How to Share the Gospel Message
I had a very interesting encounter yesterday, with the taxi driver that was taking me to pick up our car from the garage, where I had sent it for MOT. I greeted him and he was warm and friendly in his response. As we drove along, he asked me whether I was still involved with the church. I was initially taken aback, and wondered how he knew I was a ‘church person’. I then asked him whether he was a Christian. Then he reminded me how I had shared the A,B,C,D of the gospel with him some time ago. Wow! I was shocked, and at the same time delighted that he could still remember what I shared with him. Isn’t God just so wonderful!
​
For those of us who do not know, the A, B, C, D of the gospel,
A – stands for ACCEPT that you are a sinner, and that you cannot save yourself;
B - stands for BELIEVE that Jesus died to save you from your sins;
C – stands for CONFESS your sins to God; tell God you’re sorry for all the wrongs you’ve done, and repent
D – stands for DECIDE to accept Jesus into your life, and make Him your Lord and Saviour.
These are the simple principles that the Holy Spirit gave me that I’ve used over the years to share the gospel with many, and I have them in some of the books I’ve written. I remember how a Chinese student I had witnessed to, who gave her life to Christ, told me how it made it so easy for her to share the gospel with her friends.
Anyway, back to my taxi driver friend. After he reminded me about sharing the A,B,C,D with him, I then asked him whether he had prayed and invited Jesus into his life. He told me he hadn’t, because he had never stopped, but that he was always on the move (i.e. busy driving his taxi back and forth). I reminded him that we always make out time for things that are important to us, and that life was too short for us to put off such an important decision. I reminded him about the recent plane crash and that none of the people in that plane ever imagined they would be no more so soon.
​
He asked me if I had heard of ‘Christian Revive’. I told him I hadn’t. He then told me how he picked up a lady, who said she was part of ‘Christian Revive’. He said the lady was very chatty, and that she just threw it into his face that if he didn’t give his life to Christ, he would go to hell. He said he found her approach very abrasive and apprehensive. He said he told her that someone had shared the gospel with him, and introduced him to the A,B,C of salvation, and her answer to him was that he shouldn’t listen to these ‘deceivers’. I then asked him whether the woman told him what he needed to do to be saved, and he said she didn’t. But he was put off by her approach and was not interested in what she had to say.
Now, here is my point, and the reason for sharing this story. Actually, the Holy Spirit pressed it very strongly on my heart to share it. The fact is that we live in a world that is so desperately in need of Jesus, that if we are not careful, we would move them farther away from Jesus, rather than help them find Him. Perhaps it will be helpful if we all went back into the gospel and find Jesus’ approach to relating with people. In His encounter with the woman at the well, it started with a simple conversation (John 4:7) "Give Me a drink”, and the rest is history – her whole village got saved through that one encounter. Jesus Himself said (John 10:10b) ‘I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’. Jesus didn’t tell Zaccheus that he was going to hell. He went and had ‘tea’ in his house, and we know what followed. When He went to raise Jairius’ daughter, he did the miracle first, and I believe that through that He was able to preach the good news ‘of the kingdom’, to them. Everywhere Jesus went, He preached ‘the gospel of the kingdom’, and not telling people they were going to hell. Even the thief on the cross who deserved hell, got into paradise with Jesus, by simply telling Him ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom’ (Luke 23: 42).
Beloved, I pray that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, in our attempt to reach people with the ‘good news’ of the kingdom. It’s good news because we’re telling them they don’t have to go to hell, and this is what they need to do. In 1Corinthains 9: 19-23, the Apostle Paul explained the strategy he adopted in reaching out to people: ‘for though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without the law, as without law (…), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might BY ALL MEANS, save SOME. Now I do this for the gospel’s sake…’. The Apostle Paul is making it clear here that we might not be able to save everyone, but at least some will be saved. This is why there is no formula for getting people saved. No two miracles of Jesus were the same. He met people at their points of need, and we must do the same. At the end of the day, we know that it is the gods of this world that blinds the eyes of people, and it is the Holy Spirit that will convict them of sin. We need to pray and ask God to give us His own strategy for every situation we will be confronted with.
​
In these days that we live in, with all the ‘damage’ done to the ‘church’ through the stories of sexual and other abuses in the church, we need to be smarter and wiser, and more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in reaching out to the world. We cannot adopt a Phariseestical (that’s my own terminology) approach; it will not work. In John 3:17, the Bible reminds us that “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved". Our mandate is simple, and that is to preach the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations, teaching them to observe kingdom values – that things will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. We are to help them to understand how much God loves them and does not in fact want them to perish, but to have life in abundance here on earth, with the hope of spending eternity with Him. The Lord will help us, in Jesus’ Name.
​
Father, teach us Your ways, and let Your kingdom come, O Lord, and Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen!!!
​
​