We Are Not Ashamed of the Gospel

By Samuel E. Ward   July 29, 2012   Reviewing our place in our study entitled,  "We Are Not Ashamed of the Gospel" we have considered two very clear responsibilities each Christian has relative to the Gospel. I. We Are Communicators of the Gospel:  If we aren't communicating it then we are being disobedient to the Lord's command to share Him with others. II. We Are Carriers of the Gospel A. The Mission and Focus of the Church:  You will be witnesses to the ends of the earth. 1. The universal scope of the Church's mission, Acts 1:6-8; 2:38-39 2. The progressive movement of the Church's mission modeled by Paul, Rom 15:18-20 3. The current state of modern missionary activity. Of foreign mission funding: 87% goes for work among those already Christian. 12% for work among already evangelized, but non-Christian. 1% for work among the unevangelized and unreached people.[1] --Mark Baxter, The Coming Revolution: Because Status Quo Missions                                                   Won't Finish the Job. B. The Practice of the Early Church 1. The apostles went from the temple courts and from house to house, Acts 5:42. 2. Some were divinely appointed to specific persons and groups (Philip, Paul), Acts 8:26; 9:15. 3. The persecuted church preached wherever they were scattered, Acts 11:19-21. C. Two Reasons Why You Should Never Give Up After Your First Apparently Unsuccessful Attempt at Witnessing: 1. You are not the judge of what is" successful." 2. You will be better at it the second time and after that the third, fourth, fifth and five-hundredth time. Now we must consider that . . . III. We Are Protectors of the Gospel (Jude 1:3 NIV)  Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. We must contend for these truths! A. Jesus Is Lord and Christ, Acts 2:36 (Acts 2:36 NIV)  "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." This is a fact upon which there can be no deviation. He is a man. But He is beyond that Lord and Christ, God's Anointed Messiah. There is no other name greater in the universe than Jesus, which means "Jehovah Saves!" B. Jesus is the Christ, Acts, 5:42  (Acts 5:42 NIV)  Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus Himself shared the fact that He is God's Christ when He read from the Isaiah scroll in His hometown of Nazareth. (Luke 4:18-19 NIV)  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, {19} to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Notice that Jesus also emphasized the good news of salvation available through Himself, the Anointed, when He read from Isaiah. Those spiritually impoverished, enslaved, blinded, and oppressed by sin, can be made free in Christ and the time to do it is NOW! However, because Jesus wanted to emphasize the redemptive aspect of the gospel, He did not read the rest of the sentence in Isaiah. His first coming was primarily about grace and deliverance.  His second coming will be about "the day of vengeance of our God." At some point in time (perhaps sooner than we think) the world's misery will become so great and its anarchy so massive it will accept anyone with enough charisma and charm to convince the world they have a plan to restore a semblance of law and order with some financial stability. Let me re-phrase that. They will accept anyone but Christ.  They will accept a substitute Christ.  They will accept the antichrist. Here is more good news! You can escape the tyranny of the Antichrist and the wrath of God by trusting in God's Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ.  (1 Th 5:2-4 NIV)  You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. {3} While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. {4} But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. (1 Th 5:9 NIV)  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. C. The Resurrection of the Dead, Acts 4:2   1. This is a fact some find hard to believe and will even oppose, Acts 4:2. (Acts 4:1-2 NIV)  The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. {2} They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. This teaching concerning a resurrection from the dead upset the Sadducee sect of the Jewish religious rulers who clearly did not believe in one. Peter and Paul contended for the gospel by proclaiming it as an essential part of it. Today we must contend for the truth of the resurrection as well.  We must contend against the convinced materialistic atheistic scientists who say man is only a machine such as University of Minnesota biology professor Paul Z. Meyer teaches his students. We [atheists] don't believe in souls. Now that's a heresy, and should be even more distressing to people than our denial of gods. There is no immortal, constant part of any of us that will survive after death — our minds are the product of a material brain. We are literally soulless machines made of meat, honed by millions of years of ruthless, pitiless evolution. And so is everyone else.[2] 2. Then we have those who don't think that a resurrection is likely but hope so. Such is the case with psychology lecturer Susan Blackmore. Imagine a world in which each of us has a special inner core - a 'real self' - that makes us who we are, that can think and move independently of our coarse physical body, and that ultimately survives death, giving meaning to our otherwise short and pointless lives. This is (roughly speaking) how most people think the world is. It is how I used to think -and even hope - that the world is. I devoted 25 years of my life to trying to find out whether it is. Now I have given up.[3] Susan Blackmore, psychology lecturer http://www.takeonit.com/question/60.aspx But God's Word says unequivocally . . . (1 Cor 15:19-20 NIV)  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. {20} But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. And Paul lends credibility to the claim when he writes . . . (1 Cor 15:3-8 NIV)  For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, {4} that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, {5} and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. {6} After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. {7} Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, {8} and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. D. Jesus is the only means of salvation.  That being said we acknowledge the following: 1. There are things that man supposes to be right but because he does not seek the truth about them, they actually lead to his destruction. (Prov 14:12 NIV)  There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. 2. There are those who claim to know God but obviously do not know the true God and prove it by their impure actions. (Titus 1:15-16 NIV)  To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. {16} They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. 3. There are those who invent or imagine gods for themselves which conveniently indulge the evil they love. (Jer 5:7-8 NIV)  "Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes. {8} They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife. 4. There is this plain fact--that every human will eventually discover for themselves one way or another and that is that there is salvation in no other that Jesus. (Acts 4:12 NIV)  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." [1] Baxter, Mark R. 2007. The Coming Revolution: Because Status Quo Missions Won't Finish the Job. Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing.   [2] Paul Z. Meyer, Biology Professor, University of Minnesota, http://www.takeonit.com/question/60.aspx   [3] Susan Blackmore, psychology lecturer http://www.takeonit.com/question/60.aspx