I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?
Wouldn’t it be nice if all we got was good news? What if we only ever had good news to share? The weather would always be sunny with no rain on weekends or holidays. Every student would pass and no one would fail a grade or a test or an inspection. The blood work would always come back normal and we’d always be given a clean bill of health. All the world would be agreeable and kind, and none of us would mind being the messenger.
“So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.
And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!””
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.19-20.NLT
The gospel literally means good news. We who believe that Jesus is the one and only Son of God have been given this wonderful message of reconciliation to share. Jesus died and was raised again, defeating sin and death on our behalf, the righteous for the unrighteous, to make us right with God once and for all. It’s a win-win! Our debt has been erased and our future secured. The old has passed away and all is being made new. So what’s the catch? Why isn’t everyone sharing this wonderful message? Why doesn’t everyone believe?
“Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.
But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people.
No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”
John 2:23-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.2.23-25.NLT
““The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?”
Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.17.9.NLT
Then he said to the disciples,
“Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me.
And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me.
And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”
Luke 10:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.10.1-16.NLT
We can look to the life of Jesus to know that the gospel is received differently by different groups of people. Jesus admitted that a prophet is not respected in his hometown and among his own people. John confirmed that Jesus came to His own people and even they rejected Him. Jesus even warned His first followers that they would be mistreated in the same way that He was because of His name.
No one went through Samaria in Jesus’s day if they could help it, but Jesus chose this route to Galilee. His conversation with a woman at the well of Sychar and her subsequent testimony led to an invitation for Jesus and His followers to stay and share more. Their secondhand knowledge of Jesus quickly became knowing firsthand the Savior of the world.
“Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!”
When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe.
Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.””
John 4:39-42 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.4.39-42.NLT
“No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.2.12.NLT
The people of Sychar heard what Jesus told one woman and they wanted more. They didn’t see His miracles firsthand. They heard the testimony of a woman who had a closet full of skeletons brag that Jesus knew her inside and out. They knew her too but that never excited interest before. This was different. She was different and they wanted to know how.
Another time, Jesus cast out a Legion of demonic forces that had enslaved a man and terrorized the entire region.
“People rushed out to see what had happened.
A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons.
He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.
Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them.
So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake.”
Luke 8:35-37 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.8.37.NLT
Same message. Same messenger. The miraculous healing instilled fear rather than awe. In fear, they asked Jesus to go away. So He left. This isn’t the same “go away from me” uttered by Peter acknowledging his sinfulness when compared to Jesus. This is dismissal. Rejection.
“But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit.
It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.2.14.NLT
Another time, “the Lord chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.
These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.
“If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’
But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate.
And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’”
Luke 10:1-2, 8-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.10.1-11.NLT
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.
At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.
How differently we know him now!”
2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.16.NLT
“Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.
God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.
If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God.
And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:11, 13, 17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.11-17.NLT
The kingdom of God is near.
The choice is yours.
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