HOW DO YOU SHARE THE GOSPEL?

Recently I heard a local pastor in my area comment that when he was a youth he invited a friend to his church for a special program that was put on by his church geared towards the youth. The pastor then went on further to say his heart desired to see his friend come to Christ by accepting Jesus as his savior. The pastor then stated he was very reluctant though to invite his friend to his church/youth program because he felt the church he attended was very traditional/old school & felt that style of the church would be a deterrent/barrier for his friend to come to Jesus & accept him as savior & lord. Well, the pastor said that after the youth program was over his friend did accept Christ as his savior. But sadly he never came back to his church again because the style was so traditional & boring. From that moment on the pastor vowed that if he ever started a church, it would never be traditional. And he would incorporate a modern/welcoming atmosphere that will appeal to everyone.

This type of thinking is not at all unique to the pastor alone; there are millions of churches around the world (predominately in America) that adopt this mindset when it comes to evangelizing sinners. Many preachers & laymen believe that if Jesus is just presented clever enough in a more relatable non-threatening way, sinners will respond to the gospel & accept Jesus Christ as Lord & savior. Sadly this type of thinking is void of any spiritual reality, & fails to understand the fundamental truth of the gospel & what it means to be born again. To set the stage let's take a look at one of the most well-known chapters in the bible. John 3:1-8 states” There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This particular chapter in the Bible centers around a discussion Jesus is having with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Who happened to be a ruler of the Jews who secretly met with Jesus at night? Now if we look deeper into the story we can pick up on a few things happening here. 1) The Pharisees of Jesus day were considered to be His worst enemies. So here we have for the very first time recorded in scripture a Pharisee approaching Jesus alone having a sincere question about Him. Now the scripture says Jesus knew the hearts & thoughts of men during His earthly ministry. (See Luke 11:17 for reference) So when Nicodemus approached Jesus with his flattery words saying “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus didn’t respond to Nicodemus saying “aawh thank you! For the compliment, hey I try to obey God & help people in need”. No. But rather Jesus responds to the inner thoughts of Nicodemus. Basically, Jesus responds to what Nicodemus is thinking. In verse 3 Jesus ignores the flattery given him & sliced right down to the heart of Nicodemus issue. See Jesus knew the real reason Nicodemus approached him is that he was worried that he (Nicodemus) was not part of God’s kingdom. (This is known as the sinner's worry?) Nicodemus had reached the pinnacle of Judaism, but yet he still knew something was missing in his life.

Now here is the perfect time for Jesus to seal the deal & make the gospel more appealing. But yet Jesus opted out of doing that & simply told Nicodemus that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Of course, as we read the story Nicodemus was confused & thought Jesus was speaking of being born again through physical birth. Jesus then reminds him that He is referring to a spiritual re-birth. So the main point I’m driving at is Jesus is saying to Nicodemus something has to happen to you that you have no control over. Jesus purposely uses the analogy of giving birth to being born again. The reason Jesus chose this particular analogy is that He wanted Nicodemus to understand that in the same way he had no contribution to his physical birth, he also, in the same way, would have no contribution to his spiritual birth, both events is a total act of God. To make more sense of this point just imagine with me for a minute walking through a book store. And we stroll over to the baby book section & we both come across a book titled “How to be born”. I’m sure we would both be thinking the author is crazy for writing a book on teaching people how to be born.

The main point I’m trying to convey is God's sovereignty decides who He will choose to be born again spiritually & give eternal life to. To back this up John 6:44 in the bible states “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” This scripture strips us of any credit we’d like to take on our behalf for a person accepting Christ as Lord & savior. Now I do want to clarify that it doesn’t mean we don’t participate in leading someone to Christ. It just means we don’t have the power to convict the heart of a sinner to repent. So in essence it doesn’t matter how clever your marketing strategy is, or how stylish a church building may look & feel. None of that has any bearing on whether a sinner will accept Christ or desire to come to church & learn/study the word of God.