Introduction:
A. In the Scripture reading that was just read for us, the Apostle Paul was concluding his letter to the Colossians and he asked them to pray for two things.
1. First, He asked them to pray that God would open doors for the message.
2. Second, He asked them to pray that he might proclaim the message clearly.
3. Those are very good things to be praying for, wouldn’t you agree?
B. Today I’m praying that every one of us Christians feel like we have some good news to share with others, and that we desperately desire to share it.
1. I like the story told of the little boy who greatly concerned his parents.
a. The boys parents could not get him to utter a single word.
b. So they took him to a specialist, and after a thorough evaluation it was determined that the boy had nothing wrong with him physiologically that was keeping him from talking.
c. So the doctor grasped him firmly by the shoulders and gave him a sound shaking, saying, “Why don’t you say something?”
d. The little boy defiantly replied, “Cause I ain’t got nothing to say!”
2. Hopefully that’s not the way we feel about our faith.
3. In truth, I believe that everyone of us has some great news to share and that we want to tell others about it.
4. Like the story of the preacher who loved to golf.
a. Unfortunately, it had rained every weekend for a month and the preacher was dying to play a round of golf.
b. The first sunny day in weeks ended up being a Sunday.
c. So he called some of the leaders of his congregation and told them that he had been called away to an emergency and that they would have to cancel services that Sunday.
d. Realizing that he could not play on a local golf course, he drove two counties away and teed up on a course that sunny Sunday morning.
e. Meanwhile, God was watching all this from heaven above. He called an angel and said, “I’ve got a preacher down there who canceled church to play golf. I need you to go and administer an appropriate punishment.”
f. So the angel went down and as the preacher teed off on a par 3, the angel caused the preacher to hit the best shot of his life and the ball went right in for a hole-in-one.
g. See this, God said to the angel, “You gave him a hole-in-one? What kind of punishment is that?”
h. The angel replied, “Yes, I gave him a hole-in-one. But think about it, who can he tell?”
C. Yes, we have some great news to tell and there is no reason for us to keep it to ourselves; we have nothing to hide.
1. We need open doors and opportunity for sharing.
2. And we need the ability to clearly communicate the good news.
D. This is probably where most of us feel the most inadequate, myself included.
1. What should we say? How should we say it? Where do we begin?
2. Bill Hybels tells a great story in his book on evangelism.
a. Bill likes to sail, and one day after day of sailing, he and his wife were invited to board a neighboring sailboat.
b. So he anchored his boat and he and his wife motored over to the neighboring yacht in the dinghy.
c. After a nice evening of visiting, Bill and his wife were in the process of leaving and that’s when the moment came.
d. Lynne, his wife, had already climbed down the ladder into the dinghy and Bill was halfway down himself when the question came.
e. Roy calls this “the doorknob question.” Often as you are about to leave after a visit, a person will finally bring up the subject they wanted to talk about, but hadn’t mustered the courage to bring up.
f. One of the people who had invited them aboard said, “Say, Bill, before you leave can you answer a question? I’ve always wanted to ask a Christian what it means to become one. Could you tell all of us?”
g. There was Hybels, one foot in the dinghy and one hand on their boat’s railing, looking up at a group of people waiting to hear what he would say.
h. He knew he had their undivided attention for the next 45 seconds – 45 seconds to summarize what it means to become a real Christian.
3. If we had been in his situation, how would we have responded?
4. Would we have been ready to give a clear and succinct response to such an important question?
5. For most of us, this kind of situation really puts us to the test.
6. Yet the Bible tells us to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15).
E. So, let’s spend a few minutes today trying to get a handle on the gospel message.
1. If we don’t really understand it ourselves, how in the world will we be able to explain it to others, right?
2. Let’s briefly look at four primary points we need to know in order to get a firm grasp on the gospel and be able to share it with others.
3. These four points can easily be remembered by four simple words: God, Us, Christ, and You.
I. Four Points
A. First, We Talk About GOD
1. There are many aspects of God’s nature that we could share, but He has three characteristics that are especially relevant in evangelism.
2. First of all, God is LOVING.
a. Because of God’s love, He made us and desires to have a relationship with us.
b. Even though we’re sinners who have rebelled against Him, He continues to patiently extend His love to us.
c. Many people prefer to stop right here, but there’s more that needs to be said.
3. Second, God is HOLY.
a. This means that God is absolutely pure, and He is separate from everything that is impure.
b. There is nothing evil about God’s thoughts or actions. There is no darkness in Him.
4. Third, God is JUST.
a. In other words, He is like a good judge who can’t wink at lawbreakers.
b. God is a perfect judge who will dispense justice to everyone fairly.
5. So, that’s where we begin. We begin with a God who is loving, holy and just.
B. Second, We Talk About US
1. When God first created us human beings, He made us good, without any sin.
2. But we abused our freedom, we rebelled against Him and became affected by evil.
3. And therefore, as we have just seen, because God is holy and just, He must deal with our sinfulness.
4. The seriousness of our sin requires God to pronounce upon us the death penalty.
5. This means both physical and spiritual death, which is separation from God in a place called hell.
6. And to cap off the bad news, we’re helpless to initiate any action that can change our situation.
7. We are spiritually bankrupt and having nothing in our account to pay off our debts.
8. But, thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. Amen?!
C. Third, We Talk About Christ
1. Jesus Christ was uniquely able to solve our dilemma because He was both God and man.
2. As God, He had the power and authority devise a plan for our salvation.
3. As a man, He was able to execute the plan by taking upon Himself the punishment we deserved.
4. The central truth of the gospel is that Christ died in our place, as our substitute.
5. He suffered the death penalty for us.
6. In so doing, He expressed the love of God, upheld the holiness of God, and satisfied the justice of God.
7. He did all of that so that He could turn around and offer us His forgiveness, His friendship, and His leadership as a gift.
8. We don’t deserve it, we didn’t pay for it and we can’t earn it.
9. The only way we can receive it is to believe it, repent and be baptized into Christ and thus receive this incredible gift.
10. When we do that, our sin-debt is paid in full, and we receive the promise of eternal life.
11. We also gain the ongoing companionship of the gift-giver Himself, who will be there to lead us, guide us, and lovingly correct us when we need it.
D. Finally, We Talk About YOU.
1. The ball is now in your court, and it’s up to each person to decide what they are going to do with the good news.
2. Jesus paid the price for salvation for the whole world, but only those who say “yes” to Him will actually receive His forgiveness.
3. Unfortunately, many people are left with the impression that if they go to church, or are born into a Christian family, or try to be a moral person, then they are automatically made right with God.
4. But this is not true.
5. Anyone who relies on their personal efforts to get into God’s good graces is eventually going to be terribly disappointed.
6. Listen to the warning that Jesus gave in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
7. We must be crystal clear with people that a personal response of faith and obedience to the gospel is necessary.
8. We can’t make that decision for others and we shouldn’t push them to make it prematurely.
9. But we’ve got to be sure that they understand that there is no other way.
10. And we must be prepared to help them take that step across the line of salvation.
II. An Illustration
A. You remember the story earlier in the sermon of Bill Hybels on the ladder of the yacht?
1. How did Hybels’ respond? What is the rest of the story?
B. He used the “Do Verses Done” Illustration.
1. He said, “Well, first you’ve got to realize the difference between religion and Christianity.
2. Religion is spelled “D-O,” because it consists of the things people do to try to somehow gain God’s forgiveness and favor.
a. But the problem is that you never know when you’ve done enough.
b. It’s like being a salesman who knows he must meet a quota, but is never told what that quota is.
c. So you can never be sure that you have done enough.
d. Worse yet, the Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that we never can do enough.
e. We will always fall short of God’s perfect standard.
3. But thankfully, Christianity is spelled differently. It is spelled, “D-O-N-E,” which means that what we could never do for ourselves, Christ has already done for us.
a. He lived the perfect life we could never live, and He willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty we owed for the wrongs we’ve done.
4. To become a Christian is to humbly receive God’s gift of forgiveness and to commit to following His leadership.
5. When we do that, He adopts us into His family, and begins to change us from the inside out.
C. I think that’s a helpful, concise illustration that conveys the central tenets of the gospel.
III. Three Passages
A. As we conclude, I would like to give you three passages in the NT that are a good summary of the basics of salvation.
B. Romans 3:21-26
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
C. Ephesians 2:1-10
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
D. Titus 3: 3-8
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.”
E. If you noticed, each of these passages say something about our sinfulness, what God did about it, and what we should do in response to God.
Conclusion:
A. It is impossible to completely prepare us to clearly share the message in one sermon, but I hope what we have discussed today will be helpful.
B. Steve Brennan is developing some “user-friendly” materials that we can have available to help us share the good news with others.
1. Hopefully, very soon we can do some training that will familiarize us with that and other tools for use in studying with those who are interested in the gospel.
C. In the meantime, let’s keep at the forefront of our thinking that people matter to God and that so many still don’t believe in God.
1. Let’s concentrate on increasing our potency through authenticity, compassion and sacrifice.
2. And let’s improve our proximity looking for opportunities to rub shoulders with the world.
3. Also, as Paul did, let’s pray for open doors and the ability to clearly communicate the message.
D. You have heard the basic gospel message today.
1. How do you need to respond to it?
2. Do you need to believe and obey the gospel?
3. Do you need to convey the gospel in your actions and words?
(Much from this sermon is based on Hybels’ Becoming a Contagious Christian, chapter 11)
