Pastor's Blog: "Proclaiming the Gospel"
| | Dr. Wayne Splawn
Every day we are inundated with more bad news. This week we learned of a tragic school shooting in which an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two adults in an elementary school in Texas. Last week another 18-year-old man killed 13 people in a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. Eleven of those killed in that shooting were targeted because of the color of their skin. In addition to these recent shootings, we also learned about a sex abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention that is nothing short of evil. All these events have occurred in a world already devastated by the war in Ukraine that has taken many lives, and these recent tragedies have added more stress to people living in a world already in turmoil due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of us also know the difficulties of living through sufferings that will never make the front page of a newspaper or be the top headline of any website. People we love are dealing with incredibly difficult medical diagnoses. We see relational strife in families that has caused conflict between husbands and wives and parents and children. We know of people who struggle with addiction that has robbed them of the abundant life they once enjoyed. In such a world, most of us are longing to hear some good news.
Therefore, I think it is so important that our church be serious about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in our community and world. “Gospel” is a Greek word that means “good news.” What good news do we have to proclaim? We have the good news that God is present and active in our world and that even now he reigns as Lord over all creation. We have the good news that all people are created in God’s image and deserving of love and respect. We have the good news that though we have sinned against the Lord and against one another, the Lord himself has taken on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and reconciled us to God and to one another through his life, death, and resurrection. We have the good news that Jesus can satisfy the desires of our hearts when everything and everyone else in the world leaves us wanting. We have the good news that one day Jesus Christ will return to the earth to complete God’s work of redemption so that sin and death and evil will be no more.
I am not calling us to minimize the pain and suffering we see in our world or in the lives of those we love. I am not calling us to ignore the evil and injustice we hear about in the news or read about on the internet. After all, the Book of Psalms tells us that God keeps track of every tear we’ve wept over the brokenness of this world (Psalm 56:8). He is a God who is near to those who suffer, and he is a God who promises that evil and injustice will not have the last word. But I am calling us to remember that bad news is not all there is to proclaim. May the Lord use Mountain Brook Baptist Church to proclaim the gospel in word and deed in our community, state, nation, and world. People are longing to hear some word of good news. Who will share it if not us?
"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" (Romans 10:14-15, ESV)