By: Dale Weckbacher
John 12:32
And I, if I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."
NKJV
The context of John 12:32 is Jesus telling his disciples how
he would die. However, we can also
interpret this passage as an instruction to lift Jesus up in our lives for when
we do, we cause people to want to have what we have. Unfortunately, many Christians today may be
delivering the wrong message with their words and deeds and actually pushing
people away from Christ instead of drawing them in.
Many see the church today as a political action organization
that stands against things like gay marriage, and abortion. It is true that these things are abhorrent to
God and thus taking a stand against them is scriptural. However, our taking a stand needs to be
followed by pointing people to Jesus who loves people engaging in these
activities and died on the cross, providing them an opportunity to receive
forgiveness of their sins and eternal life (John 3:16). Most of us know John 3:16 and can probably
recite it by heart but I want to encourage everyone to read John 3:17,
John
3:17
For
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved.
NKJV
When we take a stand on social
issues without following through and sharing the Gospel, the world sees
Christians as condemning them. They view
Christians as being against everything and fail to understand what Christians
are for, a God that loves all sinners and provided salvation by sending his
only son, who knew no sin, to die for their sins. Jesus final words before ascending to heaven
were to preach this good news, the Gospel, to every creature (Mark 16:15).
There is much to fear in the world
today and the people we encounter daily are searching for answers. Many try to find the answer in drugs or
alcohol. Some try to find the answer in
illicit sex. Some believe government has
the answers. Some even try to find
answers in secular philosophies that dominate the education system. However, all of these things come up empty,
leaving individuals still searching for answers.
When Adam fell, he caused a separation
of all mankind from their creator. Since
mankind was created to have fellowship with their creator, this left us all
with an emptiness in our hearts. The
only way to fill that emptiness is restoring the lost relationship with God
through acceptance of Jesus Christ’s free give of salvation. However, unless we as believers bring people
the message of the Gospel, they will never know.
What prevents us as Christians from
sharing the Gospel as we should?
1) Fear
– Fear is not from God but it is a powerful tool in the hands of the
enemy. It was fear of physical harm and
rejection that caused Peter to deny Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75). However, Peter was able to overcome his fear
by seeing the risen Lord and being baptized in by the Holy Spirit. This empowered Peter to deliver the first
evangelistic message resulting in 3000 people receiving salvation (Acts
2:14-41).
2) Lack
of knowledge – We fear being asked a tough question that we cannot answer
however, in the information age, there is little excuse for not learning all we
can about the Bible and about what opponents of the Bible use in an attempt to
attempt its accuracy. Would that we
would be as the student in the movie God’s not Dead and courageously stand up
against those that may even be highly educated who refute the Bible. In the movie, when confronted with a tough
question by his professor, the student simply did more research and refuted the
professor’s claims. When confronted with
a tough question, tell them you do not have an answer right now but will find
out for them. Then do your research and
get back to them. It is even okay to ask
your pastor, imagine that.
3) Lack
of prayer – We all lead busy lives. I
can relate to having to get up early, showering, and slamming down some coffee
in order to get ready for work. In all
of this busyness, it is easy to forget to take a couple of minutes at the
beginning of the day to pray. However,
when I do, it always seems the day goes much better. I am also beginning to learn that I can pray
throughout the day and renew my strength and courage.
4) Lack
of study of the Bible – The Bible is God’s Word. When someone reads the Bible, God is actually
speaking to him or her through His word.
Of course, for this conversation to mean anything, we must be
listening. We also must be willing to
obey what we read. As Christians, we
have the advantage of personally knowing the author of the book, allowing us to
have a deeper understanding of what God is saying.
If you have not entered into a
personal relationship with God through Jesus, I want to encourage you to do so
now by praying
Dear God.
I know I have sinned and fallen short of your perfect standard. I also know that the consequence of my sin is
death. I believe Jesus died, was buried,
and rose again to forgive all my sins. I
now make Jesus Lord of my life.
If you prayed that prayer, you now
have eternal life and a restored relationship with your creator. This does not mean you are perfect and like
all of us, you will mess up. However,
all you need to do is ask forgiveness and a loving non-condemning God will
forgive you.
For those of us who are already
Christians and even for those that just prayed to become a Christian, I want to
challenge you to tell someone what has happened in your life. If you encounter a tough question, tell them
you will find out for them and ask someone or a pastor what the answer is. I also encourage you to pray, which is simply
talking to God, and begin studying the Bible to find out more about the God who
loves you and sent His son to die for your sins.
There is a world out there that is
searching for answers to the many problems in our society. We as Christians have the only answer to
these problems but the world is waiting for us to deliver that message. Will you join me in beginning to delivering
the message of the Gospel this world desperately needs?
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