CONTEND FOR THE FAITH
1) Contend for the faith.
Jude 1:3, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."
To contend means to put yourself forward, assert, state, declare. We are to put ourselves out there, we are to put ourselves forward for the faith. We are to state and declare our faith to others and we are to assert ourselves when there is something that sets itself up against the faith.
One of the meanings of contend is compete. We are in competition against falsehood and unbelief. If you read on in Jude you'll see that there were men who had slipped into their congregation and taught falsehoods and liberal ideals. We will have to contend against that too. There are a lot of different belief systems out there-all of which are in competition with the Christian faith.
In 2006, at the "Building a Covenant for a New America" conference , Barak Obama talked about 'a new America'. He said, "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation and a nation of non-believers."
Instead of America's fundamental belief in one God there is now a belief in many gods. This is what Ken Ham called a shift from being an Acts 2 type culture to an Acts 17 type culture. In his book, Gospel Reset, Ken talks about Peter's sermon in Acts 2 and the amazing outcome-3,000 people were baptized into Christ that day (41).
Ken asks, 'wouldn't you like to see that happen in our day'? He makes an interesting point about how Peter's audience already had a foundational knowledge of God, the scriptures and about sin. His point was that Peter's audience was at a level of understanding that most of the people we would be talking to aren't.
Many people know of God and Jesus but they don't know much else. Some have gone to church before and know some things but most of the people we would be trying to build relationships with and present the gospel to would not have the foundational level of understanding that Peter's audience did.
Not that Peter didn't have anything to contend with. They still needed to be convinced that Jesus, the one they crucified, was the fulfillment of the prophecies. But he didn't need to lay any foundational groundwork regarding who God was and instruction about the authenticity of his word.
Fast forward to today and you can make the argument that just a few generations ago you would have an easier time with your audience than you would today. A few generations ago there was prayer in schools and places were closed on Sundays because more people were either in church or respected the day as such. Today, you don't have that regard for God or the church so our work is harder. It involves more questions and more groundwork to be laid than would be true just a few generations ago, let alone 2,000 years ago with Peter's sermon.
Bruce Willis said, "With what we know about science, anyone who thinks at all probably doesn't believe in fire and brimstone anymore. So, organized religion has lost that voice to hold up their moral hand." Today, with the theory of evolution and big bang theory being taught, you have a scenario where God is forgotten and replaced with science or some other belief system. So we are more like what Ken Ham would call an Acts 17 culture.
In Acts 17, Paul was in Athens. Verse 16 says he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. We should be that way too. It should greatly distress us that our country is full of the worship of other gods. And it should compel us to want to introduce people to the one, true God.
Acts 17:22-23, "Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."
I thought it was interesting that Paul didn't attack these other gods directly, he started with what they had put in place and used it as a catalyst to introduce them to the one, true God. And if you read on you see where Paul started from the beginning by saying, 'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth'. Paul had to remove the wrong foundation so the right one could be laid. He started by highlighting the God of creation.
We can do the same. The God of Genesis is not a bad place to start. People have either dismissed creationism or they are ignorant of it. So we can start by introducing them to the Creator of the universe and try to dismantle the god of unintelligent design.
In another excerpt from Gospel Reset, Ken writes, "When I went to Japan a number of years ago, my translator said, "You've got to be careful over here, because there is no Christian basis to speak of. If you use the word God, because of their Shintoism and belief in thousands of gods, they're going to think you're speaking about just another god like all the others. These people don't know what sin is, as they don't have the teaching from Genesis in their culture. Here's the problem-you've got to define your terms. You will have to define what you mean by God and sin. You'll need to teach them why and when death entered the world. Actually, you have to start at the beginning and explain the foundation of the gospel beginning in Genesis."
The same could be said of many Americans today. What do they know about God or sin? What do they know about the bible? How do they think the world came to be? What is their worldview? When we talk about these things, we have to remember that in today's society these may all be foreign concepts. So we have to be prepared to possibly address this before we'll be able to move on to the gospel.
We may have much to contend with in reaching out to others with the gospel, but we still need to commit to doing it. In his book, Life-style Evangelism, author Joseph Aldrich said, 'visualize the neighborhood readiness for Christ. Visualize the Spirit of God hovering over your neighborhood'. We need to see our neighborhood as a field ripe for harvest, as Jesus put it. We need to have the desire and a positive attitude when setting out to contend for the faith.
Jude said he urged them to contend. The sense of urgency stemmed from a current dangerous situation. However, there is still the sense of urgency among us in that people are dying every day who don't know the Lord. Not that we should drop everything in our lives and go out and evangelize 24/7, but there does need to be that realization at the forefront. When we go out into the neighborhood, into our job place, into our schools, etc. do we have the visualization of a field ripe for harvest? Do we have the mindset of contending for the faith?
Depending on your translation, it might read "earnestly contend for the faith'. That provides even more of a push for us to be sharing our faith. "I urge you to earnestly contend for the faith. Jude said this was entrusted to us. We have been entrusted with the gospel. God has put the responsibility of proclaiming and defending his precious gospel on us. That's huge! That's humbling. But we first have to put ourselves out there both verbally and actively.
When we're out and about in our neighborhood we need live it. We need to act in accordance with the Spirit of Christ. There will be situations where we'll be tested. Running into an irate person, dealing with long lines at the store or bank or post office. We get into a fender bender and our reaction towards the other driver is key. We had a bad morning before we left work and we need to contend against having a bad attitude when we get to work. We hear gossip in the break room and we're challenged to deal with that in the spiritual way. All sorts of ways in which we live out our faith. How we treat people and how we treat life will go a long way in us contending for the faith.
2) Listen, ask, discern.
Obviously if we are going to contend for the faith we need to engage with people. And some things that will help us to be more effective are listening to them, asking questions and discerning when it's time to move on. Listen. Listening requires death to self.
Kevin Miller, in Conversation Skills That Transform, said, "I used to visit a busy medical clinic with top-flight doctors. I noticed when I had an appointment and the doctor stepped into the exam room, he would keep one foot angled toward the door. He was listening to me, seemingly intently, but his body was saying, "My HMO has asked me to keep appointments brief. I'm leaving as soon as I can." Similarly, I can nod and give someone eye contact and say, "Um-hmm," but my head may be filled with noise. I may be hurting from a conversation the hour before: How could he have said that! "To truly listen is to become smaller," my senior pastor, Stewart, says. "It requires death to self."
In order for me to give you undivided attention I have to kill the selfish things inside my head. They may be important and necessary things; but not right now. I need to put away the things my mind is drifting to and focus on being right here, right now with you. I need to decide you deserve that from me; otherwise I am disrespecting you by allowing my mind to wander to other things. I need to make it about you.
If it's about me I'll be thinking about that conversation from earlier that bothered me. If it's about me I will be focused on my response to what you just said rather on being focused on what you're still saying. If it's about me I will be thinking about what I want to do next. If it's about me I will be hoping for something to happen (knock on the door or the phone ringing) to rescue me from my conversation with you.
With that said, that doesn't mean it's disrespectful to want a conversation to end where the other person has been in monologue mode for the last 30 minutes without taking a breath. Or it's not disrespectful when you need to be somewhere else or truly need to get back to what you were doing before the conversation happened. That's life and the other person should understand that. However, when someone needs our help and God wants us to be the one to help, we need to effectively listen.
We need to listen to their heart. Pastor Kevin Miller wrote, "To discern a person's heart (and I know I will never see it fully or completely), I listen carefully and consider: where did he repeat something in two or three different ways? What are his life-giving moments? Where did he speak with extra energy; when did his eyes light up? Is there anything in scripture similar to this person or situation?"
We should make mental notes of these things and then bring them back up in our responses to show that we want to know more about what he cares about. One way to show someone that we're listening is to repeat something they said; especially if it was from a previous conversation. "You mentioned last week that your mom wasn't feeling well. How is she doing?" That shows them that it was important enough to you to remember.
We also need to listen without labeling. Often times when we meet someone we have labeled them based on how they look or how they talk. We can label them as an intellectual or as unintelligent. We can label them as poor white trash or ghetto. We can label them as a fake or phony, etc. And oftentimes we gauge our willingness to listen or we filter their speech through that stereotype. But we need to be willing to listen objectively and sincerely-no matter who or what they are.
We need to be the person people can open up to. This involves showing yourself to be caring and trustworthy. I've met with people who have revealed things to me and followed it up with, "I've never told anyone this before" or, "I can't believe I'm telling you this" or, "I never intended to tell you this much", things like that. We need to present ourselves as someone who's caring and trustworthy.
And guess what-a lot of the things people tell me are not pretty things. It's not easy to listen to people's pain or sins or sorrows. But I have to push any uneasiness aside and be there for them. Because as uncomfortable as it is for me to hear it-it was much more painful for them to experience it. It's not easy for people to reveal their embarrassments or open up their wounds. But when we allow ourselves to be that caring, trustworthy person it lowers the walls of inhibition and opens them up to listen to us later. You may need to tear down some walls before you can introduce the gospel.
Contending for the faith involves listening and it also involves asking questions. From a conversational standpoint, we need to put ourselves out there as the initiator. It's not very likely that some stranger will just walk up to you and start asking questions about Jesus. So we have to do the initiating; we have to start the conversation. Even when it's people we know it's still not too likely they will start the spiritual conversation. It happens, but not too often.
But a lot of times when we live out our faith they see it and ask you about it and that can be the lead in to talk about the faith; that's why it's so important to be ministers of reconciliation so we can share the message of reconciliation.
When we're engaging with people, it's always a good idea to ask questions. Asking questions helps us to get to know them better. We ask about their profession, about their family, their hobbies, their interests, etc. We ask for DNA samples so we can run background checks. You know; all the non-invasive questions.
But at some point it should get around to the topic of faith. Maybe not the first conversation but eventually it should get around to that; that is our ultimate goal. Not that everything before that was superficial but we as Christians contending for the faith have an agenda-we want to bring people to Christ.
Jesus asked an all-important question in Matt. 16:13-16, "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
What we see Jesus doing here with his disciples is what we can do when we talk with people. "Who do you think Jesus is?" And, as we saw in our text, people will give different answers. Today you might hear, 'he was a teacher', or, 'he was a good man' or maybe even, 'he was a liar, a deceiver and a great magician'. So, depending on their answer to that question, you can ask other questions about how they came to believe what they do about Jesus and in the end, what you hope to accomplish is to have them believe that Jesus is the Christ-the Savior-the Son of God.
But it might just take a little while to get to that point. And sometimes we don't get to that point. Therefore, contending for the faith also involves being discerning. When we disciple people we're investing in them. We are training them to become more mature in the faith or take on some form of ministry work or even a leadership role. It doesn't always work out but typically, when you've decided to disciple someone you've determined that this person is discipleship material; they have shown the desire to be discipled and the potential to achieve success in Christ.
But when it comes to evangelizing, you don't have that. Therefore we are not investing our time so much as we are gifting our time. Technically we are doing both but discipling is more of an investment with a higher probable outcome. There is no probable outcome with evangelizing,. We are spending time with someone who may or may not ever come to Christ.
With discipling you are meeting with someone who has made the commitment to follow Christ and therefore has communicated that their focus is to grow in Christ. You have no such commitment from those in the world. Therefore, our investment of time is more like a gift because we have no idea how it will turn out.
But that doesn't mean we can't gauge how it's going. Most of the time you can determine who's genuinely interested and who isn't. And we're not meant to spend a lot of time with someone who doesn't show any interest. When Jesus sent out his disciples, he told them in Matt. 10:14, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town."
"Shake the dust off your feet". John Wesley's commentary, "The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country, they stopped at the borders and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the Gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters."
This happened when Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch preaching the gospel. The Jews stirred up trouble for them and got them kicked out of the region. Acts 13:51, "So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium." We need to respect when someone is not open to the gospel. I'm not proposing that we brush the dust off our sneakers and quote Acts 13:51 to them in protest. We can leave by expressing our disappointment and tell them we are open to getting together if they change their mind.
When talking with someone about the faith, there are some signs we can look for that tell us we are making them uncomfortable. Joseph Aldrich in Life-style Evangelism, "Listen for permission to continue the conversation. As you interact, note carefully his response. Although he may not verbally ask you to stop the conversation, the perceptive listener knows when the conversation is outside his present 'comfort zone'. Insensitivity at this point may close the door to any further discussion. Stretch him, yes, but not to the breaking point. Watch for signs of nervousness, wandering attention, changing the subject or nonverbal evidences of hostility and resentment."
We need to feel a person out as we talk with them. At first, most people can only handle talking about spiritual things just so much. As time goes on you may be able to introduce more, or you may find them shutting you down as soon as you bring any of those subjects up. So, shaking the dust off your feet may happen after the first encounter or perhaps not until the 20th; hopefully not at all.
But when it becomes clear that the person is not open, we need to not push the issue; lest we make an enemy and lose the possibility to reintroduce the subject at a later time. When it's clear that they're not listening, we need to keep it moving because in the very least we're wasting our time but at worst we're creating a hostile situation that will not end well. So, I urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted to us.
