Billboard Gospel
August 27th, 2009 by Victor
I have seen recently two billboards in my area which show John 14:6 next to a picture of a cross. 
I thought it was cool that people had taken the time and money to rent the billboard with these ads rather than the usual. Seeing this billboard now got me thinking. I wonder if John 14:6 is the best verse to put up there – if you only had a few lines and a few seconds – what would you put up on your billboard for one month? John 14:6? A different phrase? Something else altogether?
John 14:6 is a good one. It’s not easy to decide. I saw a sign that
says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
It’s from Acts 16:31. I like to read it every time I go by it.
I’d go with a summarized Galatians 5 type message…something like…
——–
Works of the Flesh:
Adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred, murders, drunkenness, (maybe throw in lying from Rev. 21:8) & such like:
They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
———
I feel John 14:6 is an awesome and powerfully truthful verse, but many people driving by already feel like they are saved and have access to GOD through Christ by the minimal that they’ve done (baptized, once saved, “I wear a Jesus Cross necklace”, “GOD forgives all”). I feel that driving by and reading verses like the Galatians one above, will have a person stop and think “hey I engage in one or a few of those… wait, if this is true I’m not going to inherit the kingdom of GOD because of it (even though I have a cross tattoo on my back)?… oh man what do I do??” Then they might feel an earnest desire to search out how they can receive true salvation through GOD’s grace and realize that through Christ is the only way like John 14:6 says.
Kind of on a “show them that the Bible says they’re not saved even though their church, family, friends etc. say they are” so they don’t assume they’re already saved through Christ.
Hey Russ, thanks for your thoughts. So do you think that the primary audience of such a billboard would be people who claim to be Christians but aren’t? Is there something different that would be to address those who aren’t/have never been?
There’s nothing like the fear of God’s judgment that can cause a man to want to escape the wrath to come against the ungodly.
That’s the first thing a man should be concerned with. After that
he needs to know where to go to escape from it.
Thinking of billboards and what we could put on them, causes me to consider my words carefully, knowing that they must be short
at times, and at such times I want them to be effective and complete.
I suppose it’s not possible to put the complete message of what we would like to say on one billboard, though we seek a good word
and a complete message. Maybe simply Jesus on the cross would do. But, there’s more isn’t there?
Victor
which group do you think has a greater number here in the USA.
1.Those that think they are saved
2.those who deny God.
i would say just by the errors of the trinity that group 1 might be thousands times larger than group 2 besides even if you turned someone in the direction of God doesnt mean they wont receive false teachings of the trinity.
i say bring those claiming to be saved to the truth and they will bring in more that didnt believe in God than a billboard ever had a chance
Robert – you are making an interesting point as well. I would say that there are probably more people who aren’t following Jesus as their Lord than those who are (that’s how I’d frame the question).
That being said however, if hypothetically we could get a billboard in a prime spot for either group – what would the message be?
I would agree thats a better question, i am not much with words.
if it were possible i would use verses that would compel people to seek the truth through the Word of God not through man.
i really believe that most christians have never read the whole bible.
if we used all the effort used to promote Jesus to promote the Word of God we wouldnt need to even promote Jesus because people would know the real Jesus already.
i know most preachers would be against this but i think we could offer a rebate from God to those christians who read the bible from front to back. payable by their church.
now this would be doing Gods work.
just something to get them to seek the truth from God
I would like to see a billboard that says:
I Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
and
Isaiah 53:5
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed.
Either that, or
You don’t have to be a trinitarian to be saved.
or,
Christians are not saved by their doctrines but by their faith in Christ.
That one causes me to think: Why then do they hold so dearly to them?
How about this on a billboard:
Let’s not go along with men to be accepted by them, rather let’s follow Jesus instead. (and have a picture of him on the cross)
How about:
Jesus Christ–What if he’s right?
http://www.WhatIfHesRight.com
The devil comes up with a lot of “What if’s”, but he never says
“What if Jesus is right?”. I looked for the above website but didn’t find it. I just had to look, right?
Today on the news I saw a man’s picture. It was the picture of a man who had a history of sex offending. It was a story of a young
lady who was abducted by him when she was young and had been kept in his back yard for years. She even had a child, so the
man likely sexually abused her also.
I noticed the man’s eyes. They were intense, very open, as if he “knew” something, something evil. That reminded me of something Satan said to Eve, that if she would eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that their eyes would be opened and they would be as gods, knowing both good and evil. I think it was best for her to
have known only good.
Maybe we should have a billboard that has a picture of a fellon in an orange suit, with eyes wide open and intense as if he knows something evil, and Genesis 3:4,5, along with John 8:44b. We could also then direct them to the cross with some other verse
like John 3:16.
Sean, you make a good point – using a domain name can get people to your website where you can show them more – a video, an article, audio etc. Are we coming to the point where we are saying we can’t just have one verse to get the job done?
1 John 2: 15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and its lust; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
It’s long, may need more than one billboard. Maybe just put the reference in HUGE letters and a web link.
Somehow you have to get them to the gospel message and called to repent. Both are necessary but too much for a billboard. Tough to do as they fly by at 70 mph.
JESUS = LIFE
Victor,
The nature of billboards is to have a pithy one-liner or an eye-popping picture to both get one’s attention, make the message intelligible in .5 seconds as the person goes 70mph, and make the product/service memorable…so the next time the person goes to the store they feel subconsciously drawn to product X for which they have seen 10 ads in the last week (on buses, tv, billboard, web, etc.). Honestly to do marketing right we would want to talk to a professional–someone who knew how to phrase things so that it both maximizes appeal and memorability.
Even so, this way of doing things is quite foreign to the Bible. They functioned in a much less information-bombarded culture. Sure, there was news about Caesar or Herod or who did what at the local village, but there weren’t corporate logos saturating the byways. I think people had more time in their culture. Because the internal combustion engine didn’t exist nor personal communication technology, life was probably not so fast-paced. The necessity was probably not there to concentrate one’s message and identity into a single phrase or 4-color picture. So precisely because our culture is so different than there’s I would guess we will not find the perfect verse (i.e. short sentence or phrase) that is ready-made to do what we would want it to do on a billboard.
The John 14.6 verse says that Jesus is the only way to God. A text such as this does not serve to evangelize people but rather fight against relativistic pluralism (the idea that there are many ways to God–Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, New Age, etc.). Now I agree that this way of thinking is both popular and mistaken but I’m not sure that using a billboard to fight against it is the best use of resources. Why not capitalize on the many-paths-to-God assumption of most Americans and pitch our ad in such a way that they are intrigued by the “Jesus way” to God?
Mathew 4:17 Jesus says “REPENT FOR THE KINDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND!” and maybe reference all of Revalations
I love this verse it says it all!!!!
There are so many verses that are awesome like the one about when Jesus says many will say lord lord and I will say I do not know you. I can not remember where that one is I looked but couldn’t find it
For all the trinitarian’s that believe God Jesus and the Holy spirit is one, I like the one when Jesus says no one can get to the father God but through me the son, (if they are one why is Jesus a mediator for us and God?) can not remember where that one is either if any of you know please tell me!
God Bless!!!!
Hi Stacey,
The first one you are looking for is Matthew 7.21 and the second is either John 14.6 or 1 Timothy 2.5
How about this for a billboard?
A picture of Jesus being arrested in the garden and the men falling
backward. (See John 18:4-8) and underneath the picture:
Proverbs 30:31
“……..a king, against whom there is no rising up.