The Simple Gospel
The Book of Acts details the Apostle Paul’s multiple international mission trips. His second qualifies as possibly the toughest trip ever. Highlights included the Macedonian city of Philippi, where Paul’s team were beaten up and thrown into prison. On to Thessalonica, where some bad actors formed a mob and detained the team’s host, forcing them to post bail. So, they snuck out of Thessalonica under the cover of darkness and moved on to Berea, where they were beaten up yet once again. Finally, a few of Paul’s friends escorted him from Berea to Athens, where they left him and asked him to stay out of trouble (fat chance) until the rest of the team could catch up. But keeping a low profile was not one of Paul’s strengths.
A city of 500,000 people, Athens was the cultural center of the ancient world. Art, music, theater, philosophy, you name it, Athens was ground zero. It was also the epicenter of false religion. One of the city’s slogans was, “If you ever visit Athens, you’ll be more likely to bump into a god than a human.” No joke. Okay, all of that background to get to what happened next.
Paul landed at the Areopagus, where he was invited to explain a Christian worldview to what might best be described as the Supreme Court of Greek Philosophy. Twelve judges regularly heard philosophical and religious ideas and then decided what was an appropriate way to view the world and what was not.
They said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (Acts 17:19-20)
Paul’s message to that group remains one of the best-known and most compelling defenses of Christianity in the New Testament. His explanation of the faith caused a few people to want to hear more. Generally, though, his message fell flat. At least he thought so. During his journey to Corinth (which is where his team traveled next), as he reflected on his experience in Athens, he couldn’t help beating himself up over it. And, when he finally arrived in Corinth, he was determined that, should God give him another shot to preach, things would be different. He resolved to get back to the basic Gospel, something we should all consider doing.
When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
Nobody would ever say Christianity is easy. If Paul and his team had any doubt about that, their trip through Macedonia and Greece proved it. The Great Commission has never been easy! But it has always been simple.
The Apostle knew he was smart. Truth is, he was flat-out brilliant. He could put together wise, eloquent, and persuasive arguments that most of us could never understand, let alone come up with. But therein laid the problem, and framed the lesson Paul learned for us all.
Our calling does not require a degree in philosophy so that we can go head-to-head with atheistic professors at Harvard. If that’s where God sends you, then have at it. Just make sure to balance the truth with grace. But the Great Commission was given to all of us, even the uneducated, should we love and follow Jesus.
When you think about it, even the cross itself is not a complicated symbol. Just connect two lines on a piece of paper and you’ve got it! But it’s not just a simple image, it represents a simple idea. “Place your faith in Jesus and get the free gift of eternal life in Heaven.” The problem with simplicity though is that it’s fleeting. When we don’t fight for it, we lose it. Meyer was right. “It is a simple task to make things complex but a complex task to make them simple.” (Meyer’s Law) That’s a great definition of the 21st Century Christian Church. We’ve taken the simplest of concepts, the Christian Gospel, and have generated a complex web of programs and policies out of it.
It’s a spiritual reality that’s made clear to me every day, when I look in the mirror. For 50 years, I was six-foot, a buck-eighty. Now, 20 years later, I’m over two bucks. (You know what I mean.) And, to add insult to injury, I’m down to 5-11 and a half! What happened? Well, quite honestly, it takes zero effort to gain weight. Slowly but surely, simple health habits are complicated by time and lethargy. Fat happens. On the other hand, it takes a disciplined effort to take it off. But, when we do, we feel better, can run faster, and will accomplish more.
The Great Commission was designed as a diet regimen for local churches, for the pastors who lead them, and for all of us who attend them. And it’s incredibly simple.
As we go, wherever it is we go, just resolve to focus on the Cross and the simple message it represents to the people we share the journey with.