Who taught you the gospel? Maybe it was your parents, grandparents, or someone else in your family. It is common for families to pass their faith down to the next generation (2 Timothy 1:5). Maybe a friend, neighbor, or coworker shared the truth of God’s word with you. Nowadays, maybe you watched a sermon on Facebook, took an online Bible study, or heard a podcast. Maybe it was a combination of these things or others. Are you grateful for those who took their time to share the gospel? Where would you be if they had not shared the gospel with you? I read a quote the other day by Emil Brunner that said, "One who receives this Word, and by it salvation, receives along with it the duty of passing this Word on... Where there is no mission, there is no Church, and where there is neither Church nor mission, there is no faith.”
What was Jesus’ plan for the spread of the gospel? His creation. We see an example of this in Matthew 28:18-20 when Jesus tells His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples. How do we make disciples? We must give them the Word of God. That is how faith comes (Romans 10:17). We see the gospel being passed down from Paul to Timothy and then from Timothy to other faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2). I do not believe God’s church will be destroyed (Matthew 16:18), but we can hinder its growth when we neglect our responsibility.
If you are a child of God, you were probably blessed to have those in your life who taught you the gospel. If we do not teach, will we have the same problem they had a few generations after Joshua (Judges 2:7-10)? Evangelism is not always fun. Fun does not make things right. Maybe you have been met with disappointment. Remember they are not rejecting you but Jesus. Brooks is going to be leading a door-knocking campaign on October 7th. If that is not an opportunity you can take advantage of, who will you share the gospel with?