In today’s sermons, the gospel message is simplified to be less offensive and less demanding, while church leaders often employ entertainment as a means of attracting crowds.

There are also certain aspects of preaching today that are incomplete and contain errors contradicting fundamentals of the Christian faith. Here are a few examples:

• Neglecting the person or the salvific work of Jesus.
• Promising health and wealth instead of Christ and eternal life.
• Teaching its followers to make declarative statements that everything they touch will prosper.
• Promoting the mindset of the New Age movement that  teaches God will release blessings into the lives of people if they maintain certain positive thoughts, and generate enough faith.  

There are also a lot of Christians who call themselves believers because a pastor once invited them to raise their hands at the end of a sermon. While there may be some genuine people who do get saved in the process, a person is not identified as a Christian based on the fact that they raised their hands; rather, it is evident in how they live their lives.

Needless to say, such faith that is not based on any biblical truth is powerless to save. It is empowered by human desires and not by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, it offers temporal belief at the expense of eternal life.

That being said, what are some of the actual truths of the Gospel?

Some of the truths about the gospel are:

• Christ’s substitutionary atonement.
• The true nature of Christ.
• God’s trinitarian nature.
• Biblical repentance.
• Unique authority of the Bible
• The desire to be saved from sin
• Getting to know God’s Holiness.

The major focus of the gospel is the saving work of Christ and NOT that a believer should be living a blessed, miraculous, or superstitious life.

Scriptures help us understand these Biblical truths, which become the source of authority in our lives rather than our own feelings.

The Gospel is central to the Bible

Preaching the Gospel simply means recognizing that the Bible is one unfolding story of God’s love and saving grace, from Genesis to Revelation.

Matthew 5:17 (NKJV)

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Luke 24:27 (NKJV)

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

In the verses above, Jesus declares that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets, revealing that all of Scripture ultimately points to Him. Every part of the Bible—from the Law to the Prophets—finds its purpose and meaning in Christ. Therefore, when we study any passage apart from its connection to Him, we risk missing the core message God intends to convey.

If for example, you are preaching from the book of Daniel and your message is titled “Dare to be a Daniel” it is not about Jesus. If you are preaching from the book of Revelation but your message is about USA or Russia or China then it is not about Christ.

What then is the message of the Bible?

The message of the Bible is clear and is based on the theme that God will save His people.

It is a misreading of scripture when we read the Bible in such a way that we make ourselves the hero of the story and never the pharisee, or the terrified Israelites, or the ones who even after being led through the dead sea worshiped a golden calf.

When we approach Scripture as if we are the heroes of the story, we misunderstand its purpose and distort its message. This self-centered reading is both spiritually damaging and misleading, turning God into a means to our own ends rather than the sovereign Lord of our lives. True understanding of the Bible places Christ at the center, leading us to worship and trust Him rather than seeking to control Him.