Listen

What is 1 + 1?

We once did not know, but someone took the time and cared enough to teach us.

Biting others is wrong? 

We once did not know, but someone took the time and cared enough to teach us.

How to drive?

We once did not know, but someone took the time and cared enough to teach us.

You get the idea…

Even if we learned things ourselves by Googling it or reading a book or watching a video, someone took the time to create the website or publish the book or record the video so that others could learn.

In the same way, it is from others that we are both introduced to Jesus and learn how to live our lives for Him.  God calls this process discipleship.

We don’t know what we don’t know.  This is called ignorance.  If no one had ever taken the time to teach me all kinds of things in life, well, I still wouldn’t know any better.

Learning is a life-long process.  Every day there are opportunities for all of us to learn things that we never knew before or to grow and mature in things that we have learned.

The first time that we drew a picture, we probably had to explain what it was.  It was probably pretty bad and unrecognizable otherwise. 

However, as we continue to draw and work on developing our skills, we get better.  Some still have far more talent than others in this area, but we all improve.

This is the same for pretty much everything in life.  Unless we receive a miraculous anointing or natural gifting for something, there isn’t anything that we are taught once and then are instantly masters at. 

We don’t know what we don’t know and in the unknown, we’ll never grow. (repeat)

This applies to everything in life including our faith.

We can’t be offended by people around us living ungodly if we never take the time to introduce them to God and teach them how to live a Godly, Spirit-filled life.  We can’t get irritated by people making bad decisions if we never take the time to show them that there is a better way.

God’s salvation is available to absolutely every person and it is His will that they all receive it.

2 Peter 3:9 (NCV)

The Lord is not slow in doing what He promised – the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but He wants all people to change their hearts and lives.

However, there are people all around us every day who never received an invitation to receive this life-transforming salvation.

In Luke 19, people started to mutter and gossip about Jesus because he went to the house of Zacchaeus, a very rich tax collector and well known “sinner.”  Zacchaeus gave his life to Jesus and promised to pay back 4x the amount to anyone whom he had ever wronged.

Jesus said, “Surely salvation has come to this house for I came to seek and save the lost.” (v. 9-10)

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  Yes, He spent time in the temple.  Yes, He went to the synagogues.  However, He was also intentional about going out to where lost people were and spending time with them. 

He didn’t participate in their sin, but He met them where they were at in order to reach them and to save them from their sin.  Just as the Father did in the garden of Eden when sin first corrupted us, Jesus went out to sinful people to bring them salvation.

Ironically, Jesus’ holiness didn’t ever seem to offend sinful people, but it absolutely offended the religious people.

They called Him a drunk, a glutton, even a demon.  However, that didn’t stop Jesus from fulfilling His calling and His purpose to genuinely love and befriend hurting people and to heal and forgive and restore them to the Heavenly Father. 

He has now passed onto us that same calling and purpose.

After Jesus’ resurrection and right before He ascended back to Heaven, He told us to go and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that He commanded and that He would be with us as we do it.

The Greek word used here for “go” is poreuō.  According to the Vine’s expository dictionary, this verb is to be distinguished from others signifying “to go.” It is best rendered, as often as possible, “to go on one’s way.” 

Jesus wasn’t telling us that making disciples is our destination or our end goal.  Rather, He was saying that as we go, as we live our everyday lives, we make disciples along the way. 

As we are all on our own journey of following Jesus and living out our faith, we invite others to join us on that journey and to begin their own.

It begins with genuinely loving others and caring about them.  That has to be our motive. 

It needs to be about others and not about us.  About their good and truly living their best lives.  About their eternity and not ours.  About Who we know and not what we know.  About what we have freely received which we are freely offering.

It’s not about being right and proving others wrong.  It’s not a trap to catch people in.  It’s not a club to beat others up with.  It’s not a chasm to separate ourselves with from “sinners”.

The gospel is good news that brings us together.  It demolishes strongholds, heals hurts, delivers captives, encourages downtrodden, restores theft, unites division, and so much more!  It is so simplistic and yet so powerful!  It releases life and goodness and hope!

However, it can only do these things if it is shared.

Romans 10:13-17

13 everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

A famous quote of Charles Surgeon states that: “The gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it simply needs to be let out of its cage.”

We get to share the good news that reconciles people back with God!  God is forgiving all sin and not treating us as our sin deserves!  He is no longer holding them against us, but faithfully forgiving them as we confess them to Him and turn away from them!

We are the cage that contains the lion of the gospel and all that we are responsible to do is to let it out!

The results aren’t up to us, but letting people have an opportunity to respond to the gospel is up to us.  Some will believe it and be saved right away.  Some will hear it, but not believe it at a later time.  Some will not believe it ever.

God has chosen us to share this good news!  We don’t have to know it all, don’t need to have all the answers, and don’t need to be living it out perfectly to share it, either!  Our weaknesses and failures are a part of the gospel; the good news about Jesus!

We may not all be evangelists, but we’re all called to evangelize.  We may not all be preachers, but we all have a message to share.  We may not all be prophets, but we can all prophecy.  We may not all be apostles, but we are all sent to reach someone.

Together, we’re going to learn some tools that we can use to share our faith with others; to seek and save the lost.

Sharing the gospel doesn’t have to be awkward or uncomfortable or confrontational at all.  In fact, Jesus most often used parables to explain the Kingdom of God, the character and nature of God, and the ways of God.  He spoke of things completely relatable to the everyday person and taught spiritual revelation through them.

We’ll dive into some of the easy and natural ways to do this later.  Today, we’re going to start with the simplicity and solid foundation of God’s word, itself.  It’s an evangelism tool known as the Roman’s Road.

It’s called this because it uses just a few simple verses from the book of Romans to walk us from being lost to saved.  It’s a simple way to explain from God’s word our sinful condition and how to be saved from it.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (everyone, ourselves included)

Romans 6:23a “The wages of sin is death.” (physically and we are also born dead spiritually)

Romans 6:23b “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:8  “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Jesus never sinned, but paid the price for sin through His death – the penalty we owe)

Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:13 “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (born again spiritually through simple faith)

Pray and ask Jesus to save you.

What is the result?

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

To use this evangelism tool, it’s not important that we have the scriptures or referenced memorized.  Most people who aren’t saved won’t understand what we even mean by quoting a book, chapter, and verse.  The important thing is the meaning and the message.

All of us are born into sin.

The penalty for sin is death.

Jesus was not born into sin and never chose to sin.

Jesus gave His sinless life as a payment for our sin.

Everyone who calls out in faith to Jesus to save them are saved; born again.

It’s the simplicity and beauty and power of the gospel.

Why do we share this good news?  Because of what it has done for us.  We are so amazed by what God has done in our own lives that we are compelled to share it with others!

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Join us next week as we learn another way to share our faith.

The post ShareIt: Roman’s Road appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.