Belonging Before Believing
By Jeremy White | jwhite@valleychurch.com | Valley Church | Vacaville, California
Sharing the Gospel is hardly a cut and dried methodology. How can we best communicate both the simplicity and the complexity of the greatest story ever told to an American culture that seems to reject the very idea of Christian spirituality? How can the truth of the Gospel be relayed effectively in a system where the only thing for sure is that there is nothing sure? At the risk of oversimplification, one place to begin is with Matthew’s account of the first Easter morning.
When we think of Matthew 28, “the Great Commission” comes to mind. If the end of the chapter is the what of evangelism, then I suggest we go back to the beginning of the chapter for the how. We can’t follow the Commission if we’re clueless about the Mission. We need to understand the first few verses of the chapter – without which we cannot attempt the last few.
According to Matthew, the Gospel is…
1. Propositional – therefore, it is meant to be understood and believed. Because of our tendency to reduce the Gospel to a mere set of facts to be accepted, some have responded with scathing criticisms of a purely factual Gospel which is void of any life-changing substance. While I agree with these concerns, propositional truth has not become irrelevant to the preaching of the Gospel.
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The angel told the ladies that Jesus had “risen, just as he said.” This is a clear affirmation of the propositional nature of the truth of the Gospel. God proposes something (i.e. that Christ would rise), and we then receive or reject that proposition as a matter of our will. While the Gospel is more than facts, it nonetheless involves facts to be believed and accepted in order for faith to be genuine. Paul said that the facts of the Gospel were of primary importance in passing it on to others (1 Corinthians 15: 3). However, many people are either lukewarm or bored to tears with their Christian experience because their faith stops with the facts. As important as Christ’s proposition about rising from the dead was, the story would be incomplete if it stopped there. Thankfully Matthew goes on to tell us that the Gospel is not only propositional, but…
2. Experiential – therefore, it is to be participatory. The angel invited the women to “come and see the place where he lay.” One of the most satisfying realities of Christ-following is that we partake in a “come and see” kind of faith. The ladies were invited to experience the empty tomb for themselves.
Many youth ministries are finding something different from the traditional “believe-before-you-belong” approach. Not-yet-believing students are taking part in…
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