The whole of the scriptures Evangelise:
For those who struggle with the notion of evangelising and feel bad or guilty about telling people that, all of us need to repent of sin and ask God for forgiveness, please don’t, the whole of scriptures evangelise boldly asserting the need for repentance from sin. Some need clarity on this point, to be persuaded of evangelistic proclamations necessity, and so we must explore this if we are to grow effectively from here!
There are powerful forces resistant to Gospel proclamation.
It is the Gospel that Satan tries to veil and obstruct. But not only Satan, we find that religious people like the Pharisees can also become a hindrance to hearing the truth and even actively obstruct the gospel, some through ideological reasons others through political correctness. I remember my shock when a minister said to me on a public forum that it was wicked to tell people that they need to repent of sin, this minister actually said it was spiritual abuse. Such confusion comes not from heaven but from human wisdom. The scriptures assert, we have all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we all need the mercy and restoration only to be found in Christ. But, we find that demonic power and sadly religious powers can be at the forefront of resistance to the proclamation of the Gospel.
The Scriptures evangelise everyone who reads them.
When Jesus wanted to raise the spirit of depressed and disillusioned disciples on the Emmaus Road he took them through every book of the old testament pointing out where and how the scriptures all spoke of him;
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27
All the scriptures point to Christ because all the scriptures evangelise. But why? Well, we are told by scriptures that man is lost because of
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
This is not
Yet there is a problem, people must hear what the scriptures are saying either through other people and certainly with the help of the Holy Spirit. If they do not hear then how can they be saved?
Hebrews 4:7-13 (NIV) Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” [8] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. [9] There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; [10] for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. [11] Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. [12] For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. [13] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
What is the evangelistic message scriptures communicate?
What do we all need to hear, what must be proclaimed? The answer is clear, we must hear and proclaim the Gospel.
Romans 1:16-17 (NIV) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. [17] For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
It is the effective working of the gospel in their hearts that produces the fruit of salvation. When an individual hears, believes and understands The Gospel, i.e. it’s call for genuine faith it produces in the heart of the believer saving faith:
Colossians 1:3-6 (NIV) [3] We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, [4] because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints — [5] the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel [6] that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
Even the police can be confused about
Satan clearly does not want people to hear the gospel nor does he want them to understand it so that they cannot apply faith to Christ. Resistance to Gospel proclamation does not come from heaven:
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NIV) And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. [4] The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
But once they understand it they can by faith give their lives to Christ. As it says the righteous will live by faith.
Let us not be afraid to evangelise therefore as the very bible we use as our guide evangelises and points to Christ on every page.
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Further reading on why we must evangelise:
- Pastorally We are lost: Isa 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus thus is the good shepherd: John 10:11-12 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. {12} The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.
- Intellectual we are lost: Rom 7:15-14 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Rom 7:22-25 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; {23} but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. {24} What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? {25} Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 1 Cor 2:6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.