Sharing the gospel

Come and see

A witness is someone who tells what they have seen and heard. Whoever has believed the gospel, the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ, becomes a witness to it. When Andrew met Jesus, "he first found his brother Simon and told him, 'We have found the Messiah'" (John 1:41), and brought him to Jesus. Messiah is a Hebrew word for the Anointed One, the Saviour and King whom God had promised; Christ is the same word in Greek. The next day Philip did not argue with the doubting Nathanael. "Come and see," he said (John 1:46).

John Chrysostom, a great preacher of the late fourth century, writes: "Andrew kept not our Lord's words to himself; but ran in haste to his brother, to report the good tidings" Chrysostom.

A Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well went back into her town and said, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did" (John 4:29). All she did was tell what Jesus had done for her. Many believed because of her testimony (John 4:39), and once they had heard him themselves they said, "we know that this man truly is the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). We bring people to Jesus; he meets them himself.

After he rose from the dead, Jesus sent out his disciples, those who learn from him and follow him:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

Matthew 28:19-20

Baptism is the washing with water that marks a person as Christ's, and the Holy Spirit is God, one with the Father and the Son. Jesus promised, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses" (Acts 1:8). Pastors are given to the church, Christ's people gathered together, to preach, explaining Scripture when the church meets, but every believer is a witness to Christ.

God gives the growth

But what if I am not good with words? And if someone does not believe, is it my fault? Paul writes, "I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow" (1 Corinthians 3:6). God gives faith by letting people hear the gospel: "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). See also What about those who never heard?

The Reformed churches grew from the sixteenth-century Reformation, a movement to renew the church by Scripture, in the line of teachers such as John Calvin. Presbyterians are the best known; the Reformed churches of continental Europe are another branch, and among Baptists the Reformed Baptists confess the same faith. Their confessions, written statements of what a church believes, teach that salvation is God's grace, his kindness to people who have not deserved it, from first to last. Some ask: if God brings people to faith, why tell anyone? The Canons of Dort (1619) answer the other way. Speaking of the gospel's promise, that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall have everlasting life, they say:

This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.

Canons of Dort, 2.5

‘Promiscuously’ here means indiscriminately: to everyone, without picking and choosing. To repent is to turn from sin towards God. The Canons also confess that ‘As many as are called by the gospel are unfeignedly called’ 3/4.8: God sincerely wants those who hear to come. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, a catechism that teaches by questions and answers, says that the Spirit of God makes ‘the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners’ Q. 89.

So God's grace is the hope of evangelism, the telling of the gospel to others, and not its brake. Because opening hearts does not depend on my skill, I can speak without fear. The Reformed course teaches this at length in The five heads of Dort. The churches that follow John Wesley's teaching, Methodists and Holiness churches among them, explain it differently: God gives grace beforehand to every person, so that all are enabled to respond to the gospel. Yet they too hold that faith comes by God's grace, and through the gospel being told.

Paul says "we are ambassadors for Christ", carrying a king's message, and the message is an invitation: "Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). A life carries it too. One reason we do good, says the Heidelberg Catechism, is that ‘by our godly walk’ we may win our neighbours to Christ Q. 86. Our light is to shine so that others "may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

With gentleness and respect

But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect

1 Peter 3:15

To sanctify Christ as Lord is to honour him as the holy Lord of your life. So there is no place in sharing the gospel for pressure, manipulation or tricks. Faith cannot be forced; the Holy Spirit works it. Let your speech be "gracious, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6). When you are asked something you cannot answer, you do not need to pretend. Say honestly: I don't know, but I'll find out and come back to you.

Your own story is a good place to start: what you were like before, how you came to know Christ, and what has changed since. Tell it in a few sentences, without dressing it up. You can invite a friend to church, or to read a Gospel with you.

Churches go about this in different ways. Many Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal churches invite those who have decided to believe to come forward at the end of a meeting, and pray with them; many churches visit their neighbours with the gospel. Many Reformed churches have no separate invitation, but call people to repent and believe within the preaching itself. Anglican, Orthodox and Catholic churches, whose worship follows a set order and set prayers, treasure that worship, the church coming before God together, and their members' love of neighbour as a witness to the gospel.

In 1974, at Lausanne in Switzerland, evangelicals from many churches, Christians who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, put out the Lausanne Covenant. It holds that evangelism and social responsibility, the care of our neighbours, both belong to Christian duty, and among the church's many kinds of service it gives evangelism first place The Lausanne Covenant. The theology course tells its story in Evangelicalism and world mission.

The course ends with the question Jesus asked his disciples:

"But what about you?" Jesus asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:15-16

Whoever has answered that question in faith now tells the answer to others. That is what sharing the gospel is.

This week

Pray for three people by name. Think of three people, among your family, friends, neighbours or colleagues, who do not yet know Christ. Pray for them by name each day: for their needs, and that they may come to know him.

Give one of them Mark's Gospel. Churches and Christian bookshops often have Mark's Gospel on its own as a small booklet. One sentence is enough: This book changed how I see things; would you like to read it? Then go back to the first lesson and read again the gospel you believed.

Practice