In 1943, at the height of World War II, a nineteen-year-old Nate Saint enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps both out of a sense of duty and a desire for pilot training. In his diary he stated, “The fact that fathers were being drafted and that I had no dependents made the idea make sense to me.” 1 He would go on to spend a total of three years in the Army Air Corps before being discharged in early 1946.
During his time in the Army, Nate maintained his walk with the Lord, befriending other Christians in the service, attending church wherever he was stationed, and witnessing to fellow unsaved servicemen. One of his fellow airmen noted that “he [Saint] had a deep concern for his fellow soldiers and his life was always consistent with the things he spoke.”2 While stationed at Amarillo Field in Texas, Nate Saint became acquainted with the base chaplain, Chaplain Allen, and made the following observation:
“The chaplain is the real McCoy and hasn’t let the Army take the ring out of his gospel message. I’ve run into so many phonies lately and am so closely acquainted with those who need a stirring message that I’ve become very critical, maybe too critical, but I think that we as Christians should be, at least, what unbelievers expect of us. You can’t take a newcomer and preach a ten-minute collection sermon and then expect him to think that a fifteen-minute message about a literal hell is your primary interest. [emphasis added] That’s a grain of sand against Gibraltar and I think our interests dedicated to each should be somewhat proportional. Inconsistency in our appreciation of values is doing a wonderful job for the enemy of men’s souls.
When I take an unsaved fellow to hear a man preach and the message is diluted with secondary things I always feel like telling the preacher he is an unfaithful steward and a traitor.
It’s easy to brand a phony before he’s rambled ten minutes. They all preach the same thing — nothing.”
Jungle Pilot, Chapter 5, p. 71
Nate Saint’s desire to see his fellow soldiers saved and his frustration with chaplains who “diluted [the Gospel] with secondary things” reveals an important reminder and perspective in missions — that the preaching of the Gospel must be the priority in all ministry. Whether at home or across the seas in foreign lands, the preaching of the cross must be central to all that we do as believers. This is not to say that every message must be a Gospel message or that every activity must be an evangelistic outreach, but everything that is done should be for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus Christ and the salvation that is available in Him. We would do well to carefully evaluate each ministry and activity to see whether it complements or competes with the proclamation of the Gospel. If anything can be shown to be more important than our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission, can we rightfully say that we are obedient to God’s command to preach the Gospel to every creature?
Two principles come to mind when considering the importance of making the Gospel central, specifically in relation to preaching and teaching.
Point Others to Jesus Christ
While every message preached and every lesson taught does not have to be a Gospel message, every message should always point the hearers to Jesus. Jesus Himself set the example as He walked along the road to Emmaus with two disciples who were saddened and disillusioned by the apparent defeat of the One they thought was to be their Messiah. As they walked, Jesus began at “Moses and all the prophets and expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)
As a preacher of the Gospel, I have the amazing privilege of being able to stand before people and take the Word of God and preach, “Thus saith the Lord!” My desire is not that people see me as the preacher, but that through me, they see Christ. He is the One who can save a sinner! He is the One who can change a life! He is the One in whom we are to abide as Christians! Make much of Jesus at every opportunity and point others to Him. Whether a soul is lost or hurting, whether it is hungry or searching, the cry of people today is still the same as it was in Jesus’ day — “Sir, we would see Jesus!” (John 12:21)
In every Scripture, and at every opportunity, point others to Jesus!
Know Your Audience
Not long after we arrived in Newfoundland, I was asked a question that very closely mimics the sentiment that Nate Saint expressed in his diary. Once after a service I was asked why I didn’t preach the Gospel in every message. The concern that was voiced was that if an unsaved coworker came with them to church, they wanted to be sure they would hear the Gospel. At the time, we were still working in two locations, trying to plant two churches simultaneously. As a result, we only had one service at each location every Sunday. We were unable to hold multiple services with different emphases, such as evangelistic messages on Sunday mornings and Christian growth-oriented messages on Sunday evenings.
Thus, the way that I answered this question was that, as a preacher, I tailor the message for the audience to whom I am preaching — and in a small town and a small church-plant, that is fairly easy to do. If the audience is all professing believers, the message will have a certain emphasis. If it is a mixed audience of believers and unbelievers, the message will have a dual emphasis — a challenge for Christian living and an invitation to come to Christ for salvation. In other words, know the audience and their need, and preach and teach accordingly.
Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul exemplified this better than anyone else in Scripture. Paul would frequently go to the synagogues and reason with the Jews out of the Scriptures convincing them that Jesus was the Messiah. (Acts 17:1-3) The Jewish audience to whom he was preaching already had extensive knowledge of the Scriptures, they had a foundation in the Mosaic law, they waited expectantly for Messiah, and Paul was able to preach Jesus to them a certain way because of their background and knowledge of the Scripture. However, when Paul was in Athens with pagan Greeks who were “wholly given to idolatry” (Acts 17:16), he preached Jesus to them differently than he did to the members of the Jewish synagogue. Paul began by establishing who God is, how He is to be worshipped, and what God expects from all men (Acts 17:22-31). He worked from their pagan superstition and preached the truth about the living God. In both locations, the message was the same — He preached Jesus — but how it was preached was different because it was a different audience.
Conclusion
Whether it is ministering the comfort of the Word to a broken believer or compassionately sharing the Gospel with an unsaved person, the focus must be to point them to Jesus Christ! Knowing the audience will help make the truth shared comprehensible to those who hear. May our lives, testimony, and conduct complement the message of the Gospel that we preach; and may our ministries and activities not eclipse or distract from our main objective of preaching the Gospel to every creature.
