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Sharing the Gospel
Mark 16:15-16 — “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
How Should the Gospel be Presented to a Stranger?
The word Gospel means “good news”. It’s pretty important to understand that. The Bible is not a book that tells us what we have to do to earn salvation, it is a book that tells us what God did to earn our salvation. What he did was send Jesus. Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves and he paid for what we had done in his body on the cross. God created human beings and intended for them to be ruling creatures. We were supposed to be under God but over everything else. We were supposed to rule over creation under the guidance and authority of God’s Word and to function as conduits for all the blessings of heaven. That’s how it was supposed to be, but unfortunately, the Bible tells the story of how our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin by choosing to rebel against God’s Word in order to become autonomous ruling creatures. Basically, they wanted to be gods unto themselves, deciding good and evil. From that point on, humanity has been on a downward spiral moving further and further away from God and our original design and glory. The heart of the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus has come as God in the flesh and has obeyed God perfectly and has therefore won the right to all the blessings God originally intended to give to men and women. Furthermore, through his sacrificial death on the cross, he has paid the debt that we owed to God for disobeying his commands. There is therefore no need anymore for us to hide from God. In Jesus, we can come home and we can be restored. The climax of the Gospel is the great news that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where he now intercedes on our behalf. He gives the Holy Spirit to all his people and he slowly but surely, changes our hearts, reforms our desires and teaches us how to be the children of God we were always intended to be. For now, Jesus remains in heaven, changing the world one person at a time, but one day he will return and judge the world in righteousness. He will remove from this world all sin and all causes of sin and he will restore the cosmos to a state of peace, prosperity and flourishing and all those who have received him as their Lord and Savior will participate in his rule and enjoy his goodness forever.
Matthew 28:19-20 — “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.”
Defending The Faith
How is this done?
The first step in defending the faith is practicing what we preach.
The classic verse promoting apologetics (the defense of the Christian faith) is 1st Peter 3:15, which says that believers are to make a defense "for the hope that you have." The only way to do this effectively is to study the reasons why we believe what we believe.
1st Peter 3:15- but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
This will prepare us to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,” as Paul said we should.
2nd Corinthians 10:5- We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Having a strong defense can make for great offense!
Practice what you preach…..
Paul practiced what he preached; in fact, defending the faith was his regular activity:
Philippians 1:7- It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
He refers to apologetics as an aspect of his mission in the same passage (v.16). He also made apologetics a requirement for church leadership in Titus 1:9. Jude, an apostle of Jesus, wrote that "although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (v.3).
In Philippians 1:16, Paul says, “I am put here for the defense of the Gospel.” This implies that God placed Paul on this planet to be a defender of the Christian faith, which he was.
Note: Rational people naturally desire reasons before they believe something. God created humans to reason as part of His image (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 9:6). It is by reasoning that humans are distinguished from “brute beasts” (Jude 10). God calls upon His people to use reason ( Isaiah 1:18), to discern truth from error (1st John 4:6), and right from wrong (Hebrews 5:14). The primary standard of rationality is that it should cough up epistemological warrant for belief.
Norman Geiser quotes this from Apologetics:
“People rightly refuse to believe without evidence. Since God created humans as rational beings, He expects them to live rationally, to look before they leap.”
Those who oppose these clear biblical teachings and examples may say, “The Word of God does not need to be defended!” But which of the world’s writings are the Word of God? As soon as someone answers that, he is doing apologetics. Some claim that human reason cannot tell us anything about God, but that statement itself is a "reasonable" statement about God. If it’s not, then there is no reason to believe it.
None of this is to say that apologetics alone, apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit, can bring someone to saving faith. This creates a false dilemma in the minds of many. But it does not have to be “Spirit versus Logic.” Why not both? The Holy Spirit must move someone to a position of belief, but how He accomplishes this is up to Him. With some people, God uses trials; in others, it is an emotional experience; in others, it is through reason. God can use whatever means He wants. We, however, are commanded to use apologetics in as many or more places as we are told to preach the gospel.
We must defend the Bible!
An important thing to remember is that no one, no matter how persuasive, can force anyone to believe anything he doesn’t want to believe. No matter what the evidence, no matter what the argument, people will believe what they want to believe (Luke 12:54-56). Conviction is not a Christian’s job. The Holy Spirit convicts people (John 14:16-17), and they choose whether or not to believe. What we can do is present ourselves in a way that is as Christ-like as possible. It is sad that many atheists have read the entire Bible looking for ammunition against Christians, and that there are many Christians who have hardly read the Bible at all.
