The Gospel in 5 minutes…
Okay guys, well although the title is “The Gospel in 5 minutes…” I am not going over the Gospel in this short devotional-ish thing. What I am going to talk about is something sparked by Wednesday the 1st of December and something that hit me today.
Remember Wednesday – actually, since most of you guys were not at AACF Wednesday (and such a topic I will address at another time), I will briefly share what happened there for it is of utmost importance to what I am about to say.
Wednesday night, our speaker took two of our AACFers to use as an example, and said basically, “One of you is a Christian, the other is not. AND the non-Christian is going to die in 5 minutes, what will you say to them? GO.”
Now instantly our brother who was playing the Christian was put on the spot. He had 5 minutes to talk to this man sitting right next to him before he died. Now obviously we all knew what was to be said in the next 5 minutes. It was the Gospel. Nothing else was more important, nothing else could do, there was no need for quaint introductions, there was no need for any “how are you’s,” there was no time for any surveys or cards to “warm-up” the non-believer. Our brother simply had 5 minutes to share the most important news to him.
Now i know it was not just our brother who was stressing about what to say. For as humans we naturally tend to place ourselves in other people’s shoes, ESPECIALLY when there is some grand moment of opportunity. And I myself was one of them. I was thinking to myself what I would say. And I am sure I was not the only one.
Now understandably the pressure was all the more on our brother who was the center of attention, and it was obvious to all that the pressure was affecting him, and he was not prepared to share the Gospel in 5 minutes.
Now some may be thinking: “What does this have to do with us? Now that the moment has passed.”
My preemptive response to those questions is, HAS that moment passed? Can you preach the Gospel in 5 minutes if you had to?
Brothers and sisters, we live in a world full of non-believers who, although we never like to say it out loud, WILL be headed to hell forever unless they accept the Gospel, and we, if we indeed have believed upon the name of Christ, have the tools to share with them the only saving message.
Two short points:
Are we ready? Can we share the message we should be rejoicing in every moment of every day? If we are put on the spot, can we accurately and efficiently share the Gospel? Can we get the main points across in an easy to understand manner? If we were put in a situation where we have only 5 minutes to share the Gospel, could we do it? If we can’t, if we are unprepared, let us strive first above all things to be prepared. We need to be able to preach faithfully the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I myself am not an exception and fall short of this myself. For although I can get to the main points eventually, it takes me too long. The Gospel is simple, and should be able to be shared within any time allotment. Whether with a long detailed conversation spanning hours, or in as short a time as 5 minutes. So I exhort you all to strive with me to be effective preachers of the Gospel, ready and able in any scenario.
The second point: is this necessary? Because ultimately this is the real question. And all of you know the answer to this if you are a Christian. The answer is a big YES. Once again we live in a world full of those awaiting judgment. And we all hear talks about being evangelistic, and every so often we get rebuked like Wednesday that we are unprepared. May Wednesday and even possibly this “devo” be that alarm that goes off if something is seriously wrong and must be fixed. Fellow believers in Christ, there are people perishing every moment of every day, and most of them are in judgment even at this moment.
Let this cut us to the heart that the axe is indeed laid at the root of the tree, and judgment is near and promised to those who do not accept Christ, and we have the Gospel unto salvation, AND we are commanded by our loving God, who loves us and those who reject him, to spread this message.
If we do not evangelize, if I do not evangelize, if you do not evangelize, we should question what we believe. For God’s people are not cold to the condemnation of others, from which we ourselves have been saved. God’s people are not so selfish as to withhold the saving message from others and hoard it to ourselves. I heard something a while ago that totally shocked me, and it rebukes me to this day. A man who is a comedian, I believe, said something along the lines of: “Christianity is false, because not even Christians truly believe their religion, for if they know that people around them are going to hell, why do they not evangelize more fervently?”
Those statements shook my soul. Because it is true. Christians should be the ones calling others to repentance and faith, with bruised knees from being on the ground, begging them to heed our words. Non-Christians should know us as those who would relentlessly pursue them unto death to believe in Christ. Let us be like Paul, and be calling all to repent at any cost to himself. That we would go as far as to be stoned to death before we let them go to hell without us constantly persuading them to Christ. That we would have to be dead before we stop preaching to them.
Christian, please heed this truth: we are not promised tomorrow, and those we see today could be in hell tomorrow, yea, even within the next 5 minutes. The time is urgent, and the time to evangelize is now. Preach the message of salvation faithfully, for God loves the non-believers and if we are truly His people, we should too.
-Derek Harada