Who Will Feed The Back Row?

Preacher:
Series:
Date: March 19, 2021

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:14-15

When Jesus miraculously fed 5000 people one afternoon, He didn’t tell His disciples to finish passing out food in the first row and then turn around to feed the very same row again. If he had, the people in the back of the crowd would have gone hungry and been upset that they had nothing, while others got seconds. But why is it, we have to ask, that millions hear the Gospel many times, before others hear it even once?

There is a huge imbalance today in access to the gospel message.  A US resident has the opportunity to hear over and over in their lifetime, yet nearly a third of the world’s people have never heard the gospel clearly once. Many have no access to a Bible or another Christian, and have no idea that God loves them personally.

Paul wrote in Romans 15: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.'” (Romans 15:20-22)

K.P. Yohannan put it this way: “Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves, meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell.”[1]

What action will you take today, to feed people sitting in the back rows?

Resource reading: Romans 10:1-21

 

[1] Lambert, J. (2021). The Present Imbalance of Access to the Gospel in the World. Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://spreadtheflame.com/2019/04/the-present-imbalance-of-access-to-the-gospel-in-the-world/