Sharing The Gospel Part 1

Jon Courson writes: The greatest joy in the world comes from seeing someone:

For whom you’ve been praying,
With whom you have been sharing,

to receive Christ.

I want to examine each one of these statements Jon makes.

Our witnessing begins on our knees.

Paul writes in Colossians 4:2-6
2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive[a] so that you will have the right response for everyone.

We need to be praying that God will use us as instruments to share the Good News with people. Not only should we be praying that God uses us in a mighty way but we should be praying for those who will hear the Word and pray that they repent from their sins. Every morning when we get up as our feet are hitting the floor we should be asking God to use us today for His kingdom. God please put people in my life today that need to hear your Good News. Let the Holy Spirit guide my words, let me love those who need to hear from You.

Sharing the Good News

In Acts 1:8
We are commanded by Christ to share the Gospel to Samaria, Judea and the ends of the earth. He is saying wherever we go we should be sharing the Gospel message with those who will listen.

I have heard this repeated many times it goes something like this: Preach the gospel at all times and use words if necessary. There is some value to that statement but tell me how do people who I have just met see that I am a follower of Christ. If I am on a plane flight to Arizona I have about 45 minutes to share something about Jesus. It’s going to be a little hard to live my life as an example to the person I am sitting next too.

Secondly, it is not MY actions that change anyone. It is the WORD of GOD!
Hebrews 4:12 tells us

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
My actions only verify what God’s word says. It is Gods word that pierces the heart.

Being a Witness

What is the difference between witnessing and sharing you may ask. Witnessing is how I live my life that is an example of Christ in it. This comes into play when I share the Message with co-workers, family members, friends. I share the word then I live it out. In Thesonalica if Paul, Silas and Timothy had preached God’s word then went down to the local tavern and were getting drunk and picking up on women would their sharing have meant anything? Of course not. Our families and friends are going to be taking a close look at our lives and see if Christ is really leading them. If we are hypocrites then or sharing of Jesus is meaningless. We need to marry both together our sharing with our witnessing.

How to witness like Jesus.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Lets take a look at the encounter with Jesus and the rich ruler and see how Jesus shared and witnessed to him.

Lets read from Luke 18:18-22

18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

In the first two verses Jesus address that no one is good but God. But what is the first thing someone who doesn’t have a relationship with Christ says on how they are going to get to heaven. I am good. But Christ said no one is good. God’s word is so great it answers the wicked who think they are good. He then takes the rich ruler through the commandments to show him his sin. The commandments were given to us to show that we have fallen short of God’s glory.

Jesus uses the law to show him that he is not good?

In Psalms 19:7 the Psalmist writes:

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Paul also writes in Galatians 3:24 that the law is a tutor:

24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

I will continue this thread in my next blog and give an example of how to witness in a real life scenario. I will then give the 6 items we must communicate if we want to be effective in our witnessing.

Wes
Galatians 2:20