GOSPEL-COMMUNICATION
The Gospel is
a fact, therefore tell it simply; it is a joyful fact, therefore tell it
cheerfully; it is an entrusted fact, therefore tell it faithfully; it is a fact
of infinite moment, therefore tell it earnestly; it is a fact about a Person,
therefore preach Christ.
The communion
of the gospel is by seeing as well as by hearing. This double strand runs all through the
Bible: image and word, vision and voice, opening the eyes of the blind and
unstopping the ears of the deaf. Just as
Jesus is the Word of God and the Image of God. The Word become visible, the Image
audible...We are familiar enough with the verbal element of evangelism. Where is the visual?
Douglas Webster
In the
Puritan tradition George Whitefield wonderfully exemplified in his preaching a
stable understanding of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He used to place lost sinners in a vice. He pressed home the necessity of
repentance. But the lost sinner is a
slave. He cannot repent. Yet to be saved he must repent. He cannot.
He must. His only recourse is to
look away from himself to the one who can save.
His escape route is cut off. There
is no help in himself. His only hope is
to call on God for mercy. And a God of
mercy will never cast out those who come to him in faith.
Erroll
Hulse
Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p.
133.
Any fool can
write learned language. The vernacular is the real test. If you can't turn your faith into it, then
you either don't understand it or you don't believe it.
C.S. Lewis
The
redemption of an eternal soul is one sale that I, in my own strength, cannot
accomplish. I need to know that, not so
that I won’t preach the Gospel, but so that I won’t allow my presentation of
the Gospel to be molded by what I think will finally get a response and close a
sale. Instead of using all my powers to
convict and change the sinner, while God stands back as a gentleman quietly
waiting for the spiritual corpse, His declared spiritual enemy, to invite Him
into his heart, I’m going to preach the Gospel like a gentleman, trying to
persuade but knowing that I can’t convict and convert and change the
sinner. Then we’ll see clearly just who
can really call the dead to life.
Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 127.
Clarity
with the claims of Christ certainly will include the translation of the gospel
into words that our hearer understands,
but it doesn’t necessarily mean translating it into words that our hearer will like. Too often, advocates of relevant
evangelism verge over into being advocates of irrelevant nonevangelism. A
gospel that in no way offends the sinner has not been understood.
Mark
Dever
The
Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Crossway, 2007, p. 64.
He who talks
upon plain gospel themes in a farmer's kitchen, and is able to interest the
carter's boy and the dairymaid, has more of the minister in him than the prim
little man who keeps prating about being cultured, and means by that - being
taught to use words which nobody can understand.
C.H. Spurgeon
Don’t go
where it is all fine music and grand talk and beautiful architecture; those
things will neither fill anybody’s stomach, nor feed his soul. Go where the
gospel is preached, the gospel that really feeds your soul, and go often.
C.H.
Spurgeon
Each
generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating
the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms
of that setting.
Francis Schaeffer
Escape from Reason.
Our business
is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate
modern thought clothed in Christian terms… Confusion here is fatal.
J.I. Packer
Simplicity in
expression is of utmost importance. The teacher should speak so that even
children and people who cannot read may be able to understand him, as far as
the natural mind can comprehend the things of God. Every congregation has
people of various educational and social backgrounds. The expounder of the
truth of God speaks for God and for eternity. It is unlikely that he will
benefit the hearers unless he uses plain speech.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 34.
All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.