Last month I had the opportunity to share the gospel at our church’s Vacation Bible School with the teenagers. While I wasn’t asked to do so until I arrived, I had anticipated the opportunity might present itself, and so I had prepared a brief outline before heading inside. When the pastor asked me to help, I smiled, agreed and remembered the words of Paul to his student Timothy,

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

The following was my outline:

I showed the students my graduate school class ring, explaining that it was the culmination of 20 years of education (12 grade school, 4 undergrad, 4 graduate). However, I explained that when I was their age I had made the most important and wise decision of my life, when I chose to believe the Gospel and trust Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for my sins. At that moment, by the grace of God, the cross went from foolishness to the power of God to save me from my sins.

1Corinthians 1:18 – For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

I then used Paul’s words to the church in Corinth to explain exactly what we mean when we use the term “Gospel.”

1 Corinthians 15 – Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

I went on to explain that until we receive God’s gift of salvation through his Son Jesus’ death and resurrection we are essentially a “Dead Man Walking,” the term used for death row prisoners, as Paul makes clear that we are dead in our sins, headed to an eternity separated from God, which we know as hell, but through Christ can be made alive until salvation.

Colossians 2:13-14 – When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

However, Jesus himself indicated that faith in Him enables us to cross over from spiritual death to eternal life.

John 5:24 – I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

We then prayed through Romans 6:23,

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

And I offered them an opportunity to, in their owns words in the quietness of their hearts reaffirm or for the first time, trust in Christ and make that all-important spiritual transaction between them and their Creator, remembering that,

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

I then challenged them with the following words of Paul,

Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. (Colossians 2:6-7)

And recommended that they do the following three things, if they had made a profession of faith this week:

– Tell a leader/parents
– Get a bible and begin reading The Gospel of John
– Begin faithfully attending a Bible-teaching church

While only the Lord knows those who, in that moment, “produced fruit in keeping with true repentance” (Matt. 3:8); however, we trust the Holy Spirit’s continuing work in their lives, remembering Paul’s words,

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6)