How to Share Christ with Someone (Part 2 of 4)

There is no fail-safe textbook one-size-fits-all approach to sharing our faith. Circumstances and personalities will affect each encounter. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg offers six helpful guidelines and shares his personal approach to connecting with others in order to talk about Jesus.

We're continuing a series titled Crossing the Barriers. Concerning the whole business of personal evangelism, myth number one was that it takes a certain kind of person, and either that person is me, because I'm really good, or that person isn't me, because I'm no good. And we discovered that it doesn't actually take a certain kind of person. Secondly, that you need to be a walking Bible dictionary before you can even start. Or thirdly, that we're personally responsible to speak to everyone in the universe.

All of those are myths which inhibit effectiveness in personal evangelism. We were then about to go on to deal with some important guidelines, which will not be news to us, but I share them this evening by means of reaffirmation, which of course has largely been the case throughout our studies so far. Guideline number one, be natural.

Be natural. Now, we are all made differently. And as we said last time, some of us are more introverted than others, and some of us are certainly more extrovert than others. God is not taken by surprise by our human personality.

Indeed, he designed it. And for some of us, to become very effervescent is to become very unnatural. For some of us, to endeavor to be rather quiet characters is also unnatural. Therefore, we must beware of pressing one another into a mode of operation which is perhaps very familiar and easy for us, but may not be the natural process for someone else. So much so that when we seek to move conversation from what we might refer to as ordinary talk to spiritual matters, it should never involve any dramatic change in our tone of voice, nor in our terminology. Well, it may never happen to you. It always happens to the person next door.

But believe me, it happens. I've lost count of the number of times I've been embarrassed by myself, first of all, as I catch myself immediately springing into conservative evangelical jargon. Guideline number one, if we're going to ever get to grips with sharing our faith, we need to be natural.

And saying Bible words is not necessarily synonymous with communicating Bible truth. Second guideline, we should not only be natural, but we should be listening. Be listening.

Again, this is hard for some of us, harder than for others. But we need to be listening. It's, you see, when we listen that we find out what worries our friends and our neighbors. It's when we listen we find out what interests them, what convictions they have, what beliefs they share, what standards they live by, what kind of background they're from, what they believe is important in bringing up their children. And as simple and obvious as it may seem, one of the reasons that many of us falter in our zeal to communicate our faith is not simply as a result of being unnatural, but it is as a result of being unwilling to listen.

So be natural, be listening. Thirdly, be vulnerable. Be vulnerable. The first way in which I mean to use the word vulnerable tonight is be vulnerable enough to get out of your Christian clique, or your Christian clique, as you call it here. But to get out of the gang.

Vulnerability creates opportunity with unexpected parties. And there is a sense in which I think in John 4 you see such vulnerability, even in the experience of Jesus, in his preparedness to sit by the well at Sychar, as it's described for us in verse 5 and 6, and lets his buddies go off into the town to get some food. I'm sure one of them probably said, do you want me to stay with you, Jesus? Do you want somebody to talk to? I'm sure it might have been nice, although he was probably tired of answering all their questions, so he said, no, just go get the food, would you?

That's fine. I'll be fine here on my own. And it was because he was there just on his own, vulnerable in one dimension, that the opportunity for conversation emerged with a lady who came to draw water at an interesting time of day, because she had an interesting kind of life. So he made himself vulnerable, and he made himself available. Have you ever thought how many of your non-Christian friends may be itching for an opportunity to ask you a question, but they can't get near to you, because you always sit with the same group around the same table in the university refectory?

You see, if our non-Christian friends in the office or whatever it is, you know, if the way we believe we're going to witness to them is to go in a corner on the building site with the biggest Bible we can find and stand up and quote it out into the air from the 43rd story or something, that's fine, maybe God has ordained that that would be true for you, but it's highly unlikely that that's the pattern that he wants to develop in your experience. Be natural, be listening, be vulnerable. Fourthly, be brave.

Paul had to remind Timothy as a young man of the resources that were his—you get this in 2 Timothy 1, 7, and 8—which would enable him to overcome his natural timidity. Which of us tonight isn't actually a bit scared to launch into the whole matter? I'm scared. I'm always scared when I speak in public. I'm scared, especially if I have to speak in the open air, and I'm scared to get started. And I need to stir myself up. I need to be brave. I need to talk to myself as the opportunity comes, and then it almost goes, and then it seems like it's coming back again, and you play that mind game in your head, and inside you're saying, Go on, beg, say something! Don't be a coward!

The door's wide open. Indeed, Paul also, when he writes to the Philippians, he tells the Philippians of those who have been, quote, encouraged to speak the Word of God more courageously and fearlessly. Philippians 1.14, when he's talking about what has happened to him in being imprisoned in Rome, and he says, As a result of my imprisonment, others have been encouraged to speak the Word of God more boldly and more fearlessly. Which, of course, presupposes the fact that there was a time when they weren't prepared to be that bold and that fearless.

And that's true of us as well. We need to be brave enough to initiate the conversation even when we don't know where it's going to go. So often people say to me, I'm frightened to start a conversation because I don't know where it's going to go. Well, tell me any conversation you know where it's going to go before you start it. You can always stop it. You can always say, I don't know what to say next. Or you can always say, can we have this conversation later?

I need to go to buy a dog or something. I mean, you don't have to think that you're going to go through the whole of your Thompson Chain reference Bible or something, just because the conversation started. But you need to be brave. When Jesus initiated the conversation as well—being natural, being prepared to listen, being vulnerable, being brave—you say, Well, wait a minute, you're not going to say Jesus was brave? Yeah, Jesus was brave. Why was he brave? He was brave enough to talk to a lady when it wasn't normal to talk to ladies. He was brave enough to talk to a lady who didn't come from the same religious background as he when people from his religious background never spoke to those kind of people. And he was brave enough to begin by making himself vulnerable, laying himself open to the possibility that she would say, No, get out of here, when he said, Excuse me, do you think I could have a drink of water, please?

No big deal. Very straightforward. And so the conversation went. Fifthly, be imaginative.

Be imaginative. In both leading into a conversation concerning Christ and going through a presentation of the gospel, we need to be alert to the immediate circumstances that present themselves. So we need to constantly be imaginative in the way we're looking for opportunities to speak.

Not that we're constantly waiting for the slightest crack in the door to open, and then bam, in we come with our latest potted version of the gospel. But that we are seizing the opportunities to bring to bear subtly and helpfully and honestly, and with integrity, the view of Christianity of our world today. So for example, if the issue is the question of war, which it may well be this week on a number of occasions, it at least provides us with a possibility that in beginning that conversation, we may get the chance to speak concerning the nature of real peace. If the question is about sport, it at least makes it possible that we will be able to talk about having a goal in life. If someone volunteers the fact that they are stressed out or that they are anxious or that they can't cope, we may well be opening the door of opportunity to speak concerning security and lasting peace found in Jesus Christ.

It would be unimaginative for us to use the same lead-in every time. For example, as much as we may use John 4 as an excellent pattern, which of course it is in the experience of Jesus, none of us, I'm sure, would think that Jesus began all of his gospel presentations by asking the question, Could I have a drink of water, please? You go into the guy at the gas station, and you say, Could I have a drink of water, please? And half the time, the people don't know what in the world your problem is. And of course, it may not be, Could I have a drink of water?

But you may have a start that you think is a real surefire winner and has a crackpot approach. Now, Jesus, when he addressed the lady, established common ground. The well was there, the water was there, it was a hot day, therefore it was natural to say, Any chance of a drink of water?

And he didn't go very long before he introduced her to the matter of eternal life and the issues which stood in the way of its enjoyment. So all I'm just saying is be imaginative. And sixthly, be direct. Be direct.

There's no doubt that not every conversation will yield the opportunity for a clear and concise presentation of the gospel. However, when it does, we need to be ready to seize it. And in order that we're ready to seize it, it's important that we have some methodology. Remember that no method is a method. Some people are just reactionary to methodology.

It's just their way. Oh, I don't have a methodology. Oh, I see. So your method is no method. Oh, yeah, I guess I never thought about it that way.

All right? So I mean, if your approaches are kind of a shotgun approach, haphazard, fire off truths all over the place and hope that some of them stick, that's okay if that's how you feel by virtue of your personality. And knowing some of you, that's probably just the best way for you to go, you know?

I mean, just go at it, higgledy-piggledy, all over the place. It's not unusual for me to approach things in that way, and so I certainly wouldn't want to chastise anybody else for it. But over the years, my personal approach has moved many different directions, and if I can just share a word of testimony in relation to this, it may prove helpful to some. As I told you last Sunday evening, I was brought up on the four spiritual laws.

Or if I didn't admit to that, confess that, I'm confessing it now. And so I learned them off by heart. The whole book. Did you know—do you have a couple minutes?

Yeah, it depends what's on your mind. Well, have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws? What? Well, let me tell you about them. What? I'm gonna tell you about them. Would you be quiet, please? Did you know that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?

Look at this booklet here. See? God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son. Do you ever think about that, huh?

And so on, all the way through. Law number two, man is sinful and he's separated from God, therefore he cannot know God's wonderful plan for his life. Law number three, Jesus Christ is God's provision for the sinful state of man so that he can discover God's wonderful plan for his life.

Law number four, we must individually receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, otherwise we will remain strangers to this wonderful plan. Bam! Okay? I used to do it with the orange book. All the time.

Orange books coming out of everywhere. I learned it in England, and I learned to do it in Dallas. Dallas, Texas. A wee skinny Scotsman with his hair hanging all down his neck, running around Dallas, going, Have you heard of the four spiritual laws? And I was there. I was there, and I'll never forget it.

All the thousands of us blitzing the place. We witnessed to statues, we witnessed to everything. The four spiritual laws. Then I grew away from the booklet. Actually, I ran out of booklets.

That's the truth. So what do you do when you've got no booklets? You're going to have to write it down. So then I became a napkin writer, and I would write on napkins.

I write on British Rail napkins mainly. And I would say, instead of going, Have you heard of the four spiritual laws? I'd say—we'd start talking about Christianity—I'd say, You know, basically, I've narrowed it down to about four simple things that, you know, I could mention to you if you were interested. Why don't I mention it to you right now?

Did you know? And then I'd go into it from there. Over the years, I've gone different ways, and basically now, I try and tailor-make any presentation to the individual just being imaginative from where they begin. But no matter how I go at it, these three truths I want to convey if I get the chance to concisely get it across. One, the bad news of man's condition.

Two, the good news of God's provision. And three, the necessity of a personal response. I might say something along these lines. You know, one of the things I find such a pity is this, that so many people have rejected Christianity without ever having understood what it is.

Okay? The person may respond, and often does, Well, I suppose Christianity means different things to different people. And whatever it means to the individual is probably fine. Well, I say, that, I suppose, is one way of looking at it, but there is a further question, and that is, What does Jesus Christ say about Christianity, irrespective of what I might think about it or what you might think about it? Have you ever really thought about what Jesus came to say and what he came to do?

Well, no, I never really have. And then I would go in, and I'd hit these four things. Number one, the human condition. The human condition.

Just start where people are. Talk about loneliness, fear, greed, hate, rebellion, disillusionment, fractured families, teenage suicide, childcare abuse, cruelty, and you're only on page three of the morning newspaper, right? I mean, you haven't had to reach. You haven't said one thing that's alien to these people. Here is the condition of man. Okay? We agree about it. Contemporary explanations as to what man's condition is and why his condition is this are rather hollow, and those who seek to find answers down those streets find them to be cul-de-sacs. So we can agree together, this individual and I, that whatever else is true, things are kind of messed up. That's the human condition. They're not all messed up. There's some light at the end of the tunnel, which is a train coming in the other direction.

There are some things to look forward to. But what is the explanation? Why is man like this? Is it due to microbes? Is it due to environment?

Is it due to schooling? What is it? And of course, our question is, what does the Bible have to say about it? Because we've already said that what we wanted to do was to discover about what the Bible had to say about Jesus and what Jesus had to say about Jesus.

So man's condition is messed up. What's the Bible's diagnosis? Now, this is where it's very, very important to have your Bible with you. Again, not a big, thundering Bible like this. Just a wee Bible. Maybe even a New Testament.

Just one that'll fit in your pocket. And it's far more successful instead of just quoting your favorite verses at people, because they don't understand what in the world you're on about. I've discovered to take the New Testament and open it up and say to somebody, look at what this guy said. And before you look at what this guy said, do you remember that guy Saul of Tarsus? And then a person may say, well, what was that, a rock band or something?

You know, or, you know, they don't know what to do with it. So, you may have to back up, do a little bit of history of the early centuries and everything else, but hopefully not too much. And you tell him, this was a guy who was kicking Christian tales all around the known universe, and all of a sudden his life got turned around. And listen to what he said.

In fact, look at what he said. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That as much as we don't like the explanation, or as much as the word may stick in our throats, what the Bible says is that the diagnosis for the human condition can ultimately be traced to a three-letter word with an I in the middle.

And I might say it's not significant that the I is in the middle. And then I might tell them about the correspondence in The Times of London some years ago, where they ran an editorial under the heading, What's Wrong with the World Today? And people wrote back all kinds of long answers. And then I'd tell them what Chesterton wrote.

Dear sir, what's wrong with the world today? I am, your sincerely, G. K. Chesterton. And then I would talk to the individual about the nature of sin, about missing the mark, about blotting the page, about crossing the lines, about breaking the limits. And say, you know, whether we accept it or not, the Bible's explanation is right here. That the condition that we face tonight may be traced to a root cause, which is a terminal disease, namely sin.

Well, the person may be really uncomfortable and want to stop the conversation at that point, in which case it might be wise to do so. But then the men say, they may go on to say, Well, you know, I recognize that I haven't done everything, but, you know, I haven't really done anybody any harm. John Blanchard of the Layman's Conference said, You know, you speak to people, and they always say, I haven't done anybody any harm.

He said, I haven't ever met anybody who's done anybody any harm. So I want to know who in the world did the harm to everybody. The fact of the matter is, we have done things that are harmful to others. So that what we want to communicate to them is that sin is the problem, and sin has consequences. Since we started with old Saul of Tarsus, we'll tell him, Look at what else he said. Romans 6 23. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now we say to them, That might seem like double dutch to you, but here's the bottom line. Sin has consequences. The consequences are all around us to see. The consequences are ultimately in our alienation from God.

Now, it's at that point we need to remember our study of a few weeks ago. What's God's part? What's my part? Because now that we've started to talk about sin, and now that our friends have begun to feel perhaps uncomfortable and are ready to blow us off, we may feel duty bound to convict them of sin. And that's not our part.

That's God's part. So we may sufficiently read the text, or explain the text, answer questions about the text, and then hopefully be able to go on, as we will do next time, to address the question, If our condition is messed up, and the diagnosis is clear, what is the remedy to the problem? And hopefully next time I can be more concise, and take a little more time, and get through all of this. But in the meantime, I hope you'll have a happy week, and a good adventure in the realm of sharing your faith. You're listening to Truth for Life, and that is Alistair Begg with some practical tips on how we can more effectively share our faith. To go along with our current series on evangelism, we want to encourage you to request a book called Before You Share Your Faith.

As Alistair mentioned, one of the biggest hurdles we often need to overcome when we're talking to others about Jesus is our own self-doubt, our own reluctance. This is a small paperback book. It's a quick read. It provides a handful of very practical tips that can help you talk with others about Jesus, and do it with confidence. Request your copy of the book Before You Share Your Faith when you make a donation today. Your financial support goes directly to the distribution of all of Alistair's teaching, and also toward the online teaching library that is entirely free to access and to share.

You can give a one-time gift at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can arrange to set up an automatic monthly donation when you visit truthforlife.org slash truthpartner, or when you call us at 888-588-7884. And by the way, you can purchase extra copies of the book Before You Share Your Faith for just three dollars while supplies last. This is an excellent book to read with others so you can prepare to evangelize together. In fact, I found this book so helpful that I passed out copies to everyone in our congregation and then challenged them to read it and share the Gospel with someone. I want to encourage you to do the same thing. You'll find the books in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll get down to the nitty-gritty of sharing the Gospel and learn key points that must be included regardless of your personal style or methodology. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.