How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. | Romans 10:14–17
This Sunday, we looked at how the proof that Jesus gives can be read vastly different depending on how you approach it. Specifically, Jesus declares that all who come to Him to drink will be satisfied; in response, part of the crowd declares Him the Messiah and the other part wants Him dead. If you do any amount of evangelism (talking to people about the gospel), this is not surprising to you. Some will hear the life-giving message of Jesus as HOPE, while others will accuse you of ‘wasting your time serving an imaginary sky fairy’ (pulled from an e-mail I received).
I want to take a second to address those who are NOT sharing the gospel. A recent survey done by the Barna group shows that an increasing number of Christians, especially younger Christians, do not believe that it is right to: ‘share one’s personal faith with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.’ While I believe that the author of the article misinterprets these results in the title of the article (Almost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong), I do believe that we have allowed a fear of response to keep us from being willing to share our faith boldly. In one sense, we have reason to be nervous. There is a changing cultural response to disagreement, as the author recognizes:
As Barna found in research published in Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age, three out of five Christian Millennials believe that people today are more likely than in the past to take offense if they share their faith (65%)—that’s far higher than among Boomer Christians (28%). Millennials are also either two (Gen X) or three times more likely (Boomers and Elders) than any other generational group to believe that disagreement means judgment.
This reality should not snuff out our witness. We are the chosen instruments of God to bring His people to the knowledge of saving faith. If Jesus receives such disparate responses when He is present, we should expect a similar response when we make known our faith in the saving work of Jesus on the cross.
One of the other reasons that I have heard from people for not evangelizing is a spiritual one: if God is going to bring His people to Himself and the Spirit is going to do the work of regeneration, then God already has it all planned and it doesn’t really matter what I do. This is built out of what Jesus said in John 6, along with His promise to pour pout the Holy Spirit on His people in chapter 7. The existence of God’s sovereignty and the presence of the Holy Spirit are meant to be an encouragement, not a deterrent. As one theologian put it:
The Holy Spirit always uses means. He usually addresses the heart through the mind, not the other way round. Therefore we should patiently present all the evidence that he gives us with the prayerful desire that he will take this and work in the lives of those we deal with.
It is not up to us to tell God how to do the work of saving; it is up to us to do the work He gave us to do as ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). And as we do, we should be guided by the confidence that it is not our words, but His Spirit that changes lives. When we are rejected (and even hated), we can be comforted that it is not us they are rejecting, but Him. It is this comfort and hope that allows us to shake the dust off of our feet and move on to the next opportunity God gives to us.
Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 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. | 1 Peter 3:14–15