I have been convicted recently regarding the weight of the gospel as felt by the apostle Paul. I have noted with interest the severe passion it produced in him. As I look at my own life, I wonder if it has captured me as fully as it did Paul. Have I neglected something too vital to ignore? Did he hear the same sound that my contemporaries and I hear?

He lived with a willingness to risk that is uncommon to American Christianity. While we seem to value comfort, peace, and prosperity, he was committed to the purity and spread of the gospel. In his second letter to the church at Corinth he recounted his times in prison, his stoning, his beatings, his rejection by Jews and pagans, his hunger and thirst, his shipwrecks, and his burdens for the churches as evidence that he had been captured by the gospel (2 Corinthians 11). In our day, those would be evidence that he didn’t have enough faith to live victoriously.

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul tells us about having to confront Peter who was considered the super-apostle. The issue was the protection of the gospel (Galatians 2:5&14). In Philippians, he says that the gospel has so satisfied him that he has lost all desire for earthly pursuits. Everything he had formerly considered an asset is now considered a liability because of the surpassing value of the gospel.

In all his writings, he shows how every moral decision is based, not on Old Testament law, but on the implications of the gospel. The Corinthians were confronted with sexual sin. Paul didn’t refer back to the Ten Commandments as the rule for moral behavior, but the implications of the gospel. “What? Do you not know that since you have received the gospel your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” When he discussed financial support for the ministers, he did not go to the Old Testament requirement of the tithe. He appealed to the “giving heart” they had received when they believed the gospel. As he instructed regarding the disputed practices of eating meat previously sacrificed to idols, he again used the gospel as the criteria. He was always exhorting believers to live “worthy of the gospel.”

In our day the gospel is largely ignored in the American pulpit. We have replaced the proclamation of the good news of Jesus’ victory with therapeutic advice and practical steps toward becoming better people. Afraid of being too exclusive, we have included almost all religions as valid—even when they contradict each other. Relying on advanced technology, we feature communication style rather than substance. The gospel is too mundane so we opt for more relevant topics that appeal to the demands of the consumer.

When Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, he talked about the gospel coming to them and how they received it:

...because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord SOUNDED forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
1 Thessalonians 1:5-8 (ESV) (emphasis added)

They heard a specific sound and it changed them. It was the word of God being heard. Just like in the beginning, the sound of God expressing his thoughts created the universe. Just like when Jesus spoke to demons, diseases, and storms, something dramatic happens when the word is expressed.

The very word gospel refers to the sound made by a messenger coming back from the battlefield announcing the outcome of the battle. When there was victory, his sound was the announcement of good news. It wasn’t just any good news. It was specific good news about a specific event. It wasn’t just an exhortation for the people to keep their hopes up. Something had happened after which life would be different.

This event was the climax of a long awaited hope. Since the promise to Abraham, people had been looking for the day when God would invade history and set right things that had gone wrong. The Old Testament prophets had spoken of it. The remnant of Israel had banked on it. It would truly be the day of the Lord. The “Evangel” announcement was: IT HAS HAPPENED!

This sound found receptivity in some hearts and created faith there. Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t hear had no faith and did not become a part of the community of God’s people.

I grew up singing an old hymn:

We have heard the joyful sound:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Bear the news to every land, climb the steeps and cross the waves;
Onward tis our Lord’s command;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
(Priscilla Owens, 1882)

It is the sound that resonates with the vibrations of the Spirit as he plucks the strings of mankind’s heart and convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. When heard, the recipient gets the receiver that always detects the sound no matter where it is heard. The story of the gospel matches the story line that is etched in the heart of all created people. Everyone knows instinctively that there is meaning and purpose. Everyone is lost until the gospel story fills in the blanks and makes their individual story make sense.

Those who hear the sound are defined as the people of God. Those who don’t are outside that designation. When a person is called by the sound, he or she can be nurtured by the sound. It means that the ecclesial leaders should be sure they are making the gospel sound in every aspect of ministry. It is the sound that is essential to the growth and maturity of the believers. The preacher can serve the people best by repeating and reflecting the sound. Each time the believer hears it, the power of the gospel is increased. It never gets old. It is always relevant. We don’t need to improve it. We must not ignore it. I am convinced that if more church leaders would emphasize the sound of the gospel they would have less work in trying to mold and fashion the lives of the people.

How do we determine who is part of the community of faith? It is determined by those who hear the sound of the gospel and respond. They can be built up by hearing the implications of the gospel. Those who haven’t heard can only be influenced by the skills and programs of the leaders. But how do we tell who has heard? Paul helps us here as he instructs the Thessalonians.

For we know brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 (ESV)

Those who heard the sound had evidence of change. Transformation had begun. They were being changed from selfish people to those willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel. They also had evidence of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit as joy was bubbling out of them regardless of circumstance. Even more, they were fully convinced that the gospel was true and vital. They could not scientifically prove the basis of their faith, but they were convinced by a power beyond reason. They were confident because the Spirit of God had confirmed their faith as more trustworthy than their feelings.

But how does transformation work in the economy of God? Again we get some help from the Thessalonians’ letter.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV)

The word is at work in the believers when they receive it for what it is. It is not another suggestion on better living. It is not the preacher’s opinion. It is the word of God and has the power of heaven behind it. When it is received it produces what it promises. The believer shifts from himself to God as the final authority and new things begin to happen. The dynamic of the cross and the resurrection takes place. Self is dethroned as Christ is enthroned and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from death begins to produce the life of Christ in the believer. Self-love gives way to God’s kind of love. Now believers can do something they couldn’t do before. They can love like God loves. They can actually think of others above themselves. As a result of this new love, they are liberated from the confinement of self-centered living.

How vital is the gospel? Is it just the best way to God or is it vital to life both now and after physical death? Listen to Paul.

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!
1 Thessalonians 2:14b-16 (ESV)

Paul understood that when the Jews rejected the sound that Jesus made, they were revealing that they had already rejected that sound as it came through Abraham and Moses. They had altered the sound to make it fit their own agenda. Now they were persecuting those who could hear, thus, hindering the gospel. Their persecution was preventing the Gentiles from hearing the vital gospel whereby they could be saved. If they did not hear and respond to the specific sound of the gospel, they would not be saved. The Jews were becoming the enemy of mankind by their refusal to accept the gospel of Jesus the crucified Lord. They were under God’s wrath. They wouldn’t feel the heat of it until AD 70, but the verdict was in the moment they rejected the word Jesus revealed.

In our world of exalted tolerance, we must hear that tolerance can be damning when we refuse to support the proclamation of the sound of the gospel. God is more merciful than we can yet imagine, but those who reject the gospel, are without God in this world, and in the next one. For us to suggest that God has separate ways by which people can come to salvation other than through the gospel is anything but loving. It is condemning them to an eternity without Christ who is eternal life.

People captured by the gospel sound are controlled by love. It is the God-kind of love. They are also compelled to proclaim the sound of Jesus’ victory. And they are content to suffer for the sake of something so vital as the gospel that alone saves.

God has acted in history to defeat the enemy of mankind. The act is done! The victory is secure! We have been set free from our oppressors. Sin, self, and Satan have been dealt a deathblow at the cross of Christ. We are now empowered to love in a new kind of way. Free from the fear of death we can live with adventure.

The gospel deserves to be the subject of every song and sermon when the church meets to worship. Without referencing it, all good news is a false alarm.