Introduction
The Gospel is a message of shame, defeat and foolishness! At least this is how the world views the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And sadly, many Christians are facilitating this view, because no matter the zeal that they have regarding their own salvation experience, they neither know the full extent of the Gospel message nor are they empowered by the Spirit to present it to the unsaved.
Thus, whether confronted at their own doors by trained Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon missionaries or faced down by peers who are pagan hedonist or atheist evolutionist the best defense for their faith that many Christians can muster is empty clichés. This is a sad but true commentary. Especially so since Jesus said: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life;” “believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light” (John 8:12;12:36). And Paul affirms: “For so the Lord has commanded us, I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH” (Acts 13:47).
Stop and ask yourself this question: Do you really desire to preach Christ? After all, who would want to undertake the task of carrying this most ridiculed and hated message to the very people who despise it above all else.
Who Can Believe This
About 2000-years ago a man named Jesus from the tiny remote Roman province of Galilee claimed He was the promised Messiah of the Jews (Luke 4:17-21). He went about the ancestral territories of the Jews making this claim, performing a wide variety of miracles, healing all sorts diseases and maladies and offering the long awaited Kingdom of God to the Jews.
His message was flat-out rejected by the Jews. As so too was His claim to being their Messiah; and the miraculous signs and wonders that He showed the Jews, to verify His claim, were attributed by them to be works of the devil. The Kingdom that He offered them, though every Jew had longingly awaited its fulfillment, they also rejected and instead they decided to remain under domination and in servitude to Gentile powers (Deuteronomy 28).
So adamant was their rejection of Him, His message and the Kingdom that He offered that the Jews turned Jesus over to the Roman governor of the province of Judea and accuse Him of treason against Rome. They testified to governor Pontus Pilate that Jesus claimed He was the King of the Jews. To this end the Jews demanded Jesus be put to death in the manner prescribed by Roman law for rebel slaves: “Crucify Him,” they demanded. “Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus [before the Jews]…“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified” (John 19:12-16).
But neither Pilate nor the Jews exercised any real power or authority over Jesus, because: “this Man,” was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” While He was “nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men,” and they “put Him to death” (Acts 2:23), it was always God’s intention all along that they should do this. While these “godless men” are forgiven of this sin (and all other sins except the sin of unbelief), history shows us that both the Jews and the Romans eventually suffered grave consequences for this heinous act. They were not condemned as one having no hope of grace, but the wheels they set in motion at the Cross brought both civilizations to eventual ruin.
However, God’s plan is never hindered by man: “their rejection [of Him] is the reconciliation of the world” (Romans 11:15); because “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Because “now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). To the glory of God, He has made a full display of the fact that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
This is an incredible tale! Hardly believable! And the only record of it is found in the New Testament.
Overcoming The Stigma Of The Cross
While the message is quit simple--God has forgiven the entire world of its sins and if you believe in the sacrificial death of Christ Jesus you are saved from God’s judgment of the sin of unbelief--yet it is the hardest idea that any human mind will have to process (1Corinthians 1:23; cf., Romans 9:23). Additionally, the presentation of the Gospel, because of its very nature, will always solicit questions from the unbeliever. You must be prepared to answer these questions, but these question can only be answered after you have gained a thorough understanding of the underlining doctrines of salvation: election, propitiation, redemption, regeneration, imputation, reconciliation, forgiveness, justification, righteousness, sanctification, perfection and final glorification (1 Peter 3:15). Only through the Spirit-illuminated study of God’s Word will you arrive at the satisfactory understanding of these great doctrinal truths (2 Timothy 2:15-16).
Also, the believer must be walking in the Spirit (Romans 15:18, 19), and not in the flesh, if he ever expects to be used by God to effectively bring His saving message to the walking dead of the world (cf., Hebrews 5: 11, 12). Only by the Spirit can we overcome our fears and doubts (Romans 15:13); only by the Spirit can we accurately present the biblical message that we have stored in our brains (2 Corinthians 1-10). And only the Spirit can change the human heart and convince (John 16:8; cf., John 1:13; 3:5-8) the world that the message we proclaim is not an utter absurdity, but is in fact the absolute truth with regard to mankind’s fallen condition in sin and God’s remedy for the evil that besets us all of our long sad days (Titus 3:3-5).
Conclusion
Paul said that he “is not ashamed of the Gospel.” In fact he and the other believers of that day had built a worldwide reputation for proclaiming Christ. So much so that when the Believers arrived in Thessalonica it was said of them, “These men who have upset the world have come here also” (Acts 17:6). Even while imprisoned in Rome awaiting his death sentence for his witness of Christ, Paul still proclaimed Him. By the power of the Spirit all who endeavor to serve God can do no less. Paul was so tireless in presenting the Gospel while imprisoned that some in Caesar’s own household believed and were saved (Philippians 4:22). Quite possibility, even some of Caesar’s hardened bodyguards were amongst those who believed in Christ’s sacrificial work on the Cross (Philippians 1:13).
For no other reason than for my love of the One who first loved me, I want to be like Paul (1 Corinthians 11:1-3).
