Matthew 5:12-14 April 28, 2002
God Can Use You to Draw People To Him.
Last week I talked about God’s heart for the lost: how God loves us desperately and wants to be in relationship with us, how people are spiritually lost, and how they need Jesus. We can know all that, but still have a very difficult time sharing our faith with our friends
A few years ago, Don Posterski wrote a little book called “Why am I afraid to tell you I’m a Christian?” And that is the question I’d like you to ponder now: “Why are we afraid to tell people about our faith?” Talk about this with the person beside you?
What did you come up with?
There are some professions in our society that have negative reputations, when we hear about a used car salesman, or politicians, or insurance sales people or Lawyer, we often have a picture that comes to our mind.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word evangelist, or evangelism?
Images of Evangelists
– negative: Obnoxious, pushy, money-grabing, insensitive, self centred, big hair, bad suits…
- positive: Extroverted, Billy Graham, committed, bold, outgoing, articulate, concerned for the salvation of others…
Our negative images of Evangelism can be a big obstacle.
We do not have to become pushy or obnoxious for the sake of the Gospel!
Our positive images can be a less obvious obstacle, but an obstacle all the same.
We might say “I could never be Billy Graham” – well, not likely. But there are probably many people in our circle of influence who could not even relate to Billy Graham, but they do relate to us!
The point is that, in order to be effective in reaching people for Jesus, we do not have to become something odd that we do not want to be. Nor do we have to become something great that we may never be.
Rather, we can be ourselves. God knew what He was doing when He made you and me. He gave you the personality he wanted you to have, and he wants to use it to spiritually impact those around you.
What are we called to in sharing our faith?
If we are called to evangelism, what is that evangelism supposed to look like?
Relational Evangelism
1. Authentic
Effective evangelism flows out of a genuine, living relationship with Christ where His love for the lost people passes through us to others. You may have heard it said that “You are the only Bible that some people will read.” This is why our lives must reflect our message, if we are people who don’t reflect the fruit of the Spirit to some extent (“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” – Galatians 5:22-23) then our light is pretty dim. The reality of our faith is demonstrated by a life that has been noticeably marked by God’s love and leadership.
Jesus said that as we “abide in Him” we will “bear much fruit” (john 15:5)
Joe Aldrich said in his book, Lifestyle Evangelism, that “Christians are to be good news before they share the good news”
St Francis of Assisi said “Always preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words.”
The verses that we began with says Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven
2. Natural
Instead of trying to be something we are not, Relational evangelism reflects our own personality and design. It fits who we are! This puts others at ease and gives them the assurance that what we have is real and worth looking into.
If we have a personality change or a change in vocabulary or accent as soon as we begin to talk about spiritual matters with someone, its hard to believe that what we have is real. God uses the Personality and the gifts that he has given each of us to draw people to him.
Peter was a confrontational guy, and so his evangelism was confrontational.
Paul was an intellectual guy, and so his evangelism was intellectual
The blind man in John 9, on the other hand was not a great theologian, so he just told others what Jesus did for him.
Matthew liked to throw parties, so when he wanted his friends to meet Jesus, he threw a party.
Andrew wasn’t the most verbal person, but when he meets Jesus, he runs to his brother Simon and says, “You’ve got to see this guy!” Some of us may not be the most articulate, but we are really good at inviting others along.
Tabitha in Acts 9 had a serving style of evangelism, so much so that when she died, all the widows were crying out and showing peter the clothes she has made for them. God raised her from the dead through Peter!
God uses all these people in different ways to draw people to him according to their personality and gifts.
3. Personal
When it comes to reaching people who need Christ, there are two possible approaches: personal or impersonal. People today seem to be growing immune to many of the less personal methods of communication such as tracts, religious radio and television, billboards, and bumper stickers. People are, however, open to talking with a personal friend.
You may have seen it before – a person does a heap of research on what car will suit their needs the best. They decide that they should buy a Honda Accord – it has good safety ratings, gas mileage, repair records etc. so he goes and tells his neighbour his plans to by a Honda and the neighbour says “Oh no, my brother-in-law had one of those and it was terrible! And so what does he do – he doesn’t buy the Accord.
What do we do when we need advice on an important decision or need help with a problem we are going through? Where do we turn? Generally we talk to someone we know and trust. If that is true of us, it is certainly true of non-believing people we know. They do not want to talk about personal matters, especially spiritual issues, with just anyone; they want to confide in as friend.
How did you come to faith? Through impersonal means, or through a significant relationship? Ask for a show of hands.
Jesus didn’t fly over Jerusalem dropping gospel tracts! No, he came and dwelt among us, eating and drinking with sinners. Even he was the disciples’ friend before he was their savior.
4. Verbal
We are talking about relational evangelism, which involves more than just building friendships and hoping that others notice the difference in our lives and figure it out for themselves. Paul says in Romans 10:14
14But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" NLT
For people really get the message, someone has to go and explain it to them. Just as words without actions are empty, so are actions without words.
We have to live and explain the Gospel. Many a romantic comedy has been made where one of a pair goes out their way to be nice to the other without the other ever figuring out their feelings. Silence and subtly do not work, we need to say something. In this series, we will have a talk on how to explain the Gospel to a friend.
5. Process-Orientated
Relational Evangelism is process-oriented vs. event-oriented.
To be effective, we must not inappropriately rush or push a person. It takes time to understand the message, believe it, and act on it. Seldom do people hear the message for the first time and commit their lives to Christ. We must patiently bring people along, step by step.
When our friends make a commitment to Jesus, we want them to stay with him. We do not want them to be like the stony ground in the parable where the seed sprouted up quick but then was wilted by the sun.
Jesus says that no one builds a tower without counting the cost. Otherwise you will get the foundation laid and not be able to afford the top. We need to allow our friends to count the cost as well as the blessings of a relationship with Jesus.
When Ed Silvoso was talking about the process of wooing someone into the kingdom and holding back with the message until people are ready to receive it, he said that someone will say “But what if they die tonight!” He says “Look you haven’t cared about them for the last twenty years, what is one more night!” God loves people way more than we do, he doesn’t want them to go to hell any more than we do. If they are going to make a decision to follow him, he will wait for them.
6. Team-Oriented
God rarely uses just one person to bring someone through the entire process of coming to faith in Him. More often He orchestrates a number of people, places, and events to lovingly move a person toward Christ. There are two implications to this.
First, we do not have to feel that we individually carry the full burden of leading family and friends all the way to the point of trusting Christ. Cliff Knechtle, an effective open-air evangelist, put it this way:
“A person’s coming to Christ is like a chain with many links. There is the first link, middle links, and a last link. There are many influences and conversations that precede a person’s decision to convert to Christ. I know the joy of being the first link at times, a middle link usually, and occasionally the last link. God has not called me to only be the last link. He has called me to be faithful and to love all people.”
It is encouraging to know we can be a link or two in the chain that God himself is forging. And it is exciting that all the “links” from the first to last can celebrate together along with the angels in heaven (Luke 15:7,10) when a person finally crosses the line of faith.
The second implication is that it is strategic to intentionally partner with other Christians to “link up” our strengths and abilities in order to lead people to Christ
Tommy Tenny says that the church needs to have one hand with God and the other with the world, trying to bring them together. For the individual Christian, while our ultimate goal is to put our friends’ hands in God’s, we may put their hand into the hand of a few other Christians along the way.
I’d like to be one of those links for your friends. Being a pastor, it is actually difficult for me to have a lot of contact with non-Christians. So if you have a friend who has some questions about faith, or issues that you are having troubles with, Tell them you have a friend at church who loves to think about these things, and ask them if they’d like to have lunch with you and your friend. I’d like to to that so much, I’ll buy lunch. Don’t tell them you’re going to sic the pastor on them – that would even scare me!
Bring you friends to Alpha, one of the church events, or a service, your small group… Get them to know more Christians than just you.
7. Fueled by Love
It all comes back to the heart that we talked about last week – we do not want to led our friends to Jesus so that we can feel good about ourselves. It is not about putting a notch in our Bibles. We want to lead our friends to Jesus because we want them to live their lives knowing God’s great love for them and knowing the power of the Spirit in their lives!
2 Corinthians 5 “14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
8. Effective
As we talked about the whole idea of sharing our faith in the Leadership team, someone said that we don’t share our faith because we are not convinced that it works. But each of us here who know Jesus are living proof that relational evangelism is effective
Isaiah 55
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
We need to realize that anytime that someone gives their life to Jesus it is a miracle, we cannot make it happen, but Miracles are God’s stock and trade.
Conclusion
God calls us all to share our faith – we are the main means that God has chosen to spread his message of forgiveness and love. And he will use us most powerfully in the relationships that we have.
This Sermon was drawn mainly from the "Becoming a Contagious Christian" Course by Mark Mittelburg
