Christianity is known as a missionary religion. This means that a fundamental part of our faith in Christ is to tell others about him so that we may encourage and persuade them to also make a commitment to Jesus. This is the way in which we expand faith in Jesus to others. Romans 10:14 says, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
Each of us has a responsibility to tell others about Jesus in some way. That means that our families, friends, and work associates should know that we are Christians and that our chief aim in life is to live for Jesus and please him in all respects.
Do your family and friends know that you are a Christian? What do they think that means?
In this study we will learn the basics of sharing our faith in Christ and what happens in us as a result of sharing the good news about Jesus. We will look at:
- Why We Share Our Faith
- How We Share Our Faith, and
- The Results of Sharing our Faith
Many Christians are scared to talk about Jesus openly. But if we truly love the people we know then we will be compelled to try and talk to them about Jesus. Their eternal destiny depends upon us sharing God’s love with them.
What kind of commitment are you prepared to make to tell others about Jesus?
Why Do We Share Our Faith in Jesus?
God commands us to tell others about Jesus.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Part of the Christian life is to live in obedience to Jesus’ commands. Part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was to tell others about himself. He wanted people to know he was the Son of God and to believe in him. He has given us that same task of telling others about him.
Have you told others about Jesus yet? Make a short list of five people that you want to share Jesus with. Start praying for those five people today and everyday.
People are eternally lost without Jesus.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
“No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (I John 2:23).
“Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” (II John 9).
Jesus and the Apostles made it clear that the only way to gain eternal life is to have faith in Jesus Christ. No one who does not have Jesus will experience eternal life in Heaven with him. Therefore, sharing our faith in Jesus is a matter of life and death.
Look at your list of five people you want to talk with about Jesus. What is their eternal fate without Jesus? How does this motivate you to tell them about him?
Sharing our faith is an expression of our love for Jesus and of his love for others, expressed through us.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (II Corinthians 5:14-15).
The Bible’s greatest command is that we love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, and strength. This means that Jesus must become the center of our affections. If we truly are growing to love Jesus, then we will want to tell others about him. If we don’t want to tell others, then we have a love problem.
How much do you love the five people that are on your list? Are you ready to tell them about Jesus? If so, then let’s move to the next part of our study and learn how to actually share our faith.
How Do We Share Our Faith In Jesus?
We share the Bible’s testimony about who Jesus is.
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness…” (John 15:26-27).
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Telling others about Jesus means telling them about his work and identity. This means that we must tell people that God loves them, that Jesus is the only Son of God who died for them on the cross to pay the penalty for their sin, and that he rose from the dead, never to die again, and that they must receive him to gain eternal life. This is the most basic message about Jesus that everyone needs to hear.
What do the people on your list know about Jesus? What will you tell them?
We share the testimony about what God has done for us through Jesus.
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39).
Just as Jesus commanded the demon possessed man to tell others about what he did for him, so too we must tell others what Jesus has done for us. People must know that our lives are different because of Jesus.
Do the five people on your list know how your life has changed because of Jesus? Write out a three-minute testimony about your life since knowing Jesus. Include what your life was like before Jesus and how you life is different after receiving Jesus.
We live lives that demonstrate that Jesus has changed and saved us from our sin.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it…So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:1-2; 11-14).
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:17-5:2).
No one who has had a genuine experience with Jesus can continue to live their old lives of sin. A life in the process of transformation is the mark of a person who has been changed by Jesus.
Are there still sins in your life that you need to confess to God? Do that right now. Our lives are a powerful testimony of what Jesus can do for a person who comes to him.
Results of Sharing Our Faith In Jesus
The lost will come to a saving knowledge about Jesus.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).
Not everyone who hears about Jesus will receive him. But those that do will begin to experience a new life transformed by Jesus. They will move from simple knowledge about Jesus to obedience to Jesus. Believing in Jesus brings eternal life.
Pray for the five people on your list, that they would come to know Jesus the way you have. Then ask God to help you share the message of Jesus with them.
We will gain new brothers and sisters in the family of God.
“To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15).
“I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (II Corinthians 6:18).
The Bible refers to Christians as brothers and sisters. We gain a new kind of relationship when we come to Christ. We become adopted children in God’s family and all in God’s family become our brothers and sisters. When you lead someone to Christ you are welcoming them into your spiritual family.
Pray for the five people on your list, that they will become part of your spiritual family.
God will be pleased with our obedience in sharing his love with others.
“The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (II Timothy 2:24-26).
“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:15-16).
Telling others about Jesus is part of God’s plan for how we are to live our lives. God is pleased when we share his love and grace with others.
Are you ready to share your faith with the five people on your list? Now is the time to help lead your friends and loved ones to Christ. Pick the first person on your list. Make an appointment or pay that person a surprise visit. Then be prepared to look for natural opportunities to tell him or her about Jesus.
Someone you know may need to read this. Please share.