Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension is for the whole world to know.
1 John 2:2 KJV
[2] And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
His death is an act of the Father making peace and reconciliation with all men
2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV
[19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
In this message, sins are not counted ,just like Abraham ,only faith is counted .
Romans 4:5,7-8 KJV
[5] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
The ungodly believes and he's justified .
7] Saying , Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8] Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
In this message righteousness is given to anyone who believes .
He is treated as if he never sinned .
It happens as he believes the message of Christ
Romans 10:10 KJV
[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness..
This is a gift not a reward
Romans 5:17 KJV
[17] For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
You recieve the gift of no condemnation in Christ.
This is so because of the sacrifice of christ .
1 John 4:10 KJV
[10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
This event is now our message ,His message ,the gospel,His gospel
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV
[3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
As earlier said,it has become news we should be telling .
It's not just for knowing,it's for " going "
A friend years back once retorted " The gospel means,God is good to you,it must be news to others "
That sounds okay.
My sins are forgiven,righteousness is mine,eternal life is mine .
This was given to the whole world hence Jesus' instructions to us
Mark 16:15 KJV
[15] And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
All the world .
We mustn't be found praying if we should go,we have been instructed to .
Now let's see a few more details .
In the four gospels Jesus once lamented about men not been available to herald the gospel
Matthew 9:37 KJV
[37] Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Harvest means the unsaved in scriptures here ,unsaved ready to be preached to and reached out to .
John 4:35,41 KJV
[35] Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
[41] And many more believed because of his own word;
The harvest is the turning of men to the gospel by faith .
Every harvest needs labourers,hence Jesus' lament about the labourers ,i.e men
Labourers are preachers ,gospel heralds .
So he instructs to pray ,
Matthew 9:38 KJV
[38] Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
We shall touch this later .
Now,he doesn't stop at praying or instructing to pray .
Truly the few labourers he referred to were his disciples ,his 12 apostles
Matthew 10:1,5,7-8 KJV
[1] And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
He sent them out
5] These twelve Jesus sent forth...
[7] And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8] Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Not to go and survey sinners but preach .
Whilst we pray for more labourers we must use those yet available .
Paul was clear about this
Romans 10:14 KJV
[14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
He never said how shall they hear without prayer .
We are told to pray but you don't pray anyone " saved "
In what I refer to as the dilemma of the unsaved ,the key solution in verse 14 above is the preacher .
So when ever we see any community , city ,town or nation with much godlessness ,they only need a preacher ,a messenger
They don't need Lamentations in our church sermons ,but those who will tell them .
You will be amazed that despite numerous churches around certain places many around it haven't heard the gospel .
We assume people must have heard .
Jesus didn't ask us to analyze or do research or second guess.
He simply said ,go and preach !
Paul tells us how this is done
Romans 10:15 KJV
[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? ...
Men must be sent !
The church must keep sending its members,those who have believed ,to the streets .
Not to give out church invitations or tracts ,both of which are commendable .
Most importantly ,to tell the goodnews by themselves .
15b..as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Preach the gospel and bring glad tidings .
Not do street campaign for a special program .
That's not what is being said here.
There MUST be a deliberate attempt ,design and program by every local church to keep sending out men to places where verse 14 holds sway .
The local church is in Jesus' stead like Matthew 10,His stead to send men out .
A church shouldn't be found selecting men into an evangelism group .
All believers must be involved in this .
If we are true church disciples,then we become its messengers ,its apostles .
We must ask ourselves ,which areas around us are unreached,have much ungodliness .
That's the harvest .
Handling duties for the church like ushering ,music ,sound etc is not the harvest or the labourers referred to earlier
This same men Jesus sent out were still involved in other duties like distributing food,protocol for Jesus ,ushering for the crowds etc
Yet they were involved in preaching the gospel .actively too.
Mark 6:7 KJV
[7] And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two by two
This was after their ushering duties .
No matter what you do for your local church,you are living in disobedience till you are on the streets,the buses,markets ,found preaching christ to the unsaved
Giving mighty offerings doesn't substitute this .
In the book of acts ,those who were chosen to handle food and natural things ,the seven
Acts 6:3,5 KJV
[3] Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
5] And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
They didn't take that as an excuse not to reach out by preaching .
Some would have said ,since I sing ,handle sound etc in church then I am preaching the gospel .Thats a huge joke ,
A sister once told me when I asked when last she went out on evangelism ,she answered thus " since I sing in the choir ,the annointing comes upon pastor and he gives altar calls and the sinner is saved ,so we did it together "
Incredible !
She further said " my seed goes to the unsaved ,it's used to reach them " ( referring to her giving money "
Wow !
She's been either wrongly taught,deceived or she's acting stupid .
Those who preach aren't excused from giving and vice versa.
The men chosen in Acts 6 as explained earlier were actively in preaching the gospel
Stephen was
Acts 6:10 KJV
[10] And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Phillip too
Acts 8:5 KJV
[5] Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
In fact the whole church did
Acts 8:4 KJV
[4] Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
Except the apostles ,every other person in church went everywhere preaching the gospel .
Being involved in church duties is no excuse .
As said earlier,been engaged in departments in church doesn't exempt you from preaching the gospel actively and vice versa
Paul and barnabas were engaged actively in preaching and teaching
Acts 11:25-26 KJV
[25] Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:
26] And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
Yet they were involved in " departmental " duties .
Acts 11:30 KJV
[30] Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
Took relief ,physical things to Jerusalem
Acts 12:25 KJV
[25] And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry,
The church must keep sending its members to the streets ,places where the gospel is required
If we had many more believers in this,we would spend less money on open air campaigns ( crusades )
Evangelism reaches far more people than tens and hundreds of such crusades will.
It's time to be sent ,to go ,to stand up ,sit down with men,engage them ,just like Jesus ,the twelve ,seventy ,the entire church in Jerusalem did ,preaching the gospel to them
We mustn't be found ashamed to do this
Romans 1:16 KJV
[16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Again ,What are you doing with the gospel of christ ( to be continued )
I call you blessed
Jesus is Lord,We Win
