Today we continue our study of the armor of God and finish looking at Eph 6:15, where we’re told to put on, as our shoes, the readiness of the gospel of peace. I think most Christian men want to be contagious Christians. We know that sharing our faith is something our Lord wants us to do and when we do seize opportunities to talk with others about Christ the experience pumps joy and energy into our walk with Him. We also realize that if we are to lead our homes well, our wives and kids need to see us modeling Jesus’ love for the lost and a commitment to seeking ways to share him with others. So, we want to be ready, when the opportunity presents itself, to steer a conversation towards the good news that our listener can have a personal relationship with Christ. This episode looks at three ways TO BE READY when that opportunity arises.
It gets my attention when the two primary NT texts that call Christians to share their faith use the same word. In the text we’re studying, Eph 6:15, Paul writes and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the READINESS given by the gospel of peace. Peter tells his readers that Christians should always be READY to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Pet 3:15). The same Greek word, HETOIMOS translated ready or prepared is used. It means able and inclined to respond without hesitation. Every day, no matter where our feet take us, whatever the situation we walk in to, we are to be READY to share our faith, i.e. to give a reason for the hope that is in us. And we are to do that wisely. Scripture says, The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness (Prov 16: 21), and The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips (Prov 16:23). There are probably many ways to be ready. In this episode I pass along three that have helped to me.
A. The first way to be BE READY to move a conversation towards discussing Christ comes from understanding the OT background behind Paul’s command in Ephesians to shod our feet with the readiness of the gospel. As Paul writes he is influenced both by the armor of the Roman soldiers guarding him, and the words of Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah. Paul knew Isaiah 52:7, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The good news is that the promised Messiah, God, himself, would rescue Adam’s kingdom from the devastation of its slavery to sin and establish his righteous rule over earth. The good news is the gospel of the kingdom.
Notice how the three descriptions of this kingdom in Isaiah match what Jesus said about the kingdom of God, which he inaugurated. 1) The good news is not just, “We now have a ticket to heaven.” It is peace—shalom has come. The messiah has come to reweave shalom by restoring human relationships broken by sin—our relationship with God, self, others, and creation. Shalom describes the flourishing of all four relationships. 2) The Isaiah text goes on to tell us this good news is of happiness. It is hard to miss the connection between this word and the happiness (MAKARIOS) of kingdom life portrayed by Jesus in the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the pure in heart. The good news of the kingdom is that God gives the Holy Spirit to kingdom members to deliver us from destructive heart attitudes and produce godly, Christ-like character. 3) The third cause for proclaiming good news is salvation. As we saw last week salvation is not just escaping judgement. It is Jesus’ the second Adam’s work to fix the mess the first Adam made—restoring wholeness to everything broken by sin.
The first way to prepare for conversations with the lost is to understand the full-orbed gospel of the kingdom. Things are not the way they are supposed to be. There is pain, frustration, and struggle for humans because the fall has fractured the shalom of harmonious relationship with God, ourselves, others, and creation. A lost person’s openness to Christ is often tied to wanting relief from that brokenness. Last week we used Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to see that Jesus is the answer to this extensive brokenness. Let’s review what we saw and go deeper.
1. Maslow says mankind’s most foundational need is PHYSIOLOGICAL--for oxygen, water, food, clothing, shelter, and health. But the curse of Adam’s sin upon the ground has caused humans to lack what they need physiologically to flourish. The coming of Christ’s kingdom means that creation itself will be set free from this bondage to decay. Since Jesus’ kingdom brings the renewal of the physical earth, Jesus taught his followers to prefigure the coming physical wholeness of the world by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing strangers. We are to care for those harmed by the physical brokenness of earth. The agape love shown by believers in meeting these physical needs is the best way to turn their hearts to Christ.
In John 9, Jesus bumps into a man who experiences the brokenness of Adam’s kingdom by being born blind. Jesus meets that physiological need; he restores his sight. Thirty verses later Jesus led the healed man to saving faith (vs 35-38). In my role as a pastor, I have found that when humans are face to face with their physical frailty, they are open to discussing spiritual things. On one occasion, I was visiting the elderly father of a congregational member in the hospital. He had some church background, but I asked, him, “Has anyone ever explained to you what the Bible says about heaven and hell and the afterlife?” He answered, “No” I said, I’d be happy to come by and visit you after you get out of the hospital a few times and we can look into that together, if you would like to” He said, “Great. I’d like that.” We went through an evangelistic Bible study together and he prayed to receive Christ. We started our joint study with God’s holiness. I remember that because later when this man joined our church, he began his testimony, “Holy, holy, holy is God….” When brokenness of our physical body becomes a reality, that brokenness can be an avenue to lead others to Christ.
2. The next level need that humans seek to satisfy when their physiological needs are met is SAFETY, both physical and emotional. That is why Christians have protected widows from immolation in India and founded orphanages around the world. The brokenness of Adam’s kingdom is also apparent in addictions to porn, alcohol, drugs, gambling and in a host of emotional battles that threaten our internal health like, grief, anxiety, or depression. Many have found Christ, because a friend sent them a booklet on grief or depression that steered them to biblical health for this affliction and ultimately to Christ. It was a neighbor’s battle with anger that opened the opportunity for me to lead him to Christ. One Saturday afternoon when I returned from an all-day meeting, my wife told me that the neighbor we had been reaching out to and praying for wanted me to go see him. I later found out that he had gotten angry in the midst of an argument with his wife and pushed his wife away. That afternoon she had left him. When I walked in his front door, he said, “Gary, I need Christ in my life.” He knew that his anger was a threat to his marriage and came to faith in Christ because he needed Christ’s help to overcome that brokenness.
3. As we continue to think of the gospel—the good news that Christ has come to fix everything broken by sin, we move on to Maslow’s third tier of need—FOR LOVE and BELONGING. As we saw last week both Zacchaeus and the woman at the well in Sychar were experiencing the brokenness of human relationships—both being outcasts of their society. Jesus reached the hearts of both by affirming their value and inviting them into a personal relationship with him. One of the groups suffering from the brokenness of horizontal relationships is those going through divorce. Our church wanted to care for those in our community going through this pain and lead them to the Caregiver, Jesus. So, we began a group called, Second Beginnings, advertised a divorce recovery seminar we held in our community, and launched a follow up support group. We saw the experience of divorce open hearts to Christ in two ways. Many just needed the unconditional love of Jesus to heal their broken heart and demolished self-esteem. Others wanted to walk closely with Christ, because they knew they needed him to make their marriage work, if they every married again. The human need for belonging and love, if it goes unmet is often a pathway that can connect others to Jesus.
4. Maslow calls his next level SELF-ESTEEM. I want to call it the desire to be SUCCESSFUL—to fulfill my responsibilities effectively—to make life work. Some years ago, I was building a relationship with my neighbor, I’ll call Sean, who lived along a path I often walked for exercise. He was very successful at his work, but his wife had recently divorced him. Shortly after that, he lost his job. He started his own business, but then it went bankrupt. When we would visit, Sean would often have his dog sitting on his lap, so I bought some treats for the dog, just to build the relationship. A few weeks later, I stopped by again, and Sean’s dog had just died. As I was walking home, I thought about a pair of diagrams I had seen with circles representing our lives. In the middle of one circle was a throne with ME sitting on it. Inside the circle were all sorts of smaller circles in disarray-representing the various areas of life. The other circle had Christ sitting on the throne and all the other areas of life being ordered and in balance in the circle. I visited Sean again and asked, “Sean would you be interested in looking at what the Bible teaches about making life work?” He said, “Yes.” Those two diagrams became the core of how I shared the gospel with Sean, and he gave his life to Christ.
5. Maslow’s highest level of human need, he calls SELF-ACTUALIZATION. It is the desire for significance--to know that your life matters. Jesus’ approach to Peter was to enlist him in a great cause. “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.” It is the desire for a fulfilling life that captured my 16-year-old heart on a Young Life weekend. The message I kept hearing was that Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” I had more fun and enjoyment at Young Life meetings, weekends, and camps than I had anywhere else. So, this message rang true in my heart. I told Jesus at Hill Top Ranch “I am all in.”
I am blessed to have been an Evangelism Explosion Trainer, and I have my own set of Christianity Explored videos, which I have used. These are great tools. But those in today’s world who are under seventy don’t find the EE question, “Have you come to the place in your life, where you know for certain that if you were to doe tonight you would go to heaven?” relevant. Christianity Explored is excellent—but most of the lost folks God has surrounded us with aren’t interested in exploring Christianity. But they are experiencing the brokenness of life on planet earth. Jesus pattern in reaching the lost is to identify that brokenness and tailor the good news to how they can be whole. The gospel is about Christ’s ability to start to fix brokenness RIGHT NOW. Most of the time, sweetness and persuasiveness of speech is showing others how Christ is relevant to them NOW. Think about Maslow’s categories of need or your own categories and ask—how can the good news that Jesus came to fix everything broken by sin be good news to the one I am thinking about?
Randy Newman, in his book, Questioning Evangelism summarizes this approach to linking our faith to others’ felt needs. Calling this his “so what” story, Newman stopped starting with “You’re a sinner in need of forgiveness.” Instead, he says, I talked about my experience of being a Christian—of how I now sense a purpose and meaning to life, of how I never feel alone, and how—because I feel accepted by God—I more willingly accept other people. I told how being a Christian makes my marriage better, gives me a clear conscience, and fills me with a sense of optimism and hope.
I have found that one of the best forms of preparation of readiness to steer a conversation towards Christ is to have spent some time thinking through the various ways that Jesus helps begin to fix our brokenness RIGHT NOW.
B. The second way to BE READY when we have a chance to talk about spiritual things is intentional prayer. Part of the sinfulness of Gary Yagel’s heart is that I just don’t care about the lost, the way Jesus did. If I did, I would be relentlessly dedicated to praying for my lost relatives, lost neighbors, and lost friends. But I like being the keeper of the aquarium a lot more than being a fisher of men. This week, in exasperation over my own uncaring heart, I opened my Evernote APP to my prayer list and put, “Pray for the heart of Jesus for the lost” at the top. I will tell you, in a few months if it worked. Maybe you need to do the same.
I do know, however, that there is another component of intentional prayer that DOES work. Our ministry helps men get connected over a series of what we call Check 6 questions. The fifth question is: Who are the non-believers you are building relationships with and how can I pray for your strategy to share Christ with them? I believe that the best way for all believers to share Christ is in the context of the relationships God has intentionally surrounded us with. But it is so hard to stay focused on building those opportunities. My brothers and I don’t ask that question of each other enough. But when we have, I’ve discovered that God loves to answer this prayer:
- After renewing our prayer for each other’s outreach efforts, after the very next match in my racquetball league, my opponent sat down with me for thirty minutes to discuss philosophy and Christianity.
- On another occasion, after renewing this prayer commitment, the next week my double-oven went out. I didn’t want to pay an installation fee. So, I asked my next-door neighbor to help me move it in and, afterwards we relaxed for a half-hour and he opened up about his life and spiritual pilgrimage.
- Another friend and I renewed our commitment to such prayer and he soon had a discussion about spiritual things with the restaurant owner where he often ate lunch at work.
- One year as I set goals for the new year, I felt convicted about not sharing Christ enough and my accountability partner and started praying again for outreach opportunities. A few years earlier, I had led a Bible-study in at a pregnancy center for the fathers of the unborn babies. He had married the mother of his baby, but he was now asking me for help in his marriage. My wife and I met with them. His wife had made of profession of faith, but I explained how Christ can help with spiritual strength to love well. I gave him a copy of Mere Christianity, which he read and surrendered his life to Christ.
The command, BE READY, almost implies to me, that we have been asking God in prayer for opportunities. It is a response of being willingly inclined to share Christ wisely. One of the best ways to be so inclined is to have been asking, repeatedly for God to work in that lost person’s life and for opportunities to discuss spiritual things. And if there is any area, I need to be accountable in, it is Check 6 Question # 5: Who are the non-believers you are building relationships with and how can I pray for your strategy to share Christ with them?
C. The third way to be READY to move the discussion towards spiritual things is to be seeking the right opportunities. This opportunity is NOT the chance to slip the gospel into the discussion but the chance to listen and ask questions. The third way to BE READY to move towards discussing the gospel is to BE AN INTERESTED LISTENER. We often think that effective evangelism requires looking for someone to share the gospel with. But a wiser approach, especially in the 21st century, is NOT looking for people to talk to but looking for people to listen to. Listening to them well will open a window to their soul. John Leonard, author of Get Real: Sharing Your Everyday Faith Everyday writes:
You will not believe how many people will want to talk to you—if you’ll only take off the sign that reads, “Not interested. Leave me alone.” You will not have to go looking for people. They will find you. There will be many people who will “just happen” to be in front of you or behind you in a line. They may be strangers standing beside you at the bus stop or in front of you at the deli counter. They may ask you, “How’s the pastrami?” but what they are really asking is “Do you care enough about me to listen?” They are desperate to talk to someone. They may believe that no one cares, that no one wants to hear their story. They can’t think of any reason to live or wonder if anyone would care if they chose to end their life. When they look at us, what will they see—the sign that says, “I’m not interested; leave me alone,” or the one that reads, “I care; I’ll listen?”
In many ways, the starting point for being able to talk about Christ and his ability to change our lives begins with asking another how his day has been going in a way that communicates that we have the time and are willing to listen to an answer that is longer than “fine.” We must begin by listening not only to communicate genuine care and concern, but because listening will help us know what the Lord wants us to say to the person that he has brought across our path.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
1. Does realizing that Jesus tailored the good news to others based on the way they were experiencing the brokenness of life in this fallen world discourage you because it makes sharing Christ harder, since there is no “one size fits all” or encourage you because it helps you realize how wise we are to be about relationships and the uniqueness of every human?
2. Which 2 or 3 of those in your circle of lost associates and friends has God put on your hearts. What might be missing in their lives compared to what you have in Christ?
3. Is God prompting you to be more intentional about praying for and reaching the lost? What might additional intentionality look like for you.
