It appears today that many Christians in the American
church are very lax about sharing the gospel of Christ. As a former pastor of
mine put it: so many of us Christians are so excited that we have our place at
the table that we just sit there content and do not bother to go out and invite
others also. Or as Keith Green sang several years ago, the church is just “asleepin the light” while people are sinking and drowning in their sins. I must
confess that I far too often fail to take advantages of the opportunities that
the Lord brings my way. I am continuing to work at being more intentional with
sharing my faith with others and I want to help you with that as well. So, to help us all with our important role that the Lord has given us, let's look at seven encouragements for us to
tell others about Jesus.
1) CHRIST COMMANDS US TO
Jesus' final words to His disciples were: "Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).
The very first step in making a disciple is to tell them what God has done for
them in Christ if they repent of their sins and place their trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ ALONE for their salvation. One thing that should motivate us to go
out and share the good news is the fact that Christ commanded us to do so. According
to Jesus "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John
14:15). If we are serious about our love for the Lord, we will want to uphold
and live out this important commandment to honor Christ and bring God glory.
Making disciples cannot be an option for us but a necessity. In fact, according
to Jesus it is our job description. It is the very reason that we are still
left on this earth. Think about it. Why doesn’t God immediately take a believer
to glory to be with Him for all eternity? Because He desires to use him or her
to share the gospel message with others so that they may be saved as well. We
have a very important job! Want to fulfill the very purpose that God has for
you? Be more intentional in telling others about Jesus and His saving work on
the cross.
2) SHARING THE JOY WHICH IS OURS
The joy of having a relationship with Jesus Christ is so great that we should
have no problem sharing that joy with others. It should make such a difference
in our lives that we would not be able to not share. After all, why would we
not want to share about how Christ, while we were still yet sinners and enemies
of God due to our sins, took our sins upon Himself, the innocent being viewed
as guilty, and suffered God's wrath on the cross, the separation from God which
we were due to experience for all eternity? All this so that we would be
considered righteous instead of the guilty sinners which we are. Not only that
but after having defeated sin, that
Jesus rose three days later to conquer death and give us assurance that all
those who place their trust in Him will be raised to eternal life with God as
well. This is wonderful news that should be easier to share than who won the
last sports event or the latest gossip in the neighborhood. Peter and John are
wonderful examples of those who could not keep their joy to themselves. Upon
being commanded by the Sanhedrin to no longer teach or preach in the name of
Jesus, they respond, "we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and
heard" (Acts 4:20). They could not keep quiet about Jesus! Being placed in
jail a few times did not damper their zeal to share their joy. The same joy
that propelled them to talk so much about Jesus should also lead us to
evangelize more.
3) OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS
Take a moment and think about your family members and closest friends who do
not know the Lord. Do you realize that without repentance and giving their life
to Christ that they will go to hell as punishment for their sins? You will not
have the pleasure of seeing them in eternity if they do not accept Christ. Our
love for our unsaved family and friends should propel us to pray for God to
open up their hearts to receive the gospel and give us opportunities to tell them
about Christ. Paul had a great love for his fellow Jews and longed for their
salvation. "Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is
for their salvation" (Romans 10:1). In fact, it was this desire and
concern for the Jews that led him to increase his ministry to the Gentiles,
knowing that God had opened salvation to them in order to spur the Jews to
jealousy. "But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I
am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to
jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them" (Romans 11:13-14). Do
you care about your family and friends? Then warn them of the wrath to come and
share the good news of what God has done to save them from it if they look away
from themselves to His Son and His work.
4) GOD’S MERCY AND GRACE IN EVANGELISM
A big motivation for evangelism should be the simple fact that evangelism is a
privilege. We do not deserve to share in any part of God's work. God does not
need us to tell others about Him but He chooses to use us. He could easily do
the work without us but in His great grace, He includes us in His missionary
endeavor. One of the biggest blessings we have as a believer is the ability to
serve God in different ways. Out of gratitude to be granted to be the ones
whose feet "bring good news of good things" (Romans 10:15), we should
go out and gladly do the privilege of our job to evangelize recognizing like
Paul that God has considered us faithful, though we were the chief of sinners,
to be put into service for Him all because of His mercy (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
5) CHRIST GOES WITH US
One part of the "Great Commission" we usually forget about is Jesus'
last statement: "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age" (Matthew 28:20). We are not evangelizing on our own but Christ goes
with us. If you are nervous about sharing your faith in Christ, don't fear but
trust God and seek Him for the words in which you are to say. This is what the
apostles did. At the start of the persecution of the early church, they
gathered together and prayed that God would "grant that Your bond-servants
may speak Your word with all confidence" (Acts 4:29). The Lord answered
their prayer as vs. 31 points out and the rest of the narrative in Acts
demonstrates. God granted them the boldness to go all over "Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). God
gave them the confidence that they needed to proclaim the word unto death
(Stephen) and through more imprisonments (Peter). This is not a task that we
have to do alone. We have the great Evangelist Himself alongside of us who will
equip us with all that we need to get the job done. We just need to follow Him
and do it!
6) THE RESULTS ARE UP TO GOD AND NOT US
It is important to understand that we are only responsible for delivering the
message of the gospel and not for its reception or rejection. Scripture is
clear that God is the One who works in a sinner's heart to "draw"
them to Christ (John 6:44). He is the One who shines the "Light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" in people's hearts (2
Corinthians 4:6) and makes those dead in their trespasses alive in Christ (Ephesians
2:4-5). Paul preached the message in Philippi but the Lord was the one who
opened Lydia's heart "to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts
16:14). We are to be those messengers to bring the good news (Romans 10:13-15)
to all of those we come in contact with, realizing that the Holy Spirit is the
One who uses the message to "pierce" people's hearts (Acts 2:37),
draw them to Christ (John 6:44), and bring them to repentance (Romans 2:4; 2
Timothy 2:25). We are like the sower in one of Jesus’ parables who sows seed in
the soil and then goes to sleep, resting while the seed sprouts and grows by
itself (Mark 4:26-29).
How is this an important motivation? Recognizing this truth lets us know that
we do not have to be perfect in our presentation of the message or that we have
to manipulate someone to come to Christ. God can use the simplest presentations
of the gospel to impact one's heart and change their life. We don't need to
worry about how the person responds because that’s God’s job. He is the One who
opens their hearts to hear the message and changes their hearts, bringing about
their conversion. Realizing the fact that it is not based on our ability, we
can focus more on getting the truth of the message right, knowing that the
gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes"
(Romans 1:16). God uses the gospel which we are to preach to penetrate the hard
hearts of unbelievers. While we will not be held accountable for the results of
our evangelizing, I do believe that God will hold us accountable for those
opportunities He gave us to share His good news that we did not take. We just
need to be faithful to God by following His leading for the opportunities He
provides and to faithfully communicate the message.
7) GOD RECEIVES MORE GLORY AS HIS
KINGDOM GROWS
The
greatest desire for a Christian is to bring God glory and praise. To see Him
exalted and lifted up in worship because He is worthy. When someone responds
positively to the gospel message and comes to Christ with an attitude of
repentance in faith, another worshiper is added to God’s kingdom. This means
that God is receiving more praise by more people. The saints in glory will be
rejoicing that those from every nation on earth will be bowing down before God
in response to Who He is and what He has done. “And they sang the song of
Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and
marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your
ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You,
For Your righteous acts have been revealed’ ” (Revelation 15:3-4). John Piper
has put it well when he has said that worship ultimately is the goal of the
Church. The very reason that evangelism and missions exist is because worldwide
worship doesn’t at the moment (Let the
Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2005). Our desire is to share the gospel so that God may bring many
more into the kingdom and receive more praise from them as His kingdom grows.
This should move us to have more of a global perspective, not only to be
concerned about our unsaved neighbor right next to us but those across the
ocean as well. How can we contribute to the spread of the gospel to them? Are
there any missionaries that we can support or even a trip we can take to
participate in that work? If we care about God’s glory in the accomplishment of
His rescue mission of sinners, then these are questions we need to be asking.
I hope that you will examine your own life to see how well you are doing in
sharing your faith in Christ with others as I continue to do so. If you realize
that you have been lax in this area, take some time to see which of these
motivations might be missing in your life and spend some time meditating on
them. Let’s pray that God would work in our hearts to further motivate us to go
out and have the privilege to live out His "Great Commission." We
have a mission to reach a world lost and dying in sin with the greatest news of
all time and no time to waste.
In Christ,
Lee
Soli Deo Gloria!!!
