We can’t keep good news to ourselves! Engagements, weddings, new babies, new houses, we spread the news. We send save-the-date cards, invitations, we have showers, graduation celebrations, retirement parities, house warmings, and when cancer treatments are done, we ring that bell for all it’s worth! Because we can’t keep it to ourselves, we want everyone to know our good news, and sharing brings blessings to us and to others!
We are loved, we are saved, and we are sent. Jesus starts His ministry with the expectation that we are all going to share the Good News: “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of people.” (Matthew 4:19). Meeting people where they were, Jesus helped them. Whatever they needed: healing, teaching, feeding or forgiveness, He provided it. Then He sent them out to help others: the woman at the well brings her whole town to Jesus (John 4:1-42); the Gerasene demoniac’s town rejected Jesus, and he was sent back to tell them all that God had done for him (Luke 8:26-39); Jesus calls out the woman suffering with bleeding for 12 years, and she tells about her healing (Mark 5:31-24); a healed paralytic is told “Go and sin no more” (John 5:14); ten healed lepers were sent to show themselves to the priests as proof, and only one returned to thank Jesus (Luke 17:11-19). All are told: tell somebody, show somebody, don’t keep it to yourself! Healing increases with the telling.
It’s a system that replicates itself. Jesus sent the twelve disciples to preach and heal (Matthew 10:5-15) and then the 72 (Luke 10:1-20). They return with joy when they see how God uses them in the lives of others, and Jesus also rejoices in the Holy Spirit about it. Because Good News shared multiplies, not just for us but for all to whom we are sent. Like the people in the Bible, we too, have been rescued from our sin, forgiven, healed, and adopted into God’s family. We can identify with people who are hurting because we’ve been there. So Jesus sends us too, we are called and equipped to share the Gospel by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus Christ promises His presence, all the way to the end of this age. We are loved, we are saved, and we are sent.
Don’t overthink this! Our calling to share Christ is about the everyday opportunities to help others the same way Jesus did, meeting them where they are and then connecting them with God’s love, forgiveness, and healing through sharing the truth. Our families, churches, jobs, schools, and communities are a vast mission field where we can invite people to become disciples, teach them about Jesus, and lead them to baptism. Perhaps hard and awkward at first, the more we see people liberated spiritually, the more we will want to spread the news. It is such a blessing to see souls set free! We can’t be spiritual hoarders, we need to: go and tell!
Prayer: Lord Holy Spirit, invade my soul with Your calling and bring me to people today who need help, who need to hear Your Good News. Give me wisdom and discernment to share this in the best way, and expand Your family, Your Kingdom, through me. I pray in Jesus’ name.