Thursday: To Preach the Gospel
With its characteristic conciseness and clarity, the Gospel of Mark presents the commission in one short sentence: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
(Mark 16:15, NKJV). As in Matthew, the verb go in Greek is a participle that indicates not the task but the movement needed to fulfill the task. The mission itself is expressed by the Greek verb Kerusso, given here in the imperative mood. Kerusso means to proclaim aloud, to announce, to preach.
Mark uses this term 14 times, more than any other Gospel. The church must proclaim the gospel.
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
During Jesus’ ministry, the Twelve had been sent not to the Gentiles but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel
(Matt. 10:6). Now they are sent into all the world
and to every creature.
The eleven alone could never announce the gospel to the entire world, much less to every creature living in it. A task of such worldwide dimension requires the participation of the entire church. It is entrusted to all the believers in Jesus in all ages. This includes you and me.
Read Revelation 14:6-12. How do these verses encompass the worldwide mission of the church?
Preaching the gospel to every creature, however, doesn’t automatically mean that everyone will accept it. Only he who believes and is baptized will be saved
(Mark 16:16, NKJV). We should preach eagerly, hoping that every hearer will yield to the gospel invitation. Nevertheless, we have to be aware that many will not accept the Word, as the image of the narrow gate clearly shows (Matt. 7:13-14).
What assurance do we have that this worldwide mission can and will be fulfilled? See Matt. 24:14.
There is an encouraging parallelism between Mark 16:15 and Matthew 24:14. Both texts refer to the proclamation of the gospel to all the world. While the first passage presents Jesus’ commission to preach, the second gives Jesus’ promise that the mission will actually be carried out.
Christ made full provision for the prosecution of the work, and took upon Himself the responsibility for its success. So long as they [His disciples] obeyed His word, and worked in connection with Him, they could not fail.
— Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 822. The question, then, that we each need to ask ourselves is, How willing are we to be used by Him in this crucial work?
(17)
Willingness to preach the Gospel is sometimes affected by fear of ridicule or persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). However we seem to have a window of calm now. Of course apart from prophetic timing the absence of predicted persecution (Revelation 12:17) is in part due to the fact that SDA’s are not perceived as saying much. Should the church preach with apostolic power this would change.
If anyone decides not to evangelize and is careful to conceal that he/she subscribes to the Three Angels Messages he/she will likely invite little or no opposition (Daniel 3:15-18). In contrast those who believe and boldly declare truth are to expect opposition from outside and within.
John was attacked by Herodias (Mark 6:17-20). Elijah was pursued by Jezebel. They both doubted their support for a short time. We may too, but need not fear for Michael is our defense (Daniel 12:1). The same home prepared for truth proclaimers, John and Elijah is prepared for the remnant and the redeemed of all ages.
The waymarks tell us it is late in the day. It is almost time for the final movements. The course will take prayer, self-abnegation, humility, primitive godliness, the power of the Holy Spirit and a mind fixed on Jesus. It will be worth it after all.
It seems to me that we sometimes forget that the Three Angels' messages are not just stern warning issued to the world. These warnings are in context of the Good News (gospel) of Jesus Christ, as the lesson points out in this segment.
It is the revelation of the character of Christ in His people that will give power to the last messages of warning. Without the gospel as a foundation, such warning are worse than useless.
When do you suppose this prophecy will be fulfilled:
Revelation 18:1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
A wounderful lesson today, filled to the brim. I would like to add a little thought. Peter recieved a personal gospel commision from Jesus, found in John 21:15-19. I am so glad Peter didn't say, "I have this works issue, I can't feed Your lambs and sheep." Rather the converted humble Christian servent said, "Lord you know I love you."
many are times that we hold spritual meetings and crusades and after preaching and extending a call to the congregation,there is not even one who surrenders to Christ.sometimes when this happens,many of us feel it was a waste of resources and time.we now should understand that our duty is to let them hear the good news of the gospel and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit and their freedom of choice either immediately or later.
Amen. Sometimes seeds now planted germinate much later.
Encouraging to know that preparing the soil and growing the seed is out of my job description. Mine is the easiest part - sowing the seed and praying for the rain.
The gospel is the good news of the kingdom , All the parables of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus presented to the people was speaking of the present , not in the new earth, we teach only about Jesus the king without his kingdom. “They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief” Vol 5 p 212, I don’t think that we are expecting any thing out side of out minds. “The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel, are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Here are "the times of refreshing" to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out [in the investigative Judgment], when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus." [ACTS 3:19, 20.] G.C 612.” This is where I see Hab 2;14 would take place ,In Daniel 7;13-14 Jesus received the kingdom while He is still in the sanctuary. This I believe is the good news of the kingdom.
Hugh, I do agree with your opening statement regarding the fear which hinders our willingness to proclaim God to others. In the middle east people are sacrificing their lives daily to proclaim Jesus. Yet we who have the freedom to proclaim Jesus are occupied with the cares of the world. The longer we as Christians take to spread the gospel the more perilous our experience will be. Jesus has promised to come when the gospel has reached all the world, not when everyone has accepted it. Therefore, God will hold responsible, those who hear and did not repent from their sins.
Lord Jesus, I am interceding for the commenters, readers on this site, and most of all myself. Please help us not to falter when it comes to proclaiming your words to others. Rid us of anything that is unlike you and help us to live that others may see you in us and come to repentance, I humbly ask in your most precious name, Amen
Bev, you probably know that when we sacrifice our will for the will of God everything will be done that needs to be done in finishing "the work." Jesus tells us in the Gospel writings of the New Testament and in The Revelation given to John for us, the "way" to do this. This way to give our will to God is to "watch and pray" lest we fall into our own will. Even though we preach the gospel to whole world if God does not have our will we have accomplished nothing even if we sacrifice our life for the preaching.
May we give our hearts fully to God every minute so that we can cooperate with God in finishing the work of completing the character of God in our hearts. We can watch to see if God is the motivation of our basic thoughts and feelings in every issue and pray that His Spirit will motivate us the way He motivated Jesus when He lived among us as one of us and said I do nothing of myself, but He did the will of the Father. He is our example.
Jesus and John the Baptist both began their message with the words "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"...and both times it was an inside message, for the "church" of that time...the message in Acts 3:19 "repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" was also preached during a time when the focus was "inside" and the message to Laodicea to be zealous and repent is also an inside message, based on the fact that the knowledge of the truth was already given and known to the audience....sometimes we take this approach with people who've never heard the gospel and wonder why they're angry with us...when they're offended, we're quick to shout "persecution" when in fact we simply didn't realise who we were talking to...
I think of Niniveh, that desperately wicked city, and how quickly they repented! I believe it was not because they had rejected the Word so many times before, but because they were starved of it, whereas Israel, being "christians" in those days, were used to the Word, both listening and preaching, and had become "glazed over" or complacent, and the message no longer invoked any response, and they hardened their hearts.
There is hope for the insiders of course....we see it in Acts 2 where Peter preaches shortly after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the response from the "inside" people was that they were cut to the heart and asked "what shall we do?" (Verse 37) and the answer Peter gave them was to repent and be baptized, and they did 🙂 (verse 41)
Our duty is to proclaim these glad tidings.when we preach it doesnt matter how people surrenders their life to Jesus.let just do our part.Have ever read EZEKIEL 3 vs 17 Son of man i have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel,therfore hear the word of mouth give them a warning for me,les not be reluctant in preaching the gospel,God is counting on us.
I love the Three Angels Message.
1. Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgement has come.
2. Babylon is fallen
3. If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or hand he himself shall also drink of the wine of wrath of God.
Messages one and three are shouted with a loud voice. Message two is not shouted it just states the fact. I think that we can be encouraged with the knowledge that the foe is fallen. Now we shout the message to the world with confidence, and the promise that Jesus is with us, the Holy Spirit is preparing hearts, and God the Father is upheld as righteous.