Thanks to the excellent work of my good friend, Mark Ward, at Forward Design, I now have a ministry card for my itinerant preaching and teaching ministry–praise God!
Please pray with me that God would use this new resource to expand my ministry greatly.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Both Scripture and history provide us with stirring accounts of mass evangelism. Because we can only have total certainty about the genuine success of those mass evangelistic encounters that have been recorded in Scripture, we should give the most careful attention possible to the records of those encounters.
Many scriptural accounts record success in seeing a number of people truly saved (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 8:12; 10:44; 11:21; 13:43, 48; 16:15; 16:32-34; 17:4, 12; 18:8). Of these accounts, only Acts 2 and 10 provide us with sufficient information to know that there were many believers present to attest to the success of the mass evangelistic encounter that took place on those occasions.
At Pentecost, Peter and the eleven were present (2:14) when about three thousand people were saved (2:41). The account, however, does not clearly indicate to us that every lost person present was saved; in fact, it seems to indicate that was not the case by saying that “they that gladly received his word were baptized” (2:41), which implies that there were those present who did not receive his word.
At Gentecost, Peter and six other brethren were present (11:12) when he preached to Cornelius and “the many [“his kinsmen and near friends”; 10:24] that were come together” (10:27). While Peter was preaching his message, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word” (10:44).
These statements thus make clear to us that Peter enjoyed 100% success in this mass evangelism encounter, and that there were seven witnesses to the genuineness of the salvation of every lost person who heard Peter’s message (10:45-48)! The importance of these witnesses being present on that occasion is underscored by Peter’s reference to them (11:12) in his subsequent defense of his evangelizing them (11:4-17).
What’s more, at the Jerusalem Council, when the truth of how Gentiles were to be saved was being intensely debated, Peter referred back to Gentecost when he declared, “God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (15:8-9). God thus was the eight and Premier Witness to the genuineness of their salvation!
Because the Gentecost accounts provide us with this glorious record of many witnesses, both human and divine, to one-hundred percent success in mass evangelism of Gentiles, we who evangelize Gentiles today should make sure that we give this marvelous evangelistic account its rightful place of preeminence in our evangelistic doctrine and practice.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Let’s face it—right now preaching the Word is out of season. Humanity is experiencing God’s wrath as He gives people over to consequences of sinful choices . . . . Society may be feeling this divine abandonment in our age more than ever before. And the decline in preaching in the church can actually contribute to people’s sense of helplessness. . . .
But the market-driven philosophy currently in vogue says that declaring biblical truth is outmoded. Biblical exposition and theology are seen as antiquated and irrelevant. “Churchgoers don’t want to be preached to anymore,” this philosophy says. “The baby-boom generation won’t just sit in the pew while someone up front preaches. They are products of a media-driven generation, and they need a church experience that will satisfy them on their own terms.”
But Paul says [2 Tim. 4:2ff.] the excellent minister must be faithful to preach the Word even when it is not in fashion. . . . Paul was speaking of an explosive eagerness to preach, like that of Jeremiah, who said that the Word of God was a fire in his bones. That’s what he was demanding of Timothy. Not reluctance but readiness. Not hesitation but fearlessness. No cool talk but the fire of the Word of God.
—John F. MacArthur, Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World, 33
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Tonight, I had the privilege of preaching an evangelistic message at Berean Baptist Church in Fountain Inn, SC. My message focused on a detailed exposition of Psalms 1-2. I praise God for giving me clarity today concerning a key point about Psalm 2 that I had not fully understood previously!
Psalm 2 begins with a record of rebellious kings and rulers who desire to throw off the authority of God and His anointed over them (2:1-3). It then records the angry response of the Father (2:4-6), followed by the Son’s declaration (2:7-9) and the psalmist’s closing appeal (2:10-12).
The psalmist directed the very authorities who were spoken of earlier as rebelling against God to be wise and be instructed (2:10). He then explained those directives by declaring that they would have to turn from rebelling against God to serving Him with fear and rejoicing with trembling (2:11). This complete reversal toward the Lord was an appeal for them to repent toward God.
The psalmist continued by demanding that they submit to and honor the Son and put their trust in Him (2:12). This reversal of their prior opposition to Him and call to entrust themselves to Him was a further appeal for their repentance toward God and an appeal to believe in the Son.
This analysis shows that Psalm 2 highlights God’s appeal for repentance and faith on the part of the very authorities who rebelled against Him and His Christ!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Lord willing, I will be one of four preachers ministering in upcoming evangelistic services for Berean Baptist Church in Fountain Inn, SC. The services begin at 7pm this Sunday, August 6, and run through Wednesday, August 10.
I am scheduled to preach on Tuesday night, August 9. If you are near the Greenville area, I would like to invite you to try to bring some lost people to the services.
As the Lord brings it to mind, please pray for Spirit-filled skillfulness for us in proclaiming the Word and for the Lord to open the hearts of our hearers.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In most cases, a preacher will be preaching to a mixed audience of both genders and people of widely different ages and levels of both spiritual knowledge and maturity. Given this great diversity in his hearers, for whom should he preach?
Should a preacher construct and deliver his sermon in such a manner that his entire audience equally will be able to follow and understand all that he says? Although such a goal may initially seem a worthy thing to aspire to, is such a goal really what a preacher should aspire to? What’s more, how attainable is such a goal and what would a preacher have to sacrifice to attain such a goal?
In order for young children and even less mature believers to understand his entire message to the same extent that adults who are very mature believers would understand it, a preacher would have to greatly simplify nearly everything he would say. Such simplification would make thorough and accurate handling virtually impossible for much of Scripture.
My current thinking is that the preacher should not aim for equal understanding for his entire audience. Rather, he should preach as much of the text as he can as thoroughly as he can, making sure that his major ideas are so clear that as many people as possible will understand them.
In his development of his message, however, the preacher should not overly simplify what he says merely for the sake of simplicity. Such an approach may often result in many of the more mature and knowledgeable believers in his audience profiting little from his preaching.
Although God intends for all believers to profit from His word, it is impossible that all of them will profit equally. Believers at different levels of understanding will profit at differing levels from the Bible; the preacher should understand that the same would be true for his preaching as well.
The preacher, therefore, should aim to profit believers at all levels, and the best way of doing that is to preach thoroughly and accurately whatever text or texts he preaches. Beyond that, he should pray that God would illumine and enlighten the minds of his hearers.
Having prayed, prepared, and ministered in such a manner, the preacher should trust God to give understanding to his hearers at levels that will be suitable for each one.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Following Peter’s message at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36), his audience asked him what they should do (2:37) in view of what he had preached and the effect that his message had on them. Luke records Peter’s response to their request in two parts: (1) 2:38-39 and (2) 2:40.
In the latter, Luke tells us that “with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation.'” Because of Peter’s ministry on this occasion, including his lengthy final appeal, about 3000 people gladly received his word, and they were baptized (2:41a). In that same day, they were added to the apostles (2:41b).
Peter’s ministry included more than just proclamation of his message; he forcefully exhorted his hearers at length to respond properly to what they had heard. He thus exemplifies for us how we should minister the word to people: preach the message and then challenge people “with many other words” to respond correctly.
Based on this teaching, a lengthy invitation at the end of an evangelistic message should not automatically be viewed as a human expedient intended to manipulate people to respond. Although such an invitation could be abused by using it in a manipulative manner, we should not regard giving a lengthy invitation as an inherently unjustified practice.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Melody and chords for Like A River Glorious in my format for guitar.
My sermon from Wednesday night: Honor God by Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 6 presents the Lord’s commissioning of Isaiah. He saw a vision of the Lord on His throne (6:1-4). His response to the vision (6:5) led to a seraphim’s acting to consecrate him for his commission by dealing with his iniquity and sin (6:6-7).
Isaiah then heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (6:8a). He responded by volunteering himself to be sent by the Lord (6:8b). The remaining verses in the chapter relate the details of his commissioning (6:9-13).
Preachers have used Isaiah 6:1-8 to challenge believers to be involved in evangelism and missions. Based on what I can recall from my experience, they have not treated his actual commission (6:9-13) much at all in those messages. Treating the passage in that manner may have resulted in obscuring important understanding for many believers because of what the rest of the passage teaches Isaiah’s commission actually was.
The Lord accepted Isaiah’s volunteering himself and directed him to go communicate His message to His people (6:9a). He was to tell them, “Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not” (6:9b). His mission also included that he was to “make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (6:10).
These statements show that Isaiah’s mission was hardly an evangelistic one in the traditional sense. Rather, Isaiah was being sent as an agent of God who would not bring about their turning to the Lord—he would actually serve to harden them so that they would not see, hear, understand, convert, and be healed.
The ensuing dialogue between Isaiah and the Lord confirms this interpretation (6:11-13). Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long?” (6:11a). The Lord responded, “Until cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land (6:11b-12). Isaiah was thus informed that the hardening would continue until there would come about a great destruction among His people. God, however, did provide him with some hope by telling him that there would be a tenth who would be a remnant, who would yet suffer judgment themselves, but from whom also there would yet be “the holy seed” (6:13).
This analysis suggests that preachers should not use Isaiah 6 to challenge believers about evangelism and missions without at least some explanation of what Isaiah’s actual commission was. By at least briefly explaining the original sense of the passage, the preacher who chooses to use Isaiah 6 to challenge contemporary believers will be less likely to promote his audience’s having a superficial understanding of or even a total lack of awareness of the original significance of the passage as a whole.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Over my years as a Christian, I have heard the phrase, “a simple gospel message,” used quite a number of times. People have expressed their appreciation for preachers who have preached such a message. Those training others for ministry have exhorted their students to preach such messages. Interestingly, I do not recall ever having anyone explain how the Scripture teaches us to preach such a message or what exactly constitutes such a message.
Because of the seemingly widespread use of this phrase and the desire for ministers to preach such messages, we would do well to consider how we would answer the question, “Does Scripture teach us to preach a simple gospel message?” To try to answer this question, we will consider several points.
The phrase, “a simple gospel message,” does not occur anywhere in Scripture. The adjective, “simple,” is not found anywhere in explicit teaching concerning the gospel.
The noun, “simplicity,” is found three times in the NT (Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 1:12 and 11:3). The first occurrence is not relevant because it concerns the manner of our giving. The second is in a general statement about conducting our lives in the world and does not directly pertain to what we are to preach.
The third occurrence is in Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 11 and does concern proper preaching. To the Corinthians, Paul wrote that he feared, “lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (11:3). He then explained his concern by saying,
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostle. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service (11:4-7).
Three occurrences of two keys verb for preaching and two references concerning the gospel show that this is an important passage concerning our preaching the gospel. Paul’s references to the serpent’s beguiling Eve and to the preaching of another Jesus show that he is concerned about the preaching of a false Jesus and a false gospel by false apostles (cf. 11:12-15). In that connection, he mentions his being “rude in speech” in contrast from the false apostles who touted their speaking abilities in their attempt to draw away the Corinthians from Paul.
He did not mention his lack of eloquence in preaching, however, to teach that gospel preaching should be characteristically simple concerning the content of what is to be preached. As we will see below, Luke’s records of key instances of the preaching of the gospel display considerable complexity and depth in the content of the evangelistic messages by the apostles.
In Paul’s latter reference to the preaching of the gospel (11:7ff.), Paul contrasts himself with the false apostles when he speaks of his foregoing remuneration for preaching the gospel. Neither concern in this context has anything to do directly with the content of his preaching the true gospel being simple.
An examination of the two premier apostolic evangelistic occasions, Pentecost and Gentecost, verifies this interpretation. Peter’s Pentecost message contains statements that interpreters struggle to explain fully even today (Acts 2:16-21). Peter’s abundant testimony to both the Father and the Son along with several references to the Holy Spirit (2:17, 18, 33, 38) show that he evangelized his hearers with a message that was highly Trinitarian and not simply preaching about Jesus Himself and the events that He experienced.
Moreover, Peter’s explicit statements about God’s approving Jesus (2:22), doing miracles through Him (2:22), raising Him (2:24, 32), exalting Him (2:33), giving Him the Holy Spirit (2:33), and making Him both Lord and Christ (2:36) intensely challenged the hearers with content concerning Jesus as God’s agent; Peter’s focus was not solely or even primarily on the deity of Jesus. He thus forced his hearers to have to reckon with Jesus’ humanity in relation to His deity as well as His agency in relation to His deity.
Peter’s message of the gospel at Pentecost was not a message that was concerned with testifying to Jesus alone with a primary focus on His deity. The Church thus began with his message that was not “a simple gospel message” with respect to its content.
Peter’s message at Gentecost similarly was not a “simple gospel message” about Jesus alone as deity. As he did at Pentecost, Peter preached a Trinitarian message that abundantly referred to both God and Jesus, including an explicit statement of how the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power (10:38a). He also forced his hearers to have to reckon with the existence of evil in the supernatural realm by proclaiming Jesus’ healing all who were oppressed by the devil (10:38b). Moreover, instead of focusing on Jesus’ miraculous works as proof of His deity, Peter emphasized God’s empowering Him (10:38a) and accompanying Him (10:38c).
As he did at Pentecost, Peter strongly emphasized Jesus’ agency (10:36, 38), including a unique explicit statement about Jesus as the God-appointed Judge (10:42) that does not easily fit in with many contemporary perspectives about evangelism and missions. This statement presents other challenges to interpreters as well, including the precise nature of its relation to the next verse concerning the forgiveness of sins through believing in His name (10:43).
These two preeminent evangelistic messages in church history do not line up with the notion of preaching of “a simple gospel message” either with reference to its content overall or with reference to a focus solely on Jesus and His deity. Should we then hold that the Scripture teaches us to preach “a simple gospel message”?
In response to this line of reasoning, some may point to the evangelistic accounts about the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) and of the Philippian jailor (16:25-34) as evidence that supports the preaching of “a simple gospel message.” Although Luke does provide fairly lengthy overall records of these evangelistic encounters, he does not provide much information about what was actually testified to the lost people.
In future articles, I plan to look carefully at these accounts to see if they support an approach that does not make the Pentecost and Gentecost accounts (along with 1 Cor. 15:3-5) the primary models for our learning to preach the gospel. For now, I say that it is highly improbable that these very brief summary statements (Acts 8:35; 16:31) of what were undoubtedly much longer messages are intended to be normative for our evangelism in preference above the records of the premier evangelistic messages for both Jews and Gentiles that are recorded in Scripture.
There does not seem to be any clear scriptural teaching that teaches us to preach “a simple gospel message” in the sense discussed above. Hence, we would do well to adjust what we say to one another in this respect, especially in our discipleship activities that are geared toward training ministers and personal workers in evangelism.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
