Make the Announcement
3 Reflections
God still wants something He doesn’t have. Paul writes, “God our Savior… desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God desires all to be saved. All are not saved. Which means there is a longing in the heart of God right now that has not been satisfied. He said the same thing through Ezekiel: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). The mission of the church doesn’t begin with how lost the world is. It begins with what God desires.
The gospel is an announcement before it is an argument. When Jesus sent His followers out, He told them to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). The word Mark uses for preach is the word for a herald. This was the king’s official messenger. The herald didn’t invent the message…or modify it. He announced what the king had already decreed. A salesman persuades you to make a purchase. A herald reports something that has already happened: the King has died for sinners, risen, and taken His throne. We are proclaiming a message that is loaded with authority…to the degree that it agrees with the original.
You cannot befriend sinners from a safe distance. The people you’re sent to share the message with are already in front of you: the neighbor, the family member, the coworker nobody else will sit with. And they can watch your kindness for twenty years without ever learning from it that Jesus died for their sins and rose again. “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14). Live a life that backs up the announcement. Then open your mouth and make it.
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves." - Charles Spurgeon
2 Scriptures
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:20
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”
— Romans 1:16
1 Action
Ask yourself:
when a conversation turns to something real — a fear, a loss, a question about God — do I steer around Jesus to keep things comfortable?
Think of one person this week who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus. Write down their name and pray for them. Ask that God would give you an opportunity this week to share Jesus with them.
Grace and peace,
NEIL
