Right after Melissa and I got married, a little more than two years ago now, we received a new camera as a wedding gift. Because my wife is an artist and loves to take pictures, I took her into Boston for the chance to take some pictures around the city. The first stop that we made were the Boston Commons which is sort of like a smaller version of Central Park in NY.
As we got to the Commons, we could see that they were packed with people. There was a big protest going on about the war in Iraq and a group had set up shoes all over the grassy areas to represent the men and women who had lost their lives. We spent some time walking around the Commons, getting lots of pictures, and then made our way back to where we had started. We found a bench, sat down and just watched the people around us.
As we were sitting on the bench, Melissa continued to snap away pictures and this was one of them (put on the screen). Take a minute just to observe what is going on in this picture? What are your initial thoughts?
How would you feel if I told you that the guy in this picture was from a church group and was telling this girl about Jesus; he was evangelizing. As Melissa and I sat and witnessed this encounter, I was embarrassed for Jesus, the Church, and Christians in general. This guy, proceeded to yell at this girl, telling her she was going to Hell and that she was a sinner. Obviously, as you can tell by the girl’s body language, she wasn’t buying it. There was no give and take; there was no relationship at all; it wasn’t a conversation or debate. It was just top-down, “I’m gunna tell you what you need to know whether you want to hear it or not!” It turned into a yelling argument that ended with the girl swearing at the guy and storming off towards where Melissa and I were sitting.
As she approached us, I felt God telling me to apologize to her for this guy’s actions and words, and to explain to her that God was nothing like what this guy was portraying. I mentioned what I felt to Melissa and she said she felt the same thing. As the girl began to get closer, I got really nervous – it’s not often I approach a random person on the street like that. I said a quick prayer and then sat there and watched her walk by. I told myself and Melissa that I didn’t want to get involved and somehow make things worse. But then I quickly added that if God really wanted me to say something, our paths would cross again.
When it comes to sharing the message of Jesus Christ with people around us, I think there are three approaches that we can take. The first is represented by the guy in the picture and is what culture expert Walt Mueller calls alienation. This is what happens when Christians create an “us vs. them” mentality. We view the world as evil and try to separate ourselves from it as much as possible. When we do take advantage of opportunities to evangelize, it tends to be more like firing arrows over a wall from a safe distance and very impersonal. We are more focused on not being corrupted by the evil around us and getting the message across about hell and sin. Again, as I mentioned before, there is no relationship or give and take, just a forced feeding.
Just a brief side note here, this doesn’t always come in the form of yelling or verbal condemnation. Personally, I think tracks fall into this category. To me, they are really impersonal and come across really rudely. Does this mean God doesn’t use this form of evangelism to bring people to relationship with Himself? Absolutely not, but I just think there is a better, way to go about it.
As there may only be a few of us here today that relate with these extremes of alienation, we are all guilty of the attitude if we have ever avoided or judged someone based on appearance, their activity choice, language, or anything else.
The second approach to evangelism is what Mueller calls accommodation. This is described best as adopting “cultural values and behaviors that are contrary to” what the Bible teaches. All this is done with the motivation of spreading the story of Christ but is really a watered down message based on convenience for the Christian to not be too weird or different from the world. The goal is to look the same and then take opportunities to talk about Jesus but is ineffective because of the heavy hypocrisy surrounding it. We can find aspects of this in all of our lives simply by asking the question, how different is your life as a Christian compared to your neighbor or friend who doesn’t have a relationship with Christ? What message are you sending about Jesus?
The third approach, and the one that I want to focus the majority of our time on, is commonly referred to as being “in the world but not of it” – a halfway point between alienation and accommodation that is exemplified by Jesus himself. I would like to explore this approach together by looking at John 1:1-14 As you find the passage, I invite you keep your Bibles open as we walk through the text together.
In order to begin our discussion of evangelism and being “in the world but not of it” we need to understand the message that we are trying to communicate.
The Gospel of John has widely been called “God’s love letter to the world” as it is so rich in describing the story of Christ. Martin Luther wrote about John that, “should a tyrant succeed in destroying the Holy Scriptures and only a single copy of…Romans and…John escape him, Christianity would be saved.” Even in only these first fourteen verses, it so powerfully describes the message of Jesus.
John 1:1-2 – The message of Christ starts out with the understanding that Jesus is God and has always existed. Nothing created Him, He was not born into existence, nor was He an idea that men and women thought up. Instead, He is the infinitely powerful and eternally existing God.
John 1:3-4 – The story continues that Jesus created everything in the world. Nothing was created, except through Him! The air we breathe, the trees, the birds and animals, and even the people sitting around you are a thought out, planned creation of this eternal God.
John 1:5 – In this verse we see the concept of darkness brought into the world. Darkness is used throughout the Scriptures to represent the sin and disobedience to God that so fills our world and separates us from God. It started in Adam, the first man, and now all humans are under the same temptation to selfishly disobey God. Yet we are reminded of the eternal, creator God and He is called the light of the world, one that cannot be overcome by the darkness.
John 1:6-9 – John was sent by God to tell everyone, not just Jews, about Jesus and that he was coming to give light to, again, everyone. Listen to this last part carefully: Jesus was coming into the world. The Greek word here used for world, kosmos, is not to mean the universe but generally means “the created order in rebellion. ” Jesus, the eternal God, creator of everything, came into His creation - fallen, broken, and living in darkness, to bring light and overcome the darkness.
John 1:10-11 – Jesus came first to the Jews, His own people, but they didn’t even recognize Him as God. They had the same approach as the rest of the world. “Who is this guy?” Because of this, they rejected him – rejected Him by killing Him on the cross! But yet, as the story goes, after three days of being in the grave he rose from the dead. Even though the darkness tried to extinguish the light, it was not successful!
John 1:12-13 – Thus, Christ’s death and resurrection, made it possible to become “Children of God.” The language that John uses compares having a relationship with Christ to being reborn and made into a new creation. This is a process that cannot and does not come from humans’ ability or actions but only through God.
John 1:14 – If once wasn’t enough, John reiterates himself by saying that God came and made his dwelling among us. I like the way The Message paraphrase puts it by saying that “The Word become flesh and blood [man], and moved into the neighborhood.” As Christ lived among the people, He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. He showed, in person, who God was, and His glory and splendor. It’s very importantly here as well that John notes that it is the One and Only. No other religion or god, ever came to their people in unfailing love and faithfulness but instead only in judgment and condemnation. Jesus came to us and said, “I accept you, now do this,” where other religions and gods tell their people to come to them and say, “Do this, then I will accept you.”
So this is the message: God, the One and Only, came down to his creation in love and faithfulness, was rejected but yet overcame darkness. All this, making it possible for us to have a relationship with Him and, even deeper than that, to be adopted and considered children in His family. Notice though that God communicated his love for his creation by living out the message, being “in the world but not of it.”
This message from God would not have been able to be communicated in any other way. God had to come out of heaven, get His hands and feet dirty and show and live out his love. We in turn, are called to do the same to spread this message. In the end of John’s Gospel, he recounts Jesus’ interaction with the disciples after he has risen from the dead. To them he proclaims, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” The message becomes the method for which to evangelize – being in the world but not of it. Getting our own hands and feet dirty but yet being different and proclaiming better things.
I think John had this in his heart and mind as he wrote his account of Jesus’ life and a big thing that shows this is his choice of words in the very first verse. As John proclaims that Jesus is God and has always existed he calls Him “the Word,” which in Greek is the word logos. The really cool thing about using logos is the broad body of people John would have connected with. See, the Stoics, which were leading thinkers of the time, used this word logos to talk about principle by which all things existed and the essence of the human soul. They consistently claimed that there was no god but logos. Philo, who was Plato’s successor in the philosophy world wrote that the ideal world was the logos of God. Logos was the ideal man, the primal man from which all humans were created from. Logos would have also been interchangeable with the Hebrew word for word. This would have connected this passage to the number of times in the Old Testament where God did something powerful or amazing by his spoken word, mainly creation. Also, if you look at the two main definitions of logos one was understood as the reason or science, explanation, and the other was understood as an outward expression or the message! Thus John chose his words to be “in the world but not of it” as he proclaimed the unique message! Again, the message becomes the method for which to evangelize.
The last thing I want to talk about is answering the question, “Why should we evangelize?” Over and over again we are told in church to evangelize, to spread the Good News, or to share Jesus with our friends and families. But why should we do this? Because Jesus says so is the typical answer I think comes to most of our minds but for a lot of people that isn’t enough.
I think I would say the answer to this question is that, you don’t have to. Our God has given us free will and He does not force us to do anything. Instead, He invites us to become part of this grand story. As John starts his Gospel by using the words “in the beginning,” he is linking that to the beginning of Genesis thus creating an understanding of a story than began and was continuing. Now, Christ invites us to take a part in this cosmic story that began millions of years ago and is still playing itself out.
Going back to my time in Boston, God ended up answering my prayer for a second chance to talk to that girl. About ten minutes after she had first walked away, as Melissa and I were walking in the commons, I saw the girl coming towards us with a friend. I again felt the prodding of God and Melissa reminded me of what I had just said moments before. As the girl approached I got my thoughts together and then watched her walk by again. Her friend would think I was crazy, I thought; it was just coincidence we walked by her again. Guilt began to slowly creep into my heart as we kept walking. Inside, I asked God for another chance.
Believe it or not, my third chance did eventually come. I can’t remember where we were but we ended up crossing her path a third time that afternoon. I wish I could say that that time I talked to her and she became a Christian and all was well, but unfortunately I can’t. As she got closer to us that third time, I again just watched her walk by. I never saw her again after that.
Evangelism and sharing our faith is difficult and scary as we think about engaging the world with God’s message of love, but it is so worth it. Jesus has been there, done that and promises to be there with us, protecting us and guiding us along the way. The choice is up to you of whether or not you want to be part of this great, amazing, eternal story that runs through all of creation. What will you decide?
