Preaching an unheard of gospel

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

When Paul went travelling to preach, he went out of his way to places where the name of Jesus Christ was unheard of. This was partly because it was the work of an apostle to lay the foundations, and some aspects of Paul’s work are not replicable today. However, his example is also instructive and encouraging for preachers in our own times to take up the task of bringing the exalted Saviour to the attention of those who have never before heard of him. It fulfils various prophecies about Christ’s exaltation when godless places become God-fearing. Yet according to some estimates, a third of the world’s population have never been reached with the gospel. Only 10% of cross-cultural missionaries work where the gospel has not been before (although some indicate that that number could be as low as 4%). India alone has over 1.3 billion people in over 2,000 people groups who have not been contacted with the good news about Jesus. There is still a need for the church to act on the commission given to the disciples by the risen Jesus on the point of ascending to glory — to preach the gospel to all nations and to every creature, to the ends of the earth. In the following extract, John Brown comments on Paul’s missionary strategy as set out in Romans 15:20–21, “So have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation: but as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.”

Places which have no church need the gospel

Paul has just been speaking about how far he has been spreading the gospel. But here he anticipates an objection. It might have been said, “You may have travelled through all these places, from Jerusalem to Illyricum, but what does that amount to? The most difficult part of the work may have been over before you got there — the people might have already been converted before you saw them!”

Paul answers, “That was not my way of preaching the gospel at all! I earnestly desired and endeavoured to preach in places which never heard the gospel before, where Christ was not once named. The reason? Lest I should build on someone else’s foundation. If I’d done that, I would have behaved as if I was not an apostle at all, for the work of an apostle is to lay the foundation of the gospel churches, and to found and settle churches where there was no church before. It would have been seeming to rob others of their glory.”

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