Responses to the Gospel

Charles Simeon accepted the pastoral charge at Trinity Church in Cambridge, England in 1782. In his early years at the church there was active opposition to him by his new parishioners; they simply did not care for his biblical preaching. In fact, the congregants would often lock the doors of the church on Sunday in order to prevent Simeon from getting to the pulpit to preach the gospel. The minister, however, slowly and gradually won over his congregation, and he remained pastor of Trinity Church for 54 years.
Now my point in this story is not to say that preachers ought not to be locked out of their churches. In fact, I am all for locking a pastor out of his church for not preaching the gospel! Spurgeon's adage that the reason that many preachers do not preach the gospel is because they know it not is a good one. My real point of the story is that there are various responses that people have when they are confronted with the true gospel; and, indeed, we, as Christians and ministers of the gospel, should not be surprised that people react differently to that message. The gospel is divisive, and people respond to it with hostility, with indifference, with joy, and with other emotions and responses. (This, of course, is Jesus' main point in his parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15.)
So, then, how do we respond? We continue to share the gospel no matter the people's response. We are to share the gospel not because it is easy, and not because it is always pleasant, and not because we may be successful, but because Christ has commanded us to do it. In other words, we do not share Christ because we expect certain results. We evangelize because we have been sent by Christ, and we are ambassadors of the Great King. We are not to be dissuaded by results, but we are to do our duty as good soldiers of Christ.