What About the Cross?

Recently I had the privilege of preaching the gospel open-air style across from the HP Pavilion in San Jose just before a Taylor Swift concert. I was joined by a couple brothers in Christ who I do outreach with regularly. I headed down with to the arena that day with a bit of trepidation. I had heard that another local street evangelism group was planning to be there as well, a group that could properly be categorized as “hellfire” preachers. This group seemed to fit well into the stereotype that jumps to most people’s minds when they think of street preachers: Anger, judgment, condemnation, an appearance of self-righteousness, etc.

I have struggled with my feelings on such preachers and their approach. On one side I appreciate their perseverance and their obedience to the gospel call. Far too few professing Christians are willing to even talk to a friend or pass out a gospel tract for fear of offending someone or having to deal with the pain of rejection, much less stand on a box and proclaim the gospel in public. But on the other side I think the majority of the time they do more harm than good. Preaching the gospel is likely to offend people under even the best of circumstances. But while Christians are called to preach the gospel regardless of the offense, it is not necessary or appropriate to increase that offense by our own bad behavior. I have seen the damage that can do, and, I am ashamed to say, have been the propagator of that type of damage more than once.

After we arrived and set up, my friend Stuart started his first round of stoplight preaching. For those not familiar with the concept of stoplight preaching, we set up a small ladder or box near a busy intersection in front of the arena, wait for people to gather at the red light waiting to cross, and then we share a gospel presentation with those waiting. It’s tricky, since you usually only have about two minutes to share the whole message and you want to make sure you hit all the relevant, biblical points. Sometimes I have found myself raising my voice to finish the message as the crowds are walking off. So Stuart got started and I walked across the street to listen to the man who was preaching there. There was only one member of the group on this day, which is unusual since there are usually several. I hadn’t met this man, so I simply stood and listened to his preaching.

As usual, my opinion was mixed. He was equipped with a megaphone and a large banner, though I don’t recall its exact words. He was walking up and down in front of those waiting to be let in for the concert. As expected his tone was caustic, and angry, with bellows of “BURN IN HELL!” at regular intervals. But there were biblical concepts touched on at least partially correctly. He talked about sin, and rebellion against God, facts that many people try very hard to ignore. He talked about repentance, and turning from sin, which is essential for true salvation. He talked about obedience to God’s law and being saved through Jesus, and salvation is indeed only possible through Jesus Christ. And he certainly talked about punishment in hell.

But something struck me that I hadn’t noticed before. I knew there was something frequently missing in this type of preaching, but I hadn’t seen it before.

It was the cross.

I heard a lot about sin, but nothing about the solution for sin. I heard a lot about what people should turn from, but not what they should turn to. Sure, Jesus was mentioned, but not the sacrifice he made, or what that meant. It sounded like “Jesus hates everything you are doing, so you need to follow him.” That’s a huge oversimplification, and to be fair, I have listened to several YouTube videos from this group since, and have heard them mention the cross, and repentance and faith, but they seem to do so almost as an afterthought.

While I am hardly the poster-boy for sound Biblical street preaching, since I’ve only been involved in this type of ministry for a couple years, I have had the privilege of training under and receiving advice from some amazing men of God, and their preaching has a pattern, or at least a framework: man’s sin, God’s justice, man’s inability to merit heaven through his works, God’s grace shown through Jesus death and resurrection, and salvation through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ alone. Different evangelist may approach things differently, have different styles, use different analogies, and the like. But those basics are the core of the gospel. If they are not preached, I don’t believe the gospel is being preached. And the cross needs to be at the center of that.

The cross is center-point of all of history, and this is particularly evident in Biblical history. Everything before it, in the Old Testament, looks forward to it, and everything in the Apostle’s writings looks back. It is the most amazing act of a God amazing enough to create our universe in all its complexity. It is at the same time the ultimate expression of God’s love and grace, and the ultimate expression of his intense hatred toward sin. “For God so loved the world” is more than an expression of why God sent Jesus Christ, but tells us how his love was expressed through him. God, in his love, did not just send us an example to follow, he sent us a sacrifice. God’s justice, his anger and wrath toward sin, had to be satisfied, and Jesus provided that satisfaction on the cross. He did not just make salvation possible, by giving us a fresh start (as is professed by many cults and apostate churches), but he made salvation actual, by paying our debt in full, so through repentance and trust we could be made the righteousness of Christ (see Romans 3).

I believe God has convicted me in this area recently, both in my public preaching and in my private life. I want to have the cross always at the forefront of my thoughts. I want to always be thinking about and praying to understand who Jesus Christ is and what he did for me, and how incredibly profound and special that is. The death and resurrection of Christ isn’t just something you need to understand to become a Christian so you can go on to other things. Jesus’ sacrifice for our justification is everything! Thanksgiving for that gift should propel our worship, deepen our prayer, give purpose and passion to our evangelism, and strengthen our desire for obedience.

So look to the cross. If you are a believer, consider the cross daily, and rejoice and God’s amazing love for us. When you share your faith (as all believers are called to do), preach the cross, who Christ is, and what he did. If you are a skeptic, or are depending on your own goodness to merit heaven, flee to the cross. Only in Jesus Christ, who paid the full penalty for our sin, is there hope of salvation and eternity in heaven. Repent of your sins and trust in him alone. And when you do, he will be faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then you too will start to understand the true wonder of the cross, and you too will want to share it with everyone you meet.

Interview on The Storefront Saints Show

The two episodes of the Storefront Saints show below are about Project Ezra, which I coordinate and write a blog for. The first describes an outing by Fresh Springs Baptist Church in Angleton TX, which hosts the Storefront Saints show and participates in Project Ezra every week. The second is an interview with me on what Project Ezra is and how it works. Hope you enjoy them!!

Listen to internet radio with StorefrontSaint on Blog Talk Radio

Listen to internet radio with StorefrontSaint on Blog Talk Radio

Blog Re-lauch. Why I do what I do.

Welcome to my (semi)new blog. This blog, Man on the Street, has been a long time in coming. I chose that name because I am just that, a pretty average guy like a lot of other guys you might meet in your day-to-day life. I have a normal job, a mortgage, a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters, and a couple cats. But I am also a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ, and spend a good amount of time involved in public evangelism. I talk to people about the things of God, pass out gospel tracts (cards or pamphlets with a Christian salvation message) and read the bible and preach open-air style. So, I’m an evangelist.

Most of the time that word, “evangelist,” is attached to slightly greasy-looking, overly dramatic TV preachers with fancy sets, expensive suits, and an intense desire to separate you from your hard-earned money. That is, of course, a gross generalization, since there are many pastors on TV with integrity and the purest motives, and there is nothing wrong with asking for support if you need it. However, it’s that negative image that will be immediately conjured up in most people’s minds when I say “evangelist.” As for me, I have not desire for my own TV show. I don’t collect any money. I’m not looking specifically to draw people to my church, and wouldn’t benefit in any way if they did attend (I’m not a pastor). I just want to tell people about Jesus and his amazing gift of grace. And the best place to do that, where there are plenty of people willing to engage in a polite, if sometimes intense, conversation, is out on the streets.

But it seems like just about everybody has a blog these days. Even people’s dogs and cats have blogs! And, since I have no desire to be an intellectual or emotional exhibitionist, I have tried to avoid sharing a lot of personal opinions on a lot of subjects that don’t matter, or at least where my opinions don’t matter to anyone other than me, and maybe a few of my friends. Facebook has been more than sufficient to accomplish that up to this point, so this blog has sat mostly empty.

However, through a number of different experiences over the past few years, including running events, organizing evangelistic outreaches and being asked to write a weekly blog for the purpose of encouraging believers to read the word of God in public (projectezra.blogspot.com), I have seen potential value in sharing some of my thoughts, so I will now try to re-launch this blog. For instance, I have had people tell me they have been encouraged by my posts on other sites, and by participating in the activities I have been involved in. I may or may not be gifted in encouraging others, but I certainly have a desire to encourage others in their walk with God, and since I appear to have helped a few people, I would like to continue to do so in whatever way I can. So, hopefully this blog will be encouraging to some.

Second, I have found that the process of being forced to struggle with issues, whether for writing, or for personal evangelism, or for open-air preaching, has been an incredible growing experience for me. I have learned a lot about myself through study and self-reflection, but I think self-reflection should only be a starting point. How I see myself is often not nearly as important as how I come across in expressing myself to others. I have often asked people, after sharing the gospel with them, what their impression of the conversation was. This has generated some great feedback. So, I hope by sharing my thoughts and beliefs as transparently as possible there may be an additional opportunity for me, and those who chose to read and comment on this blog, to grow.

Finally, my greatest passion in life is to see God glorified by seeing souls saved through the proclamation of His gospel. Toward that end, I hope to use this blog to encourage people to think about claims of the bible. You may not believe in God at all, or you may disagree with my views of God and salvation. But please consider this: I may be wrong about eternity, but SOMETHING is true about eternity. Someday every one of us will die, and every one of us will be dead a lot longer than we were alive, so we need to make finding out what comes next a priority. If there is some kind of conscious existence after death, we need to know now so we can prepare for it. If there is no conscious existence after death, we need to know that too, so we can do everything possible to prolong our lives and squeeze every last drop of pleasure and fulfillment out of the time we have left. So this blog will talk about men and our relationship to God, about eternity in general, and about biblical evangelism in particular.

So, I will try to post every week or two, with the first post sometime this weekend. I hope you will be encouraged in your walk with the true God. I hope what I share will be cause for self-reflection and growth. And I pray that you, and I, will gain a better understanding about what is indeed true about eternity. I look forward to hearing your comments.

All for His glory!

Dan

SOMETHING is true about eternity.

SOMETHING is true about eternity.
You may believe reincarnation, paradise, Nirvana, Heaven or Hell, or nothing comes next, but SOMETHING is true, and the answer matters. This page is here to encourage you to ask yourself two questions about eternity:

1) What do you believe?
2) How do you know what you believe is true?

SOMETHING is true about eternity, and since we will all be dead a lot longer than we will be alive, we should take these questions seriously. Don't tell yourself truth is relative, because that would make that statement itself relative and meaningless. Not all beliefs are compatible. Many world views teach ideas that are in direct opposition to each other. If what someone believes doesn't matter, explain Hitler, the Inquisition and 9/11. There are important philosophical questions that need to be wrestled with, and I would encourage you to wrestle with them.

2000 years ago a man walked this earth who claimed to not only have the answer, but to be that answer. He said he was the way the truth and the life. He fulfilled prophecies written hundreds of years before his birth, silenced the critics of the day with his philosophical brilliance, healed the sick, raised the dead, and finally raised himself from the dead after predicting he would do so. Don't believe it? Look into it yourself with an open mind and you'll find it to be true. And if a man can walk off into eternity and come back to tell us what's there, that's a man we should listen to.

That man was Jesus. He message was to repent, or turn from our sins. What do you have to repent of? Have you lied? The Bible says all liars will have their part in the lake of fire. Stolen anything, regardless of the value? The Bible says no thief will inherit the kingdom of God. Looked with lust? Jesus said that was the same as adultery. Hated someone? Than God sees you as a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life in him. If THIS is what is true about eternity, judgment for our sins, and hell if we fall short of God's standards, we are all in trouble.

But Jesus said something else. He said no one could come to the Father except through him. Why Jesus? Because he died on the cross. When he was dying on the cross the wrath of God, which should have been poured out on us for our sins, was poured out on him instead. He paid our fine, our sin debt, so we could go free. Then he rose from the dead, proving he had power over death. Not only was this the most incredible miracle the world has ever seen, but the greatest act of love. If Jesus is who he claimed to be, God in the flesh, he could have stopped his death. But instead he chose to die to save those who rejected him, mocked him and nailed him to a cross.

So what should you do? Repent, or turn from your sins, and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. Only he paid for your sins, so only he can save, if you trust in him. So let him pay the price for your sins, or you will have to pay it yourself. And remember, choosing not to make a choice or to put it off IS making a choice. This world is uncertain, and none of us is promised a tomorrow, so don't waste your time on things that don't matter. If you look with open eyes and an open heart, if you examine your conscience and see that you are a sinner, and examine the evidence of the fulfilled prophecy of the Bible and its historical reliability, you will discover, as I did, that THIS is what is true about eternity. I pray that you discover it soon.

I'm not a pastor, I don't do this for a living, and I don't want you to join my church or send me money. But your soul DOES matter, to God and because of the change he's made in my life, to me. So please, consider these things, talk to me if you have questions, and study these things yourself to see if they are true.

dan@norcalseedsowers.com