Why do people not share the gospel?
As someone with a passion for evangelism I have often wondered why people who love Jesus, and joyfully serve Him, find it so hard to talk to others about the good news of Jesus and all that He has done for them. I have spoken to numerous pastors and colleagues who have wondered the same thing.
Throughout my 17 years of ministry I have put it down to a number of different reasons why people don’t share. Was it that people had never truly experienced a real-life encounter with God? Was it that some people simply did not love their neighbour? Or was it that they didn’t understand the consequences of sin and the threat of hell?
In my youth I thought that it was a combination of all the above and campaigned for what we would now call a pretty fundamental-evangelical- black-and-white-gospel. I thought that was Biblical, and I thought that would be the cure to people’s apprehension in sharing the good news.
The problem however, is that I know hundreds of people who love Jesus, serve Him and serve humanity out of the goodness of their hearts, and still find it hard to share the gospel in words. When you look at Jesus and His disciples, He taught them to demonstrate the Kingdom with actions – the way they lived – and to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom with their words – what they said. I know so many people doing the first part amazingly well, but get choked up when it comes time to announce the good news. So what is going on?
A Gospel That Doesn't Match
I now think the problem is that the gospel we have been demonstrating does not match the gospel we have been taught. Sure, some of the above reasons will still be true, but allow me to explain.
When we demonstrate the Kingdom of God in our actions we are living out the teachings of Jesus and imitating the way Jesus lived. We are loving, inclusive, non-judgmental, all embracing, hope filled, and believe in the best of humanity.
But when we get to time to announce the good news, it’s like the spirit changes… Instead of being free and open for all, the good news is now limited to those who act and believe a certain way. Instead of believing the best in people, the gospel we were taught tells us to believe the worst – that people are totally depraved and justly exposed to the wrath of God.
The spirit of our demonstration is totally different to the message we proclaim. So is it any wonder that people do not share the gospel in words when it does not represent the beauty of Jesus that they are proclaiming in their actions and lifestyles? Who would want to share a version of the gospel that does not match your true feelings about God and humanity?
A Matching Gospel: The Good News of The Kingdom
Now before I go any further, allow me to say right up front that I am not campaigning for a "new" or "watered down" version of the gospel. However, I am calling for us to look to Jesus - the Author and Perfector of our faith.
To Jesus, whether in word or deed, the message He shared was "The Good News of the Kingdom of God." Jesus not only preached the sermon on the mount, but He lived it. Not only did He teach on the Kingdom of God, but when He healed the sick or cast out demons He announced the Kingdom had come near. Then, in the gospel of John we see that Jesus was in fact only sharing what The Father said or did. Jesus was revealing the very nature of the Father in His words and actions. The spirit of Jesus actions firmly lined up with the spirit of His word.
Jesus theology and actions matched. He wrapped them all up in the phrase, "The Kingdom of God." Jesus wasn't nice and friendly in actions, then mean and nasty when He spoke. Instead, the message He proclaimed was an explanation to what He was doing - and vice versa. He demonstrated the Kingdom and Proclaimed The Kingdom.
Any "gospel" that does not align with Jesus incarnation, life, teaching, death and resurrection is a false gospel.
It is in Jesus and His message of The Kingdom that we see that God is restoring all things. We see that God is for humanity. The modern gospel has perverted repentance to mean we "Say sorry to God and change your behavior so God will change His mind from destroying us to saving us." When the reality is that repentance means changing our mind to agree with what God already thinks about us and has done for us. God is no longer counting our sins against us. And it is this goodness which leads us to repentance and in turn affects the way we then behave. In Jesus we see that judgment means making things right. His judgment is healing and reconciliation - not punishment and revenge.
Conclusion
So "Why do people not share the gospel?" At least one reason why people don't share the gospel is because the version of the gospel they have been taught does not align with the Jesus they love and follow. The gospel has been perverted, and no longer resembles the good news Jesus lived and taught. People don't share it because it doesn't match the truth of who Jesus was and what He said. Therefore, if we want to see people sharing the gospel in word and action, we need to embrace the message Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated: The Good News of The Kingdom of God.
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P.S Firstly, thanks for reading my blog. I hope it's been thought provoking. I am fully aware that I have made some generalisations around "The Gospel" and may have caused you to wonder where I'm coming from. Usually when I speak about the gospel people have a bunch of Bible passages ready to throw at me. If that is you, I want to encourage you to read some of my other blogs to see where I'm coming from. This post is specifically about sharing the gospel, but check out my other posts for more on a Christ-Centered gospel. Thanks!