Dec. 9, 2022

181. Bible Questions: Does God expect me to share my faith with others?

181. Bible Questions: Does God expect me to share my faith with others?

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181. Bible Questions: Does God expect me to share my faith with others?

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Show Notes
Transcript

The WHY, WHAT, and HOW of sharing our faith in Jesus

Transcript

Bible Questions: Does God expect us to share our faith with others?

What is the responsibility of Christians to share our faith with others? The answer to that depends on who you ask. Some would say, my relationship with Jesus is a private matter. It's between me and God. I'm wise enough to know not to discuss politics or religion with others. These folks kind of resemble that minimum wage janitor you heard about who passed away and left 3 million to the local college. I mean, you just had no idea. Others will reply. You're kidding me, right? If you were a medical researcher and had the cure for Alzheimer's, you'd keep it to yourself. That would be wicked.

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Of course, we should share our faith. We should share it with anyone who listen and maybe even some of those who won't. These folks are like the ones who stand on street corners or jump on busy subways and begin preaching. Welcome or not. So what is our responsibility? First, we should answer the question, are we responsible at all? To that first group, it's a private matter. There's some serious scriptures. One has to deal with that differ. In the Old Testament, God selected the people of Israel, not better, but selected to be a light of salvation to the nations. Then Jesus comes along in his sermon on the Mount, his great sermon describing what it would be like to be in his kingdom.

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He tells the multitudes gathered, you are the salt of the earth, the seasoning and preservative. You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men. He could have paraphrased it. Kingdom citizens, follower of me, don't keep your salt in the shaker and let it shine, baby. Let it shine. The gospel writers record as Jesus final words, his great challenge or commission. It's recorded in Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. Here, Jesus says, as you're going into all the world, make apprentices or disciples baptizing them in my name and teaching them to observe all I've commanded you.

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If you've listened to our Bible question on what is baptism, you'll know that is essentially a vivid form of proclamation telling the world we are all in on Jesus. As Jesus was buried in death on our behalf and raised to new life, we're burying that old life and being raised to a new life as forgiven apprentices of Jesus. The gospel writer, Luke records something similar in Acts one, eight. As Jesus is leaving, he says, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea in Samaria into the ends of the earth like ripples in a pond. Start where you are, but don't stay there.

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Expand that out. I want all my kids back and that comes through them going all in on the good news. The gospel, if you lean toward the side of faith, is a private matter toward being a secret Christian to being like that minimum wage janitor who was loaded but nobody knew it till after his death. Please wrestle with those passages. I would add one more. Paul writes it in Second Corinthians chapter five, noting that Christ died in our place so that we could be right with God. He says to his listeners, the believers in Corinth, some of them very new and none of them very mature yet we are ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors for Christ, ministers and ambassadors of what?

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Of bringing people to a reconciled relationship with Jesus. So how do we do it? Whoa, not so fast before the how. Let's talk about the what. What is it we're supposed to share or be witnesses or ministers of? The one word term is the gospel. The good news. If you haven't listened to word pictures, episode 10, I would encourage you to do that. Now, in that episode, I gave four pairs of rhyming, words made, stray, lost, cost, save, behave, regain, and reign. All are an important piece of the good news.

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That's what we are to share. But in essence, it is this separated from God by our sin, Christ came to die as our sin substitute or as the New Testament writer says, Christ died once for all the, just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Then Jesus was raised to life guaranteeing our eternal life that Christ paid for the sins of all like writing individual check for the debt of sin. Each of us have checks we need to accept in cash. That's called receiving the grace or gift of God by faith. It's going all in on Jesus.

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Don't let that intimidate you. Jesus said, be witnesses. Tell people what you know about a relationship with Jesus honestly, and use the powerful tool of scripture to help you. I believe by the end of this episode you'll have a much better idea of that and much more confidence in how to do it. So now, how do you share this good news of the gospel? Again, I'd say, whoa, not so fast. Let's talk about a few foundational principles of sharing Jesus with others. First of all, Jesus said in Matthew 28, go people. We're not to wait for folks to come to us.

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Sometimes people don't even know how to start a conversation. There's a God shaped vacuum in them that they can't even articulate. We're to have a sensitive heart at home in our neighborhoods and at work to folks who need to hear the good news. A second principle, pray First, let me repeat that. Pray. First, Jesus, the night before his death with his disciples told us something critically important about sharing the good news with others. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to go before our words and soften the heart of the listener. It is the Holy Spirit's job to help them see they need a savior.

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Desperately Jesus warned us. It's not always the loving thing to do, to start sharing the gospel with someone before the Spirit has gone before us. Jesus said, don't cast pearls before swine. If there's not an open heart to receive the good news, we'd be better off staying silent. Sharing truth with someone who's unreceptive doesn't usually move them closer to Jesus. What it does do is it makes them more responsible for the truth. They reject a third principle. Caring before sharing is almost always a good idea. Building a relationship with someone is like making deposits into a bank account, sharing the news that folks desperately need.

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A savior can be like withdrawing on that account. It's hard news to hear We've strayed from God and are hopelessly lost and desperately need salvation. If you haven't made those deposits of love and care prior to that, it often doesn't go very well. Or as one person said to someone sharing the gospel, do you love me or do you just want my soul? Another principle is you don't have to hit a home run. Jesus wants that friend, relative or coworker to follow him more than you want them to. He died for them, for heaven's sakes. Sometimes we get too impatient in baseball terms.

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Maybe Jesus doesn't want you to swing for the fence. Maybe he just wants you to lay down a bunt. Just move that person a little closer. Many times Jesus himself cared for the emotional, physical, or financial needs of those in his crowds, and then he left. I wanna end with one more. We'll call it the principle of the yoke. We looked at this in episode 89. I'll please if you haven't listened to word pictures, episode 89. Do me a favor and do that before you share. In that episode, Jesus invited us to be in a yoke beside him. Jesus wants you his witness beside him in the yoke.

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The yoke metaphor tells us two things. Jesus will provide the direction and most of the power. We need to share the good news effectively with others. He'll give us a tug or sometimes hold us back. Jesus knows the heart of that person you wanna reach. Jesus knows their circumstances, how much work the Holy Spirit has done on them already. Doesn't it make sense that Jesus will give? Give us the nudge when it's the right time, and give us the approach for how we can best reach these people with the good news. I wanna give you two word pictures, true ones in my life that I hope will illustrate this.

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The first one will call her Susie, a woman in a church I pastored. Susie went for a long walk in the neighborhood of a small town where her son was practicing football. She was praying for different people as she walked. As she walked by one old house, she noticed an elderly gentleman sitting on the front porch just a few steps past his house. She distinctly felt Jesus tug in the yoke. Susie, Susie, go back there and tell him he's deeply loved by me. Susie couldn't believe it, a total stranger. This hadn't happened before, but as she continued to walk, the conviction got deeper. The quick story is she made three lefts until she was coming back up that same street.

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In her own words, she prayed. The old man would've already gone inside. Nope. There he was so obediently and with a pounding heart. She walked up his sidewalk onto his front porch and said, my name is Susie, and as I walked by, God prompted me to come up here and tell you God loves you deeply. The old man stood up and he grabbed her and hugged her. A total stranger. Who knows? That's the yoke. That's the positive side of the yoke. My second story comes from my wife's first delivery. It was a C-section. About 40 minutes after her C-section, a nurse came into her room, pulled back the covers, and began to press hard on her stomach.

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My wife let out a cry of pain. I was in the room. You could almost see the nurse roll her eyes as if to say women, they just don't make 'em like they used to. Rather incensed, she marched out of the room. About 20 minutes later, she came back to finish the job. As she neared the bed, my wife told her, you won't touch me. The woman said, I've gotta massage that uterus back into shape. Honey, my wife said after a C-section, the woman went white. She'd never read the chart. She had no idea it was a C-section. When we share the gospel, we can do that to people too. Oh, we mean well, but without the Holy Spirit going before and Jesus guiding us, when, where, and how to speak.

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We can cause pain and perhaps do damage to people rather than good, which leads to why many of you probably clicked on this podcast. How do we do it? Years ago, I read a great book by Middleburg Strobel and Hybels becoming a contagious Christian. In that book, they traced six characters in the New Testament, who in some way bunted people toward Jesus. I wanna share with you those six characters and show you how this really is a team effort to move people from being separated from God to being God's child again, through the shed blood of Jesus embraced by faith.

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The first person is the woman at the well. We saw her in episode 93. She's spoken of in John chapter four. Jesus shares the gospel himself with this Samaritan woman at the well. She goes, all in on Jesus we're told. She went down to the little village below and she invited the people of the village saying, come and see. This is the Messiah. They came, they saw, and many believed. That's sharing the gospel, inviting. Maybe you're brand new to the faith or you've never done this before. Couldn't you invite them to have coffee with you and someone who really knows the gospel?

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The second one is the woman, Dorcas. We talked about her in episode 1 26, and this comes from Acts chapter nine. Dorcas has died at the funeral. People are grieving deeply and they're talking to each other, reminding each other of all the amazing ways. Dorcas has made beautiful garments and met their needs throughout her life. Deeds of Christian kindness and love done in the name of Jesus. That can be a bunt. Moving people toward Jesus. Are you a server? Do you love to help bring meals, give rides, lift loads at some point graciously let them know it is your love and relationship with the ultimate servant Jesus that motivates you.

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The third example is the man born blind in John nine. We looked at him in episode 1 0 4. Within hours or even minutes of being healed by Jesus, he's in front of others giving testimony to what Jesus had done in his life, and it's not an easy audience, it's the religious leaders. He says, gentlemen, I'm not a theologian, but what I do know is I was blind, and now I see and it's because of Jesus. In Act 17, Paul gives us a fourth way we can move people toward Christ. He's an Athens, the Harvard of the Mediterranean world. He has an intellectual conversation with a bunch of thinkers, and while some scoff and roll their eyes, others say, Hmm, and a couple go all in.

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In Mark chapter five, we see a fifth way to move people toward the gospel that chained up raving demonn, drenched lunatic. After removing the demons, the democ begs to follow Jesus as one of his disciples. Jesus says, no, I got a better idea. Go back to your relatives and your acquaintances in Demopolis and let them know what I've done. Go live this and tell this back home with your people. You've got quite a past. Walk the walk. Then tell them what I've done, the final style I save for last because I think it should be used rarely. The frontal attack style.

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We looked at this in episode 1 23 in Acts chapter two, Peter stands in front of a crowd. He just lets them have it with, here's the truth, what are you gonna do about it? There may be occasions for standing on that street corner or jumping on that subway, but I would urge you. Look at the passage it said, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit spoke. I assume he was preyed up and Jesus in the yoke gave him a nudge. Should a follower of Christ share the good news with others? Absolutely, but there's many ways to move people toward Christ. We should all know what to say when someone says, how do I know this savior of yours?

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00:15:48

We should all pray vigorously and first. For those God wants to reach through our lives, we should appreciate there's a lot of tools Jesus has in his toolbox to move lost people toward him, and we should look forward to the opportunities to take the hand of someone who are like We were straight and separated from the God who loves us, and place that hand into the hand of Jesus. What a privilege, so let's go be his witnesses.

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