Proclaiming Christ in a time of opposition and opportunity

Despite being busy with evangelistic preaching, teaching and ministry, I make time to understand the world we live in. I need to because the challenge in evangelism is to present God’s unchanging and unchangeable message to a world where change is a daily occurrence.

This year I have observed two conflicting trends. The first trend is opposition. There has been a deepening of hostility to traditional evangelical Christianity. The resistance to any sort of ‘faithful faith’ is growing. It’s well known that the best way to unite a body is to offer them a common enemy, and we evangelical Christians have become a target.

The second trend is opportunity. This, in contrast, is profoundly encouraging and centres around the numerous accounts – making it even into the secular press – of men and women, some of considerable intelligence and repute, who are now openly speaking positively of the Christian faith or even of coming to faith in Christ. Suddenly, to refer positively to Christianity or to mention that you attend church does not result in mockery. I believe this new receptivity to curiosity, and even a fascination with Christianity, goes beyond a few high-profile individuals; I think it’s increasingly widespread.

HERE, however, I want to offer a slight caution. Some of these people seem to have come to a genuine faith to the point of baptism and church involvement. Others, however, are merely talking about their faith in a ‘cultural Christianity’ and acknowledging the powerful role that Christianity has played in Western culture. Yet curiosity is not conversion. They are ‘almost Christians’. Although they are on the right road and facing the right way, they stand hesitating, without fully trusting in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord. The opportunity here is to encourage them to take that final step.

What’s challenging is that both of these trends – opposition and opportunity – bring pressures on what we evangelists do and say. The fact is we all hate to be hated and we all love to be loved. In thinking about a response I’ve been struck by St Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:17: ‘We do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God’ (NIV). Here I find four principles to govern our reaction.

FIRST, we must be authentic in our preaching. Paul describes the false teachers in the Corinthian church as those who ‘peddle the word of God for profit’. Paul is not primarily condemning the acceptance of financial support; after all, in 1 Timothy 5:18 he writes, ‘The worker deserves his wages’ (NIV). Rather, he is condemning the corruption of the gospel message. The Greek word translated as ‘peddle’ was used of those traders and innkeepers who watered down what they sold. In Corinth the false teachers have diluted or distorted the gospel for the sake of popularity and profit. The paraphrase of The Message catches the sense well: ‘We don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap.’ Authenticity is urgently needed today.

Those who feel condemned by Christianity angrily demand we mute our message. Those enquirers who are hesitating over the Christian faith would like us to lower the entry requirements. For neither can we water down a gospel that demands total commitment and surrender to Christ as Lord.

SECOND, we must be appointed by God. Our evangelistic ministry must be done in Christ. It’s a rich little phrase that reminds us that all we do must be done in, with and through our Lord. As Jesus himself said to his disciples, ‘No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me’ (John 15:4 NIV). We must belong to Christ, be equipped and directed by his Spirit and be under his lordship.

THIRD, we must be accountable to God. Paul writes that ‘we speak before God with sincerity’. The sense is that we speak honestly in God’s sight. However tempting it might be to alter our message, we cannot go beyond the limits God has set. Politicians are answerable to voters, managers to directors, but we are answerable to God.

FINALLY, we must have an authority from God. We are to speak before God ‘as those sent from God’. The great news as authentic evangelists is that our message is not a human one with its inevitable weaknesses and uncertainties. On the contrary, it is one that carries our Master’s powerful authority. This is why authenticity is essential; God will not put his signature on a message that has been changed.

In these fascinating days of both opposition and opportunity I am determined that whatever the pushes and pulls of this world, neither I nor my trustees and team at Philo offer anything less than a full-strength gospel message. We must be authentic, appointed by God, accountable to him and to speak with his authority.

This rigidity, even inflexibility, may seem counterproductive in these days when everybody seeks their own desires. Perhaps . . . but there’s a twist. The way that an authentic Christianity stands firm and uncompromising is actually an appealing attraction in a fluid and flexible world where we are expected to make our own truth.

We face both opposition and opportunity. Deep down, they are the two reactions to the gospel, and our Lord Jesus faced both. With grace we need to stand firm against those who oppose us and, at the same time, use the opportunity of the many who are pondering the faith to help them become true followers of Jesus. In these strange yet strategic times of opposition and opportunity, will you please help us defend and build the Kingdom of Christ?

Will you please prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner or make a one-off donation?

Keep the faith!

J.John

Revd Canon

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