TELL SOMEONE
Sharing the good news of life in Christ
ead this quote slowly and thoughtfully: “However willing they may be, Christians’ ability to witness for Christ may be impeded by the simple fact that they don’t have meaningful relational connections with non-Christians, or the conversational skills necessary to talk meaningfully about faith.” (Conclusion to a Barna Research Report, February 19, 2019)
As you pray and seek to be a faithful gospel witness for the Lord, note some of the findings by Barna Research:
In evangelism, God has given us the message we need to share with unbelievers. The whole Bible tells the story of creation, mankind’s fall into sin, and the provision of a Savior through Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures do not only give the words necessary for unbelievers to know the content of the gospel. The Bible also gives the words necessary to encourage Christians to evangelize, especially when it comes to overcoming fears.
Here then are three common fears and how the Bible encourages us to overcome them.
A Manifesto of Evangelism | John R.W. Stott
‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ (10:15; Is. 52:7).
Convinced that God has a future for both Jews and Gentiles, and that their growth into ‘fulness’ will be brought about by evangelism, Paul makes a forceful statement of its logic (10:14f.) and alludes in other ways to the spread of the gospel. From these chapters, therefore, it is possible to summarize Paul’s teaching on evangelism to form an eight-point manifesto.
The need for evangelism: evangelism is necessary because until people hear and receive the gospel they are lost.
Reaching People with the Gospel | Tim Challies – August 23, 2018 | View the video clips of this transcript
People are always reached in the same way, which is through the telling, the preaching, the sharing of the Gospel, right. So, one way or another, people have to hear the Gospel and respond to it. The means through which people hear the Gospel can vary a lot and it does seem that over time that shifts back and forth. So, you go back to the great awakening and you would have thousands of unbelievers coming out to hear sermons.
18 Prayers for Unbelievers by Tim Challies - November 15, 2016
A friend asked the question: How do I pray for unbelievers? How do I pray effectively? I trust that every Christian regularly prays for family or friends or colleagues or neighbors who do not yet know the Lord. And while we can and must pray for matters related to their lives and circumstances, the emphasis of our prayers must always be for their salvation. Here are some ways the Bible can guide our prayers.
We just celebrated our annual Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends, and it’s a perfect time to remember how grateful we are for the gospel in our lives. Meditating on the blessings of the good news can keep you highly motivated in your gospel-proclaiming ministry.
Paul, the ultimate evangelist, modeled a thanks-driven life about the blessings of the gospel that is being proclaimed (Rom. 1:8; Phil. 1:3-4; Col. 1:3-6; 2 Thess. 2:13).
The Apostle Paul famously said that his “heart’s desire” and his “prayer to God” is that his fellow Jews “may be saved” (Rom. 10:1). The problem was that these “kinsmen according to the flesh” were lost—bound for an eternity without God—which filled Paul’s heart with “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” (Rom. 9:2-3).
Because we are sinners, we can take a true doctrine (God’s absolute sovereignty) and make it incompatible with an appropriate emotion (unceasing anguish for the lost). In a sermon from several years ago, John Piper explained three ways we can experience a disconnect between the biblical doctrine and the appropriate emotional state:
We are living in a time when fewer people have a basic understanding of faith, so we need to be prepared for questions, criticisms, and general skepticism about Christianity.
Don’t be surprised if you hear things like: “Doesn't Christianity crush diversity?" "How can you take the Bible literally?" "Doesn't religion cause violence?" "Doesn't Christianity denigrate women?" "Isn't the Bible homophobic?" "Hasn't science disproved Christianity?" "How could a loving God allow suffering?" "How can you say there's only one true faith?" "How can you say God even exists?" and others.
In a word, the evangelistic message is the gospel of Christ and Him crucified, the message of man’s sin and God’s grace, of human guilt and divine forgiveness, of new birth and new life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a message made up of four essential ingredients.
1. The gospel is a message about God. It tells us who He is, what His character is, what His standards are, and what He requires of us, His creatures. It tells us that we owe our very existence to Him; that for good or ill, we are always in His hands and under His eye; and that He made us to worship and serve Him, to show forth His praise and to live for His glory. These truths are the foundation of theistic religion; and until they are grasped, the rest of the gospel message will seem neither cogent nor relevant. It is here with the assertion of man’s complete and constant dependence on his Creator that the Christian story starts.
It’s now been one year since over 100 of our church family committed to being a better, more faithful witness for Jesus Christ. Our Tell Someone campaign was designed to re-inform, re-tool, and re-motivate our hearts to grow in our personal and corporate gospel passion, skill, and faithfulness. Here is what we shared last August as we prepared ourselves to become better witnesses for Jesus Christ:
