4 Hindrances to Sharing the Gospel

We have all heard of the insane stories where someone shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ and several unbelievers trust in Christ for salvation. Or maybe we read inside the Bible and hear of Peter’s message of how thousands of people believed in the Gospel by just one sermon (Acts 3:14-41). But whenever we share the Gospel it seems remarkably unfruitful in comparison to the incredible revivals we hear of. This can really discourage us from sharing the Gospel with people. Not only that, but we can become frustrated with ourselves and feel like a failure Christian. We begin to wonder if the Gospel we are preaching is even true. Has it lost its power? Does God still work in profound ways?

I can assure you with full confidence that Christ is alive and He is active. The Gospel of Christ is still as powerful as it was 2,000 years ago. God is still in the business of creating new hearts in the lives of dead people. Even though we were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1), God demonstrates “His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) The fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and lived a completely sinless life and then bore the holy wrath of God on the cross for our sins is completely free and unmerited (2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:8-9). Now, Jesus offers life and life more abundantly to anyone who will put their faith in His work on the cross alone (John 3:16, 10:10, 11:25-27, Romans 10:13). This is the Gospel. So why is it when we tell someone this, that it seemingly fails to produce radical heart change? While there are many factors such as, God’s sovereign timing in salvation, the devil’s role in preventing hearts from receiving the Word, there are a few things we can be mindful of on our part in order to prevent ourselves from getting in the way of the Gospel.

1. Failure to depend on the Spirit

We often evangelize in such a way that shows no dependence for the work that only the Spirit of God can do, namely, open ears and eyes of spiritually deaf and blind people. Too many times, Christians fail to recognize their full need of God in evangelizing. It is so sad to see all the outreach programs and ministries churches do without God. Sure, we can mask up our efforts with false conversions and moving “worshipful services,” but for the Gospel to truly be effective we need to realize that the Holy Spirit transforms the heart. That is something no person, program, or system is capable of doing. That’s the job of the Spirit: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5)

It is important to remember that there are no job openings for the Holy Spirit. Every time the Gospel is shared, let us earnestly pray that God would work through us and change unbelievers’ hearts. Jesus tells us that, “whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)

2. Failure to love

Why do you share the Gospel? To gain favor in God’s eyes? In your pastor’s eyes? For people to see how spiritual you are? Do you view people as projects, not people Christ loved so much He died for? These are some symptoms that indicate that you might not have a genuine love for people when sharing the Gospel.

While it is important to have a basic core plan of salvation down, sharing the Gospel must be accompanied by a genuine love for the lost. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul puts heavy significant on the value of love:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

3. Failure to share more than facts

If Jesus is reduced to a few facts, then who will ever want to be saved? A relationship with God Himself is what we proclaim. The joy of knowing Him, dwelling in His presence, obeying Him, and serving Him cannot even compare to the joys found in the world.

“The best gift of the Gospel is not the forgiveness of sins. The best gift of the Gospel is not the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. The best gift of the Gospel is not eternal life. The best gift of the Gospel is seeing and savoring the supremacy of Jesus Himself. We had no access to that joy until He took our place on the cross.” – John Piper

We must declare the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7). We are showing the world how good it is to love God. We have the job to represent God and plead on His behalf for everyone to be reconciled to God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). This requires us to be real with people. Facts about God, Jesus, and the Gospel simply won’t do if not accompanied with a humble heart that is ready to get down in the dirt and show them how God is better than anything else.

4. Failure to experience Gospel power in our own lives

The blind cannot lead the blind (Matthew 15:14). If we share how knowing the Truth will set you free (John 8:32), while we ourselves are enslaved to a specific sin we are not practicing what we preach. This hinders us in sharing the Gospel because Paul said that, “the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:5)

How can we be sincere in our faith when we fail to practice what we proclaim? How can we preach from a good conscience? “The hypocrite deceives others while he lives, but deceives himself when he dies.” (Thomas Watson) When we fail to crucify our sin through the power of the Gospel of Christ we fail to live the life that the Gospel promises (Romans 6:6-11). This can really hinder us in sharing the Gospel because we fail to be sincere in our faith. The Gospel isn’t a sales pitch. We proclaim with boldness the reality of what God has done in our own lives (Acts 4:13). One’s own testimony is a powerful tool in evangelizing as it puts visible flesh and bone on the Gospel for the unbeliever to see that God does powerfully change lives. This doesn’t mean we do not struggle with sin. It does mean, however, that God is continually transforming us more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). It’s never about perfection, but direction.

In the end, God will have His way, through His means. He has used the mouth of a mule to get His message across, and He can use sinful people like you and me (Numbers 22:28). Let us take comfort in knowing that ultimately we are not responsible in bringing anyone to Christ, rather our job is to bring Christ to them. What a privilege and joy it is to share the Good News of the Gospel to the world. May we strive to obediently share the power of the Gospel with dependence on the Spirit, love for God and the world, joy from a relationship with God, and sincerity of faith.

 

Grace and Peace

The Unfortunate Burden of Good Works

Are you burdened by God’s commandments? Are you overwhelmed by the seemingly countless amount of Christian responsibilities?

Jesus said that, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) If we were honest, we tend to swap that verse around to say, “if you keep his commandments, then you love him.” Too often, we fail to make the connection between the works and the heart behind the works. Every Christian knows that they should read their Bible and go to church. But so many times we forget why we are reading our Bibles or going to church. Our religious works often become mindless piety. We do things because we’ve always done it. We read the Bible because we know we should. Attend church because someone will ask where we are if we don’t. Tithe our income to get on God’s good side. Share the Gospel so that other Christians will see how holy we are… And the list can go on and on.

Fake worship has been an issue for a long time. People back in Jesus’ time also struggled with this. Jesus rebukes the religious leaders of His day by saying that, “this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do the worship me.” (Matthew 15:7-9) The group of people Jesus is talking to are called the Pharisees. They are known for their strict religious keeping of the law of Moses. They have the appearance of great righteousness. However, something is obviously missing in their works. It is clear to see that outward obedience does not create inward love God. Paul tells us that no amount of works account for anything except, “faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6). Before God wants our works, He wants our heart. This is a foundation behind the works: a heart that loves God. Merely accomplishing these works is not the main point, but rather a heart of faith and love is what God is ultimately after.

Believing the Gospel produces love for God. Jesus tells us that those forgiven much, love much (Luke 7:47). We believe Jesus truly paid it all on the cross. We believe we are forgiven in Christ of a debt so great that only the Son of God could pay for it. As we believe the Gospel of Christ, the Spirit of God stirs up within our hearts a desire to know and love God Himself. We must have our hearts transformed by the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. Heart change is not a task for man to accomplish. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, not of natural man (Galatians 5:22-23). We produce the fruit of the Spirit as we actively put our faith in the sufficiency of Jesus and His works, rather than ourselves, and our works. It has been said that we change, not by doing things for God, but by being with God. When Jesus died on the cross, He provided a way for us to have access to God the Father (John 14:6). The temple veil was torn from top to bottom signifying that we can now know God Himself through Jesus (Matthew 27:51).

The purpose, then, for our good works is to display our love for Jesus that is produced as we fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Do you love Him? Do you desire Him? Do you delight in Him? Our works must be channeled through a heart that loves the Lord. This is key. It isn’t about us keeping a bunch of rules. The greatest commandment is to love God (Matthew 22:37). Those who love God, by default, want to do what is pleasing to Him. All of the other commandments show us how. We can’t miss this.

Unfortunately, too often we feel the heavy burden of religiously trying to keep all of the commandments and miss the whole point: we can’t keep all of the commandments. That’s why we need Jesus. He told us that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). He is the joy and heartbeat of our sanctification. He meant it when He cried out on the cross “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Our job is to know and love God, through faith in the sufficiency of Jesus, by displaying fruit that glorifies the Father (John 15:8). May we attend church because we love God and want to be in fellowship with other believers. May we read the Bible to see and behold the truth of who God is so that we can love Him more. May we memorize Scripture to keep our eyes on Jesus throughout the day’s temptations and trials. May we share the Gospel out of a pure delight in Jesus.

1 John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” The only way that His commandments are not a burden to us is if we obey out of faith and love and not out of duty and apathy. May the glory of Christ be magnified through our relationship with God as we seek to joyfully love and obey the One who truly paid it all. May He abide in us, and we in Him, for apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

Grace and Peace.