The Gospel Is as Easy as 1

 Have you ever heard someone say, "the gospel is as easy as 1-2-3!" Well actually, it's as easy as 1. In fact, the message of the gospel is so simple some people find it hard to believe. 

- "I think it's too easy," a worker told me at a store last week after I explained how he could have eternal life.

 Yes folks, Jesus made heaven so accessible that if only you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Not, you might be saved. You will be saved. Absolutely no works necessary. It's a free gift, just waiting for you to reach out and take it. 

I recently heard a very challenging message from one of my favorite expository preachers about missions and sharing the gospel. The text was Acts 17:16-34. Paul's friends sent him to Athens and while he was there waiting for Silas and Timotheus to arrive, he noticed the city was very idolatrous. It was home to the philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoicks. 

Epicureans believed gods were remote. We're just a result of the collision of atoms, and impersonal + time + chance. There's no after life or judgement so you might as well live for personal enjoyment. Do you know anyone today that believes this? There's plenty of people. 

Stoicks were mostly pantheists. They believed God is in everything. Even you have a spark of divinity within. You're going to be absorbed into the divine, part of it, when you die, so live apathetically with no care. Do you know anyone that believes this today? 

Athens was a 'religious' place, and they even had an altar to the 'Unknown God'. Notice what Paul did. He stood on Mars' Hill and said, 

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Now notice he didn't start arguing about their beliefs, debating with them about some matter, or trying to convince them he was right. He preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. I completely understand that witnessing can be awkward a lot of the time and scary. Of course we're nervous that people might not want to hear it or reject us. The Athenians did the same to Paul. Some mocked and others went away to think about it, willing to hear more later. Paul was talking to philosophers. He didn't first take courses on what they believed so he could defend his position better. He didn't debate about pantheism with them. He did know what some of their poets had said, but mainly he stuck to the gospel. 

I tutor an adult from India. I'm not really familiar with Hinduism so I asked questions and listened to what he had to say. He told me before he grew up in a family that had gods for everything. I recently told him about Jesus and the gospel using my wordless book. Then I remembered what he had said before about the multiple gods he grew up worshipping and I told him this story in Acts. He could relate to it and thought it was funny that the Athenians even worshipped an 'unknown god'. There is only one God and only one way to God. Jesus said it best in John 14:6:  I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. He didn't say he was one of the ways or one of many truths. No, he is the way and the truth. These definite articles make us understand that there is no other way. If there was, Jesus wouldn't need to have died. He acknowledged, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. (Matthew 26:42)

I want to encourage Christians to share the gospel, either by talking to someone or handing out a tract. Handing out tracts can be easier than talking, so once you get comfortable doing that, befriend a non-believer or pray specifically for opportunities to witness and then seize the opportunities when they come up. Don't worry about what questions the person might ask or what they might say. Just stick to the gospel and how Jesus changed you. You only have the job of planting a seed or watering it. God does the increasing and the saving. 

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20