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Be Christian: To Advance the Gospel
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Guest Speaker: Pastor Peter Ahlin
1. What We Believe in the Gospel
John 3:16-17 (ESV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
How my father explained the gospel in four dimensions:
(a) BREADTH: For God so loved the world. The whole world. No one left out of that scope. (b) LENGTH: That He gave His only Son. No limit to how far He was willing to go. He was willing to endure every parent’s worst nightmare. (c) DEPTH: That whoever believes in Him. The vilest sinner. The worst offender. The foulest rebel. (d) DURATION: Should not perish but have eternal life. For how long is this salvation going to last? Forever. The only permanent solution.
2. Why We Share the Gospel
II Corinthians 5:14-6:2 (NIV)
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Even though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new is come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
a. Reconciled through Christ’s death and resurrection (5:16-18a)
We don’t look at Christ from a worldly point of view. A great moral teacher. A philosopher. An important historical figure. A myth. A rebel against strict Judaism (as Paul once did). Now we regard Him as the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, the one in whom if we believe, we have eternal life and forgiveness of sins through His name.
We don’t look at people from a worldly point of view. We don’t suppose anyone is beyond saving. Paul knew that anyone who saw him rubbing his hands together with glee at the martyrdom of Stephen never would have assumed he would one day believe. We don’t look from a worldly point of view anymore, Paul says. We know that if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation.
It’s all from God. He is the initiator of this great reconciliation through Christ. We were dead in our sins … He made us alive in Christ.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It’s all from God.
b. Compelled through Christ’s love (5:14-15)
All were utterly dead in sin, but Christ died for all. Not one of us was sufficient apart from Christ; not one of us is beyond the reach of the atoning work of Christ. He died for all. (1 John 2:2)
If we were utterly dead, so that we had no hope, and then He rescued us from the dominion of darkness, we can’t live for ourselves any longer! We must live for Him who died for us and was raised again. We owe Him our lives.
c. Ambassadors on Christ’s behalf (5:18b-5:20)
God has given the ministry of reconciliation to us. God has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Jesus was the only perfect minister this world has ever seen, the only perfect messenger this world has ever seen, but He’s finished His work and sat down at the Father’s right hand. Angels might be more articulate and more intimidating, but that’s not the task He’s given them – He has called them instead to be ministering spirits sent to servants those who will inherit salvation. It is we who are the ministers of reconciliation, the ambassadors on His behalf.
What is an ambassador? An official representative from one nation who travels to another nation, becoming embedded in that new nation’s culture, but always representing and never losing ultimate allegiance to the sending country. We are Christ’s ambassadors, representing the heavenly country even while we embed ourselves in the country of earth, bringing messages of reconciliation as His emissaries.
We have the word (the λόγον) of reconciliation. Missiologist Ed Stetzer put it this way: “The gospel is the declaration of something that actually happened. And since the gospel is the saving work of Jesus, it isn’t something we can do, but it is something we must announce. We do live out its implications, but if we are to make the gospel known, we will do so through words.”
And we aren’t just responsible for the content of the message; we are responsible for the heart. Verse 20 says God makes His appeal through us; we implore people to be reconciled to God. We carry the appeal of the one who wept over Jerusalem; the one who says I’m standing at the
door and knocking, please let Me in; the one who wants all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth; the one whose love held Him to the cross at Calvary. This is our mission.
3. How We Share the Gospel
a. Speak boldly (the apostles: Acts 5:41-42)
But wait. Didn’t Francis of Assisi say, "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words"?
Mark Galli, former editor of Christianity Today and Christian History before that and biographer of F of S, wrote this:
“The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us something about the spirit of our age. “First, no biography written within the first 200 years of his death contains the saying. It's not likely that a pithy quote like this would have been missed by his earliest disciples.
“Second, in his day, Francis was known as much for his preaching as for his lifestyle. “He began preaching early in his ministry, first in the Assisi church of Saint George, in which he had gone to school as a child, and later in the cathedral of Saint Rufinus. He usually preached on Sundays, spending Saturday evenings devoted to prayer and meditation reflecting on what he would say to the people the next day.
“He soon took up itinerant ministry, sometimes preaching in up to five villages a day, often outdoors. In the country, Francis often spoke from a bale of straw or a granary doorway. In town, he would climb on a box or up steps in a public building. He preached to serfs and their families as well as to the landholders, to merchants, women, clerks, and priests—any who gathered to hear the strange but fiery little preacher from Assisi.”
b. Summon others (woman at well: John 4:28- 29)
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
c. Share your testimony (once demon possessed man: Mark 5:18-20; 7:31-37)
And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in [a]Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.
Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.[a] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd,
d. Serve others in love (Dorcas: Acts 9:36-40)
36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!” 39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing
him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
e. Show forth God’s power (Paul: 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 4:20)
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
f. Submit evidence for the truth (Apollos: Acts 18:28)
When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
Christ did all of these things. He spoke boldly that no one could come to the Father except through Him. He stood up at a feast and loudly summoned anyone who was thirsty to come to Him and drink. He testified to John’s friends that the blind were seeing, the lame were walking, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead were being raised. He served His disciples in love by picking up a towel and washing their feet. He showed forth God’s power by feeding five thousand people with a boy’s lunch, calming a storm, and driving out a legion of demons. And He submitted evidence for the truth in His consistent fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy from many hundreds of years before. When we share the gospel as He modeled it, we represent Him as ambassadors and appeal on His behalf with greatest efficacy.
Lesslie Newbigin said this in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society:
“To be willing to publish them is the test of our real belief. In this sense missions are a test of our faith. We believe that the truth about the human story has been disclosed in the events which form the substance of the gospel. We believe, therefore, that these events are the real clue to the story of every person, for every human life is part of the whole human story and cannot be understood apart from that story. It follows that the test of our real belief is our readiness to share it with all peoples.”
4. How We Live For the Gospel
Acts 20:22-24 (NIV)
And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
Paul was, and we should be:
- Led by the Spirit
- Aware of the risks, dangers, and temptations - Yet unyielding in single-minded commitment
Conclusion: Respond to the Gospel
Paul says in chapter 6:1-2 → Now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation. NOW is the only time of which we are certain. James said we don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised to us; now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation. If you have never trusted Christ to save you, to wash away your sins and make you a new creation, the time is now. Ministering in His name, we implore you on His behalf – be reconciled to God. Receive His forgiveness. Accept His love by faith.
If you have already trusted Christ, you are now a new creation in Christ, and you are His ambassador. You are the one through whom His appeal goes out to men and women and children – be reconciled to God. Take this moment to say to God: Here am I. Send me. Show me how to share the gospel with those to whom You are sending me.
What’s happening in our nation right now – medically. Socially. Politically. God is looking to use it to advance His gospel. How will he use you?
Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020