How Will You React to the Gospel Preached?
So many Christians today make note of that amazing day called Pentecost when Peter stood up and preached Jesus for the very first time and out of the thousands upon thousands that heard the gospel—only 3,000 souls obeyed it and were baptized for the remission of sins, and added to the church, which is the body of Christ (Acts 2:38, 41, 47; Col. 1:18, 24). So, what about you? Have you heard the gospel? How did you react? Did you act in faith or not?
Not everyone does and in fact there are many ways to react and I hope you’ll do the right thing and not as the majority do in the following examples.
Are you “greatly disturbed”? In Acts we read of Peter and John who spoke to people about Jesus. The record states, “…the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:1-2). Is this you? When Jesus is preached do you want to lay hands on the preacher or will you be like the 5,000 who “heard the word and believed”? (Acts 4:4).
In Acts chapter 5 we read of how some react to preachers preaching Jesus. Are you like these who on hearing Jesus preach are, “filled with [a]indignation” (v.18) and “strictly command” that men stop teaching in Jesus’ name (v.28)? Or do you get, “furious[g] and plotted to kill them” (v.33).
There was a man called Stephen who preached of Jesus with great wisdom and the Spirit and some heard and were jealous and worried that Jesus, “will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us” (Acts 6:14). We all have grown up to believe many things. We all have a “world view”, we all tend to fight against anything that is different than what we were raised to believe. But is that the attitude you have toward Jesus? Are you afraid that accepting His gospel will destroy everything you have known and believed? Is that why you refuse to obey the gospel? My friend think about what you will lose if you don’t set aside your way for His way. Your way will not lead to eternal life with Him.
Or are you so angry that you talk over the preacher and “stop up your ears” (Acts 7:54-58)? Do you just put your fingers metaphorically into your ears and say, “La, La, La, I can’t hear you!”?
Will you react like the Jews who when others wanted to hear the word of God preached by Paul “were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Pau”? That is when you hear Jesus preached do you oppose it, try to come up with contradictory things to make others reject it? If so, know that you are judging, “yourselves unworthy of everlasting life” (Acts 13:44-50).
There are many who will spend their whole lives afraid of true gospel preaching. People who are greatly disturbed, filled with indignation wanting the preachers of truth to stop. So many have grown up in “a church” and are terrified when they hear the true gospel because it will destroy everything they have always believed. So, the majority just plug up their ears and refuse to listen. Are you of the majority? Or are you of the few who will enter the narrow and difficult gate that leads to everlasting life (Matt. 7:14)? Many simply judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life by being contradictory. Is this you?
Are you so unbelieving like the Jews in Iconium who, “stirred up the Gentiles and [a]poisoned their [b]minds against the brethren” (Acts 14:1-2). Is that your mission in life? Are you a teacher? Do you make it your mission to poison the minds of the young people you teach? Or, do you stifle their right to look at both sides of the issue because you yourself don’t believe? Be warned, Jesus said, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42).
In Acts 22 we read how some react at the word of Jesus: “And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!” 23 Then, as they cried out and [a]tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, and said that he should be examined under scourging, so that he might know why they shouted so against him” (vv. 22-24).
In your heart are you willing to stone the preacher and leave him for dead because he preached Jesus? That’s what the Jews from Antioch and Iconium did to Paul (Acts 14:19). In your heart would you like to see the gospel preachers beaten with the lash, and cast into prison and have their feet in the stocks, like what they did to Paul and Silas in Philippi (Acts 16:16-24).
Will you despise the preaching so that the time will come when your heart is so hardened that you will never believe? I hope not because there will come a time when the preacher will move on and depart from you (Acts 19:8-10).
These are examples of how not to react to the preaching of the good news of Christ Jesus. Fact is that by not listening, or reacting in the previous ways, you are just cutting yourself off from a truly wonderful life in Christ. What I mean is that it is not just your salvation that is at stake, although that is most important. But you are missing out on the peace that only Jesus can give (John 14:27). You are missing out on the joyful fellowship with the Lord and the members of the church and the cleansing blood (1 John 1:7). You are missing out on the benefits of the many blessings that are only found in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
Will you be like the “great number believed and turned to the Lord” when they heard Barnabas and Saul preaching the Lord Jesus (Acts 11:21)? When you heard the gospel preached once do you want to hear more like the gentiles in Antioch who “begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath” (Acts 13:42).
Will you be like the Bereans who took time to check and see if the preacher was telling the truth accurately. “10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more [a]fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.” (Acts 17:10-12)? Or will you be like those who, “…learned that the word of God was preached…and stirred up the crowds” (Acts 17:13)?
Could you be like the people at Athens who, “when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter” (Acts 17:32). Or in Ephesus, “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5).
“8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the [a]fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things [b]through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:8-9)
In Love
Dave Scarpino
Our faithful Creator is worthy to be praised in this assembly. All praise to Him who reigns above in majesty supreme! He gave His Son to die, for all mankind, that He might redeem all. Our blessed Redeemer suffered and died for our sins and is now risen and sitting at the right hand of God as Head of the church. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, knowing that He is the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:8-9) “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” (1 Chron. 16:34)