It is the third Friday of the month, so we’ll continue focusing on a different area related to the Gospel. We are doing this as we want to walk alongside you as you act as ‘salt and light’ where you serve.
Last time we looked at what the Gospel is and why people need it, and this week we’ll look at how we share the Gospel.
To do this, we’ll look at several areas: how we feel, how people respond, it’s all about Jesus, opening up the Bible, just going for it and the Holy Spirit.
How we feel
Sharing the Gospel may fill many of us with dread and fear. Many may think, “I can’t do that, because I don’t know enough; I don’t have enough Bible knowledge.”
Right from the start, this is where many of us go wrong as we make sharing the Gospel about us. It’s not about us; it’s about Jesus. As the Gospel is the good news about Jesus, it all needs to be about Him. People need to know about Jesus.
How people respond
Only God can soften hard hearts and open blind eyes. Everyone will respond differently; we can’t control how each person responds. We see this in the Bible in Acts, as Paul shares the Gospel in Athens.
Acts 17:32-34: “Then they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” That ended Paul’s discussion with them, but some joined him and became believers.”
This clearly shows us that everyone responds differently when hearing the Gospel. Some laugh at the message and dismiss it, others want to find out more, and others believe it and join in sharing the Gospel: same Gospel, same speaker, different responses.
It’s all about Jesus
The Gospel is the good news of what God has done through Jesus to rescue lost sinners and bring them back to Him. When we share the Gospel, we need to make it all about Jesus from the start.
People need to know why Jesus came to earth: to rescue us, sinners lost. That Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He took our place and bore the punishment we deserved. That on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death.
What can help us when sharing the Gospel and making it all about Jesus is having a go-to Bible verse, such as John 3:16, that we can share.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 is the Gospel, the good news. Why God sent Jesus, why Jesus died and why you need to believe in Him. It’s all about Jesus, and people need to know this.
Opening up the Bible
We don’t need to rely on our own words and come up with amazing answers. When sharing the Gospel, we want to show people where this good news comes from: the Bible. The Bible is the word of the living God. We want people to see God’s word.
It also means we don’t need to be an expert who knows all the answers; we can say, “Let’s see what Jesus says about this.” We need to continually remember that the power is not in us or our knowledge, but in God.
Just go for it
A lot of the time we try to avoid sharing the Gospel; we make excuses and overthink it, when we really need to go for it and give it a go. We’ll only gain experience sharing the Gospel if we actually do it.
As we share the Gospel, we should be aware that we shouldn’t limit who we talk to or who we share it with. Many of us often predict people’s response for them; we say there’s no for them, so we don’t share the Gospel with them. But we have no idea how they will respond; we can’t say “no” for them. Again, everyone will respond differently, so we need to go for it.
The Holy Spirit
We need to remember again that it’s not in our power, and it’s not up to us to give a perfect Gospel presentation for somebody to come to faith. It is the power of the Holy Spirit, working in hearts. Jesus says this at his ascension in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere.”This is what we are to do: tell people everywhere about Jesus. It can be extremely daunting, but the Gospel is the good news that people desperately need to hear. So we have to share the Gospel in the places and situations we’ve been placed in.