Stephen N. Collins
05/04/2008
Millville
Accomplishing the Mission of Jesus: Sharing Your Faith
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:17
Intro:
-Sharing the gospel in America is becoming increasingly more critical as revealed by the following statistics. In the Builder generation (those born from 1927-1945) 65% are evangelical Christians. Among Boomers (1946-1964) 35% are evangelical Christians. Just 16% are evangelical Christians in Generation X (1965-1976). It is estimated that only 4% of Bridgers (1977-1994) will become evangelical Christians. Through fervent prayer and intentional evangelism we must reverse this lethal downward trend. Pastors in Focus, March 2008, p.3
-Why do we have those statistics in our country? Today, I’d like to address one the biggest reasons I believe we see those stats in our generations. It’s easy to blame the world for it, but maybe we need to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves.
-Every Christian knows that evangelism is important. We will give money to missionaries, participate in outreach events, and welcome non-Christians to our church. We’re really good at that one here at Millville.
-But what about when you’re face to face with someone who’s not a believer? What about when it’s personal? What do you do when you’re sitting across from another person and you have to actually engage them in a conversation about your faith?
-It’s easy to get fired up about witnessing after a sermon about it. We like it when the pastor talks about it. But I can’t always be with you. It probably wouldn’t even work out if I were. If I could somehow follow you around and be with you every time you shared your faith, and if I were able to give you the words to say, you would never lead anyone to Jesus.
-It would probably go something like this: (VIDEO: WITNESSOLA)
-So today, let’s take a few minutes focus on one-on-one evangelism and some characteristics of a Christ-Like witness. This won’t be about what you’re supposed to say or giving you a step-by-step plan for leading someone to the Lord. That’s all been done.
-But we need to develop the heart of Jesus in the way we think about and the way we approach unbelievers.
Let’s pray. (PRAYER)
4 Characteristics of a Christ-Like Witness
2 things you must do to develop a Christ-like witness:
1. Center your heart on Jesus
Statement: Let’s look at John 3:17 this morning:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:17
-We’ve got 4 characteristics to look at today, and we’re going to focus on 1 or 2 key words from John 3:17 that will help us better understand the mission of Jesus…and what how we should go about accomplishing it.
-Look at the last 2 words: “through Him.”
-This may sound strange to you, but I’ve known a lot of “Christless Christians” during my lifetime. You have too. These are people who claim Jesus is their Lord and savior, they come to church every Sunday, they can quote a lot of Bible verses for you…and they are more than happy to tell you just how close to the Lord they are.
-But then you see the actions of these people. And you notice that they don’t treat others the way those Bible verses they quote say they should. Or you notice that they don’t seem to have much love in their heart. Or you notice that they aren’t very generous with their time, talents, or finances. Or you notice that more often than not, when they tell people about their Christian lives, their testimony seems to focus more on their good deeds than on Jesus.
-Oh, you’ve met them too, huh? What kind of witness do they have? Oh, they may have the whole Romans Road speech down pat, but what kind of difference are they making for the Kingdom of God? Truth be told, those kinds of Christians are more concerned with building up their own little kingdoms than they are with building up God’s Kingdom.
-Their problem is that they haven’t developed the first characteristic of a Christ-like witness. And if you want to have a Christ-like witness, the first thing you must do is to center your heart on Jesus.
- And the real problem with this is that when our hearts aren’t completely centered on Jesus, we fail to really let Him be the Lord of our lives. We hold things back from Him. We don’t obey certain commands He gave. We choose to be in control of our lives instead of submitting to Him.
-One of the things I love most about our church is that I haven’t noticed this in any of you. But the scary thing is that every Christian faces the temptation of falling into this pattern. I beg you not to fall into this trap. Your witness is too important. The stakes are too high. And if Christ doesn’t have complete control of your life, your witness will be impotent.
-Remember the words, “through him.” If you are not living your life through Him, how can you lead others to?
2. Focus your faith on Saving Grace
Lead-in: Another trap many fall into is forgetting the purpose their witness.
Illustration: Sort of like the employee who was walking through the office of his boss one day and turned to him and said, “I’ve been here 15 years, Mr. Ferguson, and don’t get me wrong, they’ve been wonderful years, but just exactly what is it we do around here?”
Questions: Would you ever work in a job where you didn’t know what your company did? Would you ever apply for a position that didn’t have a job description? Wouldn’t it drive you crazy if you didn’t know what the purpose of your company was?
Statement:
-And yet so many believers fail to focus on God’s purpose for them as a follower of Christ. Did you know that when you gave your life to God and let Jesus be the ruler of your life, you were automatically given a new purpose for living? Paul said it this way:
Scripture: Acts 20:24 (NLT)
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”
-And remember what Jesus said His purpose was: Look at the words, “To save,” in John 3:17.
-Do you see the common thread here? If Paul said his mission in life was to tell others about grace, and Jesus said His mission was to save then shouldn’t our mission be the same?
-And this is the 2nd characteristic we must develop. We must learn to focus our faith on saving grace.
-When you share your faith with an unbeliever, don’t worry about “fixing” every little thing that’s wrong with them then and there. God will do that over time. Your focus must be on the salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ.
-The problem many of us fall into is that when we witness to somebody, we focus on all the wrong things. We talk about hell first. “Well, you know, if you don’t give your heart to the Lord, the Bible says you’ll go to hell.”
-Or we talk about all the things that person is doing wrong first. “Oh you drink? You smoke? Oh, you’re not married but living together? You know, the Bible says you ought not to do those things.”
-Remember, keep it simple. Focus on the basics. And the most basic, fundamental truth of our faith is salvation by grace.
Illustration: (Story of the missionaries who were trying to figure out how best to win the natives to Christ.)
As they were formulating their strategy, the younger missionary suggested, “First, we need to teach them modesty.”
The older, wiser missionary asked him, “Does someone have to dress a certain way to be a Christian?”
The younger missionary said, “Ok, then we need to teach them not to dance.”
The older missionary replied, “Why teach them what not to do? Why not teach them to know Christ and then let Him lead them?”
(Book: Perimeters of Light, Towns, pg. 38)
-Don’t forget why Jesus came. Jesus said He came to “seek and save” the lost. It was an act of grace. Always keep that in mind when you share your faith with others.
2 things you must not do to maintain a Christ-like witness:
Lead-in: If we will develop these 2 characteristics when it comes to our witness, the next 2 will come naturally. They are 2 things we must not do.
3. Don’t condemn unbelievers
Illustration: An old Hebrew story tells about Abraham kicking a wanderer out of his camp because he did not believe in the one true God. When God asked Abraham why he did this, Abraham replied, “Because he does not believe in you, so I know he is condemned.” God replied, “Abraham, I have put up with him for 70 years now, and you could not suffer him for one night?”
Questions: Some things haven’t changed much in a few thousand years, have they? Doesn’t it seem like most of God’s people still get a bigger kick out of condemning an unbeliever than they do sharing God’s love with them? Why is that? Could it be that many of them still have some incorrect beliefs about how to handle unbelievers?
Main Point: Look at the words “not” and “condemn” Then look at these pictures. Google the term “Christians,” and you’ll have images like these come up.
(Show pictures)
1. “Turn to Jesus” guy
2. “God hates fags” guy
3. Cartoon of angry Christian
-I’ll ask the question again: Could it be that some Christians still hold onto incorrect beliefs about how to share their faith with unbelievers?
-In that old Hebrew story, God had to correct Abraham’s incorrect beliefs about non-believers. You see, many Christians, because the have not yet developed the 1st two characteristics we’ve talked about so far…they miss out on this one entirely: Don’t condemn unbelievers.
-Now, does that mean that we never talk about sin? Of course not. But I think Jesus gave us an example to live by of loving unbelievers instead of judging them.
-Remember that Jesus said:
Scripture: Matthew 7:1-2 (NASB)
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and )by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
-I don’t know about you, but if we’re going to take Jesus at His words here…if we really are going to be measured by the standard of how we measure others…then I want to be gracious to others. I want to be loving to others, don’t you?
-Think about it. How would you want God to judge you? Then here’s the real question: Are you remember that when you share your faith with an unbeliever?
-Jesus didn’t condemn. Why should you?
4. Don’t forget God’s love for every human being.
Illustration: (Steph praying for the whole world and me taking advantage of that).
Questions: We can learn a lot from kids sometimes, can’t we? Let me ask you something: When was the last time your prayed for the world? Do you really have a concern for those in our world that don’t know Jesus? Ok, how about this: When I think about this, I can’t help but think, “When was the last time I prayed for my enemies? When was the last time I prayed for the souls of the insurgents in Iraq who have killed more than 4,000 of my fellow Americans?
Main Point: Whoa! I can’t be serious, right? Pray for those people? Be concerned for those people? Love those people? Our enemies?
-Of course I’m not serious. That is…unless I want to take the mission of Jesus seriously.
-Look at the words, “The world.”
-Wow. Now that will mess with your head, right? In light of the war we’re fighting right now, in light of 9/11, in light of our economy…the teachings of Jesus seem pretty radical, don’t they?
-Now you may be wondering, “Ok, I get it, but what does that have to do with sharing my faith?”
-Well, when it comes down to it, it has everything to do with your witness. You see, in modern times we have watered down the Gospel to be merely a personal Gospel. But John 3:17 blows that out of the water because who does Jesus say He came for? Who did He come to save?
-The world. And “the world” means the world! Not just that I should be saved. Not just that you should be saved. Not just that Hamilton, or Ohio, or American should be saved. The whole world!
-And this is quite possibly the greatest challenge you will face in developing a Christ-like witness. But it is so vital for us not to forget God’s love for every human being. Because it is easy and comfortable to believe that God loves me. It’s harder to believe that God loves people who aren’t like me.
-God loves every human being and every human being has worth in His eyes.
-Now the question remains: Do you really believe that? Now can you imagine the ramifications this would have if every believer started living their lives and sharing their faith with a deep-rooted belief in their hearts that every human being was loved by God?
-How would this change the way we shared our faith? Don’t you think it would cause us to see the non-believers at our workplace in a whole new light? Or what about your agnostic neighbor? Or your homosexual cousin?
-What if you saw them not as enemies, not as antagonists, not as terrible people, but as living souls with infinite worth in the eyes of their creator? People Jesus came into the world to die for and to save?
-Don’t you think that would revolutionize the way your shared your faith?
Conclusion/Response
-So let’s close this morning by allowing me to ask you this question: Have you considered how you share you faith lately?
-And hey, if you’re winning people to the Lord left and right, that’s awesome. Your probably don’t need any help. But a lot of us do.
-If you’re here this morning and you are a believer and you’ve never led someone to Christ or it’s been a really long time, don’t you think it’s time to change that?
-Maybe until today you’ve been scared to share you faith because you’re not really sure of yourself and the thought of witnessing to an unbeliever seems frightening. Let me encourage you to take heart. Learn these principles. Develop these characteristics in your heart. And as you do that and submit yourself to God, I promise you, you will be more sure of yourself and find courage you never knew you had.
Christians: Let me give you this challenge today – if you are thinking about your witness right now and you’re realizing that you haven’t been very Christ-like in the way you share your faith with someone, I want you to get in touch with that person and ask them to forgive you. Confess to them that you didn’t represent Jesus well when you told them about Him. I think you’ll be surprised at how that simple act will touch unbelievers with the love of God.
Non-Christians: If you’re not a believer and you have had an experience with a Christian who didn’t share their faith in a Christ-like way, I have this to say to you: We’re sorry. Please forgive us. And please don’t let that experience drive you away from Jesus because He wants you to experience His great love for you.
