Read and Grow

Some people just have a knack for talking about Jesus. It just seems to come so easily for them but, to be honest, for the rest of us it can be a little bit disheartening. Be encouraged, here’s some ideas about how to share Jesus if you can’t seem to find the right words.

Think about this. Every one of us is surrounded by a particular culture. It might not be easy to notice at first, but the values, language, attitudes, and shared experiences within a people group or location determine a culture, and this shapes the way we view the world. When missionaries go into a foreign culture, they will spend a lot of time observing and understanding the culture and language first. Paul did this in Athens, when he started a conversation about Jesus by pointing out the altar ‘To an unknown god’, introducing Jesus as the God who could be known. (Acts 17:23)

Here’s the big idea: sharing Jesus begins by observing the culture around you and looking for ways to reflect his nature back to that culture.

Make a habit of observation. Look for concepts and language within culture that encapsulate the core characteristics of Jesus; love, mercy, hope, redemption, salvation, and sacrifice. For example, it’s easy to find movies which have a ‘Jesus figure’ —someone who gives up their life for the sake of others. Take time to observe your culture and see how you might use cultural language and ideas to point towards Jesus.

In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells His followers (that’s you) that they are to be ‘salt of the earth’. You put salt on food to bring out the flavour and make it taste better. In The Message paraphrase of the Bible, Eugene Peterson puts it this way:

Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. …Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.‍

Matthew 5:13-14

Live your life on display. Not in a way that draws attention to you, but in a way that draws attention to the goodness of God. You might want to start sharing your faith on social media, record a video testimony of how God has been good to you. Be transparent with your friends of how God has answered your prayers or how He has spoken to you personally.

Jesus also tells his followers to be a light on a hill. The amazing thing about light is that darkness has no power over it. Light will always penetrate through and overwhelm the darkness if it is given a chance to shine. The very fact that we can see starlight from millions of light-years away is proof of this. The same is true for the light that you shine.

Let the goodness and power of God shine through you like a light on the top of a hill. Let the fruit of the Spirit be seen in your life; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. People will see it and some will ask what’s different about you. Being salt and light naturally sets up opportunities to talk about Jesus.

As a Christian, you may want to share Jesus, but sometimes it’s difficult to know what to say. You don’t want to “preach” at people, ruin the vibe of a conversation, or just seem plain weird. So, what should you do?

It’s easy to get so caught up in a moment that you forget you have a helper to guide you—the Holy Spirit, God Himself! (John 14:26). The secret to knowing how to bring up Jesus in the moment is to connect with the Holy Spirit and work in tandem with Him.

At first, listening to the Holy Spirit might seem intimidating or impossible. You might ask questions like, “How do I know it’s Him and not just me, or that the extra shot of coffee I had at lunch time?”

Learning to discern the Holy Spirit’s voice from the noise around you is key to sharing Jesus.

So let’s set some foundations:

1. The Holy Spirit is God: To recognise and understand the Holy Spirit’s voice, we need to know who the Holy Spirit is. The Bible says that He is part of the God-head with the Father and Jesus. While He is a mysterious expression of God that we can’t fully understand, He is an active force and wants to guide us, just like He guided so many people in the Bible (Luke 2:27-32, 2 Peter 1:21, Acts 8:29-31). As part of the God-head, the Holy Spirit shares the same character as God the Father and Jesus, so what you hear will always line up with God’s nature—loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, and so on (Galatians 5:22).
2. The Holy Spirit wants to be pursued: The Bible says that if we seek God, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13), and the same is true for the Holy Spirit. Spending time reading the Gospels or studying His character will help you learn to discern His voice—what He would and wouldn’t say (Romans 10:17). The Bible says that God’s word gives peace (Isaiah 32:17, John 14:27, Romans 15:13, Philippians 4:7), so if you hear something that you don’t feel peace about, you should question it. You can also pray that the voice of the Holy Spirit will become clear to you as you spend time with Him (John 10:27)—like being able to pick out a friends’ voice in a room even when you can’t see them.
3. The Holy Spirit wants to fill you: The Bible tells us to be “filled” with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). In the original Greek language, this is an ongoing and active practice. This may require some mindset shifts, like learning to be thankful to God (Psalm 100:4), repenting and apologising for the wrong things we’ve done (Psalm 66:18), or silencing the negative thoughts the devil places in our minds (James 4:7). Overcoming these mental and emotional barriers can open us up to be more receptive and willing to what He’s asked. If you struggle with this, pray to God—He will help you.
4. The Holy Spirit wants you to respond: The Bible encourages us to have open hearts when we hear His voice (Hebrews 3:15), and to be “doers of the word”, not just hearers (James 1:22). This requires action—we must learn to respond to the Holy Spirit. Usually, the Holy Spirit will show up as “promptings”—like suddenly recalling a Bible verse, a story or something your pastor once said. Sometimes it’s a strong feeling or urge to talk to someone, or mention a particular topic. God wants you to follow those prompts so He can show up in miraculous ways in your life, and in the lives of others.

If you still feel unsure about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, trust that He will train you in this. CS Lewis, quoting his favourite author George MacDonald, has a great saying about the nature of God: that He is easy to please but hard to satisfy. This means that the Holy Spirit is totally okay with how you come to Him–sensitive to His voice or not. But you can trust that He is satisfied with nothing less than your perfect ability to hear Him and follow Him.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, He’s been leading you your whole life, and He’s a big part of the reason you accepted Jesus in the first place. You can do this!

Sharing Jesus from the position of being led by the Holy Spirit takes the pressure off. It’s as simple as being aware that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you during your conversations and interactions with others. Listen and follow His voice the best you can. You can be confident knowing that salvation is His work – your work is to be sensitive to His voice and follow His lead.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to talk about Jesus but you don’t know what to say, just remember you have a story. Your story is a celebration of what Jesus has done in your life and He wants to use it to impact and change the people in your world. Stories have power; they have the ability to change and challenge you. Stories are often God’s chosen method for transformation.

Sharing your story is as simple as telling others how Jesus has changed your life–sometimes we call it a testimony. It is something Jesus often encouraged those who he healed to do (Mark 5:19). Taking the time to consider and construct your testimony is time well spent. It can be a powerful tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit as He guides you in conversations with your friends.

Here are some helpful tips on how to build and clarify your Jesus-story.

Construct a statement and story for each of the following points:

1. WHAT your life was like before Jesus? Without Jesus, our lives are void of identity and purpose. What was an area of identity or purpose that was lacking before you met Jesus? Perhaps you were filling your life with an addiction (social media, alcohol, bad relationships) because you lacked purpose. Or you felt lost in the world because you had no place to belong.
2. WHY did you to follow Jesus? The moment Jesus broke into your world and changed your life is a powerful story. Sharing it helps you avoid cliches and it personalises the Gospel. When you share your story, focus on what was happening internally for you, not just the sequence of events.  People will be impacted by hearing about your change of heart. For example:

“I really believed that no one could ever love me but I was looking for it everywhere. It wasn’t until I heard the story of Jesus’s death that I started to comprehend that I was loved–even cherished.”

3. HOW your life has changed since following Jesus? Jesus changes us. He gives us a new identity and purpose. Share how Jesus has impacted and changed your life. Focus particularly on the identity and/or purpose you were lacking in section one, then share how Jesus filled that lack. Share how His love and mercy has shaped your emotions (no longer angry, anxious, etc), or changed your actions for the better (love helping people, don’t react, forgive quickly).

5 Tips For Sharing Your Story

Be Fresh — Share what Jesus is doing in your life now. Jesus is always changing us, so take notice and be ready to share a recent story.

Be Honest — Authenticity is often the make or break for people. You don’t need to embellish or exaggerate. Instead, trust that the Holy Spirit will use what’s true to change the hearts of your friends.

Be Specific — Be vulnerable and include details–about the journey of your heart and the truth and lies that rose to the surface of your mind; this will help make your story relatable.

Be Normal — Use everyday language that your friends will understand. Avoid Christian cliches.

Be Sharp — A story that has a point is powerful. Be careful not to explore too many tangents, instead focus on the main thing Jesus has done in your life.

You have a story and the Holy Spirit is your helper. Get out there and start sharing your story. Trust the Holy Spirit will use your story to change people’s lives, just as He did with you.

It’s crunch time. You’ve been sharing Jesus with a friend. They’re really interested and they want to know more about what following Jesus means for them. You know it’s time to share the Gospel. But how do you summarise the Gospel? How do you tell it in a way that’s more helpful than confusing? There’s no script and you don’t want to mess it up.

A simple way to share the gospel meaningfully, is to memorise these 4 words: position, problem, provision, part

Each word describes an important section of the gospel message and is partnered with questions to help start the conversation and simple ideas to give you helpful language to unpack each section.

POSITION: Love is God’s position towards us

God is love and He is the creator of all things. As an outflow of His abundant love, He created the universe, the world, and all things in it. Because God is love, He loves every human being and His desire is to be in relationship with the people He created. For us, his people, relationship with God means life, wholeness, fulfilment, and living in harmony with others.

Question: What do you think love is?

God is love. God doesn’t just show love as an action. He is love. God loves all of His creation.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
– 1 John 4:7–8

God’s love is unconditional. This is not a love that must be earned or achieved, it’s given unconditionally.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
– John 3:16

PROBLEM: Sin is our problem

God created man and woman to live in relationship with Him and each other, however, when humanity sinned, our sin cut off our relationship with God. Now every person has a spiritual heart problem, this is what we call sin. Sin is any choice we make that goes against God’s design for our life and these choices fundamentally break our relationship with God.

Question: What do you think sin is?

Sin is an “own way” attitude. Sin isn’t just bad things we do, it’s a fundamental attitude that makes choices against God’s design for our life.

“We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way.”
– Isaiah 53:6

Question: What are the consequences of sin?

Sin separates us from God. Making choices that go against God’s design for our lives break our relationship with him. No one can earn their way back to God with good deeds because we are all sinners. Sin cuts us off from God, our source of life, so sin is the reason that we all eventually die.

“Your sins have cut you off from God.”
– Isaiah 59:2

PROVISION: Jesus is God’s provision

God wanted to restore relationship with him so he made a way for that to work. Jesus entered into the world. He is God, so He lived the perfect life we could not live and died the death we deserved. He lay dead in a tomb for three days, and on that third day, he rose again proving He was God and that his sacrifice was acceptable.

Question: Who do you think Jesus is?

Jesus is God. Jesus is God in human form. He lived a perfect life and did not sin.

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
– John 14:9

Question: Why did Jesus have to die?

Jesus died as our substitute. The consequence of sin is death. However, Jesus died on the cross in our place, cancelling humanity’s debt of sin.

“But God demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
– Romans 5:8

PART: Turn and trust is our part

Believing in Jesus means turning from sin and trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. The Bible calls this repentance and faith. You can’t just say the words or go through the motions, God knows your heart. You can do this by praying to God.

Question: What do you think it means to follow Jesus?

Our response is to turn away from our sins. This is repentance. When we own our brokenness and turn away from our sin to Jesus, he forgives us.

“Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in.“

– Revelation 3:20

Our response is also to trust that Jesus is God and defeated death for us. This is faith. We can trust Jesus because he loves us unconditionally, which he demonstrated by dying in our place. When we trust that Jesus is God and that he defeated death for us, his undefeatable life now lives in us.

“…if you confess 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

If your friend wants to make the decision to follow Jesus, you can help them by giving them the words to say. Try a prayer like this (get them to repeat the sentences after you):

Dear God. I know you love me. I’m sorry for my sin and that I have gone my own way. Thank you for your son Jesus who died on the cross for my sins and rose again. Today I turn from my sin and trust in Jesus alone. Amen.

Reinforce to them that these are not magic words, they’re an expression of the heart and that God sees their honest heart.

This framework is designed to help you articulate the gospel message. Don’t feel the pressure to share it all at once. In fact, it would be rare that you would do that in one go. More often it’s a helpful structure to keep in mind to help you diagnose what your friends might need to hear. For example, do they need to understand more about who God is? Or perhaps a helpful definition of the nature of sin. Often sharing Jesus doesn’t come down to one conversation where you explain the whole gospel. It can be helpful to gradually explain it over time, based on the needs and questions of your friend.

Spend time over a week committing these 4 words and the related questions, ideas and verses to memory so that you feel prepared to articulate the gospel story with meaning and clarity next time you have an opportunity to share it.