist or for the missionaries, but for all Christians, and
whether a not we are aware, our lives itself is a living testimony to the world
and by our conduct we are “preaching” Christ to the un-believing world. It is therefore
important to make sure that we portray the right image in order that we bring honour
instead of being a disgrace to Him.
God bless you!
Serving with you in His kingdom with
love;
Princess Michelle –
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King
