I’ve noticed a frightening thing in church culture lately:
A failure to communicate the essentials of the gospel message.

Although I trust that God can make up for our inadequacies
as a church –it’s still vital that we communicate the gospel
clearly and completely.

So — whether you share the gospel:
As a pastor with your church,
As an evangelist at a large crusade,
or simply with a friend or a co-worker, 

you must talk about four things:

• Death (Romans 6:23)
• Repentance (Acts 2:38)
• Redemption (2 Cor 5:17)
• Following ( Matt 16:24)

Death 

 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  – Romans 6:23

Before there can be good news — people must know the bad news.

What’s the problem?

Our lives our mired in Sin.
The paycheck for sin is death.

But Jesus, who was God, died in our place.
That we might have the free gift of life.

Repentence 

 “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  – Acts 2:38

Acts 16:31 tells us that if we “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ” we will be saved.

But that belief must be accompanied by repentance.

It’s not enough for a person to believe in Jesus ( his virgin birth,
sinless life, Diety, salvific work, resurrection, etc) — he must respond
to Jesus and the knowledge of his sin, with repentence.

There is also the promise that the Holy Spirit will come and indwell a man
and empower him to serve God with supernatural gifts.

This too, is often neglected, and consequently many young
Christians walk without the power promised — unnecesarily
because it was never taught.

Redemption

Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation;
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
– 2 Corinthians 5:17

God makes you into a new creation.
And your old life needs and will, die.

We are buried with him
And have risen with him.

And the “life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
in God who loved me and gave himself for me.”  (Gal 2:20)

Following

 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” – Matt 16:24

Contrary to popular teaching and evangelism —
Jesus didn’t die for our sin merely so we could
go to heaven; he didn’t die so we could be re-united
with all our loved ones, have a good, safe, happy,
prosperous life  — fullof inspiring Hallmark-esque moments.

Heaven is the destination of every believer.
And there should be great hope and joy in that. (John 14:1-3)

We can rest assured, that Jesus alone  is the guarantee that
we will make it to our destination.

But Jesus never invited people to heaven —
he invited men and women to come die with him.

To follow Him.

If you miss this — you will mislead people.
For people to accept the message, they must
know what they are accepting —
a life of surrender and obedience.

                          ———————

All this could be elaborated on in volumes.
But it can also be communicated fairly easily
and quickly.

Don’t neglect the whole gospel.
And whatever you do — don’t try to do anything apart from
Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit (John 15:5).