The message of the Gospel is the most powerful and important news in the history of the world. It should be the most exciting, life-changing, and captivating story a person could ever hear. It tells of triumph over the enemy that faces everyone eventually – death – and of reconciliation with God, and of eternal life to come. What could be better news than that? The word Gospel literally means, “Good News!” Do you understand? GOOD NEWS!!!!!
And yet, to very many people, it hardly moves them at all. It’s old hat, yesterday’s news, boring, irrelevant, etc. They are hardly stirred by it. People who have never heard the Gospel seem more excited when they first hear it, than do people who have known all the details for years.
Why is that? Why aren’t more people running around excitedly, telling everyone the good news of life in Jesus Christ?
1. One problem is the way our minds function. We are designed to react and pay attention to new things. When we are surrounded by things we are used to, we relax – but when we encounter something out of the ordinary, we pay attention; it’s a survival skill that alerts us to threats or opportunities so we can react to them in a timely way. Therefore, after we hear the Gospel, we process it and “file it away” in our brain’s storeroom. It’s not that we don’t believe it or care about it; it’s just not new. This can be a problem, because our desire for “new things” can lead to manipulation by false teachers who spout new teaching and ideas that are not in line with what the Bible teaches. Paul warned Titus that he must, “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9).
2. A second problem is that the world is largely under the darkness of sin, and sin does not want to heed the Gospel. In fact, as sinners, we don’t want to even hear the Gospel, because if we take the Gospel seriously, then we have to admit there is a God, God’s commandments, a judgment, and hell. If we pretend those things don’t exist, then we are free to live the way we want, with ourselves as our own god, with no restrictions or accountability to anyone else. This is what John 1:5 says about Jesus, the Light of the world: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood* it.” (NASB)
3. The devil also has a hand in this. Because God’s word overcomes the devil, he does all he can to cause us to diminish trust in that word. He began his assault in the Garden when he got Eve to distrust God’s word when he asked, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Note he twisted God’s command to include any tree, and not just the forbidden tree. Then, he outright contradicted God by saying “You will not surely die.” Finally, he cast aspersions on God’s motives by saying, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5). The result was sin, the curse, and death. Today, the devil continues his assault on God’s word by calling it out-dated, unscientific, judgmental, unloving, “patriarchal,” oppressive, extremist, and any other insulting term he can get God-haters to use in their rhetoric.
4. Related to the attacks on Scripture, is the portrayal in the media of devout Christians as unsympathetic characters. They are portrayed as harsh, cruel, even evil, people who are hypocritical and cult-like in their devotion and actions. They are never shown to be loving and true to high morals and devoted to their God. Adherents to other religions are respected and shown favorably, but Christians are criticized and ironically “demonized.” The next time you watch a movie/TV show, see how many times the villain wears a cross or has a cross on his/her wall. If a character dares refer to Christ or the Gospel, watch how the “cool” characters react with insults or eye-rolls.
5. Finally, maybe our presentation of the Gospel in sermons, songs, and other church-related means, is lacking in its forcefulness. Maybe the pastor has heard the message so often that it loses its impact on him, and therefore on his audience as well. If the pastor is not excited about what he is proclaiming, then how will his congregation be excited? Another problem with the proclamation of the Gospel is the churches that distort or pervert the Gospel to say something else. Messages of “health and wealth,” “name-it-claim-it,” “social justice,” “all love is love,” and “all paths lead to God” are false, distort the true Gospel, and lack the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives to become the disciples Christ commanded us to make (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus told a parable about a master who entrusted talents to his servants while he went away for a while. When he returned, he told those who had invested his money wisely, “Enter into the joy of your lord!” (Matthew 25:21,23). Notice that Jesus’ intent is for us to be filled with JOY for being in him, and for spreading the Gospel, which he has entrusted to us while he is away. Let us rejoice in the Good News and spread it joyfully until he returns and praises us for the fruit which our faithfulness has produced.
So, what is your response to the Gospel? Are you bored by it? Distrust it? Ashamed by it in your social life, your school, or workplace? Or can you say, boldly, with Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel” (Romans 1:16)? Has it become “yesterday’s news,” or can you sing along with the song: “I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.”?** Pray that once again, the fire of the Gospel will burn brightly in you!
May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Romans 3:23, 5:1-2, 5:8, 6:23, 8:1.
- The word translated as “understood,” παρέλαβον, (parelabon), can also be translated as “overcome,” as in the ESV and other versions. Whichever meaning John meant by using that word, the truth is still the same: Jesus is the light of the world, and his light shines in the darkness, regardless of whether the darkness understands him or tries to overcome him.
- ** I Love to Tell the Story, Kate Hankey, 1866.
- UPDATE: Reader Steve G. sent another reason for the lack of excitement for the Gospel:
I think some of it might also be endless wait for Jesus’ return. I think that causes complacency. It is hard to maintain excitement.