Pastor's Corner - May 2, 2019

This sentence reached out and grabbed my attention this morning: “We’re preaching the gospel to the graveyard.”

It’s from an article entitled, “Hope for Evangelism in a Secular Age,” by Akos Balogh. I found it on The Gospel Coalition website.

As the title of the article suggests, the topic is sharing Christ in our age. There are, of course, extraordinary and unique challenges for Christians intent on sharing the Good News about our Savior to an increasingly secular world. But there are constants as well -- truths that transcend changing cultures.

From the very beginning of history, as it’s recorded in Genesis 3, death is the natural human condition. Paul describes the pre-Christ condition of the Ephesian believers as “dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1).

If death is final, that’s a hopeless situation, but a little ironic, too. How can we be dead and alive simultaneously? This passage implies that before Christ these new creatures in Christ were living, breathing and walking dead. In an age when the “walking dead” conjures up images of hideous zombies on a popular television series, the challenges are quickly clarified.

We simply don’t think of the handsome star quarterback with all those Super Bowl wins and a gorgeous model for a wife as being dead. In fact, he’s aging remarkably well. If his flesh started falling off his face, we might be convinced. But it isn’t. It makes the truth hard to see, without having the light turned on.

As Christians, we are in the light and know the truth. And the truth is (and it’s a constant) without Christ, superstardom with all its amenities can’t reverse spiritual death. People are born spiritually dead and only being born again can reverse the death process (see John 3).

The living, breathing, walking dead who eat at the same restaurants as us and shop at Walmart need Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25).

Pastor David Brock is pastor of Grace Community Church in Wasco.