“Jesus Loves You” Isn’t the Gospel

I hear the phrase all the time:

“Jesus loves you.”

And let me be clear.

Jesus absolutely loves you.

That statement is true. It is biblical. And most of the time, the person saying it genuinely wants to encourage someone and point them toward Jesus.

But by itself, “Jesus loves you” is not the gospel.

Neither is inviting someone to church.

Neither is inviting them to a Bible study, small group, youth group, or event.

Neither is asking if you can pray for them.

Those are all good things.

We should do those things.

But none of them replace actually sharing the gospel.

We Cannot Outsource Obedience

I think one of the biggest reasons we do this is because many Christians are not sure how to actually share the gospel.

Or, if we are honest, we are afraid.

So instead of sharing the gospel ourselves, we invite someone to church and hope the pastor does it.

We invite them to a Bible study and hope the leader does it.

We bring them to an event and hope the speaker does it.

We tell them that Jesus loves them and hope someone else eventually explains what that actually means.

It can almost feel easier to find different ways to get someone around Jesus than it does to simply open our mouths and share the gospel ourselves.

I get it.

It can feel daunting.

What if I say the wrong thing?

What if they reject me?

What if they ask a question I cannot answer?

What if it gets awkward?

Those fears are real.

But fear does not remove the command.

And uncertainty does not remove our responsibility.

Jesus did not commission only pastors.

He did not commission only missionaries.

He did not commission only evangelists.

He commissioned His disciples.

That means you cannot hand off your obedience to somebody else.

Yes, invite people to church.

Yes, invite them to Bible study.

Yes, pray with them.

Yes, introduce them to other believers.

But those things should never become a substitute for personally sharing the gospel.

The Great Commission is not a referral system.

At some point, you have to open your mouth and share the good news yourself.

So What Is the Gospel?

Paul gives us a clear summary in 1 Corinthians 15.

Christ died for our sins.

He was buried.

And He rose again.

The gospel is not simply the message that God loves us.

The gospel is the good news that although we have sinned and gone our own way, God made a way for us to be rescued through Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for our sins.

He rose from the dead.

And He calls us to turn from our own way, place our faith and trust in Him, and surrender to Him as Lord and King.

That is the good news.

And we need to know how to share it.

A Simple Way to Share the Gospel: Three Circles

One of the tools we regularly use and model for new disciples is called Three Circles.

Three Circles is not the gospel itself.

It is simply a tool that helps an ordinary disciple clearly explain the gospel in a conversation.

And it begins somewhere almost everyone can relate to.

Brokenness.

We Live in a Broken World

You do not have to look very far to see that something is wrong.

There is death.

Disease.

Suffering.

Broken relationships.

Addiction.

Fear.

Pain.

Loss.

We experience brokenness all around us, and we experience it personally.

But brokenness is not the only thing we see.

We still see traces of beauty.

A sunset.

A relationship that reflects genuine love.

The laughter of a child.

Creation.

Joy.

There are things all around us that seem to tell us that the world was meant to be something more than what we currently experience.

That is because it was.

God Had a Perfect Design

God created the world according to His perfect design.

Humanity was created to know God, walk with Him, and live according to His purposes.

But mankind chose to go our own way instead of God's way.

The Bible calls that sin.

And sin moved us out of God's perfect design and into the brokenness we see and experience today.

We Try to Escape Brokenness

The problem is that none of us like being in brokenness.

So we try to get out.

Some people chase success.

Some chase money.

Some turn to relationships.

Some turn to drugs or alcohol.

Some try religion.

Some try being a good person.

Some pursue pleasure or achievement.

We try all kinds of things hoping they will fix what is broken.

But those attempts are like bungee cords.

They may seem to pull us out for a little while, but eventually they snap us right back into brokenness.

We cannot rescue ourselves.

God Made a Way Out

But God did not leave us there.

God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

He sent Jesus.

Jesus came into this world, died on the cross for our sin, and rose from the dead three days later.

Jesus is the only way out of our brokenness.

That is the gospel.

Turn and Believe

Our response is to turn from our own way and believe the gospel.

We surrender to Jesus.

We place our faith and trust in Him.

We make Him our Lord and King.

When we do, we are forgiven and made new.

And through Jesus, we begin to experience and pursue God's design for our lives.

Then we can ask a couple of very simple questions:

“Which circle are you in?”

And if they recognize that they are in brokenness:

“Which circle do you want to be in?”

Then comes an even more important question:

“Is there anything keeping you from turning from your way, believing the gospel of Jesus, and making Him your Lord and King?”

That is a gospel conversation.

It is not complicated.

It does not require a stage.

It does not require a microphone.

It does not require a seminary degree.

It requires a disciple who is willing to open their mouth and share Jesus.

If you would like to see Three Circles actually modeled in a conversation, this is the video we use as a great example:

Watch the Three Circles Gospel Presentation

You Can Learn to Do This

This is one of the reasons we model tools like Three Circles with new disciples.

We do not just tell someone:

“You should share the gospel.”

We show them how.

Then we take them with us.

They watch it happen.

They begin doing it themselves.

And eventually, they can model it for someone else.

That is disciples making disciples.

And it removes one of the biggest excuses we sometimes carry:

“I don't know how.”

You can learn.

And once you learn, you can go.

Don’t Stop at “Jesus Loves You”

Tell people Jesus loves them.

Absolutely.

Invite them to church.

Pray with them.

Serve them.

Love them.

Invite them into Christian community.

But do not stop there.

Do not give people everything surrounding the gospel while withholding the gospel itself.

Do not simply tell them Jesus loves them and then hope somebody else eventually explains why Jesus came.

Do not invite them to church because you are hoping the pastor will do what you were unwilling to do.

Do not hand your responsibility to the small group leader.

Do not hand it to the evangelist.

Do not hand it to somebody you think is more qualified.

You have been commissioned too.

At some point, we have to talk about sin.

We have to talk about brokenness.

We have to talk about the cross.

We have to talk about the resurrection.

We have to tell people that there is a way out.

And we have to call people to turn from their own way, believe the gospel, and surrender to Jesus as Lord and King.

Not because we can save anybody.

We cannot.

The results belong to God.

But obedience belongs to us.

People do not simply need to hear that Jesus loves them.

They need to hear what Jesus has done to save them.

And they should not have to wait for someone else to tell them.

Who have you shared the gospel with this week?