Category: Evangelism

Don’t Believe a Half-Gospel

2/28/2017

Tonight I preached on 1 John 4:17–18:

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment.…There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

These are words of promise given to the children of God, those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit. This is the promise: if you believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you need no longer fear God's judgment.

John is not saying that no one should fear God's judgment. In fact, if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, fearing God's judgment is exactly what you should be doing. Jesus said,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

The Apostle Paul repeated Jesus' message:

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:9)

Notice that salvation from the wrath of God is a promise given to those who have been justified by His blood. Apart from His blood, there is no escape from God's wrath.

This is the true Gospel. It says, "The wrath of God abides on you. You stand condemned before God. Believe in Jesus Christ and be saved." In other words, the true Gospel sees fear of God's judgment as a necessary precursor which compels us to receive God's grace.

But there's a half-gospel that is taking over.

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Gearing Up

7/20/2016

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The past two weeks, we've been spending time after our summer Bible study praying for the upcoming semester. Two Tuesdays ago, we read 2 Corinthians 5:17–20:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

We prayed that God would give us hearts to be His ambassadors, and that He would prepare specific new people who are "weary and heavy-laden" and seeking rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28).

Last night we read 1 Peter 2:9–10:

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We thanked God for His excellent mercy in calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We then asked for God to stir our hearts to serve in particular ways in ministry with CNCF. Students signed up to pray, to plan Welcome Week activities, to plans fellowship events during the year, to plan our Fall Retreat, to greet students at Tuesday-night gatherings on campus, and much more!

All of these ways of participating in ministry are practical ways that we live out our calling as "priests" to IU and Bloomington, because we do these things so that people might be reconciled to God.

We're excited to welcome new students!

Alex McNeilly
Campus Director

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How Should Christians Respond to Orlando?

6/20/2016

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A week and a half ago, 49 people were shot and killed at a gay night club in Orlando. Multitudes have taken to the web (myself now included) to comment on how we should respond to this tragedy. Each person who says anything is standing on some moral high ground from which they’re condemning or approving of other people’s responses. Let’s be honest: we’re all making judgments. Even if your message is “Stop judging, just love people!” guess what, you’re making moral judgments. I’m going to make some judgments too, because my hope is to help us all “judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

The lion’s share of Christian responses I’ve seen to what happened in Orlando have been some version of “let’s not make judgments right now—our job as Christians is just to love, weep, mourn, comfort,” etc.

First, a confession of my own sin…

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Is Jesus Really All about Love?

11/9/2015

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At our Bible studies last week, we asked the question, "Is Jesus really all about love?"

First, we read well over a dozen passages from the New Testament which talk about Jesus' love, compassion, and mercy. Here are two:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:16–17)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34–35)

After reading many such passages, we came to the conclusion that, in His time on earth, Jesus was indeed driven by love.

But then we asked the question, "If Jesus is really all about love, then what's different about the love that Jesus teaches, as compared to the teaching of other philosophers and religious teachers?"

Isn't that a claim you've heard people make? That Jesus' teaching boils down to the same moral message as Gandhi's, Buddha's, Lennon's, Gaga's…? Have you made that claim? What's supposed to be so different about Jesus' teaching? Is there anything different?

Here's one big way to answer the question…

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Don’t Believe a Half-Gospel

Gearing Up

How Should Christians Respond to Orlando?

Is Jesus Really All about Love?

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