The Task of Preaching the Gospel

To preach the Gospel to every creature in the world was the task and the commission that Christ gave to the Church, to man and women who were His disciples when he was here on earth. It is the same commission He has given us as His disciples today.

In order for us to preach the Gospel we need to answer this very important question:

What does it really mean to preach the Gospel?

The typical answers give to this question are, without exception are something like this:

"To preach the Gospel means to preach the Good News, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

"To preach the Gospel means to preach that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary for our sake. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins."

It means all those things, of course, but the above statements are very simple description of the real task of what it really means to preach the Gospel.

Preaching the Gospel - 2000 years ago and now

The task of preacing the Gospel is easy for you and me today when we compare with the task of preaching the Gospel 2000 years ago.

Preaching the Gospel 2000 years ago

The disciples faced the most difficult task in preaching the Gospel. They had to prove to the people around them that Jesus was the Son of God. They had to prove that Jesus was the ressurrected Son of the Living God. The major problem was that they have all seen Jesus as a man even though He performed miracles before them. But Jesus, as far as they are concerned, was fully man. Jesus rested when He got tire. He drank when He was thirsty. He ate when He was hungry.

The disciples had to face people who actually walked down the street with Jesus Christ, rubbed shoulders with Him, touched Him. He shed human blood when He died on the cross. They saw Him drop His head and give up the ghost. They saw His dead body taken down from the cross and buried in a grave.

How are you going to walk down the streets of the same city where this Man walked and say to the community and to the world, "Stop, this Jesus Whom you crucified on the cross was not a man. He was God's Son?" How are you going to do it?

To make the task even harder, they had to convince the world that Jesus was God's Son. Harder still, they had to convince the world that Jesus was God's Son from the foundation of the world. They had to convince the world that:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:1 - 3, NKJV).

He was before the beginning; He made the beginning; He is the beginning. They had to convince the world that Word from the beginning went through the greatest transitional process known - the Word, God, became flesh (John 1:14).

No amount of preaching in all the world could make people believe it. You may get a few people, because there are always some people who are ready to believe anything, but I am not talking about a few people.

The disciples went out and in the first 200 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the early Church took the entire known world for Chrsit. They conquered it. They were able to rise to the task. They knew what it meant to really preach the Gospel.

Preaching the Gospel now

It is relatively easy today to preach that Jesus is Lord because no one has seen Jesus. The "go ye" that Jesus gave to the disciples who followed Him while He was here on earth is the same "go ye" that we have as His disciples today. We have the same task - to convince a needy world that the crucified Jesus is the resurrected Christ Who lives and meets the needs of mankind today. We have to preach the Gospel by producing the proof of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

There are many, many Evangelists, Pastors and other preachers who claim to be "preaching the Gospel." We have more preachers than there have ever been, more ministries, more outreaches and more Churches. Yet the world is not being won for Jesus Christ as He meant it to be.

Faced as we are with the exploding population of the unsaved and the rampant evil of our present society, there is only one hope we have of reaching the world for Christ. It certainly is not through the ministry as we know it today in the present form.

I believe beyond the shadow of doubt that we are going to reach this world, the entire world, for Christ before Jesus comes agian. The task of spreading the Gospel calls for an army of God's people who are true disciples. They come from every walk of life working together in the power of God. Therefore the biggest need in our Churches today is for people to become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Making converts instead of disciples

The reason why we have not taken the world for Christ is because we have been making converts, not disciples.

A convert, according to the dictionary, is a person who is brought over from one belief or view to another. Converts are people who change their minds concerning religious concepts, then sit in the Church as pew warmers. They habitually go to Church once a week as if just to please God.

Converts are people who do not spend time in prayer, or in studying the Word of God, or out winning lost souls. They are lazy spiritually. They use their time in entertainment, gossip, watching television, surfing the internet and addicted to facebook as a form of social networking, and reading secular literature. They do this and that, and in the meantime, let their whole city or nation go to hell. Yet they think that one day the trumpet is going to sound and the Lord is going to rapture them. They have a rude awakening coming. The Church Jesus is going to rapture is made up of disciples, not just converts. True disciples are the Bride of Christ!

A disciple is not simply someone who has changed his viewpoint. He is someone who is galvanized into action to further those viewpoints. The dictionary defines a disciple as one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another, a convinced adherent of an individual.

A convinced adherent to Jesus Christ is going to do simething more than warm a pew in a Church. His is someone who, once he finds an experience with Jesus Christ, does not rest night or day. He tells everyone on the street, everyone in his workplace, about Jesus Christ. He witnesses and witnesses until he spreads the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole area of his personal "Jerusalem," "Samaria" and his "uttermost parts of the earth." A disciple does not sit down.


What Jesus said about a convert and a disciple


A convert


"If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, more than your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26, NLB).

"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).


"Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:33).


Summary


1. A convert does not love Jesus more than anything or anyone including self.


2. A convert does not submit his will to Jesus.


3. A convert does not forsake all in order to follow Jesus.


A Disciple


"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).


"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed" (John 6:31).


"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (John 15:8).


Summary


1. A disciple of Jesus loves other disciples of Jesus.


2. A disciple obeys Jesus' commands and the Word of God.


3, A disciple bears fruit for Christ and Father God.


Real Witnessing


What exactly is giving witness to Jesus Christ? Is is not walking up to someone and saying, "Are you saved?" It is not asking someone, "If you die tomorrow are you going to heaven or hell?" It is not forcing someone to say the "sinner's prayer." Witnessing is showing the heathen world that Jesus is God and He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Witnesing is showing that He is the Lord of all and proving it by performing a miracle.


An example of witnessing in the life of Peter


When Peter was brought before the religious leaders in the synagogue to be questioned about the crippled man who was healed, he said:


"Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power of godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go" (Acts 3:12, 13).


What a sermon!! Not just silver-tongued oratory, not just verbosity, big words and a lot of spiritual cliches - but a miracle!


The greatest sermon that can be preached in the world is that which the power of the Holy Spirit can demonstrate. All Peter did was to give evidence of that Jesus Christ is alive and that He still performs miracles.


It is easy to teach. Anybody can instruct somebody else. To face the power of the enemy and to produce the proof that Jesus Christ is alive is another matter.


That was the task that the early Church had to perform. They had to convince a world that had seen Jesus in the flesh, they had to convince a world that had seen Jesus act like a man - get hungry, tired, weary, thirsty, sleepy and so on. They had to go out and convince the world that inside that house of muscle and bone dwelt the Son of the living God!


The early church produced the proof. They turned the cities upside down, but they did not do it by just preaching. They turned nations upside down, but they did not do it by just preaching.


"... these who have turned the world upside down have come here too" (Acts 17:6).


They did the real witnessing!


How the early Church produced the proof


The Book of Acts recorded that miracles would take place and shook the community each time the disciples went into a community. Here are just some examples:


1. The first recorded such incident was the healing of the lame man at the Gate of the Temple as is written in Acts 3:


The man had been lame from the time of his birth, yet:


"Then Peter said, 'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. so he, leeping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them -walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God" (Acts 3:6 - 9).


2. Philip was not even one of the apostles known as "the eleven," but was an elected deacon (Acts 6:5). Yet when he went to Samaria to preach:


"And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing ad seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city" (Acts 8:6 - 8).


3. When Peter came to Lydda, he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed:


"And Peter said to him, 'Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.' Then he arose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord" (Acts 9:34, 35).


4. In Joppa, when a godly woman named Dorcas died, this tremendous miracle took place:


"But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, 'Tabitha, arise.' And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord" (Acts 9:40 - 42).


Notice something? Every time these men were used of God in this manner, they then could tell the people that these things happened by faith in the Name of Jesus Christ. After the demonstration of the miracles, the people always turned and believed in the Lord.


We have the same task and the same God


How did we get so far away from our God-given task? We have no power because we have no proof that Jesus is the resurrected Son of the Living God, that He is the Living Word of God, that He is alive and moving in the affairs of men and women today.


Think about the spiritual condition this world would be in, if every minister who entered the pulpit had the spiritual potential to produce the proof of what he was talking about every time he preached.


We have the same task that the apostles had - to preach the Gospel. We do it on the authority and the commission of the same miracle-working God Who worked with the disciples "with signs following" to authenticate their teaching as they followed the method of proof producing laid out by our Lord Jesus Christ.