Forty years ago and for many decades before that, the gospel message was mainly confined to the ‘Gospel Evening Service’ where Jesus’ crucifixion was described and applied to the congregations in the Non-Conformist Churches.
Some preachers narrowed the gospel message down to a,b,c:
- ADMIT that you have sinned.
- BELIEVE in Jesus Christ.
- CONFESS that Jesus is Lord.
But if one looks at the Bible stories we see many different situations and the believers speak to non-believers in many varied ways.
We do not see an A, B and C standard message, but one that speaks simply to that person and is apt for them.
Table of Contents:
1. Salvation comes from the Lord
An example of salvation coming from God is in Lydia’s life:
The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message”
Acts 16:14 NIV
Yes, salvation comes from the Lord, He is the One who opens an individual’s heart, but our task is to behave correctly and, if required, to speak the right things.
In other words to present the gospel message correctly.
So here are some thoughts on this:
What blueprint did Jesus use in ‘witnessing’ to the criminal next to him on the cross?
Obviously, Jesus did not use a blueprint! Let’s look at what happened:
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:
Luke 23:39-43 NIV
‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’
But the other criminal rebuked him.
‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’
Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’
Jesus answered him,
‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ “
The criminal only saw how Jesus behaved under intense pain and suffering.
He did not use a set procedure for ‘saving sinners’.
In Luke 19 what special wording did Jesus have for Zacchaeus the tax collector?
Zacchaeus had heard rumours of the crowds gathering around Jesus and he had heard that Jesus was performing miracles of healing.
So he wanted to take a look at Jesus – from a distance of course!
So, he climbed up a tree and Jesus walked towards Zacchaeus, but that was okay because he was well hidden – Jesus would not see him!
But Jesus stopped directly below the tree, looked up into the foliage and said:
Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
Luke 19:5 NIV
The people began to mutter that Jesus was now going to a sinner’s house.
But Zacchaeus said:
‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’
Luke 19:8-10 NIV
Jesus said to him,
‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ “
Some situations do not require us to ‘preach’ because that person is ripe for God’s harvest.
We will now look at some situations from the Bible that required words to be spoken.
2. Gospel messages from the Bible – real situations.
So when we look at these Gospel messages we need to ask: “Who is being spoken to?”
One message does not fit all. There are two obvious groups:
- One group may never have heard a Bible message, have never read anything from the Bible, and have had no church connections.
- The other group have been going to church for years, but the truth of the gospel message has not touched their hearts. They remain cold and just have an intellectual grasp of biblical truth.
We will now explore these two groups:
a) The Gospel message to people who have no Bible knowledge.
When Paul was speaking at Athens to people who had no grounding in the Scriptures, he told them what God was like :
God who made the world…
Acts 17:24 NIV
Lord of heaven and earth…
gives all men life and breath and everything else…
made every nation…
He determined the times…
so that men would seek Him…” etc.
Paul was laying a foundation from which to launch his call to action:
- He is the Creator – He made us, the world and everything else.
- We have a constant dependence on Him.
- He is the Lord of heaven and earth and He does what He chooses.
- He has an absolute claim upon us.
- We cannot restrict Him to a temple.
- He is totally self-sufficient, He is not served by human hands – He doesn’t need anything!
- Without Him we are dead – just lifeless dust!
- He gives us boundaries and we have a responsibility to live within them.
(These sorts of facts form a Christian’s doctrine – their grasp of the Scriptures in a complete form.)
Now and only now, Paul gives a call to action, because they have been told what God is like:
- God wants people to seek him and perhaps reach out to him and find him.
- He is closer than you think.
- Up until now, God has overlooked our ignorance of Him.
- But now he commands everyone everywhere to repent – to turn to Him.
- He will judge all those who don’t turn to Him.
b) The Gospel message to people who are religious, and who know the Bible but who are not saved.
A Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus. (John 3:1-21)
Jesus could see that Nicodemus needed to be moved away from self-confidence and towards trusting in God.
Also, Jesus needed to stress about faith being a relationship with God.
So he covered these points with Nicodemus:
- No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
- Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
- You must be born again. New family and a relationship with God the Father.
- God is bigger than the things you know: “The wind blows wherever it pleases…”
- The truth and reality of our salvation: “We speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen…”
- Salvation is something God does: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
- Salvation is through faith: “that whoever believes in him (Jesus) shall not perish but have eternal life.”
- Unbelievers will be condemned: “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
- Naturally, people would rather hide from God than come to Him: “Men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
We have reason to believe that Nicodemus stopped pretending that he was so good that he would be admitted into heaven, and that he began to believe in Jesus who was able to save him.
3. The Gospel message, what should it be?
The dilemma of sin and a holy God.
From reading the Bible we know that humanity is in trouble with our holy, creator God because we naturally rebel against God:
The key to understanding the gospel is to know why it’s good news.
‘What is the gospel?’ Got Questions Ministries. 2
To do that, we must start with the bad news.
The Old Testament Law was given to Israel during the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 5:1).
The Law can be thought of as a measuring stick, and sin is anything that falls short of ‘perfect’ according to that standard.
The righteous requirement of the Law is so stringent that no human being could possibly follow it perfectly, in letter or in spirit.
Despite our ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ relative to each other, we are all in the same spiritual boat—we have sinned, and the punishment for sin is death, i.e. separation from God, the source of life (Romans 3:23).
In order for us to go to heaven, God’s dwelling place and the realm of life and light, sin must be somehow removed or paid for.
The Law established the fact that cleansing from sin can only happen through the bloody sacrifice of an innocent life (Hebrews 9:22).”
The sacrificing of animals was only good for showing that sin causes death and those animals were a type of substitute for the guilty person.
The blood of the sacrificed animals could never take away sin:
‘But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.’ 3
So Jesus, God’s Son, the Lamb of God had to be the perfect substitute for all time to take upon himself the sin of the whole world:
…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:10-14 ESV
And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Jesus frees us from our sins, so we may conclude that the gospel message is going to be very straightforward.
Many may give an answer like this:
- God loves you.
- You have sinned.
- Jesus died for you and rose back to life.
- Confess and turn to Him.
The Bible reveals no set gospel message.
The gospel message may seem to be very straightforward from the answer above and it may have worked in many situations, but from reading our Bibles we can see no set formula.
The gospel message is not written in concrete.
In fact, we could say that the whole of the Bible is ‘Gospel’.
The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’.
and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 3:15 NIV
And let’s remind ourselves of the very next verses:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
When we look at how Jesus spoke to people it was in different ways – there was no formula.
He tailored it to His hearers, but more than that, He spoke the words that God the Father was telling Him to speak. Jesus said:
For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”
John 12:49 NIV
That makes ‘the Gospel’ a whole lot bigger and more exciting!
4. The role of preaching the gospel message.
To answer what the role of preaching is we will look at Noah.
Perhaps he is not your conventional preacher!
Some may not realise that he was a preacher at all, but Simon Peter tells us that he was.
(God) did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness…”
2 Peter 2:5 NIV
The Lord came close to Noah in making a Covenant with him.
From that moment on, Noah started building the Ark which meant that he began the longest sermons ever!
Knowing God doesn’t always mean an easy life.
Every thump of the hammer, every swing of the axe, was his sermon to the people around him to turn to God because his judgement was coming.
This went on for a hundred years, and in between all that activity, you can be sure that Noah spoke to his neighbours because he earned the title ‘preacher of righteousness.’
Now, thankfully, we are not all called to be preachers of righteousness.
I believe it is NOT good to ‘preach’ to people at work, or your friends, and family. Because that tends to push people away.
Preaching is supremely important and is still at the centre of God’s purposes. Paul wrote:
And how can they believe in the One, of whom they have not heard?
Romans 10:14
And how can they hear, without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent?”
Interestingly, Paul did not say: ‘And how can they hear without someone sharing Jesus with them.’
Preaching ought to be the combine harvester!
But it doesn’t work, to preach to people when they are not in a group.
We need to follow Peter’s teaching:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.
1 Peter 3:15 NIV
Always be prepared to give an answer, to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness, and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
So Noah finally finished building the Ark.
Noah’s witness is at its climax and the Lord speaks these words of encouragement; ‘Come inside.’
God was calling Noah to come into the Ark and be saved from the coming wrath, which was the flood waters of judgment.
The Ark represents Jesus, and believers are saved by being in Jesus and therefore the judgment of God cannot touch them.
What is doctrine – we don’t want wishy-washy beliefs!
Unity is being united around Jesus’ teachings.
A Return to early church worship and message part 1.
What does it mean to worship – part 2
References and credits – open in new tabs:
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collection ↩
‘What is the gospel?’ Got Questions Ministries ↩
Hebrews 10:3-4 ESV ↩
2 responses to “[4] What should the Gospel message be?”
Good point, I agree.
Thanks for your comment.
This is so good. i get frustrated with folks who boil the gospel down to a formula (though it is so tempting, and I am sure i do it myself at times) you point is so strong. There is no set way. We have to begin where ever the person is and take it from there. I use the example of the Ethiopian eunuch often and think Isaiah 53 was easy, but could we take him from anywhere in the book, and get him baptized?
Using the Holy Spirit as our instructor we sure could.
Hey – thanks this is a great post.
Ben Nelson