A Living Expression Of Helping People Meet Jesus Series

The Dummies Guide To Christianity - Part 2

A living expression of helping people meet Jesus

March 13, 2011

The Christianity Quiz – (please mark true or false)

Christians are supposed to save the world – T/F

The birth of the church happened at Pentecost – T/F

The word gospel means “good news” – T/F

Only pastors can perform ministerial work – T/F

Paul wrote the King James Bible – T/F

The gospels are the first 5 books of the New Testament – T/F

I hope you did well on the test, either way it’s all in fun.

Today we’re continuing our series on Christian basics. If we had only a few things to teach you about being a Christian we would teach you these basics.

Now these are not the truths that helped you become a Christian per say, such as the sacrifice of Jesus and the truthfulness of God’s Word and such…

These truths are built on top of those truths.

After you become a Christ Follower, you’re given a life purpose and are part of the solution to what is wrong in our society.

I’ve noticed that today there’s a growing movement to open free speech for everyone unless your speech has anything to do with Jesus or Christianity. Have you noticed this?

There are even those who want to silence all preaching and do away with any kind of religion. John Lennon wrote his classic song; Imagine where he envisions a perfect world with no hate, violence and religion. It’s really a picture of what the world will be one day under Jesus’ rule only he removes Jesus from the equation.

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

A wonderful melody but a misguided concept. Peace will never happen till the Prince of Peace, Jesus is in charge.

A really smart guy said, “To silence a preacher from preaching judgment is like being awoke from sleep by a fire alarm, and just silencing the alarm, and going back to sleep.” (Unknown)

As Jesus was leaving this earth after his 3 1/2 year ministry he tells His followers that they have a mission field right in front of them. He tells them that He will return one day and that His followers should work to spread this love of God and peace that He alone can bring.

Another really smart guy said, “We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” (John Stott)

The second priority: Tell others about God’s love

Now, many overzealous Christians have thought that it was their job to save the world! This is not true. They can’t even save themselves. God doesn’t ask us to save, He asks us to be obedient to His message and to tell it.

It’s Our Job to tell – its God’s job to save

Now one of the foundational concepts we thing you should know about this idea called evangelism.

Evangelism: (Greek: euaggelion (yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on); a good message, i.e. the gospel.

Evangelism is often called the “Good News.” Good news is never good unless it is shared. To have good news and not to share it makes it only news. It becomes good when it is passed on.

The fact is that God has given us some incredible news and He has placed us uniquely in places to share it. Here’s a tip:

God has me in relationships to share good news with others

Now there’s one verse in particular that lays out this idea of what the good news is very well, it’s 1 Cor. 15:1-6.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 (ESV) “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel… that Christ died for our sins… that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day...”

So what’s the good news?

The “Good News” is – that Jesus died to pay for your sin debt and that He rose from the dead. This means that you can be free from your guilt and the penalty of sin.

That’s some pretty good news. Let me put it to you this way. Let’s say you just bought a $400,000 home. It’s the home of your dreams. You closed on it on a Friday and on the next Monday you found out you and your spouse both lost your jobs. You don’t have enough money to pay the first month’s mortgage let alone pay off the mortgage.