The Problem At Hand- The Challenge of the Great Commission
Great Commission- We are all familiar with the great commission given by Jesus of Nazareth in the gospel of Matthew before his ascension. It is to go into the world to proclaim and circulate the good news, baptizing the new believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is our obligation and it needs to be our passion. The passion and the need to tell others about this great salvation that has been lavished on us by the God of Israel. We have all experienced the difficulty of telling others about our faith and I believe that its safe to say that for all of the positive encounters we have had in doing this, unfortunately there have been many more negative ones and guess what, many of those times, we have ourselves to thank.
My Own Experience- When I say this, I am speaking about myself. I am the first one to know just what a powerfully negative impact one can have on those they are trying to witness to. For a period of a year, I was deep into witnessing to people online, in particular, Jehovah’s Witnesses. I had the theology down pat, I had the arguments memorized, and yet I probably pushed them farther from God then anything, and you know why? I forgot that they didn’t know the Father, and therefore, my responsibility wasn’t to argue doctrine, it was to demonstrate the Father character.
John’s Appeal, Don’t Be Surprised- And this my friends, this is where the Apostle John comes to the podium to not just give us words of wisdom but more importantly, a challenge to keep in mind when telling others the great news of Jesus Christ. The Apostle is clear,
NIV 1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
“ They don’t know you, because they don’t know HIM”. He is telling us, Don’t be surprised that your hearers don’t receive you well, don’t be shocked when they act as if they don’t know you, don’t find it surprising when they ridicule your faith, because they don’t know your Father who is the author and finisher of your faith. They have no knowledge of the God who raised your Lord from the grave and who will one day raise you, and therefore they don’t know you. This is such an important word to know, its shouldn’t be taken as a suggestion but rather as an appeal.
When going into the world, we need to remember that those people that we desire to witness to have probably had many negative experiences with religion, they have probably been so turned off by t.v. evangelists that they are ready to walk away at the first mentioning of the word “God”, the first statement that we have good news to share with them, the first time they hear the word “bible” come from our lips, and with good reason. Therefore, we need to recognize and remember that we are obligated to show them something that they aren’t expecting, that my friends is the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power of His resurrection.
Ways Not To Witness- This means, there are certain actions that we should stay clear of when trying to display the character of God, such as:
• Attacking their belief/unbelief
• Begin to debate them
• Speak down to them
• Give up on them
These are four reactions that should be avoided at all costs if we are going to have any opportunity to display the character of God to those we witness to.
Our Response to the Problem- Show them who God is:
At Fuller Learning How To Do This- The way we will be able to stay clear of displaying these actions is to fall in love with the character of God, and thereby displaying the character in a more positive way. After all, we are here at Fuller Seminary to be trained and raised up to become the next generation of great preachers, teachers, elders and pastors; the leaders of the body of Christ, that is why we are here. Even though we get caught up in our G.P.A. and our degree, our purpose for being here is to learn how to better exemplify and illustrate the character of the Great God of gods, and the Lord of Lords to the strangers of this world and my friends the only way this will happen is if we ourselves know God intimately, passionately, and are insatiable for his presence. We need to fall in love with the character of God if we are to show this character to others. Oh I know that it isn’t always fun, I know that it isn’t always enjoyable to read his word and frankly, there will be times when we will go into prayer and have no idea what we are there for . . . And that is ok. Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, so to our relationship with God isn’t created in a day, but rather it is built up over a lifetime. But that lifetime, that needs to begin today!
We Need To Show The Character of God To Those We Meet- Today, we need to leave here knowing that it is OUR responsibility to convey the character of God to those we meet, whether it be our family, our employer, or the stranger on the street. We need to remember, witnessing doesn’t begin with what we say, but rather with what we do. And therefore, it’s not our words that will show the character of God, but rather our example.
How We Will Accomplish This- By Coming to Know God Ourselves:
How do we do this? There are three points that I would like to supply to answer this most important question.
1. Commune with God- Just as in any relationship that is to grow strong, we need to spent time with the person, so to we need to spend time ALONE with God. This means, not just praying over a meal, or in your small group. We need to curl up alone with God, we need to turn off the television and turn on our spirit to receive God’s word for us. Our prayer shouldn’t just be a monologue of what we want, need, or think, but allow God to tell us something. Our relationship with God is like our marriage, and for those of you who are married, you know that when you stop spending time alone with your spouse, and the communication breaks down, everything else is going to follow suit. Therefore, it is imperative that we take time with God alone, take time to commune with God.
2. Become consumed by His word- We need to read about the history of God’s actions in the past, to get a better understanding of what he will do in our own life. By looking at the ways God responded to David, Deborah, and the way Jesus spoke to the woman with the blood disease and the thief on the cross, we will come to know how he responds to us.
3. Spend Time Gazing Into His Creation- We need to spend time looking at the creation, for by studying the creation, we get to know the Creator. Take time to watch such things as a sunset, sunrise. When there is a rain storm, don’t just run into shelter, but let yourself be consumed by the falling drops, look into the clouds and try to see what this conveys to you about God. After working out at the gym for an hour and you are in need of water, remember how that sudden rush of water feels as you become refreshed and ask what that conveys to you about God. In essence, become just as aware of the nature of God, as the doctrines of God.
In conclusion, when facing an opportunity to spread the gospel, we need to always be aware that the language we are speaking to our listeners is probably a foreign one to them, and therefore it will be our job to help them understand. If they don’t know the God that we are trying to tell them about, it is our job to show him to them. However, if we are going to be successful mirrors of God, we need to become very aware of who he is, and come to know his character so well that we will be able to mirror it in our life.
