What Goes Before and After Hearing?

Saint Paul by El Greco (public domain)

 

Evangelism is not proselytizing within Christianity. To "evangel," as I mentioned in Tuesday's post, is:

Did you know in American English "evangel" is defined as "the good tidings of the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ; the gospel." 

There were prophets for millennia who spoke of the redemption of the world through believe in a single supreme being, but the longest such belief comes to us in written form through Judaism. Without Judaism we would not be able to do what the Bereans did after hearing Paul's evangel:

 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. (Acts 17:10-12 KJV)

I do hope I've said it sufficiently - that's what I pray for my readers. Search the scriptures as often as you can, daily is awesome. Seek for yourself  to know if what is in the Old Testament scriptures point to what happened in the New Testament. Is what Jesus said true:

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:19-21 KJV)

Never, ever, take what I write here as scripture. Do not pick up on a single verse out of context and live by it alone. Look up in a Bible to see whether or not it fits into context, determine if it can give great discovery if used alone. Too often we see someone who has chosen these verses to live by:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. (Luke 12:16-19 KJV)

In a red-letter Bible it is obvious we are told Jesus spoke those words. Aren't we as Christians supposed to follow His instructions? Well, read the verses before and after to find out the example has consequences:

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:20-21 KJV)

I have heard Christians from one denomination or another speak of members of any other denomination as being "lost.' To all followers of Christ, "lost" means without Christ as savior. God has no contract with any specific Christian denomination, whether His name is on it or not. We are called Christian because we believe Jesus' words across the gospels that explained He is the promised Savior prophesied by Jewish prophets. Belief is a requirement:

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:12-15 KJV)

Ask any Christian you know and in my experience they can quote John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)

Not all can quote the following two:

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  (John 3:17-18 KJV)

Our condemnation is not due to our sins - the condemnation is because we believed not. Paul addresses this in his letter to the Christians at Rome:

. . . that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:8b-9 KJV)

That is Paul encouraging by evangel others to be evangelists, because:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:13-15 KJV)

That is both the Christmas message and the Easter message: Jesus is Christ, who was born to die as our Savior, and is resurrected in His defeat of death. Now you've heard - want to talk about it, or learn more?