Sharing the Gospel

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Sharing the Gospel

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” As I have mentioned in the past two messages, this series is loosely based on a book called “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison. Two weeks ago, we looked at God’s heart towards the lost, how He loves them and wants them to turn to Him in faith. Last week, we talked about connecting with people. Jesus taught His disciples by example, showing them that compassion was for everyone, including those whose lives were quite a mess. One such example was the Samaritan woman at the well, who was in many ways the absolutely last person Jews might otherwise talk to. She was a Samaritan, whose religious beliefs were a toxic hodgepodge of half-truths and cultish traditions. She was a woman, and Jewish men did not talk in public with women at all. And she had lived a very immoral life and was likely shunned by even her own village. Yet Jesus chose her to talk to, she was very receptive to Him, and the disciples learned to seek out the lost, no matter what “package” they came in. Jesus also spoke to a demon-possessed seemingly crazy and dangerous man in the Gerasenes. Jesus cast out the demons and the man was then very receptive to Jesus and His message. We likewise see all kinds of people coming to faith in Christ in the Book of Acts, from the non-Jewish centurion named Cornelius, to the woman of Thyatira named Lydia. Brought to faith were everything from the wealthy and influential to the poor and anonymous.

We also talked about how to develop relationships with new people and how to go deeper into relationship with them. We talked about the necessity of prayer both for others and for yourself, and the value of “raising your flag” (letting people know of your faith early in a relationship). We ended with a video of a preacher that had three points based on Mark 5:21-43, the account of Jairus and his very sick daughter. Who remembers what the three points were (complete with hand signals)? Watch for Jesus, walk with Jesus, and wait on Jesus.

Today’s message is simply entitled “Sharing the Gospel.” Are you surprised at how well you remember the three points from the preacher’s video message? It is interesting to me. In the cultures of the Bible, including those at the time of Jesus, and still in the cultures of many developing countries today, people were very good at receiving, remembering, and being able to pass on auditory information. Because of this, the teachings and parables of Jesus as well as the gospel presentations of the early disciples as recorded in Acts were easily passed on far beyond the scope of the original listeners.

I have read that today, in our modern culture, we are far less “natural” at this, and perhaps this is one reason that so many Christians feel unprepared, unqualified, inadequate, and anxious about sharing the gospel. I do think we are less practiced at passing on stories or messages by “heart” than the generations that have come before us, and I suspect that our constant reliance on both traditional and social media have contributed to the situation. But I also think that we aren’t that bad at it, and indeed are mostly just a little out of practice.

Do we have to prepare to share the gospel and do so by memory? No, we don’t. In this digital age, you are mere clicks away from Bible passages and any data or video file you wish to use. But even this requires some preparation – because you need to know what to turn to.

Is it better to have a plan on your phone, to whip out a good old-fashioned tract or the physical Bible itself, or to commit one or more plans to memory? I’m not sure. I do think it is more natural if you can share at least an overview by memory, as that is more natural – more how people share other kinds of information. At the same time, however, more and more people show their friends various things on their phones, so it doesn’t have to be weird.

I’m also ambivalent about the assumption that weird is bad. Even in secular psychology, there is documented evidence of something called “the sleeper effect,” which is defined as how an initially unconvincing message by an unreliable source becomes more persuasive with the passage of time and with repeated exposure. Psychology treats the sleeper effect like there is something wrong with our brains. But the sleeper effect is quite appropriate if the thing that has entered our brains through an unconvincing presentation by an unreliable source is actually true. Because if it is true, then of course it is better if we come to accept it regardless of how it came to us.

This reminds me of one of my very favorite testimonies in the Bible, in John chapter 9, when Jesus heals a man born blind. After the healing, we have the following, starting in verse 8. This is a long passage, but I want to read it because it wonderfully demonstrates that if this guy can share about Jesus, so can you.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” – John 9:8-9

Let me just point out that this is not how to establish your credibility! Now, some of them almost certainly wondered if he had been only pretending to be blind previously.

“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said. – John 9:10-12

Even in the Greek, this is worded in a way that could be taken as offensive. He is speaking as if he were speaking to little children, so that no matter what, they could understand him. “He said to go, and wash. So I went, and washed. And then I could see!”

I suppose it could be worse. He could have said, how would I know which way He went? I was blind at that time!

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” – John 9:13-17

This is an insightful answer (no pun intended). It was the prophets in the Old Testament who performed healings. It was they who could say to do a certain thing and that when the person obeyed, they would be healed. This was a form of prophecy, as it predicted a future outcome that would be impossible without God’s direct intervention, that is, it was a miracle.

In verses 18-23 they question the parents. Let’s jump ahead to verse 24.

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become His disciples too?” – John 9:24-27

Our conversations should with unbelievers should exemplify patience and love. It is not only what we say but also our character when we say it that matters. It is true that this formerly blind man is being treated rudely. But a rude response is probably not the most effective approach at this point. This is starting to resemble an Internet flame war.

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where He comes from, yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does His will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. – John 9:28-34

His point about how it makes no sense that God would enable an abject sinner to do incredible healing miracles is a good one. Their only response was to invoke the ad hominem fallacy, attacking someone’s character as a diversion tactic to avoid addressing the actual argument. So I am not for a moment excusing the rude behavior of the listeners. And I’m not even willing to say that the blind man’s testimony was a failure. Jesus’ own interactions with the Pharisees and teachers of the law were often heated and came to similar end points. What I want you to see is that this fellow is testifying the little he knows with the minimal skills that he has. He is doing it! And if he can do it, so can you. You know far more than he does, and you probably won’t get angry as easily. You’ve got this!

And most importantly, you don’t do this alone. The Holy Spirit aids you. He desires to use you, and He will help you. He will remind you of things you know, verses that are appropriate, analogies that are helpful to the particular person you are speaking to. This does not promise success in the sense of a full-blown conversion, from unbelief to genuine saving faith in Christ, but it does promise that seeds are being planted. And if the sleeper effect works even in secular settings, imagine how it works as the Holy Spirit takes those seeds and starts to work them down deep into the hearer’s thoughts! Pray – not only before sharing the gospel, and not only during the sharing, but after, when God can do perhaps His greatest work in the person you have shared with.

So let’s say we “see the end,” God’s heart towards the lost, and suppose we are meeting people. How do we share the gospel? Some people, such as the author of the book this series is based on, suggest having two basic “tools in their toolbox,” so to speak. The first is to have a way of sharing your story, of either how you came to faith in Christ, or how Jesus did something to significantly change or help you. Awkward as it was, we see an example of this in John 9, when the formerly blind man explains how Jesus healed him so he can now see. We see Paul come to faith in Acts 9, and Acts also shows Paul telling his personal story of conversion two times, in Acts 22 and Acts 26. I don’t have time to go through both entire accounts, so I will focus on the second account. It is also a long passage, so turn in your Bibles to Acts 26, starting at verse 1.

For the context, we look at verse 1.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense. – Acts 26:1

Paul is defending his beliefs and practices. He has been arrested and is being held in Caesarea. The king has arrived and has been briefed of the situation. He says that he wants to question Paul for himself. This is where the passage begins.

Look at verses 2-11. Paul explains who he is, his extensive Jewish background and training, and he is quite upfront about his flaw – he was in fact a rabid persecutor of believers. He describes himself as “obsessed.” Then, in verses 12-18, he explains the series of events that led to how he came to faith in Jesus. He does not worry about how crazy it sounds. Jesus speaks to him in a vision, saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” He explains that Jesus sends him to be a missionary to the gentiles. In verses 19-23, he explains how his life has completely changed. God has empowered and enabled him to reach many with the gospel. Note that throughout the narrative he gives hints of the gospel message itself – particularly relevant to his story, the fact that Jesus has in fact risen from the dead.

At its core, this is an excellent model for anyone. Let’s break down what your testimony might look like.

If you are taking notes, start with “Number 1: Before Jesus.” Explain something about your life before you met Jesus (or before you became serious about following Him, if you first believed as a young child). Try to think about something that was wrong, a sin area in your life, a struggle over how you viewed yourself, and so on. There are many ways you can do this – it doesn’t need to capture every aspect of you, but just one important area. I encourage you to actually think about this now. See if you can think of a key word or two or three that might characterize a key issue in your life that has since been changed by your relationship with Jesus and write those words down. You might think of multiple directions you could take – each of these can become a different personal testimony you can use for different situations. For me, one I can use is that I became quite jaded and distrustful of religion, even bitter, after seeing hypocrisy in the faith I had been taught growing up. This made me unhappy and not a lot of fun to be around. Another is that I had frequently felt unloved, and assumed it was because I was unlovable. Another is that I was proud – proud of my superior thinking skills, assuming that because I was good at math I was good at everything, and failing to realize how foolishly shallow my thinking really was in so many areas of life.

Now write “Number 2: Meeting Jesus.” This is where you tell the events that caused you to go from your former life apart from Jesus to your present life with Him. This is an area that you can practice. You should explain something about how you prayed to Jesus at the point of conversion (or rededication).  What if you feel like you have always had faith in Jesus and never really fell away? Then tell about when you opened up the part of your life to Christ that was the issue in number 1. Now write “Number 3: With Jesus.” How has your life changed? How has putting your faith in Christ changed you? How has God changed you? This should tie in with Number 1.

Is this approach formulaic? Perhaps. But it is a formula that Paul used, and it is an effective form of communication. The idea isn’t necessarily that you always pull out this approach any time you talk to someone about spiritual things; it is instead that you have practiced it so that it is now natural. It will always come out differently, and the Holy Spirit may well direct you to adapt it significantly to each particular situation (look for example at the differences between Paul’s testimony in Acts 22 and Acts 26), but the idea is that by having gone through practicing it, you now have something that you can pull out of your back pocket (so to speak) at any time. Our confidence is not in our method, but in Christ. But at the same time, Christ would not be opposed to us learning to be better able to communicate what He has done for us. This is the first basic tool, to share your story.

The second tool is to share Christ’s story. This is to present the gospel directly. There are many ways to do this. Again, I encourage you to at least practice one. Do you have to memorize this? No – you could have something on your phone. But it isn’t bad to memorize a method, particularly if it is simple.

In our series on shame and honor, taught two summers ago, I presented a gospel technique called the Three Circles. Brian often uses this method on campus. If you want to learn about it, I encourage you to Google it, look at the shame and honor transcripts, or talk to me or Brian. I personally like this method as a basic framework because I have learned how to adapt it to people in honor-shame cultures in addition to those in our typical western culture.

Today, I want to present something that is super simple. It assumes that the person has some familiarity with who Jesus is and targets a western worldview. The following is based on “What Jesus Started” and in turn comes from a presentation called “Share Jesus Without Fear” by Tim Scheuer. Perhaps the hardest part is to figure out how to start. A great question to lead in with is “Could I show you from the Bible how you can know God personally?” Normally, you need more lead-in than this; so the bigger question is how to lead in to the lead-in. For someone you have just met, for example in a evangelism setting, you could just ask, “If you could know God personally, would you be interested?” For people you know better, you could use something like this: “I have never shared with you why I became a follower of Jesus. I would like to tell you about it.”

In any case, the idea is to let the Bible speak for itself. Through a short series of verses, you ask your friend to read a verse, and then you ask him what it says to him. If he gets it really wrong, have him read it again, and only offer your take on it if he is still far off. There are only five verses: John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, and Romans 10:9.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23

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

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9

(One way to remember which passages these are: John, then Romans. Everyone remembers John 3:16. Romans 3, then double is 6. Romans 5, then double is 10. You can find the verses in the chapters if you practice a few times so that they become familiar.) Then you check for understanding by asking: 1. Do you agree that you are a sinner? 2. Do you want to receive God’s forgiveness for your sin? 3. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you and rose again? 4. Will you surrender your life to Christ? 5. Are you ready to invite Jesus into your heart and into your life? (Five verses, five questions, each with an action verb. Maybe we should devise hand signals again!)

If they say yes, then lead them into a prayer in which they repeat what you say, telling them they can add anything they want to any of these. But the prayer confirms agreement to each of the five questions.

If a person is not ready but is willing to meet and learn more about Jesus, set up a time and start to go through various passages of Scripture with them. One suggestion is to use something called the Seven Stories of Hope which can easily be found online. As you do this, you can ask each time whether they are now ready to come to Christ. At this point I would repeat the five verses and the five questions.

How do you go through passages of Scripture with someone? There are many methods. Again, this can be easy. Have them read the passage. Then go through the following simple questions: 1. What does this story say about God/Jesus? 2. What does the passage teach us about the characters in the story? 3. What are the sins to avoid and/or the promises to claim in this story?  4. What are the examples to follow or the commands to obey in this story? 5. Who do you identify with in this story? Why?

In the Seven Stories of Hope method, they encourage having the person repeat back the story in their own words. This can be awkward at first (at least for us westerners), but it helps the story really sink in deeper, and later you can encourage your person to share it with others.

Asking people if they will act on something they have learned from the story is also really good. Again, it depends on where the person is at. It is best if you can also provide an action that you will do. Finally, the time should include prayer, both at the beginning, and at the end. If the person has said they will do a particular action or share it with someone, follow up the next week at the beginning to see how it went.

This sounds complicated, but one-on-one it really isn’t. The questions are basic. The most important part is that the person is reading the passage and interacting with it. You of course can also encourage people to read the Bible for themselves during the week – giving them a Bible if they don’t have one, and suggesting specific parts to read (for example, to start with the book of John). Your meeting with them to go over these Bible passages has two purposes: to show them how to have quiet times on their own – they can ask themselves the same questions – and to show them how easy it is to help others to do the same. If it seems hard or overwhelming to you, it is only because I am telling you about it rather than you doing it yourself.

Do you have to do any of this in this particular way? No, of course not. But I present you with these techniques so that you cannot say you wouldn’t know how to start. Now you do! I will say that these particular techniques have been used over and over (with minor adjustments depending on who is using them) and have had tremendous success all over the world. Their simplicity is one reason they are effective – because in their simplicity, they are easy to pass on from person to person. (And again, these would be much easier to learn by doing than by teaching; it’s like the difference between learning to drive a car by being told what to do and learning to drive a car by getting out there and running into mailboxes! Just kidding.)

Before we wrap up, I want to talk about three final topics: fear, gifting, and adapting the message. Let’s start with fear. I think fear is the main reason people are hesitant to either share the gospel with people they get to know or to go out to share with strangers. What is the root source of that fear? I am no expert on this, but I can think of two reasons. First, people are afraid that they will be embarrassed, made to look like fools. They are afraid that they will be asked questions they don’t know how to answer or will be told fancy arguments that they cannot refute. In the case of established relationships, they are afraid that the discussion will “ruin” the relationship, that the person will no longer respect them. I think there is an answer to this, and it is partly why I started with the story of the blind man who Jesus made able to see: It’s OK not to know, and it’s OK to say you don’t know. An even better answer is to say you don’t know, but you will find out. Why is this better? Because it gives you an excuse to get back with the person and continue the conversation! How do you find out? You can look for the answer online. Or you can talk to or email one of the pastors or anyone else in the church. You may also just think of the answer yourself, away from the heat of the moment. But hear me: It’s OK not to know! As an atheist, I was deeply impressed when people said they didn’t know and would get back to me, and then did so. Apart from the answer, this also powerfully communicated to me that these people cared about me. If they had known all the answers, I would not have gotten to see this! So view being stumped as an opportunity rather than something to fear. Maybe you need to appear foolish for their sake, a sentiment Paul also expressed in 2 Corinthians.

If the fear is that you will completely clam up, go with someone. Or if that is not possible, practice with your friends, or in front of a mirror. And most of all, pray. Depend on Him, rather than your own strength. As Paul wrote with regards to his “thorn in the flesh”:

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Cor. 12:9-10

Let’s now turn to gifting. A question you may have is whether all of us are really meant to go out and share the gospel, or whether it is only for those with the gift of evangelism. This is a fair question. Based on what we see in Scripture, I believe those with the gift of evangelism were involved in public preaching and missionary work, moving to bring the gospel to new places. But the practice of evangelism has always been widespread at times and places where the gospel has spread the fastest, where the numbers of those being saved has been the largest. I think we all should be convicted by the verse that says:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. – I Peter 3:15b

I find this verse doubly convicting; first, it is convicting because it should be apparent to everyone that you have a “hope,” an unshakeable joy in the Lord that especially shines in the darkest situations. That hope must be cultivated by feeding your relationship with God, by abiding in Him, obeying His precepts, repenting when we don’t, and getting to know Him better through His Word and through prayer.

The verse is also convicting because it says we need to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us. Or in the language of a university professor, there could be a pop quiz at any time! How do we make ourselves prepared? Again, in part it is by cultivating our relationship with God. But beyond this, I believe it is also to have a plan and to practice.

So, given that everyone should be prepared, then why not enter into the great adventure of being God’s ambassador, of sharing with a lost world, of doing what is on God’s heart? Knowing that although it may be scary, it will please our Father, I am eager to participate. I want to please Him! And I want to see the lost saved, because others reached out to me.

My final topic is on adapting the message. Towards this end, I want to quote from an article [https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-share-a-believable-gospel]on desiringgod.org by Jonathan Dodson, who pastors a church in Austin, Texas:

1. To those searching for acceptance in all the wrong places, we can point them to perfect acceptance in the gospel of justification.
2. To those searching for fulfilling relationships, we can point them to profound, personal union with Christ.
3. To those who struggle with tolerance, we can show them the uniqueness of Christ in the gospel of redemption.
4. To those who fear disapproval or demand the applause of others, we can share the gospel of adoption, which offers an enduring approval and produces humble confidence.
5. To anyone longing for a new start, there is the hope of new creation.

I find this very profound. These are far from the only 5 situations where a “customized” gospel is appropriate. The reality is that what Christ has accomplished on the cross is so far-reaching that it changes everything. For each unbeliever we get to know, some things will initially resonate more deeply with them than others. Through prayer and really getting to know the person, I believe God will show you how to express the gospel in the way that meets their deepest need. In seeking this for the person, you are helping to write their future story of how they came to Christ.