What do you expect from your proclamation?

What do you expect when you preach or teach?  Do we expect results or are we just glad they listened?  Micheal Green in his book Evangelism of the Early Church states that the early church looked for a response from their hearers.  I think that in our churches today many seem to lack the power of the Holy Spirit at work.  We have settled for just having an audience rather than looking for a response.  We should expect results!

What did the early church look for?  According to Green they anticipated three responses.

1. Repentance.  The early church looked for the individual to repent from their sins.  We have made a mistake in the early church to not express the need for repentance when someone makes a decision to be a Christ follower.  If they are concerned that they will have to give something up they have not really embraced repentance.
2. Faith.  Green says, that "repentance toward God is matched by faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ."  While the gospel does not spell what this faith is specifically in every occasion.  There is a consistent belief in Jesus Christ.  Paul's teaching was that faith in Christ entailed a belief in who Jesus was, His crucifixion and resurrection, His ascension into heaven and eventual return.
3. Commitment.  The final expectation is that of a commitment.  Again Green says, it is a commitment onto Christ.  In our attempt to make the gospel "marketable" we have made coming to Christ.  Coming to Him requires a commitment.  Will the new Christ follower fully understand what that means?  No probably not but we should not hide it from them either.  The commitment is most often demonstrated by a commitment to baptism.

Proclaiming the Good News

     It is obvious as we look at the Scripture there is a call for all Christ Followers to be proclaiming the good news.  As leaders of the Church we have a obligation to lead our congregations in this calling personally.  But what or better how do we proclaim the good news?  What does the proclaimed gospel Word look like?  I just recently finished a book by Michael Green entitled Evangelism in the Early Church (Eerdmans Publishing, 1970) Pg. 150-151. 

    Green suggest 3 points that are basic to the Word proclaimed by the early church that I would like to expound upon.   It really doesn't matter whether we are talking about the Word expressed by preaching or a personal witness.  These three points are really critical.  These are reminders to us as we live out the proclamation of the gospel.

     First, They preached a person.  The gospel proclaimed is about a person.  The person of Jesus.  The primary subject is no one else but the savior.  Many of our gospel presentation is self-centered but it really needs to be Christ centered.  Certainly the individual needs to understand their need but its more about Jesus than it is about them.

     Second, they proclaimed a gift.  Salvation, forgiveness of sin is a gift.  Grace must be central in our gospel presentation.  No one can earn or merit salvation.  There is nothing that we can do to bring salvation to ourselves.  It is a gift.

     Third, they looked for a response.  They early church expected results.  They anticipated a response and that salvation would come to their hearers.  We are often surprised when someone comes to Christ.  The early church anticipated it.

     Every now and then it is good to have reminder and to examine the example of the early church.  Happy fishing!