---

This is part two in a five-part series on the discipleship pathway known as the Four Fields. Let’s recap.

You Go to where the people are and form a relationship. You create an oikos list by praying for people in your sphere of influence, and you demonstrate hospitality by inviting them into your life. That’s what I spoke about last week.

Then, you tell them the Gospel. That’s where we are today.

Then you Grow them as disciples, showing them more and more of Jesus and God’s plan for the world. 

Then you Gather them into groups. This can range from home Bible studies and T-Groups to church plants.

And finally, you Guide them. You step up and incorporate believers into the body of Christ by creating a new community of Christians.

Now, if you remember, last week I framed this series within the context of Generational Stories—telling stories of transformed lives that we want told for generations to come. Making disciples and bearing children.

Last week I said that the reliability of God is underscored in the contrast between the singularity of Abraham (“from one man”) and the unimaginable plurality of his descendants, in accordance with the divine promise, all hinged on faith. 

This serves to stress that it is the performative power of God’s spoken word alone that accounts for “descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

It is God’s spoken word that does everything. I’m not simply talking about conversion—I’m talking about creation. Creation ex nihilo. Creation out of nothing.

Because that’s what conversion is. Conversion—when someone hears and responds to the Gospel—is a new creation.

You know this already. Second Corinthians 5:14-15 & 17 says, 

“One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation [or creature]. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

That’s the Gospel. That is the word of God. And when you speak it, you are participating in the performative word of God that accounts for “descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” You are participating in the greatest miracle recorded in the Bile—creation of something out of nothing.

Genesis 1:1,3

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…And God said, let there be light, and there was light.”

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)

Light out of darkness. Life out of nothing. Creation ex nihilo.

It all comes about by the Word of God, making known the Face of the Word of God. And the Word of God is known by you telling other people the Gospel. This is a big deal.

Salvation—new life that did not exist before—begins with the Word of God. It is the Word of God, but you are the mouthpiece. That’s what our text is about today.

Salvation—new life that did not exist before—begins by “calling on the Name of the Lord.”

And “everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

Paul asserts a universally applicable principle that salvation is granted to anyone who calls upon the Name of the Lord.

So the condition for salvation seems relatively simple. You only call on the Name of the Lord. But what does that mean? What does that entail?

A couple of verses prior, Romans 10:9-10, Paul says, 

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

So salvation also requires belief and verbal confession. But there’s more to it than that. And it’s really pretty obvious.

To call upon the Name of the Lord—to call upon Jesus for salvation—presupposes a person knows His Name in the first place. And how do you suppose that condition is met? Paul offers four “how’s” for how this happens.

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-15).

People have to know the Name they must call on to be saved. Because they don’t—they really don’t! They might know the Name “Jesus,” but they do not know who He is unless you them. 

They don’t know the difference between Jesus—the Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Son of God—and, say, the Mormon Jesus, who was created by a divine coupling between god the father and a heavenly mother, whose brother is literally the devil.

Or maybe the JW Jesus, who was also created and is inferior to “Jehovah.”

Or maybe the Muslim Jesus: a fully-human prophet who never died and merely ascended to Heaven, like Elijah or Enoch.

When you talk about Jesus, or when someone else talks about Jesus, they could be thinking of an entirely different Person than the Second Person of the Trinity.

You have to be clear. You have to be specific when telling someone the Name unto whom they must call to be saved.

So what does someone need to call upon the Name of the Lord?

• The fact of the historic Jesus Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen, reigning as Lord, and accessible. “The Word is near you” (Deuteronomy 30:14/Romans 10:8a) 
• The Apostolic Gospel—[the “word of faith” (Romans 10:8b)] which makes Him known. “Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
• Simple trust on the part of the hearers, calling on the Name of the Lord, which they now know is Jesus, combined with faith in their heart and confession with their mouth.
• And finally—or rather, in the first place—they need someone who proclaims Christ and urges people to put their trust in Him—to “repent and believe the Gospel.”

That’s you. You have all been commissioned to go. You are a necessary ingredient in the eternal salvation of an immortal soul.

Let that sink in. Do not take that lightly.

This is a big responsibility.

And if you’re thinking. “There’s no way I can do this… I can’t save anyone… This is too much of a burden to handle…” You’re absolutely right. 

It’s not up to you to save anybody. It’s up to you to tell people about Jesus, and then let Him do the work He already accomplished.

“How can they believe in the One whom they have not heard, and how can they hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14)

According to John Stott quoting James Dunn, 

“Just as believing is logically prior to calling, so hearing is logically prior to believing. ‘In accordance with normal grammatical usage, the phrase, ‘the one of whom’ should be translated ‘the One Whom,’ and so means ‘the Speaker instead of the message.’ 

In other words, they will not believe Christ until they have heard Him speaking through His messengers or ambassadors.’”

Let me say that again: “They will not believe Christ until they have heard Him speaking through [you].”

The personal commitment which faith implies is coordinated with an encounter with Jesus’s own words in your Gospel message. And the authority of the messengers—you—is derived from the fact that you are the His spokesman. 

Do you hear what I’m saying? When you preach the Gospel—when you tell people about Jesus—it is not you who are speaking, but the One whom they are encountering. The One whom they must call upon.

When you preach the Gospel, you are Christ’s mouthpiece.

This is a big responsibility.

You have a responsibility to participate in the salvation of people God has placed in your sphere of influence—your oikos list.

As you may know, I’m a Spider-Man fan, and whenever possible I’ll use him for illustrative purposes. I think this is a good way to look at it.

You may know the famous advice Uncle Ben gave Peter Parker, which compels Spider-Man to keep fighting the good fight—“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Jesus told His disciples the same thing.

Luke 12:48

“To whom much was given, much is required” (paraphrased).

You have been given much. You have been given eternal life. You have been given the authority of Christ on earth to speak on His behalf when you are doing His will. 

It is your responsibility to participate in the salvific work of Christ by telling people who He is and that He is accessible to anyone who calls upon His Name.

Peter Parker is not a spider—he has the relative power of a spider. You are not God, but when you speak the gospel of Christ, you have the relative power of God as His Image-bearing ambassador here on earth to create life out of nothing, because it is His Word that they are hearing. 

Not you. God.

Second Corinthians 5:17-21

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This is His Gospel and your responsibility. You have a responsibility to tell people the means by which they must be saved—calling upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who—because you told them the Gospel—they have now personally encountered.

I don’t want to belabor this, but I’m going to anyway. You may be the difference between someone knowing Christ—being saved today—and not.

Jesus, and Jesus alone, has the power to save. But a responsibility is delegated to you.

And furthermore, telling someone the Gospel is not merely a responsibility, it is an act of love. It is an act of kindness. It is an act of mercy.

“What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom He has called.” (Romans 9:22-24).

If you are a believer, God has poured His mercy into you to make know the riches of HIs glory. You are His vessel. And what is a vessel good for but to retain something to be poured out again?

That mercy that you received—that mercy that you don’t deserve, but was given to you anyway because you called upon the Name of the Lord—is intended not to be hoarded, but to be shared. And so telling people the good news of Jesus is an act of sharing the same mercy that was given to you.

And I know it can be uncomfortable. As soon as a gospel opportunity comes up, we get all tongue-tied and bashful. We don’t want to tell people the good news because we’re uncomfortable telling them the bad news. 

We don’t want to tell people that they’re sinners. In this postmodern, pluralistic society, some people even consider it an act of aggression. It’s intolerant. It’s cruel. 

But the real cruelty is withholding the Truth of Christ.

I’ll give you a personal example. Last month I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. Since this was my first visit, they took an X-ray to have as a baseline. 

Then the dentist came in, and he looked concerned. He said they saw what appeared to be an infection in the roof of my mouth above two of my teeth. Apparently this infection had been in there and growing for the last 20-25 years, and I had no idea. Meanwhile, it has been eating away at the bone, and now I have significant bone loss just under my nose.

That was news I did not want to hear.

However, the dentist told me there are measures I can take to remedy the problem. It will require extraction. It will require surgery. It will be uncomfortable. But it will ultimately save me from this thing that is literally eating away at me from the inside.  

The dentist didn’t shy away from telling me the bad news. He didn’t diagnose my problem and then keep it to himself. He told me clearly and then offered a solution. Then it was up to me to consider the evidence (the X-ray) and then decide if I would pursue healing (the surgery).

And I appreciated that. I was grateful. I had no idea this was going on inside me. And people have no idea that they’re sinners, and their sin is eating away at their souls.

It is merciful to tell them. It is love. It is truly good news, and I guarantee that if you have put in the effort to build a relationship and trust, your words will be appreciated, even if the outcome is rejected.

But don’t take it from me.

You may have heard of Penn Jillette. He’s an entertainer (magician), author, and outspoken atheist. But he gave some thoughts on evangelism in a video he posted online a few years ago, and I think it’s worth listening to.

Let me reiterate what he said:

“If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

And as far as I know, Penn Jillette remains an atheist. He has not respond to the call of the Gospel, at least not yet. But some people do. That’s how this works.

Some people do, and they will be eternally grateful to you for telling them the Name upon which they must call to be saved.

That’s why Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 when he says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Paul’s not being flowery or poetic here. The word for beautiful here, ὡραῖοι (hōraioi), also means “timely.”

“How timely are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Consider the context of Isaiah 52. The message that the messengers brought was of freedom from Babylonian captivity. The exile was over. Israel was being restored. 

They were free! The captivity and bondage and slavery were over!

That is the Good News you bring to people when you tell them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The captivity and bondage and slavery are over!

That is why your message is so timely—so beautiful. It is truly good news. It is merciful. It is loving. 

And you must be ready to give it. There are several ways in which you can present the gospel. Most of you here at Trinity have heard about the 15-Second Testimony and Three Circles.

I’m going to remind you of them now, so that you can go out and use one of them today!

The 15-Second Testimony is an easy plug-and-play way to get the conversation going. It’s simply listening to another person and saying:

There was a time in my life (before I knew Jesus) when I was x. I was lonely… I was depressed… I was angry…

Then, I encountered Jesus and surrendered to Him. I followed Him as the Lord of my life.

Now, I’m y. I’m connected… I’m joyful… I have peace…

This can be anything true about you and applicable to the situation. That’s why this is such a handy tool to keep in your back pocket. It can be used in any situation. 

There was a time in my life when I was in darkness. Then I surrendered to Jesus. Now I’m in light. 

But you’ve got to demand a response. You have to ask a question. Something like, “Do you have a story like that?” or “Would you like to know how Jesus can change your life, too?”

This is not the Gospel, but it is a great way to start a Gospel conversation, like the Three Circles.

The Three Circles is a way to tell someone the Gospel. I’m sure many of you have seen this before.

1. The first circle represents how God originally made the world to function in peace, love, harmony, and in relationship with Him.
2. The second circle shows how human sin and turning away from God plunge people into pain, guilt, and a broken world. All of us can agree that the world is broken.
3. The third circle represents the good news of Jesus Christ, making a way through His death and resurrection so people can repent, believe, and return to God’s design.

Those are the basic facts of the Gospel. But there’s one thing left. You have to bring them to a crisis moment. You have to ask them a question that demands a response. 

Ask them if they believe what they’ve just heard is true. Ask them where they see themselves in this sketch. Ask them, if what you said is really true, where would they like to be. Ask them what’s stopping them from being there.

I’m going to show you another video. This one is of real people telling other real people the gospel using the Three Circles. I want you to see how easy and effective it is to use in the real world with real people who desperately need to hear the really good news.

Seventeen people went from darkness to light—from death to life. You can be a part of that, too!

Those seventeen people will now have eternal life and, more importantly, a relationship with God. They have been given faith—real, saving faith. But first, they had to hear the gospel, which means someone had to tell them. 

Because “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Get out there and tell someone.

I’ll end with a prayer. This is not my prayer, though it has become one of my prayers. I hope it becomes yours, too. It’s a prayer by Jim Elliot:

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”