Lee Strobel tells the story of
how his friend, Jack, shares his faith.
Jack lives in a residential facility for the developmentally disabled in
suburban Chicago. Jack wears thick
glasses, speaks in a low mumble, his hair is always tousled, his cloths are
dishevelled, and he wears a tie that is askew.
He thinking is unfocused and his speech tends to consist of a string of
disconnected thoughts. Although, when
Lee told his story, Jack was probably in his late thirties, talking with him
was like communicating with a child.
Jack attends the same church as Lee.
People in the church wondered how
much Jack understood of the gospel.
Until he came to church with his arm in a cast and sling. ‘Did that hurt?’ Lee asked.
‘I come here … and hear … about
Jesus … and I think about … all the pain … he went through … for me … and I
think … this is nothing.’ There is no doubt that Jack loves Jesus! And what happens when a person truly adores
someone? They can’t keep it to
themselves. So Jack is involved in the
adventure of sharing his faith. He
routinely tells the other residents and staff at the home where he lives that
Jesus loves them, and encourages them to visit his church.
In that residential home there is
a stereo in the common room. Each of the
residents get half an hour a day to choose what is played on it. Most of the residents tune in to a sports
match or play music. Jack uses his half
hour to play sermons from his church.
One of the staff at the home is a
woman named Michelle. Over and over Jack
would tell her that Jesus loved her. He
would lend her Christian tapes and invite her to come to church with him. Michelle was deeply touched by his genuine
concern, after all, she was supposed to be caring for him, and here he was
turning the tables. But she kept turning
down his invitations to join him at church.
One day Jack reached the
conclusion that he was getting nowhere just asking
Michelle to come to church. So, in his
own endearing way, he told her. ‘Meet me there Sunday.’ He really wasn’t demanding it, but he was
gently insistent. Jack was so sincere,
so full of love and perseverance that Michelle thought ‘why not?’ She went, listened intently to the message of
grace, felt her heart begin to open to ideas she had long resisted. By the end of that day she found herself
saying yes to Jesus. She now thanks God
that Jack cared enough to persist in reaching out to her even though she
rebuffed him so many times. ‘Jack,’ she
declares, ‘is my hero!’
Sharing our love for Jesus is
something all Christians are commanded to do.
We called into an adventure.
However, this adventure can be scary, and fear often causes us to miss opportunities. Today, I want to share some honest thoughts
about evangelism.
Evangelism
is not easy
Just before he sent his disciples
out for the first time, Jesus warned them ‘I am sending you out like sheep
among wolves’ (Matthew 10:16).
Think about it. You are sharing a message that is considered
intolerant—Jesus is the only way to God.
You are telling people that they are spiritually blind, lost and
condemned. Not everyone is going to
thank you for such opinions.
Peter tells us to ‘be prepared to
give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have’ (1 Peter 3:15). Maybe we have
waited for that opportunity hoping that someone will come up to us and say,
‘what’s the difference about you? I want
what you have. Please tell me about your
hope, and where it comes from.’ However,
the reality is often far more hostile.
The whole of Peter’s letter is filled with warnings about how Christians
suffer for their faith. In fact, the
previous verse speaks about suffering for doing what is right. It is more likely that they will approach you
with an attitude that says, ‘the way you live offends me, your beliefs are
ridiculous, why on earth would someone believe such superstitious nonsense?’
Of course, being sneered at, is
nothing compared to what Christians face in most of the world; it is nothing
compared to what we have in Jesus; and our current afflictions are light and
momentary compared that are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory (2
Corinthians 4:17).
Evangelism is exciting
Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg
write a wonderful book about taking everyday risks to talk to people about
Jesus. In it Strobel says, ‘this is the
missing ingredient in so many Christian lives.
I’ve never heard anyone complain by saying, “My spiritual life is so dry
right now; it’s like I am living in a desert,” and then add, “Oh, by the way,
I’m actively trying to reach a friend for Christ.” Sharing our faith is one of the thinks that
makes our faith feel alive.
Evangelism is important
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we
say, ‘hallowed by Thy name.’ ‘To hallow
his name is to be overwhelmed by the sweetness of his sacrifice’ (Rico Tice). It should grieve us that those around us do
not hallow his name—that they do not worship him, adore him and acknowledge his
incomparable glory. Ordinary Christians
in the early church went out to evangelise ‘for the sake of the Name’ (3 John
7). Many Christians rightly get upset
when Jesus’ name is used flippantly.
However, our concern for his name must not stop there. We want to see people speak his name in love
and commitment. John Stott writes, ‘we
do not speak for Christ because we do not so love his name that we cannot bear
to see him unacknowledged and unadorned.’
Evangelism is also important
because love for people must compel us to warn them of the danger they are in. Rico Tice writes, ‘The reason Jesus talked
about hell is because he does not want people to go there. The reason Jesus died was so that people
wouldn’t have to go there. The only way
to hell is to trample over the cross of Christ.’
Tice tells the interesting story
of an occasion when he was a student and he gave a guy on his rugby team a tape
of a sermon that he had preached. It was
on ‘behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:19). In that sermon he pointed out that we either
pay for our sin in hell, or the Lamb pays for our sin on the cross.
His friend, called Ed, played
that sermon one night to his housemates, who were on the same rugby team. One of them, Dave, got very upset, and said,
‘if that’s what Rico believes, the fact he’s said nothing of it to me in months
means he’s really my friend.’ So Ed rang
Rico and said: ‘Rico, you need to speak to Dave; he’s upset that you’ve not
talked to him till now about what’s in the sermon.’ Dave understood that if a Christian believes
what Jesus said about hell is true, then we are not very loving if we do not
warn people about the dangers of been sent there!
Of course, becoming a Christian
is more than simply escaping hell. If
you see a great movie you want others to see it to. I enjoy going to Thomond Park for a big match
hoping that they will get the same thrill from it as I do. We should want others to share the delight we
have in Jesus.
Have you forgotten how great it
feels to realise that your sins are forgiven?
Are you growing in the awareness of the width and depth of the love God
has for us in Christ? Do you enjoy that
peace of knowing that we no longer need fear death? Do you realise that you are not only justified,
you are adopted as a dearly loved child and heir of the most gracious and kind
of all fathers? Do you understand being
in Christ is life in all its fullness?
Do you know that you have being rescued for the empty ways of our world,
and now have real purpose?
Our idols will stop us
evangelising
So what stops us sharing our
faith? Our idols stop us sharing our
faith! An idol is anything that is more
important to us than our love for God.
If I love the approval of my friends and relatives more than I love the
name of Jesus then I will keep silent about my faith in case they reject me for
what I believe. Of course this not only
reveals that I love popularity more than I value Jesus, it also says that my
love for my friends is based more their approval of my than my concern for
their eternal well-being. I am nervous
about how some of my friends will react when they begin to understand what I
believe; I feel a huge responsibility that if I don’t speak to them about Jesus
they may never hear the gospel; and I dread the fact that they might not like
me for what I believe. But we must love
the name of Jesus, and those around us, enough to step out and face the
consequences.
The only way you will be able to
handle the inevitable rejection that comes through sharing the gospel is
through experiencing God’s ever-present love, the comfort of his people and the
certainty of your heavenly hope. Indeed,
as I read about evangelism I am reminded how gracious is in giving us each
other. Our church fellowship is to be a
place where we come together and encourage each other, because it is difficult
out there in the world, and a need the support of God’s people.
Conclusion—being faithful doesn’t
guarantee conversions
mentioned a book that I have
recently read by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. It is entitled, ‘The Unexpected Adventure’,
and it encourages all of us to be engaged in sharing our faith. But one of the things that struck me was the
amount of times they talked about speaking to someone and being left with no
sense of whether that person came to Jesus or not. I actually found it encouraging. They weren’t judging success in sharing their
faith in the numbers of conversions they had seen. They were judging success in terms of
lovingly, respectfully and gently telling people about Jesus. After all we can’t open the eyes of the
spiritually blind, or raise the spiritually dead—only Jesus can do that. Our responsibility is to be motivated by a
passion for God’s name and a love for people.
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