WHY TELL OTHERS ABOUT CHRIST?

Before I begin I would like to distinguish between those people we as Christians would deal with on a day to day basis including friends and family whom we would have a long term relationship, and those strangers to whom we will rarely have any dealings unless we decide to engage with them. It is the latter group that I am primarily thinking about in this post (with the former group, I would imagine most Christians would be praying for opportunities to sensitively share Christ.)

I ask this question because I believe that in our post-modern, post-Christian, politically correct world it would appear to be something Christians are often embarrassed to do, but at the same time feel guilty for not doing. This is especially true when there are so many people around us who don’t know who Christ is, and why he came. We either feel frustrated because we think that we can’t do it or have decided to put it to the back of our minds, reasoning it away by arguing that ‘it is not my gift' or just plainly deciding not to bother.

I’m convinced that for everyone who is a Christian, to be a witness for Christ can be the most natural thing to do.If you like: it's part of our spiritual DNA put there by Christ and the Holy Spirit. I’m not saying that we should all start an Evangelistic Association and travel the globe like Billy Graham, but that we should be prepared to step outside our comfort zone and speak to others about the most fantastic news that there has ever been since the beginning of time.

Well, why should we bother to tell others about Christ? Before Jesus left this world Mark’s gospel records his great commission to the disciples. Note that he didn’t say: ‘go into all the Cathedrals and preach the gospel'; Nor did he say ‘go into all the churches and preach the gospel'; He didn’t even say ‘go into all the Mission Halls and preach the gospel'. No No No.

However what did he say was: ‘Go INTO ALL THE WORLD and preach thee gospel to every creature.’ That is some statement. The whole world means that there is no place in his world that is exempt. Even the uttermost parts of it, even that which we consider Satan's territory. In practice what does it mean?

As regards places: it’s where people are. There’s no point going to the North Pole because no one lives there. It means Latin America, Australia, Cambodia, Russia, and Belfast.It means pubs, clubs, trains, buses, parks,bookies, schools, work places, even churches, cathedrals and mission halls, towns and cities, hamlets and villages- as our Lord commanded:'go into the highways and the byways'.

As regards people types it means Black, white, Chinese, Japanese, Lawyers, school teachers, soldiers,doctors, prostitutes, gays, hetero-sexual, moral people, socialists,capitalists- every sort of social class, colour, nationality and sexuality.

But do we really believe that Jesus would have gone into pubs and into clubs? After all he was the Son of God;After all he was sinless; He was was totally holy and righteous:totally pure!

‘Jesus came to nice people to make them nicer.’ I think that should be a verse in the TEV Bible that is 'Today's Evangelical Version'.It fits well with the contemporary Church.

In practice I think that is what we are more inclined to believe- because it would mean we could go to church each week and forget about the masses that are without hope and without God. But it's wrong: He was friends with the ordinary fishermen; his friends did drink; his friends were swindlers; his friends included lepers who would have gone about crying ‘unclean, unclean' as the Law of Moses proscribed and he did touch them and he healed them. Some of his friends were even prostitutes-How scandalous. Imagine the holy righteous Son of God- the friend of sinners-the friend prostitutes and gays!

That’s why my friend Patrick Troughton who has been only a Christian two years, and at the age of 70 tramps the streets of Belfast at 1,2, sometimes even 3 O’clock in the morning looking for strays- not cats and dogs, but men and woman, created in the image of God but marred by sin and Satan- often finding them literally lying in the gutter. He does it because God has touched his heart and he heard the word:'As the father sent me , so I send you' and sought to obey it. He now has a passion for the lost in his soul, because he knows the love that God had for his lost soul!

Why should we evangelise? Answer: Because as Paul tells us 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’.
Jesus also declared: ‘I’ve come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance’ and again: ‘I have to seek and to save that which is lost. Amen

One of Paul’s greatest opponents were the Jewish Christians who tried to keep the gospel message within Judaism. In a similar manner many Christians are inclined to keep this all powerful message that can save the world inside the Church. God wants us to spread it abroad.The complete verse is : 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief’. I like that: Paul said it,Wesley said it and Bunyan said it-'Of whom I am the chief'.I join them too. We don't go out to those without Christ with a superior or arrogant attitude rather we go out as forgiven sinners who understand their pain and weakness.We go out with passion but also compassion.


Why should we tell others about Christ?
Not because those we speak to will always be grateful. We may well face opposition. We may well be misunderstood; we may well be physically assaulted. But should we really expect a ‘flowery bed of ease’ when Christ told us that it would be through much tribulation that we would enter the Kingdom!
James tells us to even ‘Count it as pure joy ...all the trials and tribulations you encounter for they build character';and even Paul the master evangelist declared: ‘We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.'

Why tell others about Christ?
Because how are they to know if we don’t tell them. As Paul states: ‘we are ambassadors of Christ’.
Also that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”He then goes on to state:
'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'.

Do we hear that word of faith in our hearts? Do we hear his voice saying 'Whom will I send and who will go for us'? The harvest is indeed plentifuil but the labourers are few.
Dear brother and sister will you heed the call?