Never Replace Evangelism

Can I ask you a question? Are you convinced that people are really lost without Jesus Christ? I think deep down, many Christians don’t believe that their neighbors will be eternally condemned if they don’t accept our Lord as their Savior. Remember in John 8:23 Jesus Himself said, “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” Wow!

Part of the problem, I think, is that we’re not trained to practice the Great Commission as much as we should be. Christians want to get on board with some new and exciting program, instead of hearing about good old evangelism. In fact, evangelism can seem so terribly old fashioned. People tend to think, “The Great Commission was given 2,000 years ago, don’t drag that up again. Let’s do something fresh, something new.”

So, we dream up different terms, and different ideas, and we get all excited about a new direction. Of course there’s nothing wrong with making the message more relevant to our changing culture. But relevancy can’t replace the basic Gospel message. When all is said and done, if you don’t preach Jesus Christ clearly, you can have the best show in the world, but there’s no power in it to rescue people from their sins – past, present, or future. So, give the Good News and make it clear. There is no other way.