Live Such Holy Lives

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1 Peter 2:12

Do you meet that standard? Do you live such a good life that even though people want to slander and attack your faith, they can’t find anything bad to say about you? Do you live such a good life that even those people who do falsely accuse you, over time have to admit that they were wrong?

Let me put it a different way. Do you live your life in such a way that your testimony about Jesus is believable? You see, how you live your life often determines whether or not people are willing to listen to what you have to say at all.

There are few things in life more frustrating than having to listen to someone who is just as clueless as you are explain to you what you ought to be doing. Have you ever had that experience? Someone who doesn’t know a lick about cars trying to tell you what they think is wrong with your car. Or someone who doesn’t know a lick about farming trying to tell you how to run your farm. Or someone who has never had a kid trying to tell you how to raise yours. Have you experienced that? No one likes that.

In the same way, people don’t want to listen to somebody tell them about God unless they’re first convinced that you know what you are talking about. And the way you convince them of that is by living such a good, holy, hope-filled life day after day after day that when the time comes, they want your opinion.

I hate to say it, but I think there are many believers who could go share Jesus with a friend right now, and it wouldn’t much matter... because those friends have seen how they live. They’ve seen that these Christians don’t live holy or hope-filled lives. Why would they listen to someone who claims to have the answer, but lives the same way they do? Nine times out of ten… they won’t. Very often, living a holy life when you think no one is watching, is the unseen but necessary preparation to being able to share the gospel effectively and reach people for Jesus.

So, let me encourage you to live in such a way that people are inclined to believe you when you share the gospel with them. Adorn the gospel with your life! That is what we are called to do, to live such holy lives that they give us opportunities to share the gospel and that they render what we share believable. Do that!

Be Prepared

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...

1 Peter 3:15–16

If someone were to notice your Christian character, if they were to sense the presence of God in your life… and they were to ask how they could become like you, how they could be saved… would you be ready to give an answer? Are you prepared (right now) to lead someone to Jesus?

You can’t wait until you get the opportunity to try to prepare. It’s too late to get ready then! You must prepare ahead of time. The Bible commands you to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” And the best way for you to be prepared to share your faith is for you to memorize a gospel presentation that you feel comfortable with.

So, I’m going to teach you the Romans Road Gospel Presentation with the ABC’s of becoming a Christian tacked on at the end. I want to encourage you to memorize this or some other gospel presentation and go over it again and again until you ar ready to lead someone to the Lord. 

“There is no one righteous, not even one..." (Romans 3:10)

 

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." (Romans 3:23)

The Bible teaches that we are all sinners. Every single one of us has rebelled against God and His commands. We have all gone our own way. This is called sin, and sin has consequences.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

The wages (or result) of sin is death… physical death in this life and spiritual death in the afterlife. The Bible clearly teaches that sin earns us eternal separation from God in a place called Hell.

But because of His great love, God made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins. Instead of death, He offers you life… eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Because God is just, our sin had to be punished. Because God is loving, He took the punishment for our sin on Himself. He sent His Son Jesus to take on flesh. He was fully God and fully man. He lived a perfect, sinless life. The only man to ever do that. And He became the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty and die the death that your sin required on the cross. Jesus did that… for you and for me so that anyone who repents of their sin and believes on Him will be saved.

But Jesus didn’t just die, the Bible tells us that on the third day after His death, Jesus was raised back to life. By His death and resurrection Jesus beat the power of sin and death for us so we can be set free from both. And Romans 10:9 tells us exactly how to receive this gift of eternal life that God offers us in Jesus.

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

That’s what it takes to be a Christian. It’s as easy as ABC.

A- Admit you’re a sinner. Repent of your sins. Ask God to forgive you and start obeying His commands.

B- Believe in Jesus. Believe that He really is God’s Son, that He took on flesh and lived a perfect sinless life and died on the cross to take your punishment. Believe that He was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended to Heaven where He’s preparing a place for us to spend eternity with Him.

C- Confess Jesus as Lord. Surrender control of your life to Him. Become His servant and make Him your Lord. 

That’s how you become a Christian. If you are a Christian already, then learn this. Memorize it. Go over and over it again and again until you’re comfortable with it and can share it easily.

And if you aren’t a Christian… if you have never made Jesus Lord of your life… or if you aren’t sure that you have, then make today the day you draw a line in the sand and pray a clear prayer of salvation admitting your sins, placing your faith in Jesus and making Him Lord of your life. 

Go & Tell What He Has Done

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Psalm 96:3–5

We don’t often think of praise as a form of evangelism... but it is. You can tell others about the Lord simply by praising Him publicly. And there’s actually quite a lot about this in the Bible. 

As we read above, Psalm 96 commands us to glorify God among the nations and to tell all peoples of His wonderful deeds. And the reason for this command is given in verses four and five. It's because God deserves to be praised by all peoples everywhere, but they aren’t praising Him.

John Piper says that the reason missions exists is because worship does not.* That is the idea we get here. The nations ought to be worshiping God, but instead they’re worshiping false idols. And the answer to that problem is for you and I to declare God’s glory and His marvelous deeds among them.

Christians should praise God, not only in our worship services, but also amongst the lost, so that they might hear and learn about the One True God and perhaps come to worship Him themselves.

I’m convinced that one of the reasons many believers find it so difficult to tell others about Jesus is because they think that sharing their faith means telling people what to believe or what to do. But I want you to see that sharing Jesus doesn’t have to be about that. I’m not saying that Christianity doesn’t place commands on our lives. I’m not saying that there isn’t a time and a place to say, God has commanded you in His Word to do this or that. I AM saying that evangelism doesn’t ALWAYS have to be that. 

You can share Jesus with others simply by telling them what God has done for you (by sharing your testimony). You can share Jesus with others by telling them how great, kind, loving, gracious, powerful and good He is. That's declaring God's praise among all people. You can share Jesus with others simply by talking about Him in God-honoring ways in public. So, be sure to season your conversation with the salt of God's grace and praise. Go and tell what He has done!

*Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions. 3rd ed., Baker Academic, p. 35, 2010.

Telling Through Tears

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

Philippians 1:12

What exactly has happened to Paul? As Paul writes these words, he sits in a Roman prison. In fact, by this time, we believe that Paul has been imprisoned for more than two years. Now, you would think that taking the missionary off the road and putting him in prison would hinder the spread of the gospel. But Paul says that God has actually used it to advance the gospel!

The word Paul uses here for ‘advance’ means to blaze a trail.* It pictures scouts going ahead and cutting a trail for the army that follows behind them.** That’s how Paul viewed his imprisonment. In Paul’s eyes, his suffering, his imprisonment blazed a new trail for the gospel. One that otherwise would have been shut off to him.

In other words, God didn’t put Paul in prison on accident. God had a purpose for Paul’s pain! He had a plan to use Paul’s suffering to break new ground and make new inroads for the gospel.

Would you be willing to suffer if it meant that more people would get saved? Would you be willing to suffer pain, hardship or difficulty for a limited amount of time here on earth so that others might hear the gospel and escape unlimited suffering in Hell? That’s what God did through the Apostle Paul, and He might just want to do the same through you. God might choose to use your suffering to bring others to salvation.

If you doubt that God works in this way, I would encourage you to consider the life and ministry of Corrie ten Boom who not only suffered but also ministered in a Nazi concentration camp for women and girls. I would encourage you to consider the life and ministry of Richard Wurmbrand who was imprisoned and tortured for Christ by Communist Russia for 14 years. I would encourage you to consider the life and ministry of Joni Erickson Tada who’s incredible suffering as a paraplegic gave her a voice for Christ. I would point you to Elizabeth Elliot whose ministry was, in many ways, founded upon the tragic death of her missionary husband Jim Eliot. And if you don’t know who these people are, then I encourage you to read their stories and learn about them and how God used their suffering to spread the gospel.

Will you use your suffering to tell others about Jesus?

* Melick, Richard R., Jr. “Philippians.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 1881–89. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.

** Vincent, Marvin Richardson. Word Studies in the New Testament. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887.