Proper Gospel Proclamation
0 Amens
1 Peter 4:1-6
February 18, 2007
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
Introduction
On the Grace Fellowship website under the heading about us it says this.
“We are evangelical Calvinists who delight in the Sovereignty of God. We view God’s election of sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as the grounds of our assurance that God’s redemptive purpose, and our proclamation of the Gospel, will not fail, nor be defeated.”
This means that we are committed to the sovereignty of God in salvation and we are committed to the verbal proclamation of that Gospel to a lost world. We believe that there is no other name under heaven besides the Lord Jesus Christ that salvation can be found in. We believe that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We believe that the Gospel is to those who are perishing a stumbling block or foolishness but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God unto salvation.
We believe that God through Jesus Christ will judge both the living and the dead fully and finally blessing the redeemed with Heaven and the lost with eternal hell.
In light of all that we believe it is of the utmost importance that we understand the Gospel message and have the knowledge to properly proclaim it.
I encourage you to do what I did this week and do a study of the proclamations of the Gospel in the Book of Acts. Let me tell you what you will not find. You will not find anyone being asked to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. You will not find anyone being asked to receive or ask Jesus into their heart or their life. You will not find anyone making their way to the front of a building. You will not find a sinner’s prayer. You will not even find a call for a decision.
What you will find are the commands to repent and believe the Gospel. You will find the Gospel presentation filled with words of warning of the upcoming judgment and the truth of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Also you will find at the preaching of the Gospel people crying out saying, “What must I do to be saved?” Acts 2 says that the people listening were cut to the heart and cried out, “Brothers, what should we do?” You find Peter preaching to Cornelius and him being converted while Peter is still preaching. The supernatural working of God occurs at the proclamation of the Gospel.
God has intentionally made the Gospel simple. He has commanded everyone everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel. He has not required them to repeat a prayer or walk an isle or any other thing besides turning from sin and turning to Christ. And biblically speaking this is a God motivated action. A dead sinner can not turn on their own, they must be turned by God.
What we can be absolutely sure of is that God has chosen the proclamation of His Word to be the instrument that He has chosen to use to convert His elect in the earth. There is no salesmanship involved. We do not have a product to peddle we have an everlasting message to proclaim. There is a difference.
Many think if they package the Gospel just right it will be more acceptable to people. But the full bore Gospel of Jesus Christ, in reality and in light of the depravity of man, will be what Scripture calls it; a stumbling block to the Jew, foolishness to the Greek, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God unto salvation.
As those who carry this glorious often rejected Gospel we must have confidence in the message of the Gospel and in the God who ordained the message for salvation.
Context
We are squarely in the context of suffering for the sake of righteous living and in the midst of that suffering we have the God given opportunity to proclaim the message to those who would persecute us. Last week we saw that we must be armed with the same resolve as Christ for three reasons. The first reason was for holy living, the second was for suffering, and in passing I said the third was preparation for the Gospel proclamation in the midst of suffering for not participating in the flood of debauchery of the Gentiles.
PNP
Today from our text I want you to see three descriptions of proper evangelistic proclamation.
1. The proper evangelistic proclamation is in light of the soon coming judgment.
2. The proper evangelistic proclamation is promiscuous.
3. The proper evangelistic proclamation is done in the hope of salvation.
Purpose
My purpose in preaching this passage of Scripture is for you to understand the Gospel proclamation and you will understand the desperate need for more proclaimers. I also hope to instill in you the resolve to proclaim the Gospel understanding that whether or not all you proclaim to be converted you will see the mere proclamation of the Gospel is victory.
Too many have equated mass numbers of converts as success. They say, “Our latest crusade yielded 5000 decisions for Christ.” Too many have equated mass rejection with failure. Both would be wrong. God is glorified in the proclamation of His Gospel and not in how many decisions we can secure through salesman techniques nor does God deem us a failure when the message is rejected.
We can learn some important lessons from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He went to
To the modern person Paul had predetermined to fail in his Gospel presentation. He refused to speak with great oratory ability even though he probably could have done it. He refused to engage the people with wisdom or philosophy. The term “meet them where they are” meant nothing to Paul when he entered
This ought to be comforting to all of us in our Gospel proclamations. Verse 3 Paul admits that he trembled at the thought of proclaiming the Gospel to them. He was in much weakness and fear. The great apostle to the Gentiles had a good case of the evangelistic butterflies in the stomach. So if Paul was nervous at the proclamation of the Gospel then it must be okay for us to be nervous as well.
The truth that we have seen over the past weeks is that God has determined that spiritual and physical suffering for righteousness sake will result in the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers. So we must be faithful in every opportunity given by God to proclaim that message.
RPNP
So look with me this morning at these three descriptions of proper evangelistic proclamation.
1. The proper evangelistic proclamation is in light of the soon coming judgment.
Look at verse 5 with me.
5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
I think more than any other aspect of the gospel the idea of God’s judgement upon the unbelievers is one that we push far to the back of the message and maybe glance at it periodically. The reason for that is because we do not like to think about God in terms of judgment and wrath. But that is part of His character. He has promised that He would fully and finally judge all mankind, the living and the dead.
For a very vivid glimpse into the future listen to Revelation 20:11-15.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books , according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone 's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
What we as believers have to come to grips with and incorporate into our Gospel proclamation is the biblical fact that God will one day judge everyone who has ever lived.
Notice the verb tenses in verse 5. The verb for “will give account” is in the future tense. It will happen in the future. But we can not overlook who these will be giving account to. Look at verse 5 again. 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. They will give an account to almighty God who created the Heavens and the earth and is ready (present tense) to judge (aorist tense- in His own time.)
When the Apostle Paul went to Mars Hill, he did not spend an exorbitant amount of time engaging the minds of the philosophers with rhetoric but got right down to the nitty gritty. Listen to what Paul told those gathered on that hill to spend their time listening for something new. This is Acts 17:30 and 31.
30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
Paul’s message should be our message and that is that everyone everywhere is commanded to repent and believe the Gospel. The reason is because the day of judgment is coming.
So a proper evangelistic proclamation is in light of the soon coming judgment.
Second I want you to see that:
2. The proper evangelistic proclamation is promiscuous.
Look at verse 6 with me.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead,
We will deal with the first phrase of verse 6 in the third point but what I want to key in on is the rest of the first part of verse 6. Notice first that the Gospel was preached. To whom was the Gospel preached to? Look at verse 6 again. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead
Before I jump in here with both feet I need to tell you that we are again in a part of 1 Peter that is debated as to the meaning. When you run into ambiguity in the Bible the safe thing to do is to lean heavy on the context. What has our context told us thus far about 1 Peter 3:13-4:19? We are dealing with the idea of evangelism as a result of persecution.
Some have said that the dead here are the dead Christians that died as a result of persecution and although they were judged by men they live to God. This is a possibility for the interpretation and if one took this interpretation they would not be a heretic.
Others have said that the dead that are being preached to in the text indicates a second chance at salvation for those who never heard the Gospel. That person who holds that interpretation would be a heretic. They base this interpretation on their understanding of 1 Peter 3:18-20 which says:
8 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Remember we identified the spirits in prison as those who had received the Gospel in Peter’s day and in all times. Before conversion we are locked in the prison of sin and as Peter alludes to in our text today we are dead.
I take a third option that is available for the interpretation of verse 6. I think Peter is explaining the need to proclaim the Gospel even to the ones who persecute you. These are the dead ones who as Ephesians 2:1 teaches us that humanity before being made alive spiritually by the Holy Spirit are dead in their trespasses and sins.
Peter’s emphasis is in the word “even” in the text. For this reason the Gospel is preached even to those who are dead.
In Scripture the Lord Jesus uses the analogy of the Gospel message as seed. The seed is thrown on all kinds of soil. There is rocky soil, hard soil, and prepared soil. The point is that the Gospel is to be preached promiscuously. The seed is to be cast indiscriminately. Our job is not to just proclaim the Gospel to those who seem close to the kingdom but to proclaim the Gospel as often and to as many people as the Lord gives us opportunity.
As I read through the Book of Acts in preparation for this sermon what stood out was the way the Apostles proclaimed the Gospel. It did not matter if they were in
They knew because of the message they would be reviled. They would be beaten. They would possibly die and many did. But there was a chance that through the message proclaimed the elect of God would hear the message of life and be quickened to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The danger that many Christians fall into is becoming paralyzed at the thought of proclaiming the Gospel. But that should not be a fear. The promise of our Lord is to be with us always, even to the end of the age. We can proclaim the Gospel with all confidence because we know that salvation exists no where else. We can proclaim the Gospel with all confidence because we know that this is God’s chosen method for saving His people. We can proclaim the Gospel in confidence because the message does not depend on us in any way shape or form. We simply proclaim Christ dead, buried, and resurrected and demand that in light of the coming judgment that the people we preach to must repent and believe the Gospel.
We have seen that the proper evangelistic proclamation is done in light of the coming judgment and it is done promiscuously. Third and finally I want you to see that:
3. The proper evangelistic proclamation is done in the hope of salvation.
Look at verse 6 with me again.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
Verse six is a very hotly debated verse as to its interpretation. Sometimes when you study a passage of Scripture it is hard to come to a conclusion. Many different scholars of different theological persuasions have differed in their understanding of the passage. One even said that he had no idea what the passage meant so he was going to leave it alone. So I am going to approach this with all due humility and admit right off the bat that there is a possibility that I am wrong in this interpretation.
I have followed the cardinal rule of interpretation and stuck with the context of the surrounding passages. The context of course is suffering for the sake of the Gospel and in the midst of that suffering having an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel.
The key in this passage is the two subjunctive verbs. Subjunctive verbs in Greek indicate a possibility of something happening. In English I would usually put either a might or a may in front of the verb. I might go to the store this afternoon. One day a man may land on Mars.
The two subjunctive verbs in verse 6 are judged and live. The dead ones that have the Gospel preached to them and have repented and believed may indeed endure the judgment of wicked men just like the people that Peter is writing to. The dead ones also might be saved. Look at verse 6, the very last phrase. they might live in the spirit the way God does.
This is why the Gospel is to be preached as the other two points have stated in light of the coming judgment and promiscuously. This is because in the Gospel proclamation there is hope of salvation for the spiritually dead. Jesus said in John 5:25,
25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
The hope that we have in the Gospel proclamation is the guarantee that God’s purposes will not be thwarted. Those whom God has chosen before the foundation of the world, whom Christ has secured salvation and redemption for, will one day here the Gospel and be quickened to life by the Holy Spirit given then the gifts of repentance and faith in Christ alone for salvation.
What we should glory in is this. This should free us to proclaim the gospel in all confidence knowing that God has predestined some to life.
Although we know and understand that ultimately God is responsible for the salvation of sinners, we must not grow comfortable and become non-evangelistic. We are not called to sit back, relax, and not say anything. The point of this whole section is the reason for suffering. The ultimate reason is so we can proclaim the saving message of Christ to those who would persecute us, hate us, and question us.
Conclusion
We have seen that the proper evangelistic proclamation is in light of the soon coming judgment, it is promiscuous, and it is done in the hope of salvation.
So as I close, now that I have shown you the call to evangelize, do we need to have a class on evangelistic technique?
In seminary we had to take a whole class on evangelism. I thought it was a waste of time. What should have happened is the professor should have asked a few questions to find out if indeed you were capable of doing evangelism. If you needed to go through the class you could.
But in reality none of us should need a class on evangelism in order to do evangelism. There are several ways to do evangelism that are perfectly acceptable. But let me provide you a basic outline.
First you must understand what evangelism is. It is the proclaiming of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation found only in Christ.
The first part of our proclamation is the sinfulness of man. What we must try to get people to understand is the fact that they are sinners by nature and can not save themselves. This is where the Law of God should be proclaimed. If you spend anytime reading the Old Testament law you will soon discover that you can’t keep all those laws that God requires. It is impossible because by our very nature we are sinners. But we are not excused in not keeping them. If we break one we have broken them all. God has ordained His Law to be that tutor that brings us to Christ. A good place to start is in the Sermon on the Mount and let the words of the Lord show our ultimate sinfulness.
Once we have established our sinfulness and the fact that we cannot be good enough to win favor and salvation from God then we can show that we must have a savior. That savior is the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we show the proof of Christ as the only savior.
The proof of the Gospel is in the resurrection of Christ. Remember Acts 17:30-31?
30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
Now here is where most people get unbiblical. After they have done these things, there very next step is to try and secure a decision. They tell them they must pray this prayer in order to be saved or they will say that it is a prayer of commitment. Here is why it is unbiblical. First you will not find this prayer in Scripture. The only sinner’s prayer in Scripture is when the publican stood at the
So what do we do? We tell them they must do what they can not do and that is repent of their sinfulness and have faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross alone for salvation.
Conversion is a miracle. It is like Lazarus being raised from the dead. God must call and give the gift of life. So we wait and see what God does. He may give life, He may not. He is God.
What I tell people to do is what the publican did. Pray and ask God to be merciful on you and grant you salvation. If He does then you will have repentance and faith which will be evidenced by a changed life.
Now I can hear my evangelism teacher now, “Joe, you can’t grow a big church like that! People need a psychological outlet to secure that their decision was real. You are making the Gospel too hard.” My response would be, “let God be God and every man a liar.” Who said the Gospel was easy? The last time I read the Gospels Jesus said in order to follow Him you must take up your cross. I don’t call that an easy Gospel. 1Peter 3:13- 4:19 should be proof enough that the Gospel is not easy, it may cost you your life.
The classic example of faith in the God who ordained the Gospel is found in Ezekiel 37.
Listen to the Word of the Lord.
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know." 4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.' 5 "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 'I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise , and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.""' 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Ezek 37:1-14 (NASB)
May God grant us opportunities to share His Gospel and may He grant us many conversions as we proclaim that Gospel. Let’s pray.
Comments:
Login to post comments