It’s a simple message, really, this gospel that we live in and that saves us. Sometimes we confuse the gravity of the message with complexity, thinking that we have to be rocket scientists in order to tell others about Jesus. This is a groundless fear that can paralyze us.
I still remember having lunch with a missionary in France who, after learning that I would be coming to minister in her neck of the woods but that I didn’t have a seminary degree, pointedly asked me, “Well, I assume you’d at least know how to lead someone to Christ, wouldn’t you?” Her tone implied she wasn’t so confident that I could. In her eyes, I clearly was no spiritual rocket scientist.
But it was the sermon of another missionary sometime later that reminded me of what was important. He pointed me back to the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul reminds the believers of the gospel message that saves them, if they hold firmly to it: That Christ had died for their sins as Scripture predicted he would, that he was buried, that he came back to life on the third day as Scripture predicted he would, and that he appeared to literally hundreds of people who knew him well.
It’s that simple. It’s that deep.
Fred Rogers (yes, “Mr. Rogers” from TV) once said that Truth is simple and deep, but what the world gives us is complicated and shallow. And the gospel of Christ is indeed a simple one. God reaches out to a world separated from him because of its sin, its disobedience to its creator. He sends Christ, who dies in our place. And he now lives, so we can live, too. By faith in Christ, we can walk with God, once again. You can listen to the “Grasping God’s Story Together” messages on the Westwind site for more details, but the message won’t change.
But more than just simple, this gospel is deep. It changes who we are, it becomes part of our spiritual DNA through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. This is the depth of a relationship. We’re different people because of our relationship with Christ. And this, too, is part of what we share when we “share the gospel”. We share our changed lives.
Another way to say this is that the Knowledgeable Head is not the same thing as the Knowledgeable Heart. The first knows about Jesus, while the second knows Jesus. A stranger can’t truly introduce you to my wife because he’s never met her. It’s just playacting, in a sense. But if you really need to get to know her, then I’m the one you need to talk to. I know her deeply because we constantly talk together, walk together, plan together, share together. It’s a relationship borne of much time together.
The knowledgeable heart, then, is the heart that spends time with its Savior – through reading his word, praying to him, serving him, even spending time with other hearts that know him.
Do you find the gospel simple? If not, maybe it’s because you’re unknowingly adding something else to it. And is it deep in your life – that is, does it continue to change you? If not, maybe you’re not spending time with the One who is the source of our gospel: Christ.
Simple and deep.



