“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” (Luke 24:45–47)

As I write this, the term missional is all the rage in many Christian circles. For all the rhetoric, I’m not entirely sure what is meant by it. Some use it in non-threatening ways. Others have basically replaced the gospel with it, not only in terminology, but also in content by making the Christian’s benefit to his local community the highest priority.

Whatever else may be said about it, the biblical priority is clear. And any person, movement, or organization that does not set proclaiming the gospel and exalting Christ as the highest priority is off mission. Community service, helping the unfortunate, disaster relief, acts of mercy and compassion, etc., are all good, but they are not the specific and unique call of the Church. Unbelievers can do them. The government can even do them (although with more expense and less effect). What only Christians can do is preach Christ. That is our mission.

 

Evangelism

Do you know what the gospel is? Could you take someone to a passage in the Bible which clearly and succinctly explains it? Hopefully, your mind has gone to 1 Corinthians 15 where the apostle lays it out simply and concisely. Let’s take a stroll down this lovely path stopping to look at a few of the salient features.

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. (1 Corinthians 15:1–8)

First, notice that the gospel was preached. It was not demonstrated through acts of kindness, nor shared like a virus. It was spoken, compellingly so.

Second, salvation requires the believer to hold to the gospel, to stand in it. This is no quick, emotional prayer. This is devotion and persistence. Conversion is an enduring change. To abandon the gospel is to abandon salvation.

Third, Paul considered the gospel to be the highest priority. It was of first importance. It was his preeminent concern for the church at Corinth. No cause or pursuit held a higher place in his mind, and he wanted all Christians to have the same perspective.

Fourth, the gospel is about Christ dying for our sins. If the Church loses the significance of sin and Christ’s atoning death, it loses the gospel. The good news is only good in contrast to the bad news. The bad news is that we have rebelled against God thereby incurring His just punishment. Your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and relatives may need a lot of things, but what they need above all is for their disobedience against God to be forgiven. That’s what the gospel message is about.

Fifth, the gospel includes both the death and the resurrection of Jesus. As Paul goes on to teach in this chapter, if Jesus is still dead, we have no hope. There is no good news without a living Christ. I got into a small debate with a seminary mate of mine one time about whether it would destroy Christianity if the body of Jesus was found. My argument went something like this, “If, hypothetically, we discovered the remains of a human being and could somehow prove infallibly that it was Jesus of Nazareth, I would cease being a Christian immediately because without an empty tomb we have an empty faith.” He countered with something about how the triune nature of the Godhead demanded the incarnation and resurrection, and therefore, it couldn’t be Jesus’ body. I said, “But hypothetically, for the sake of the argument, let’s say we did find His body. Would you still believe in Him?” He said he would. I think that is nonsense. The resurrection is part and parcel of the gospel, and without it we have nothing. Without it, Jesus was a fraud.

Finally, we shouldn’t miss that twice Paul uses the phrase, “According to the Scriptures,” once in reference to His death and once in reference to His resurrection. Why, in such a terse summary, does he say it twice? Because believers need to understand that the death and resurrection were God’s plan all along. He had predicted it throughout the Old Testament, and now the mystery was revealed. It was not a new plan or a change in plans or a Plan B. Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Rather than be surprised or disturbed by His death and resurrection, we should see it as the fitting and expected climax to God’s purposes throughout history.

Is this the gospel you believe? Is it what you proclaim to unbelievers?

Let me ask another question. If an unbeliever wanted to know what law he had disobeyed that rendered him guilty before God, how would you respond? There probably isn’t one uniform answer. Some would jump immediately to the Ten Commandments and charge him with violating several of them. If you knew him well, there might be plenty of evidence readily available such as lust, bitterness, gossip, or greed. But I suggest that there is an even better approach. Why not go straight to the biggest offense—his failure to believe the gospel and love Christ. He may be able to weasel around the others, claiming that he doesn’t lust while looking at pornography, or he has forgiven his brother, or he is just concerned about others, or he’s saving up to help the poor. But his loyalty to Jesus will either be clear and avowed or not. He will either confess Jesus as Lord or he won’t. If he does, but his life says otherwise, it is easy enough to remind him that Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” Since exalting Christ is his created purpose in life, call him to repentance starting there.

Paul’s gospel preaching in Acts 17 is a great example for us. When he began evangelizing the pagans in Athens, he went straight for the death and resurrection. He didn’t build relationships or try to be a good witness and hope someone would notice. He didn’t put on his fish t-shirt with a well-crafted summary of a Bible verse. He proclaimed Christ. When he had the attention of some, he explained that he knew the one God they didn’t know, and that this God, maker and ruler over heaven and earth, would judge everyone by the Man, Jesus Christ whom He raised from the dead. In essence, he was preaching that one day they would all bow to Jesus and confess Him to be Lord. Better to do it now while there is hope of forgiveness.

We don’t like to talk about sin, our own or anyone else’s. We’ve been told for so long that to charge others with sin is arrogant and judgmental that we are starting to believe it. But there is a difference between preaching Hell and hellish preaching. To confront a person with his or her failure to honor Christ is the single most loving thing we can do for them, if we do it as one fellow sinner to another. It only becomes arrogant when we condemn with a condemning attitude. The gospel is about sin, and we will never help someone find their only hope of salvation if we don’t talk about it.

 

Missions

Recently, a young man came to me with a great ambition to promote missions in our church. He had several ideas about how to stir interest in missions, raise funds for missions, solicit prayer for missions, and recruit people to go on missions trips. I appreciated his zeal. However, I told him that if we were to proceed with some or all of his plan, the rhetoric would have to change. Missions would not be the focus, Christ would.

John Piper articulated it exceptionally well when he said that missions exists because worship doesn’t. Calling humanity to worship Christ is our “job.”

Christ gave the original job description, and we would do well not to improve upon it. He commanded the Church to make disciples in every nation (Matt. 28:18-20). That’s the mission before us, should we choose to accept it.

Missionaries must be about the business of making followers of Christ or they fail to be Christian missionaries. It seems silly to even have to make this point. Yet, there are myriads of temptations which can keep a missionary off mission. Strategic relationships being initiated or planning meetings being held or coffee shops being built can all generate great excitement and appear like missions work. But if they don’t transfer to actual proclamations of the gospel, they fall short. Don’t get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the need for planning, relationship building, and so on. I’m not suggesting that missionaries should always just ride into town and hop on their soapbox. But it does concern me when missions reports are full of all sorts of testimonies except the gospel being preached or when prayer for missions is mostly about logistics.

 

Conclusion

Our primary motivation for taking the gospel to the world should be obedience to our Lord’s command and a desire to see all nations obey Him, not the lostness of man. In other words, missions is primarily Christ-centered, not man-centered. But notice that I said primarily. We should care about fellow human beings who are currently on the path of destruction. Love demands it. And love for Christ demands it. Still, Jesus is the reason for everything, including the salvation of sinners.