Share The Good News

When it comes to sharing the gospel, Christians are always quick to jump to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) as our reasoning. In fact most Christians could probably quote these verses without even opening their Bibles. The problem? A study from 2012 showed that 61% of Christians had not shared the gospel over the last 6 months. You see the truth is for most of us we know what we’re supposed to do, yet we still don’t do it. Maybe some of us struggle with the same issues Paul describes in Romans 7:15 in that we do not what we want to do, but we do what we hate. Most of us want to share the gospel, yet for whatever reason we don’t. Might I suggest that the reason we struggle with sharing the gospel isn’t because we don’t know that we’re supposed to, but we put all the attention on the wrong person.

John 16 starts with Jesus telling the disciples about the persecution on its way for them. He tells them that some would even come to kill them thinking they were doing it on behalf of God. We know that 10 of the 12 He is speaking to here will die martyrs as a result of this persecution. Then Jesus says the line that filled the hearts of the disciples with sorrow. “But now I am going away to Him who sent me...” (John 16:5a). Imagine being one of the disciples. The man you’ve been following and seeing do all these great miracles just told you He’s on His way out. He’s leaving you. And where does that leave you? Alone.

Thankfully for us and the disciples Jesus didn’t stop at the end of verse 5. He tells them in verse 7 that it is for their (and our) benefit that He return to the Father. Once He gets where He is going, He will send the Counselor. He will send the Holy Spirit. This is great news for us, since we see in Ephesians 1:13 that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit upon hearing the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation.

So what does all this have to do with us sharing the gospel? Actually everything. You see, Jesus continued in John 16: 8-11, “When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” When it comes to sharing the gospel it’s not about us, it’s about the conviction brought on by the Holy Spirit. So when we go about our day and we feel the Holy Spirit leading us to share the gospel with others let us remember that we don’t go into that situation alone. We’re never alone.

The truth is if we try to share the gospel through our own strength the result will probably be failure, but if we walk in step with the Holy Spirit and speak the gospel of Jesus Christ we’ll begin to see lives being changed through the salvation found only in Christ Jesus.

- Seth Forque

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the NSU BCM but are solely those of the author(s).