You Can’t Spell Gospel without Go

Christmas Messages

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Dec 12, 2023

You Can’t Spell Gospel without Go

6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” ⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

The prophet Isaiah has a vision of the glory of God. Don’t hurry past the first words of chapter 6: in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up… Earthly kings come and go. They rise up and they die. But the Lord’s rule and glory goes on forever and ever. His kingdom never ends.

Isaiah has a vision of God’s glory and it totally undoes him. “Woe is me! For I am lost and a man of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” He’s undone, he’s paralyzed by guilt and shame, he realizes he’s not a vessel the Lord can send anywhere. But an angel takes a burning coal from the altar and touches Isaiah’s lips and says this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

And the next thing he hears is the Lord saying “who will go for us?” Isaiah says, “Here I am! Send me!”

As we were driving to Santa Marta I felt the Lord drop this message title in my heart: You Can’t Spell Gospel without Go. The gospel is the good news of Jesus coming to save us from our sins and “go” is a big part of that good news.

1. From Heaven’s perspective the gospel wasn’t Jesus coming to earth, the gospel was Jesus “going” to earth

The angels in heaven must have wondered what was going on. As Jesus prepared to leave heaven and go to earth, they must have wondered why? Why would Jesus, the King of Heaven, leave his throne and go to earth as a helpless baby? Why would he empty himself of the power and glory of his Godhood and take on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of a men (Phil. 2)? Peter wrote that the angels longed to look into these things. What on earth what was God up to?

Somewhere in the corridors of eternity past, God saw that mankind would fall and in His wisdom He planned to save them. We can picture God the Father asking, as He did in Isaiah 6, “who will I send? Who will go for me?” – and Jesus answering “here I am, I will go, send me!”

You can’t spell gospel without “go”. Jesus lived a life of “going”. He would go from heaven to earth to save the world. He would go to the poor and brokenhearted to preach good news to them (Isa. 61). He would go to the cross to give his life as a ransom for us.

Jesus is truly the burning coal taken from the furnace of the cross who, when spiritually applied to us, can take away all our guilt and atone for all our sin. There would be no gospel – no good news – if Jesus didn’t answer His Father’s call to “go”. If Jesus didn’t go to the lost, the poor, the brokenhearted. If Jesus refused to go to the cross, there wouldn’t be a gospel.

As Christmas approaches we not only celebrate Jesus coming, we celebrate Jesus going: we celebrate Jesus saying to the Father “yes, I will go, send me.” We read that Jesus went to the poor, the oppressed, the simple, the brokenhearted, the lost and the sinner, and we thank God he did – for we were in that number. You can’t spell gospel without “go”.

2. The Lord commands us to go into the world with the gospel

After Jesus rose from the dead he told his disciples he was going once again – going back to the Father having accomplished all he came to accomplish. But before he ascended to heaven, he commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded us. Go! He says. The only way they can be saved is if you share the good news with them. Paul writes in Rom. 10:

⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved… ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”Rom. 10:9-15

While we were in Barranquilla we stayed with Juan and Angie Hernandez. Juan is the senior pastor of Mission Rescato and his wife Angie is such a loving person and she’s also a force of nature and Janice said when it was time to do the next thing she’d clap her hands and say, “go, go, go!” She isn’t being bossy, she isn’t being obnoxious, she just cares so much for the women and is excited and passionate to love and serve them in every way she can – so every minute is precious. Grace Community Church, let’s hear our Savior’s command to “go, go, go!”

1. Go believing that people are spiritually open and ready for the gospel

Survey’s reveal that people are very open to spiritual things now. They are hungering for something deeper than what the world offers them. Whether they know it or not, they are ready for the good news of Jesus. The emptiness of the world has prepared them for it.

Ron Hutchcraft writes, In a world where so little is certain, they are ready for a Savior who is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb. 13:8) In a world where stress is king…they are ready for a Savior who said, “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. (John 14:27. With so many breaking, broken, and hurting relationships, they are ready for a Savior who says, “He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted.” (Isa. 61:1) With the inner weight of so many mistakes made over a lifetime, they are ready for a Savior whose message is that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:43) With less certainty about what happens after their last heartbeat, they are ready for a Savior who promises, “I am going…to prepare a place for you. And…I will come back and take you to be with me.” (John 14:2-3)

People are ready for the good news and they desperately need the good news. But if you’ve tried to share the gospel it may feel like they aren’t open at all. I’ve thought this but I’m changing my mind – I think people are open, we just need to get better at sharing the good news. Here are some ways we can be more effective in presenting the gospel of Jesus:

2. Go on our knees

Before we talk to people about God we need to spend time talking to God about people. We can’t save people, only God can save a soul, so we should pray every day for the Lord to open people’s hearts to the gospel and open our mouths to share the gospel. We should go on our knees having prayed for people in our lives who don’t know Jesus.

3. Go with love

Paul said it was the love of Christ that compelled him to preach the gospel. It was love that compelled Jesus to come as our Savior. May the love of Christ so fill our hearts that we cannot keep silent, cannot keep the good news to ourselves but are compelled to share it with those around us.

4. Go where people are – not where we want them to be

America was built on Judeo-Christian values. For most of our history people went to church or synagogue. Most people believed in absolute right and wrong. They believed in a set of morals. You could say to them “this is what the Bible says” and they’d accept the Bible’s moral authority to speak to them.

Not anymore. Church attendance is shrinking. Growing numbers of people no longer believe in absolute right and wrong. They don’t accept the Bible as a moral authority anymore. That’s where people are today – and if we go where people were 50 years ago, we’re going to find no one’s there.

People don’t believe in sin like they used to. Sin is real, and it’s the core of their spiritual problem and central to the gospel (Jesus came to save us from our sins), but if they don’t believe there is such a thing as sin, it may not be the best starting place when we share. We need to get there eventually but a better starting place might be the symptoms of sin – because that they do believe in. They feel the loneliness. The despair. The broken relationships. The deep sense of emptiness and hopelessness.

They may not believe in sin, but they feel the symptoms of sin and Jesus has good news for them. He came to bind up the broken hearted. To set free the captive. To give living bread and water to the spiritually hungry and thirsty. Meet them where they feel the needs strongest and then incrementally bring it to their deepest – but often unfelt – need which is to be rescued from God’s wrath and restored to relationship with God.

Going where people are means learning to speak their language. In Colombia we felt the barrier of speaking different languages. It’s a real thing. When we didn’t have an interpreter, it was very challenging and wearying to try and communicate. Janice got real good at Google Translate and near the end I got better too. We’d hold out Google Translate and it would translate what they say, then it would translate for them what we said.

5. Go with your story

You have a story of how God saved you and drew you to Himself. You have stories of how God has met you, answered prayers, given you strength and comfort in hard times, how you’ve experienced His love, how He’s changed you as you’ve walked with Him. You’re not the same person you were a year ago or five years ago. If you are the same person, something’s wrong! Your relationship with God is on auto-pilot and that’s not healthy – press in to God and recommit to following Jesus.

6. Go to hear their story

Phil Courson shared how he met a guy who was trans, and he was able to build a bridge to him by asking him to share his story. Everyone has a story. Everyone is more than the surface image they present. Everyone is more than their sexual identity or political affiliation or personal beliefs. We can get to know them and care about them as we hear their story.

7. Go with the good news of Jesus

Jesus didn’t come to bash us over the head or judge us over our sin or reject us cause we weren’t holy enough or get us to follow 101 rules or get religion or motivate us to be our best selves.

He came to bring us good news and that good news is Jesus himself. Jesus came to rescue us from sin and restore us to a strong, loving relationship with our heavenly Father. Religion can’t do that. Politics can’t do that. Sex and sexual identity can’t do that. Money or education or vocation or family values can’t do that. Only Jesus can do that. He is alive and he is with us. Go with the good news of Jesus to those in our lives.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20

That is the good news of the gospel! Let’s go and share it brothers and sisters!