When
genuine Church going Christians hear a compelling presentation on the need
to evangelize the world they come under conviction and undue guilt. Is it
because they don’t want to share their faith with others? Not necessarily! It
is often they don’t know what to share, some though they know what to share
they don’t know how to do it the right way. Have you ever struggled with how to
share your faith with your friend, family member or a colleague at work? If you
did, you are not alone I too have struggled before and at times I still struggle
when it comes to sharing my faith with others in a culture that is far removed
from any normal human interactions or connections.
For tech savvy people one ministry has introduced a
cool app called “Shareyourfaithapp” which is supposed to help share your faith
with your friends or colleagues who might be open. It does look like a helpful
tool. There is no scarcity of resources such as TV, radio, internet,
movies to spread the good news, and we spend millions of dollars on local and
foreign missions yet why aren’t we seeing people getting saved in great
numbers?
Have you wondered
about what is the proven of sharing the Gospel? In the midst of many methods what is the right
way to do the gospel? If you ask any Church growth expert they would tell you that
most effective way to preach the gospel is person to person. The statistics
tell us that most people in the world came to faith in Christ because some one
took time and either invited them to a church or told them about Jesus. This
form of sharing the faith is called “Personal Evangelism” Life Way Research did
a study and asked how many times they have personally invited an un-churched
person to attend a church service or some other program at your Church this his
how people have responded:
§
48% of church
attendees responded, “Zero.”
§
33% percent of
people say they’ve personally invited someone one or two times.
§
19% say they’ve done
so on three or more occasions in the last six months.[1]
Even if personal invitations are the most effective form
of increasing visitors to a church nearly half of the people surveyed never
invited an un-churched person. The scriptures tell us that our Lord often
reached out to the individuals and they in turn went out and reached others.
One such example is found in John 4:1-42. I would like to share three key
principles on how to share our faith and do it the right way.
I. CONNECT WITH PEOPLE (John 4:1-4)
We are living in a
socially disconnected world. In spite of all the sophistication and development
many are living in isolation. People are
looking for someone to talk to or connect with, yet they are afraid of making
those connections partly because of the fear of rejection and insecurity. In the
story we see how Jesus connected with a woman who was living in isolation and
rejection from the society. In Vs 4-5 we read, “Now he had to go through
Samria. So he came to a town in Samaria
called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.”
Why did Jesus have
to go through Samaria ?
Technically, it was not a
necessity at all, and culturally, it was not customary to do so. If you will
look at a map, you will see that Samaria lies
between Galilee on the north and Judea to the
south. The shortest distance between points is obviously a straight line, which
would mean passing through Samaria to get from
Judea to Galilee . But because of the animosity
between the Samaritans and Jews, scrupulous Jews chose to avoid
passing through Samaria
Jesus overcame
several barriers in order to connect with the Samaritan woman. What barriers do
you need to overcome so that you can connect with your neighbors, friends,
collogues and family members? Unless we tell people the good news how will they
ever come to know the love of Christ? Therefore, let’s make every effort to connect with people. After connecting with people how do we
proceed further with them in sharing the gospel? The natural way to build
bridges is by establishing a common interest.
II. EASTABLISHING A COMMON INTEREST (John 4:7-9)
In the story we
read, Jesus being tired of his journey comes to Jacob’s well and sat by it. It
was about noon time. His disciples were out to buy food. A Samaritan woman came
to draw water, Jesus said to her, “will you give me a drink?” that one question
opened up a whole range of conversation. The woman came to draw water and Jesus
was thirsty he needed water to satisfy his thirst. They both found a common
interest to talk about and that was water.
Similarly when you
meet strangers look for a common interest and see how that will develop into a
conversation. Recently I met a Cambodian translator in a court room where I
went to translate for a client. We talked a bit about translation and about our
professions and our beliefs. He was a Buddhist. After explaining my
understanding of Buddhism and asked him certain questions pertaining to
Buddhism, he sheepishly admitted that he doesn’t know much about his own
religion. Then I asked him whether he had ever been to a Church; he said he
went to a Catholic church; then he asked me to explain him the concept of
“Trinity” that led me to talk freely about God; Jesus and the Holy Spirit. At
the end of the conversation he said; “No one ever explained to me the way you
have explained; it makes a lot of sense.” Now this man may not have become the
follower of Christ after our conversation but he heard the clear gospel.
In the story we
see how cleverly Jesus led the conversation from merely talking about physical
water to living water. He made his presentation not only relevant but also
appealing to the woman. He didn’t reveal who he was but let her know that he
could give her the living water. The woman must have thought it was a cool
thing to drink the “living water.” Not only that she must have surprised by the
offer, that Jesus could actually give her the living water.” In her life she
was approached by many men and they all wanted to get something from her but
here this man; Jesus was different instead of getting he wanted to give her
something of eternal value.
What we can learn
from this conversation is that; we need to make our gospel presentation
exciting and relevant to people that we are meeting with. Don’t give the whole
truth all at once instead lead them step by step.
We need to let
people talk, ask questions, give answers to their questions and you ask
questions to slowly turn their focus from the mundane things to the things that
really matter. After establishing the common interest what comes next?
III. DON’T CONVICT PEOPLE (Vs 15-18)
In our
presentation of the gospel let’s be careful on one thing that we are not too
quick to convict people. Jesus never said that we must go and convict people
instead he said go and preach the gospel. Our job is simply to present the truth
and leave people to make up their mind whether to believe or not to believe. Conviction
of a sinner is the work of God precisely is the work of the Holy Spirit. In
John 16:8, “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin
and righteousness and judgment.” So let’s do what we are called to do and let
the Holy Spirit do what He only can do.
I met several
Christians in their zealousness to preach the gospel they adopt unwise methods
and crude approaches as a result they further alienate people from God than
drawing them closer to Him. They bash people with a gospel of truth than a
gospel of grace and love.
I was at a train
platform with my wife going to the Hay market; all of a sudden we heard a
thundering voice of a street evangelist with a card board sign hanging around
his neck warning people that they would go to hell if they didn’t believe in
Christ. Though I admired his courage at the same time felt a bit ashamed
hearing the sarcastic comments of the fellow travelers. Latter on we saw him
again in the market; same approach, shouting at every body saying, “If you
don’t believe in Christ you will go to hell.” I went up to him to appreciate
him for what he was doing; I got my share of bashing from him. When he heard
that I was a minister he turned at me and preached a sermon on why I should not
ware shorts and how those who are frivolous will go to hell.
These zealots,
unwise self proclaimed evangelists do more harm than good to Christianity. They
preach a message of fear and hate. No doubt they are presenting the facts but
they fail to extend grace and mercy. A friend of mine tells me that; “Christianity
is a good religion but gets a bad press because of the way Christians package
it and promote it.” Jesus Christ was always kind, considerate, gentle and
gracious with sinners but took a whip at the Pharisees and the Hypocrites.
Jesus was full of grace and truth.
In the story Jesus
was more gracious to the Samaritan woman than the Pharisees, scribes and the
fellow town people. He never once rebuked her she was doing; as we know she was
a commercial sex worker instead made her realize what she was doing was wrong
by using her own words to convict her. In the end she realized that Jesus was
just more than a mere man but was a prophet.
After a bit of theological discussion Jesus revealed that he was the Messiah.
Upon that revelation the woman ran into town and said to the people, “Come and
see a man who told me everything I ever did, Could this be the Christ. The
whole town came; and urged Jesus to stay two more days. Now Jesus got an
opportunity to preach to the whole Samaritan village.
At the end of the
day many had believed in Jesus and said, “We know that this man really is the
Savior of the world.” What powerful principles we learn in this story. First
God wants us to leave our comfort zone and connect with people because they
matter to him.
Secondly, the best
way to lead people to believe in truth is by establishing a common interest.
Thirdly, we are called to convey the facts of the gospel through love and grace
and the Holy Spirit will do the job of conviction. May the Lord help all of us
to be a power witnesses in His hand that we might preach a gospel of grace,
love and of hope. Amen
