Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Acts 2:41
As a young lad of ten or so, I was visiting some friends who happened to own a television set (we didn’t have one at our house), and the family sat down during the evening to watch a program from a Billy Graham evangelistic crusade. I had heard Billy Graham many times on the radio, but had never seen a television program of one of his crusades, so I was very impressed with the huge numbers of people who were in attendance in the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. The arena holds some 13,000 spectators for sporting events, and of course, the crowd would be much larger with seating on the playing floor. I was also impressed with the singing of George Beverley Shea, a song I had not heard before. And the message from Billy Graham was a familiar one, the same Gospel I was used to hearing at the little Baptist church we were attending. But what amazed me the most was the incredible response to the invitation that Graham issued at the close of his message. Hundreds of folks streamed down from the stands and along the aisles, individuals and entire families, all hurrying to the altar at the speaking podium. I don’t know how many responded, but the numbers might have been in the thousands. As I recall that event, I wonder how many of those people actually gladly received the Word. How many are doing so today?
At those Billy Graham crusades, being saved was apparently as simple as ‘going to the front’. But some places have an easier salvation than that; they provide pledge cards that, if you sign, will guarantee you eternal life. Or so they say. Many of the so-called evangelistic churches around us have also really simplified the salvation they offer. In most cases, it’s just a matter of reciting a little prayer or making a public confession; no repentance is necessary, it seems. Yet other places will practically guarantee eternal life if you can work up enough emotional hype to blurt out a few sounds that nobody understands. We shake our heads at such nonsense, of course, because these methods all fly in the face of all that the Scriptures teach. They fail the test of gladly receiving his word.
If we go back in our experience to the day we were saved, we well remember what had to occur before we reached the point of faith in Christ. And it was the same with the people who Peter was preaching to in Jerusalem. Those people were made to acknowledge their guilt, in particular the guilt of having sent the Saviour to the cross. Like the Philippian jailer, they cried out ‘What must I do…’ These people acknowledged that they were wrong, and that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God. They were willing to admit their guilt, and glad to receive the message that Peter was delivering.. They passed the test of gladly receiving his word.
We must never water down the Gospel message to anything less than gladly receiving the truth that Christ died for our sins. Anything less is not salvation. -Jim MacIntosh