CHRISTIAN GROWTH CYCLE: 2.4

SERVING
CHRIST'S MISSION

Tim Britton

INTRODUCTION

Jesus was very conscious that he was sent by God – he had come on a mission.  That mission was to save the world, starting with humanity.  When we become Christians we are saved – saved from sin and death, saved for God, saved to serve him for ever, saved to be his beloved and honoured children for ever.  We are united to Jesus, we are ‘members of his body’, we are his representatives on earth.  So Jesus told his disciples, ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you… Receive the Holy Spirit.’ (John 20:21,22.)   ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:18-20.)

Our mission therefore is above all to bring the good news of Jesus to every corner of the globe and every aspect of human society, so that people may be saved and become Jesus’ disciples, learning from him how to live God’s way.  At the heart of this is ‘evangelism’, which simply means sharing the good news.  We will look first at why evangelism is so important, and then at how we can do it.

CHAPTER 1:  WHY DO EVANGELISM? 

	John 3:16 summarizes the good news: ‘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.’  Notice carefully what this verse is saying.

	First, it talks about God’s love for the world.  Even non-believers know that Christians talk about God’s love.  ‘If God is supposed to be so loving, how come he lets all this evil happen?’  They cannot square the evil they see with the idea that God is loving, so they refuse to believe in God.  Other religions don’t have this problem.  They don’t know about the love of God in the same way that Christians do.  Many believe in a god or gods who needs to be placated all the time; you don’t really want to get close to a god like that.  But the Bible reveals God to be a God of love, and the extent and measure of that love is seen here in this verse.  Its extent is world-wide: God so loved ‘the world’.  But what a world!  It’s the same world we see today, with all its wars and ugliness, as well as its beauty.  The world of today is not so wholly different from the world that God looked at in the time of Noah, and was so grieved that he said, ‘Enough, let’s start again’.  Yet this world is the world that God loves.  The measure of his love is seen by the fact that he gave his one and only Son for it.  Note that word, ‘Gave’.  It does not say ‘Sent’, though it could easily have done so, for Jesus told us that the Father did send him.  But here it says, ‘Gave’.  That emphasizes the cost to God.   God gave his one and only Son, the one and only Son of God, to become part of this sinful world and to give up his life for it. God gave up the best he had.  He could not have given himself: the death of God would have been the end of everything.  Yet he was prepared to give the best he had, his one and only Son, because he loved this sinful world so much.

	What exactly did God give his Son for?  What could possibly be worth such a terrible price?  This verse tells us.  Jesus came to save people from ‘perishing’, and to give them instead ‘eternal life’.  What is this ‘perishing’, and what is this ‘eternal life’?  We talk about rubber perishing, when it loses its rubberiness and decomposes.  Its structure has been destroyed.  When the Bible talks about people perishing, it is because that is the effect sin has: sin separates us from God, and from his life-giving power, and ends up destroying us.  As Romans 6:23 puts it, ‘The wages of sin is death’.  When we do what is wrong, we are turning our backs on God who is the source of life and love and everything good.  Everyone can choose good or evil, and everyone chooses both.  The problem is that a life which is a mixture of good and evil is not compatible with God who is wholly good.  God cannot accept or ignore evil – that is against his nature.  Evil has to be cast out of his presence, and condemned to destruction – and that means that if we hold on to sin, we too perish.  What is the remedy?  It is easy to say, ‘Let go of sin, and you won’t perish’.  But sin is like some of those industrial glues that just won’t let go of you, however hard you try to let go of it!  It is as the Bible says in Romans 3:23, ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’.

	We need to be very clear about this.  People in this world are in terrible danger.  God created us to live in his love and to reflect the beauty of his character, but we all have gone wrong, and at various times and in various ways have chosen to go our own way rather than his.  God’s creation has been spoilt by sin, and is no longer compatible with God; it is therefore under sentence of destruction.  There is no way out; God needs to start again, with a new creation.  God could easily just decide enough is enough, and bring the universe to a full stop and start again from scratch.  But that is not his plan.  His plan is not to create the new order out of nothing, but to create the new order out of the old order, transforming the old creation into a new one.  He wants us to be part of that; but for that to happen we need to be made new, we need to be born again, we need to become a new creation.  Unless that happens, we stay part of the old order, and remain under the sentence of ultimate destruction.  Unless we are saved, we will perish.   

	What exactly will happen to those who perish is open to question.   The word translated ‘hell’ in the Bible is the word Gehenna, which was the name of a valley outside Jerusalem which in times past had been used for child sacrifice, and had been turned into a rubbish tip like those you see outside some third world cities today – with fires burning continuously, maggots, stench, a terrible place.  The name was given to the idea of hell fire, the place of eternal punishment.  When the Bible talks about it, it is in picture language; but it is language about something that is real.  What is uncertain is whether the eternal punishment means that those who are condemned on the day of Judgement will spend eternity separated from everything associated with the God they reject – far from happiness, peace, love, comfort – or whether they will get thrown on the rubbish pit, so to speak, and eventually cease to exist.  Either way, it is a horrible picture, and we would not presume to talk about it were it not for the fact that Jesus is so clear about its existence, and the danger of choosing hell as a final destination.

	How can we be saved?  This verse again makes it clear: everyone who believes in Jesus shall not perish, but have eternal life.  God does not force people into the new creation.  If we do not want to allow the God of love full authority over every part of our lives are not forced to do so.  We are given freedom to choose; and we are responsible for the choices we make.  If God were to treat us in any other way, he would be dehumanizing us – and he wants us to be fully human.  So he offers his only Son Jesus, as the way to come back to him.  If we choose to accept that Jesus really is the Son of God, and that through him we can be forgiven all that separates us from God, and given new and eternal life, then we will not perish;  we will receive what God promises.  It is our choice.  Belief in Jesus isn’t a matter of having all the answers to all our questions.   All belief is ultimately about decisions rather than knowledge.   Belief in Jesus is a matter of knowing enough about Jesus to make the decision to believe in him and to commit ourselves wholly to him. 

	Salvation is part of a process.  If a ship is sinking at sea, rescue is not instantaneous; someone picks up the may-day signal and alerts the coastguards who then co-ordinate the air-sea rescue and life-boat services, and it can be some time before everyone is safe.  So it is with the Christian life.  There is a process, a spiritual journey, involved.  We don't believe in Jesus instantaneously, without any knowledge.   For most people today, they first realize that there is a God, and then they discover that he is personal, and come to believe that he is good.  They then find out something about Jesus, and eventually discover what he did and why.  At some point they decide that they believe the basic facts about him; and then decide to make a commitment to him.  That is not the end; that is the beginning of the Christian life.  They then learn about following him, and their relationship grows as they get to know him better and discover what it means to have Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour in every aspect of their lives.  The journey doesn’t end in this life; the best is still to come, and goes on for ever!

	The details of the journey are different for each person.  Some parts of the journey may be covered very quickly.  So some people who have never heard of Jesus may hear about him, and see in him hope for the future, and commit themselves to him almost immediately.  But many people take a long time, even years, to come to that point.  Those who have been brought up in Christian homes have different journeys from those who have no Christian background.  They learn the facts about God and Jesus from the cradle onwards, and it can be very difficult for them to know when it was that they first decided to follow Jesus.  Not that that is a problem; all of us have keep on deciding to follow Jesus, as he calls us to new and different, maybe difficult and painful, situations.

	How do people make progress on their journey?   God can and sometimes does reveal himself directly to people.  But most of us learn about God and are helped on the journey through other Christians – through books, talks, conversations, other people’s prayers, so many different things.  This is where evangelism comes in. The word evangelism comes from a Greek word that means ‘Good News’.  Evangelism is simply sharing the good news of Jesus to those who are not yet committed to him.  Those at the beginning of their journey are helped by discovering what Jesus taught about God’s love.  Those who know about Jesus may not know the good news of what he accomplished by his life, death and resurrection.  Those near the kingdom of God need to hear his call to commit themselves to him, in order to receive new life.  And the only way most people are going to hear this good news is from those closest to them, at work or at home or in their leisure activities.  Not many will come to church to hear, and the media gives a most distorted view.  They need to hear the good news from ordinary Christians, and to see the difference it makes in their lives.

	All of us are involved.   We can’t escape the responsibility to share the good news we ourselves have received.  If people know we are Christians they are watching us to see the effects of our faith, whether we like it or not.  If we want them not to perish, but to receive eternal life, we will pray that they will hear the good news of Jesus; and we will be ready to be the answer to our prayers if the opportunity comes our way.  How we can be ready to use those opportunities, we’ll see next time.

CHAPTER 2: HOW CAN WE EVANGELIZE – 1. 

	Evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  It is the particular responsibility of those who are first-hand witnesses of Jesus – those who can testify to what Jesus has done for them.  Who is that?  Every Christian, of course.  We all have a personal relationship with Jesus: we are committed to him, we follow him, we obey him, we trust him, we love him. And we all know what he has done for us – he has died for us, taking away all the guilt of all our wrong-doing, making sure there is nothing in the way of our relationship with God.  He has made us children of God.  He has given us eternal life, and we look forward to perfect happiness with God for ever.  We see that Jesus has given us peace with God, he’s given us a sense of belonging and hope and purpose.  We are all first-hand witnesses of  what Jesus has done for us.  What Jesus has done for us is GOOD NEWS!  And what he has done for us, he can do for anyone: this good news is for sharing.  Jesus is good news for every Christian; so every Christian has good news to share.  That’s evangelism.  Some people call it witnessing, but I believe they come to the same thing.  So let’s call it evangelism to avoid confusion.  Every Christian can do evangelism.

	Maybe you’ve heard of people called evangelists.  People like Billy Graham, or J John.  And you think, ‘I could never be like one of those people – nor would I want to be.’  Fortunately, only a very few Christians are called and equipped to have such a public ministry.  Every Christian can do evangelism, but some have a special gift.  I can cook, sort of; when I do, those who eat it receive some sort of nourishment.  I don’t say that cooking is my gift.  Some people do have a real gift of cooking.  But we don’t expect the gifted cooks to do all the cooking that needs to be done in the world – there would be mass starvation if we did.  And if we expect only evangelists to do evangelism, there will be mass spiritual starvation.  

	The fact is, each of us has a unique experience of Jesus, and each of us has a unique testimony to what Jesus has done for us, each of us has our own story to tell of what Jesus has done.   We don’t have to learn special methods of evangelism, we don’t have to become public speakers, we don’t have to pretend to be anything that we aren’t, we don’t have to go to strange places and do weird things.  All we have to do is to say what we’ve found, as and when natural opportunities arise.

	I heard a very good talk recently that said that the evangelism needs to be now, near, and natural.  We need to be ready to do evangelism now, because the opportunity to share good news about Jesus may come at any time.  We need to be ready to do evangelism near to where we are, because that is where most evangelistic opportunities arise.  Someone in the family or someone at work asks a question or makes a statement, and it is patently obvious to us that we can’t reply properly without saying something about Jesus.  And evangelism needs to be natural, because if it isn’t it ceases to be good news.  The good thing about that is that if evangelism is natural, any Christian can do it!

	In fact, there is nothing complicated about evangelism at all.   The best way to share the good news about Jesus is simply to talk about our own experience, and to talk about what Jesus did and why.  In other words, we tell our story and we tell Jesus’ story.  We probably won’t be able to tell both stories in full; but it may be appropriate at least to say something.  And the good thing about bearing witness for Jesus is that often what we have to say is helping our friend to build up a picture for themselves, and other witnesses will add more to the picture – just as in court, several witnesses can help the jury to form a more accurate impression of what went on

	There are many Christians who say, ‘I can’t be expected to share the good news of Jesus.  I don’t know all the answers!’  But witnesses aren’t expected to know all the answers.  They can only talk about their own experience.  When we are sharing the good news of Jesus, we do not try to win arguments.  Often people bring up problems.  Very often we have had to think about the problems that people raise for ourselves.  ‘Why does God let innocent people suffer?   If he is good and if he is all powerful, he should end all suffering.  I can’t believe in a God who is good and who is powerful, while I see all this suffering about.’  Who has never thought about that?  It may be that we have come up with answers that satisfy us, in which case by all means share them.  But most of us don’t know the answers to such questions – and yet we believe in Jesus.   Why?   Because what Jesus has done for us is now a matter of experience; it cannot be denied or taken away, not even by unanswered questions.

	So what do we do?  The most important thing is to pray for people.  Let me remind you of a previous suggestion: that each one of us think of our closest neighbours – say the three houses on each side, and six houses opposite – and start praying for them.  We pray for God’s blessing on them, we pray for any needs they may have, we pray that they may come to know Jesus, and we pray that God would give us opportunities to share his love with them.  We don’t have to confine ourselves to our neighbours.  We can have at two or three others on our prayer list whom we would like to see getting to know Jesus.  We can pray the same for them – that they may receive God’s blessing, that their needs would be met, and that God would give us opportunities to share his love with them.

	The next thing is to be prepared to serve the people we’re praying for – to do whatever we have opportunity to do.  It may be that all we can do is to be friendly.  It may be that God gives us the opportunity to do something special.  Be prepared to do whatever seems right at the time.

	We also need to be prepared to share our stories with them – our own story, and Jesus’ story.  We’ll think about Jesus’ story next time; but for now, we’ll think about our own story.

	Each of us has a unique story.  When we share it with someone who is not a Christian, we are not seeking to draw attention to ourselves, nor to win praise and admiration.  Most of us are ordinary people, and our stories are ordinary.  The stories we read about in books are written about because they are extraordinary, different from the rest of us; we mustn’t be put off by the fact that our story isn’t quite so exciting.  Our story is still worth telling, because it shows what Jesus has done for us.  The reason we tell it is to help people realize what Jesus can do for them too.  

	Many people have a story with four parts: they can tell what life was like before they met Jesus, how it was that they were introduced to him, how they made a commitment to him, and what life’s been like since.  Others of us can’t remember life without Jesus; but we can still talk about how our relationship with Jesus has grown.  Remember that our spiritual lives are like journeys, from an old world into a new world, from the kingdom of this life into the kingdom of God.  At some point we must have passed from one to the other; if we can remember that point then it’s easy to remember the journey before and after, and we can easily talk about life before and after, and how it was we came to the border and crossed over.  Others of us can remember only the more recent part of the journey.  We don’t have to give our whole life-story; the point is to share what is helpful, and it may be that in our conversation it would be only helpful to share some small part of our experience.

	It is actually a great confidence boost to have had the experience of telling our own story.  Most people benefit from writing it out beforehand; try doing so on the opposite page (or on half a sheet of A4).  In your cell group ask someone to listen to your story, and practise telling it, first with your notes, then without.

MY STORY

CHAPTER 3:  HOW CAN WE EVANGELIZE – 2 

	Last time we saw that evangelism was simply sharing the good news about Jesus, and that at all it need involve is telling two stories – the story of our own spiritual journey, and the story of Jesus.  This time we are looking at how to tell the story of Jesus.
	There are many people nowadays who do not know the first thing about Jesus.  The good news of what he did can mean nothing to them unless they know something about him.  If we really want to help them get to know the basic facts about who he was and what he did, there are various options open to us.
	One option is to tell them ourselves.  The outline of his story is that Jesus was born in the land of Israel about 2000 years ago,  he learnt the trade of a carpenter, but when he was about 30 he started going around preaching to people.  What was remarkable was that his preaching and teaching seemed to his hearers to be coming direct from God.  More remarkably, he accompanied his teaching by healing people just by a touch or a word – so that soon crowds of people flocked to hear him and to see his miracles.  However, his teaching was too radical for the religious authorities; they eventually arrested him and trumped up some charges against him so that he would be crucified.  He died, and was buried in a stone tomb with a stone rolled in front; as a precaution against grave robbers the authorities set a guard.  That was on Friday; the next Sunday women went to the tomb and found the guards gone, the stone rolled away, the body gone, but the grave clothes still in place.  He had risen from the dead!   He appeared to his disciples many times during the next forty days; they touched him, ate with him, and listened to his teaching – they knew without doubt that he had passed through death to new life, a different life, one which death could no longer touch.  They saw him when he finally left this world to return to God, from whom he had come; and they concluded that he was one with God, he was God’s Son.
	Another option is to give them the Bible or a Gospel to read.  A third option is to give them a video, such as the Jesus video, or the cartoon the Miracle Maker.   We do whatever will help them get to know about Jesus.
	The bare facts of Jesus’ life are not enough.  We need also to share why he came, and especially why he died.  There are many ways of doing this, and you can choose whichever way you like, or develop your own way.  I will share two ways with you: the Bible verse way, and the bridge illustration.

	The Bible verse way is simply to share four Bible verses: 
John 3:16, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’  Emphasize who God is.
Romans 3:23, ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’  Emphasize the ‘all’, and explain what sin is – going our own way rather than God’s way – and the result: we fall short of God and therefore of heaven.
1 Peter 2:24, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.’  Explain that Jesus was the Son of God, who became a human being and died to take the punishment we deserve, to remove every barrier between us and God.
Revelation 3:20 ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them and they with me.’  Explain that we have to do something about it: believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
	That’s all.  You could use other verses, or you could use more verses: about God (1 John 4:16, 1 Peter 1:16,  2 Thessalonians 1:6), about us (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Isaiah 64:6), about Christ (John 1:1,14, 1 Peter 2:24, Ephesians 2:8,9), and about us again (John 1:12, 1 John 1:9, 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

	The bridge illustration says it in pictures (or objects – use whatever is available).  Look at the pictures on the next page:
The first picture shows us and God together.  God made us for himself, he loves us, and we are meant to be with him.
The second picture shows a gap between us and God.  We have gone our own way, and that is sin; and our sins separate us from God.
The third picture shows us looking for a way back to God.  People try to live good lives, they become religious, all sorts of things, but nothing we do can cross the gap of sin – we are unable by ourselves to live God’s way, nor can we make up for the wrong things we’ve done in the past.
The fourth picture shows that Jesus has made a way for us to come back to God.  He is God, God’s Son, and he became one of us; he died on a cross, and rose to life again, showing that his death had taken away every barrier between us and life and God.  If we trust him and follow him, our relationship with God is restored.
The fifth picture shows that we have to make a move.  We have to want to live with God, which means accepting his complete authority over us, accepting his love and his power within us through his Spirit whom he will give us.  The result will be eternal life with God, now and for ever.  To make the move and cross the bridge, all we have to do is to pray, and to say something like this:
	Lord Jesus, I am sorry for going my own way.  Please forgive me the things I have done wrong, especially…  (take a moment to think about anything on your conscience).  I now turn from everything I know is wrong.
	Thank you for coming to die on the cross for me, so that I could be forgiven and set free.  I believe you are the Son of God, and I ask you to come into my life.  I receive you as my Saviour, and trust you to free me from everything that holds me back from following you.  I receive you as my Lord, and promise to obey you to the best of my ability from now on.
	Thank you for promising to give me eternal life.  Please send your Spirit upon me, to live in me and to help me in my new life.  Amen.

	If the person whom you are sharing with is ready to ask Jesus into their lives, encourage them to pray that prayer or one like it.  Afterwards you will need to encourage them to continue their journey of faith, through doing an Alpha course, joining a cell group, and starting the Christian Growth Cycle.

	For now, practise telling the story of Jesus.  Use another half of the A4 paper to draw your own version of the bridge diagrams.  See if you can do  the bridge illustration using objects rather than pencil and paper.  (Try a couple of mugs for God and us, teaspoons for failed bridges, a knife for Christ.)