Selling the Gospel

Imagine you were a door-to-door salesman for vacuum cleaners that sell themselves. No, really! You don’t have to prepare a sales pitch or anything. You just knock on the door, show them the vacuum, and they either buy it or don’t. Wouldn’t that be an easy job?

My wife, in her high school years, had a very short engagement trying to sell vacuums door-to-door. You know the type. They are the Art-Deco style upright vacuums with their all-metal construction, stainless steel finish, and plaid dust bag, which are equally at home in grandma’s house or the church basement. And this was a short engagement for her because she quickly found out that she was required to use high-pressure sales tactics to sell expensive vacuums to people who couldn’t afford them. Not to mention that she just wasn’t very good at it.

For many people, the idea of sharing the gospel is worse than that.

The reasons why sharing the gospel can be so difficult are many, but I would say that they fall into three main categories: 1) fear of ridicule, 2) fear of rejection, and 3) fear of our inadequacy to bring the gospel. Does any of that sound familiar? Maybe they all sound familiar. But I want to challenge our fears with some of the promises of Scripture.

To begin with, let’s look at what it means to make disciples by sharing the gospel. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gives this mission to all his disciples, current and future: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The command is to make disciples, while the “how” of making disciples is baptizing and teaching. Looking at teaching, specifically, we are to teach people to observe all that Jesus Christ has commanded us. We are to teach the gospel—the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus himself taught. Now, that’s pretty easy to do when someone is already a believer, and we want to teach them more about what they already believe. But it can be much more difficult when it’s someone who does not yet believe.

And why is that? Well, Paul does a pretty good job of explaining this in his first letter to the church in Corinth: “…but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” (1 Cor. 1:23). Likewise, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:14). Right there, we already see that ridicule and rejection is going to be the default reaction of most people to the gospel. For someone without the Spirit of God, the gospel is foolishness and incomprehensible. That being the case, we might ask, “Then why preach the gospel at all?” If it’s foolishness, and it can’t be understood without someone having the Spirit of God, what good does spreading the gospel do?

Fortunately, we don’t have to go far to find the answer to that question. Just a little earlier, in 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul adds a little something to the idea of the gospel’s foolishness. A little something that is unfathomably wonderful regarding this gospel: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (emphasis added). The word of the cross—the gospel itself—is at once foolishness and the power of God. Though God’s Word will be received as foolishness by some, it nevertheless comes to them backed by all the power of God. This is how Paul can also say, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Rom. 1:16), while the writer of Hebrews asserts that “…the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). This gospel that we are called to teach is the power of God and it has the ability to affect people to the point of piercing them to the division of soul and spirit.

Can simple words actually contain such power? They can when they are God’s own words! Look at what God’s Word has already done. Simply by speaking, God created the universe and everything in it. Simply by speaking, Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant from afar. Simply by speaking, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. That same creative, life-giving power of God’s Word goes with the gospel wherever it is proclaimed. God’s Word still has the power to create, as it creates faith where there is none. God’s Word still has the power to create, as it creates life by raising one who is dead in their sin to eternal life in Christ.

So, how has Scripture addressed the reasons for which it is difficult to share the gospel? 1) We can expect ridicule, knowing that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. But it is the gospel that is being ridiculed over and above ourselves. 2) We can expect rejection, knowing that a person is powerless to understand, let alone accept, the gospel that we are bringing. Those two now become not sources of fear, but sources of compassion for the one who is dead in their sin and who continues to reject this gospel. And then, 3) whether or not we are intelligent enough, well-spoken enough, learned enough, or persuasive enough to effectively share the gospel doesn’t enter into the picture. It is not by any power or quality in ourselves that faith is produced in a person, but by the power of God alone.

Would you sign up for the opportunity to sell vacuums that sell themselves? I can’t say that I’d believe anyone who said that. But I do believe that the gospel is the power of God to save those who are perishing. It is a gospel that “sells” itself, and I don’t have to be a good salesman to bring that to my neighbor.

Rev. Jeremy Wilson is Pastor at Lutheran Brethren Church of Nampa in Nampa, Idaho.