“…in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
When people know that we’re Christians they will watch us carefully and closely. If we slip up they’ll notice, but if we acknowledge and confess our failures and seek to be changed they will notice that too.
More often, it is what we do, and it is who we are that matters most to a watching world. What we say is less important than how we behave, what we do, and who we are. Our developing character will be plain for the world to see; but sometimes opportunities arise to explain why we have an eternal hope within us; and the Bible says that Christian believers should be ready and prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks, “Just what is this hope that you have?”
About 15 years ago after a morning service at St. Barnabas in Darby Green a teenage lad approached me and said, “I want to become a Christian. What do I do?” It was the first time anyone had asked me that question for about 10 years and I was stumped. I tried to open my mouth to say what I thought I needed to say but I cannot remember what words came out. I just know it was all very garbled, and so eventually I grabbed an older member of the church and together we went upstairs to talk and pray with the young man.
It was a lesson for me, because I was totally unprepared, and at the time the Church had no Vicar.
Now I’m not suggesting we all need to be fluent and articulate, but I do believe we should think about it because the Bible asks us to be ready. Liz, just what is this hope that you have within you? Pete, why are you a Christian? Rita, where do you get your strength from? Paul, why do you seem to be so full of hope? Well, let’s grab a coffee, or a pint, and talk about it.
The Bible says this (2 Cor. 5:20): “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf; be reconciled to God.”
Our son Matthew has taken to wearing a red band around his wrist with four symbols on it; a heart, an X, a cross and a question mark. It reminds him of the story of God and humankind (www.the4points.com) and I think it’s worth going back to basics for a moment and asking a different question: Just what is the Christian message in a nutshell?
I could summarise it like this: As we look at Jesus and consider all that he did and said we then get to know what God is really like; but I think there’s more to say than that; so let’s consider Matthew’s wrist band.
1: The Heart: John 3:16 begins like this; “For God so loved the world”; and that is where we begin.
God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and within that trinity there is a perfect bond of love and unity; and God so wanted to share that love that He created us in his image (Genesis 1:27). God so loved the world. God so loves you. God knows everything there is to know about you and God loves you deeply with the love of a perfect Father; and the Bible even says ‘the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid’ (Matthew 10:30). It’s as if God has a heavenly catalogue in which he has lovingly recorded not just a lock but every single strand of hair on your head!
When each of my three children were born I can remember holding them in my arms and simply looking at them, and staring at them, and studying them, and loving them with a heart bursting with love.
But we mustn’t stop here. That wouldn’t do justice to the facts, and it can lead to the impression that perhaps God is a Grandfather-type figure.
2: The X-Factor: God is love, but God is also holy, pure, righteous, sin-less. God is a perfect father and also a perfect lawmaker. God is just and true. How often do we long for justice in a world of injustice, greed, violence, and crime? Our sense of justice is offended when the news reports a murder, or a cheating spouse, or an expenses scandal, or a crime against a child, or an evil dictator. We want justice for ourselves and for others. ‘An eye for an eye’ (Exodus 21:24) we cry out, and we discover that God punishes sin. Fantastic! Evildoers, murderers, rapists, swindlers, cheats, adulterers and child abusers will all be sentenced justly and fairly by God, because sin breaks the spiritual laws of the universe. God made us so we can live forever in relationship with him, but Sin with a capital ‘S’ means that spiritual death has infected the entire human race. God punishes sin perfectly. The result is that we can’t enter God’s presence whilst infected with sin; and as we look honestly at our hearts we realise we’re also guilty.
The Good News is that there is a good God in heaven who made us and loves us as a perfect Father but the sad, bad news is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), hence the X-factor. If the pass mark in the exam of life is 50 out of 50 it doesn’t matter whether we score 48 like Mother Theresa, or 1 like Hitler, or 24½ like me; but thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ, thank God for the cross!
3: The Cross of Christ: At the excellent New Wine Men’s day in Watford yesterday 8 of us from Christ Church heard Anthony Delaney ask this question: Who would you take a nail for? If you could take a nail so that someone else doesn’t have to, who would it be? Anthony was about 17 when he was first challenged with that question. He thought, I quite fancy Emma, but I’ve not known her very long, so I wouldn’t take a nail for her. What about my brother? No, I don’t like him, so I wouldn’t take one for him.
I can’t remember what he said about his Dad, but then he thought, “My Mum. I love my Mum and I would take a nail for her if it meant she could avoid it.” Who would you take a nail for because you love them?
Jesus took nails in his wrists and feet for us because within him he had the fullness of the love of God for us. God had to deal with the barrier of sin, the barrier separating us from Him, and so he did not stand by doing nothing. God satisfied the universal need for justice by taking it upon himself; and let’s not imagine that Jesus was some innocent bystander, a good man who was punished instead of us. Jesus was God wrapped up in human flesh no more, no less.
The Bible: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6). ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (5:8).
4: The Question for you and me: What is our response? What is your response to the God who loves you, and the God who has given everything to make a way for us to be restored into relationship with him? The plan for us to live eternally in relationship with God is restored through the work of Christ on the cross but we have to do something about it. We have to make a decision whether to believe it and whether to trust God for it.
If you long to emigrate somewhere because you believe it is a beautiful place to live and work and spend the rest of your days, but you could never afford the ticket, and I give you a ticket that will get you there, what would you do? Would you say, “I believe it is the best place to live; it has the best climate; it has the lowest crime rate, and I believe your offer of the ticket is genuine, but I’m declining your offer”? No, I don’t think you would. You’d snap it up! So, what about the eternal-life-offer from God?
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). I have an eternal hope in Jesus. I want you to have that hope for yourself, and I want you to be able to share that hope with others – to make Jesus better known.
So how can we do that? Bill Hybels gives some examples and here is an illustration we can all use. It’s called Do versus done. Religion is spelt D-O.
There is a difference between religion and Christianity. Religion is about all the things we try to do, and the things we’re told we must do or need to do to somehow gain God’s attention, God’s favour and forgiveness; but how can we ever know if we’ve done enough to be good enough? The Bible tells us we’ve all fallen short of God’s perfect standard but thankfully Christianity is different, spelt D-O-N-E.
What we could never do for ourselves Christ has done for us; and becoming a Christian means we humbly receive God’s gift of forgiveness, and commit to following his leadership. When we do that we are adopted into his family and he begins to change us from the inside out; and that’s the hope that I have.
It’s worth thinking that one through, and being ready to use it when appropriate, and always with gentleness and respect; but there are other useful illustrations we can use.
Taking my emigration story a bit further it is not enough to just study and know lots about God. Doing that would be ‘like studying the science of aviation and hanging around in airports. You can learn all about the physics of flight, know which airlines have the safest record …drive to the airport, go to the gate [and] double check the crew’s credentials; but it does you no good unless you get on the plane’!
Knowledge alone gets you nowhere. You have to get on the plane and trust it will take you where you want to go; and it is just like that with Jesus. Knowledge about Jesus, or intricate knowledge about church, which candle to light and when, or which prayer to say or when to stand or sit won’t get you anywhere! You have to finally take a step of faith, and climb on board by trusting in Jesus, receiving his forgiveness, following the safety card, and trusting him as the pilot.
Making the message clear is a challenge but it’s for every believer. What will you say when you’re asked to explain how to become a Christian, or to explain the hope you have? Will you use the D-O verses D-O-N-E illustration, or will you just tell your story?
However you do it, we must be gentle, respectful and full of love; but let’s be ready. Practice making the message clear with others. Talk about it at coffee and over lunch today.
Let’s pray.
