How to Share the Good News of Jesus
We’re in a message series called The One. And we’re talking about the 3-year strategic plan that we believe God is calling Connection Christian Church to accomplish. This morning, we’re gonna talk about evangelism. And for a lot of Christians, the word evangelism can conjure up a lot of different thoughts and images, many of them negative…
• Going door to door and talking to strangers about Jesus
• Handing out salvation tracts at the grocery store
• Standing on a street corner and preaching through a megaphone
• Maybe we think we don’t know enough about the Bible to talk to people about Jesus
• Maybe we’re afraid we’ll ruin relationships
For a lot of us, simply thinking about evangelism might be intimidating. But the word evangelism simply means sharing the good news of Jesus with others. And what I want to do is hopefully ease our minds a little when it comes to sharing the good news of Jesus with others. It doesn’t have to be scary, weird, invasive, or difficult.
I’ve shared with you that nine out of 10 churches in the US are either struggling or in major decline, and, on average, 16 churches close their doors for good every single day. And a big reason for that is that they’re not talking about evangelism. Again, Connection Christian Church is not struggling. We’re not in decline. We’re not in danger of closing our doors. And we are talking about evangelism.
And a big reason we’re talking about evangelism is that Heaven and Hell are real places. For a lot of us, that may be one of the biggest reasons we started following Jesus in the first place.
• We want to go to Heaven.
• We want to live forever in the presence of a loving and gracious God.
• We want to see Jesus face-to-face.
We also realize that Hell is a real place. And unfortunately, people are going there every single day.
• Hell is a place of torment.
• It’s a place where darkness prevails,
• Where people are eternally separated from God,
• Where people live their lives wishing they could get relief from the worst agony and pain one could ever imagine,
• And wishing they could just die once and for all, just to get it over with, but never seeing that wish come true.
When our hearts begin to understand these realities of hell, then our hearts will start to break for those who are headed there. And we’ll feel more inclined to share Jesus with people in our lives, and we’ll start to see people coming to Jesus.
It’s been said that if every Christian would reproduce themselves just one time, it would take just 33 days to lead every single person on earth to the truth of Jesus Christ.
Our goal in the area of evangelism is for each of us to reach one. And the question we’re asking is: Who is the one in your life who needs to hear about Jesus?
Jesus says in Matthew 28…
19 “Go, therefore, and make disciples…”
But how do we do that? How do we share Jesus with other people without it being scary, weird, invasive, or difficult?
Evangelism starts with relationships.
Now, there are two relationships to keep in mind here.
One is our relationship with God. And the question to think about is: How is my relationship with God?
• Maybe for some of us, it’s like a business transaction. God saves me from hell, and I’ll go to church every Sunday.
• Maybe for some of us, God’s like a cosmic genie in a bottle. Just rub the lamp, and God will give me whatever I want.
• Maybe for some of us, God’s like a divorced dad who’s got visitation rights with his kids for the weekend. I visit him on Sunday, but I don’t really think about him the rest of the week.
• Or, on the flip side, maybe for some of us, we realize that we’ve been reborn, and we’re being transformed into Christlikeness by being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing as Jesus did.
I pray that’s the case for all of us here today. I pray that we’re living every single day as followers of Jesus, and we’re growing in our relationship with him, trying to do it better today than we did yesterday.
So, how’s my relationship with God?
The other question to ask is: How is my relationship with others?
• Whom do I love?
• Whom do I hate?
• Do I talk negatively about people behind their backs?
• Do I cut people down, or build people up?
• How do I really feel about people of different races and different lifestyles?
Jesus says in Mark chapter 12…
30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
Love God. Love people. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it?
Our relationship with God and with others must be genuine and authentic. Our vision for Connection Christian Church is to become a church of real people finding real hope. When our relationship with God is real – genuine and authentic – then we can have that same kind of relationship with others.
I like to say that my relationship with God is reflected in my relationships with others. How I treat God is how I treat others. And when my relationship with God is good, then I’ll have opportunities to help others find real hope in Jesus Christ.