What if I told you that preaching Jesus loves you and died for you on the Cross to forgive all your sins, and getting them to receive Jesus right after that doesn't get them born again?
What if I told you that being born again into the Kingdom doesn't depend on what you pray but what you believe? And how can you believe if the Gospel message is not properly preached?
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? - Rom 10:14
The Bible has to be read in context. You can only call on the name of the Lord and be saved (Rom 10:13) if you believe. You can only believe the right God if you have heard the right Gospel message. And you can only hear the right message if the preacher preaches the Kingdom message that Jesus and His disciples preached.
Matt 4:23 - Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching... preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
Matt 10:7-8 - And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.
Luke 10:9 - And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you.’
Mark 16:15-18 (added emphasis) - Go into all the world and preach the Gospel (of the Kingdom) to every creature... And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Matt 28:19-20 - Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations... teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you... (This includes Matt 10:7-8 / Luke 10:9)
'Make disciples' is synonymous with the Gospel of the Kingdom, because the Kingdom message only produces disciples.
Luke 24:47 - ...repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name...
Repentance and remission of sins are the complete message of the Kingdom. Receiving the gift of forgiveness and praying sinner's prayer are incomplete to be born again. Repentance is not saying "Sorry God, forgive me." It's the decision to give your life to Him, change your mind about who the King is and surrender to the Kingdom's way.
This is the reason why whenever the Gospel is shared, the signs and miracles must follow to confirm the King and His Kingdom (Mark 16:20). Not to confirm how anointed the preacher is.
Only when the King and His Kingdom are being preached can people hear, believe and call on Him to be truly born again (Rom 10:13-14).
Perhaps we have been doing street evangelism wrongly.
Perhaps the church in general has been preaching the Gospel wrongly.
Perhaps we have been leading people to Christ wrongly, feeling so pumped that we have many salvation testimonies (when they are not born again), especially those whom we have brief encounters in the streets and in our daily lives. I was one of such.
Don't lose the fire and zeal. But don't lose the truth too.
P.S: Check out how Curry Blake led people to be truly born again in my earlier post. No sinner's prayer is involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment