Jesus Spoke God's Truth In Everyday Language Series

Think of the blind man. The Pharisees wanted to get into a big theological discussion about who Jesus was and did he have authority. The blind man says, “I don’t know about these things. All I know is that I was blind, and now I see.” That’s the simplicity of just telling our story. A good way of doing that is to say to people, “Here’s what my life was like before Christ. Here’s what led to my decision. And here’s what my life has been like since I have come to Christ.” This is a neat way of sharing your faith with others. People will not ask you deep theological questions if you try to tell them about your faith. All they want is to cut through the garbage to get to what works, and you can tell them what works in your life and they won’t challenge it. They are simply looking for answers, and who is a better answerer than Jesus Christ.

You may say, “I don’t have a story. I’ve been in the church all my life. I’ve known Jesus all my life.” That is still a tremendous testimony. Just tell someone that God has been sufficient through your entire life. The way of capturing the difference that Christ has made is simply to look at your family or friends who have not followed Christ and note the difference between your life and theirs, and then share that with others. Sometimes it is helpful if you write things down. I’d be glad to read your story and give you some pointers about how to make it more effective.

A great place to start sharing your faith is in a small group in your own church. This is family, and you don’t have to worry about being criticized. The more you tell people about what Christ has done for you, the easier it becomes and the more you can conceptualize it.

The third method for sharing your faith we see in Acts 2. This is the harder one and is for those who are more mature in their faith. Yet, I can’t leave it out because historically this is the primary way the church has grown–through the simple sharing of the gospel message.

TEXT

The gospel is powerful. Inherent in this simple message is the power of God that convicts people’s hearts and minds. It is the primary way that I came to faith–the hearing of this simple message. God said that his word is living and active. It discloses the secrets of the heart and will not return void. This is something you can’t be pushy about.

There are four or five very easy ways of sharing the simple gospel. One is to take John 3:16 word by word or phrase by phrase and talk about the meaning of each phrase. Another way is called the Roman Road in which you take Romans 3:23, 6:23, and 10:13 and read each one and explain it. You can also take a good booklet called “The Four Spiritual Laws” and simply have the person read it with you. It explains the whole message. You’ve seen the bridge analogy. God made us, sin separated us, and the wages of sin is death, no matter how good we are we can never bridge the gap, and that God has provided a bridge to the cross through Jesus. Through the cross he has forgiven our sins and given us access to God. The simplest one is Do vs. Done. Religion is all about doing. Everyone thinks we can get to heaven by doing things, by being good. The problem is how good is good? How do you ever know if you are good enough. Personal works won’t do it. Christianity is all about believing and accepting Jesus’ work on the cross for our salvation.