LawGrace

PREACHING SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, JUDGMENT OPEN AIR

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Doth that man love his Lord who would be willing to see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns, while for himself he craves a chaplet of laurel? Shall Jesus ascend to his throne by the cross, and do we expect to be carried there on the shoulders of applauding crowds? Be not so vain in your imagination. Count you the cost, and if you are not willing to bear Christ’s cross, go away to your farm and to your merchandise, and make the most of them; only let me whisper this in your ear, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ open air is scandalous these days. Of course, it was in NT days as well. Now that I think about it, even the preaching in the OT was scandalous. I guess some things never change after all. I’ve heard Paul Washer say time and time again that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in fact scandalous. And if a preacher removes the scandal, they are no longer preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid that more often than not, that is exactly what has happened. When open air preaching it’s neat to see Christians enthused about hearing Jesus Christ exalted in public. Often they yell, “Amen brother,” or “Preach it!” Christians love to hear the Gospel. You expect the unregenerate person to be upset with the message, just like you expect Christians to be excited with the message being preached. However, more often than not, “Christians” often are upset more than the unbelievers are.

I’ve had professing Christians pretty antagonistic towards open air preaching specifically. Last Sunday a pastor from a church approached me and expressed that he didn’t feel that what I was doing was effective, “no one is listening, everyone is passing you by.” Many times individuals will say things like, “I appreciate your passion to see people saved, but I don’t think this is the right way to do it. They need to hear about the love and grace of God – not how awful they are.” Believe it or not, I had a professing Christian very angry with me one time because she said I was causing other Christians to “look bad.” In one sentence, this one mad lady summed up what the real issue is. Many modern churches and their attendees don’t want to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. They desire to be “well thought of,” instead of faithful to the message God has given us.

I understand that preachers can be offensive in and of themselves. I pray that the offence is never from my personality, body language, tone of voice, etc. But if the world was offended when OT prophets preached God’s message can we expect anything less? If the world hated John the Baptist because of the message God gave to him, can we expect that we will be loved by all for the message God gave to us? If they hated the Apostle John, Peter, Paul for the Gospel… and what about our Lord Jesus:

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. John 15:18-22

The problem is, the modern church is failing to be faithful. I once had a conversation with a pastor that was implementing marketing techniques in order to “grow the church.” I asked him, “Pastor, why can’t we just be faithful to what God has given us? Let’s just preach the Gospel! The Bible says that it is the power of God unto salvation.” I’ll never forget his response. I began to literally weep when he said it. He said, “Allen, it doesn’t work anymore.” You see the individuals who sit in church week in and week out are not hearing anything about sin, righteousness, and judgement. This is why when they hear someone preaching the truth, especially in the open air; they are offended to the max. Sad but true.

Here is a quote from John MacArthur’s book, “The gospel according to the Apostles.” Chapter 12 – What Must I Do to Be Saved?

“If we want to follow a biblical model, we cannot ignore those issues. “Sin, righteousness, and judgment” are the very matters about which the Holy Spirit convicts the unsaved ( John 16:8 ). Can we omit them from the message and still call it the gospel? Apostolic evangelism inevitably culminated in a call for repentance ( Acts 2:38 ; 3:19 ; 17:30 ; 26:20 ). Can we tell sinners they don’t have to turn from their sin, and then call that evangelism? Paul ministered to unbelievers by “declaring … that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” ( Acts 26:20 ). Can we reduce the message to simply, “accept Christ” and still believe we are ministering biblically?

Furthermore, in all the instances where Jesus and the apostles evangelized—whether they were ministering to individuals or crowds—there are no two incidents where they presented the message in precisely the same terminology. They knew that salvation is a sovereign work of God. Their role was to preach truth; God Himself would apply it individually to the hearts of His elect.

The new birth is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” ( John 3:6 ). The Spirit sovereignly chooses where, how, and on whom He will work: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” ( John 3:8 ).
Clear proclamation of truth is the means through which the Spirit works—not inventive methodology or human charm ( 1 Cor. 1:21 ; 2:1–5 ).”

Here is another quote from John MacArthur’s book, “Ashamed of the gospel”

Market-Driven Ministry?
“The new philosophy is straightforward: The church is in competition against the world. And the world is very good at capturing people’s attention and affections. The church, on the other hand, tends to be very poor at “selling” its product. Evangelism should therefore be viewed as a marketing challenge, and the church should market the gospel the way all modern businesses sell their products. That calls for some fundamental changes. The goal in all marketing is “to make both the producer and consumer satisfied,” so anything that tends to leave the “consumer” unsatisfied must be jettisoned. Preaching—particularly preaching about sin, righteousness, and judgment—is too confrontive to be truly satisfying. The church must learn to couch the truth in ways that amuse and entertain.

One best-selling author has written, “I believe that developing a marketing orientation is precisely what the Church needs to do if we are to make a difference in the spiritual health of this nation for the remainder of this century.” He adds, “My contention, based on careful study of data and the activities of American churches, is that the major problem plaguing the Church is its failure to embrace a marketing orientation in what has become a marketing-driven environment.”

That all may sound very modern, and very shrewd—but it is not biblical. And it has given the church a hard push onto the slippery slope. Marketing principles are becoming the arbiter of truth. Elements of the message that don’t fit the promotional plan are simply omitted. Marketing savvy demands that the offense of the cross must be downplayed. Salesmanship requires that negative subjects like divine wrath be avoided. Consumer satisfaction means that the standard of righteousness cannot be raised too high. The seeds of a watered-down gospel are thus sown in the very philosophy that drives many ministries today.
And make no mistake, the new philosophy is altering the message the church conveys to the world, although many who propound these ideas think of themselves as loyal to biblical doctrine. Christianity is on the down-grade again.”


I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment to weigh in on this issue. If you feel I’m way off base, please let me know.

Posted by Ambassador at 11:01 PM |  1 comments    

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