This important message started life as an article published in the ecumenical journal for ministers, Ministry Today UK.

There is a striking saying you may have read on the internet or on a poster. It is widely quoted and attributed to St Francis of Assisi. It says, “Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.” The saying has become popular because it rides on the reputation of St Francis. It also seems to fit the mood of Christians who are disaffected with evangelism as it had been practised in the Twentieth Century. What I want to say this morning is that slogan is not just fatally flawed. It is simply wrong.
Evangelist Pete Gilberts commented that the phrase, “If necessary use words,” is used by some Christians as a “get-out clause”, as if somehow that saying allows them to stay silent about their faith. Roman Catholic blogger Emily Stimpson explains the problem very clearly. “Someone invented the quote and put it into poor St. Francis’ mouth. And ever since then, people have used it as an excuse to not evangelize with words, to not have the uncomfortable conversations or say the unpopular things.”
Some writers even use the saying, “if necessary use words” to suggest that Christians have somehow failed in their witness if their daily lives are so inadequate that they need to articulate the gospel in words. This can unhelpfully leave some Christians feeling guilty when they do talk about Jesus! In fact the opposite is true. Any idea that our actions should be sufficient and that words shouldn’t be necessary in evangelism is gravely mistaken. We will always need to talk about Jesus. The first thing to say is that
St Francis never said that!
Francis of Assisi never said “if necessary use words”. Mark Galli wrote a biography of Francis and he wrote in Christianity Today that no early sources contain the quote or anything like it. Nor in his view is it the kind of thing Francis would have been likely to say. “In his day, Francis was known as much for his preaching as for his lifestyle. … He soon took up itinerant ministry, sometimes preaching in up to five villages a day, often outdoors … He preached to serfs and their families as well as to the landholders, to merchants, women, clerks, and priests”
Emily Stimpson makes the same point. “Every chance Francis got, he proclaimed the Gospel. He proclaimed it to the wolves in the forest. He proclaimed it to the Sultan in Egypt. He wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus. He couldn’t. Any more than a woman in love can stop talking about her beloved. The thought of not speaking about his love, about Christ, to the world, would have horrified the little Poverello.” “He knew what the Church has always known. There is no “if” about the necessity of words in evangelization, just as there is no “if” about the necessity of actions. They are both necessary. They are both essential.” “Preach the gospel. Since it is necessary, use words.” So says Emily Stimpson. I am sure she is right. Let’s think more about
Evangelism in the New Testament
In the Bible, the gospel, the Good News, is the announcement that the Kingly Rule of God has begun in the historical events of the life, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. All the verbs used for the ways the first Christians passed on that message are aspects of speech: preaching; proclaiming; teaching; testifying and more and I will come back to those in a few minutes. The book of Acts is very interested in the way “the word” spread (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20). The apostle Paul argues that people can only be saved if somebody preaches to them “the word of faith” (Romans 10:8-15). Christians are called to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) and that role certainly includes delivering their Sovereign’s messages. The historical fact that the first Christians all experienced fierce persecution is evidence enough that they were indeed proclaiming the good news with boldness, in words and not just in actions.
The church has always understood evangelism that way. In 1974 His Holiness Pope Paul VI pronounced,
“Nevertheless [witness] always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified…and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.”
In his landmark book, The logic of evangelism, William Abraham is equally clear.
“We need to emphasise that by ‘proclamation of the gospel’ we mean the verbal (his italics) proclamation, in order to prevent evangelism from sliding into a thoroughly vague notion that stands for everything and anything that the church does in witness and service.”
Actions are not enough. We have to use words. In some corners of the church it seems as if the heralds have been struck dumb – some messengers have forgotten the message.
So how should we preach the gospel?
“Preach the gospel and if necessary use words” became popular in part because it offers a valuable reminder that our deeds must match our words. Our lives must back up our message. It is undeniable that “they won’t care what we know until they know that we care” Thankfully most strands of the church have recognised this fact and moved increasingly towards what is called “integral mission”, proclamations and demonstrations of the gospel side by side. We should always be loving our neighbours by serving our communities and by striving for compassion, justice and peace. Love in actions should always go hand in hand with delivering the Good News of Jesus in words. But at the same time, as Tim Chester observes, “It is not enough merely to address people’s felt needs. As well as their temporal needs we must also address their eternal need of Christ.” We have to tell people about Jesus.
Another reason the phrase “if necessary use words” seems to resonate is that the image of evangelism has been tarnished by outdated and embarrassing methods, poor literature, approaches which appear manipulative or insensitive to other cultures and the greed of disgraced televangelists. Additionally, many Christians have been discouraged by experiences of evangelistic programmes and events which have appeared to fail. Stuart Murray wrote that, “Rehabilitating and reconfiguring evangelism are crucial but attainable tasks on the threshold of post-Christendom.” But the idea that it is possible to “preach the gospel” without using words is completely mistaken. Changes in the world around us will challenge the church to reflect on the words we use, our attitudes and the stance we should take in evangelism and on the forms of communication we use to share the gospel. But we will still always need to talk about Jesus.
Sociologists tell us that society has become multi-faith and multicultural, Post-Modern and Post-Christendom. Many people have rejected not only Christian values but also any concept of absolute truth. Truth is not regarded as objective, rooted in fact, but as subjective, rooted in experience and consequently understood to be different for each person. Nowadays we are told that the only thing we can be certain of is that we aren’t allowed to be certain about anything anymore. It is seen as politically incorrect to challenge somebody else’s opinion. As a result, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is unique, the only way to God (John 14:6) and the only source of salvation (Acts 4:12) can seem ill-mannered and even arrogant. I’m going to say much more about these things next week.
But however unpopular our message may appear, Bishop Lesslie Newbigin emphasised that our authority for mission comes “in the Name of Jesus” (Matthew 28:18-19) as Christ sends us out with a life-or-death message. We must not compromise and we dare not be silent. Andrew Kirk defines evangelism as “the process of communicating the most crucial piece of knowledge possible about real life in such a way that the recipient has the maximum opportunity to understand and act upon it.” Fundamentally the mandate for preaching the gospel is found within that most important message – so vital that it deserves and demands to be passed on. As Walter Brueggemann wrote, it is “the simple ‘news’ of the gospel itself that provides a missionary impetus for sharing the news with our ‘news starved’ society. Finally, the ground of evangelism is found in the gospel itself, and not in any church condition or societal need.” The gospel of Jesus Christ contains within itself our authority for proclaiming it.
When we talk about Jesus, Christians are not claiming to be superior to other people. What Christians believe is that we have an understanding of life which is missing in other faiths but that reaching that truth is not an achievement worthy of praise. Rather it is a revelation, a gift from God. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9). So it is not arrogant or conceited or self-righteousness to claim to have discovered that truth. It is offered equally to everyone as a free gift.
That said, Christians need to recognise that the church is not the centre of society any more. We are speaking “from the edge.” Most folk have very little knowledge of the Bible or of the life and teaching of Jesus, things which were presupposed in the evangelistic approach of Billy Graham and to some extent in courses like Alpha and Christianity Explored. More than that, many people have rejected Christianity as old fashioned, irrelevant, patriarchal, homophobic, authoritarian, judgmental and hypocritical and expressing an outdated morality, causing wars, persecuting opponents and abusing the planet. We must be sensitive to the attitudes many people have towards Christians and the church.
We live in a consumer society. As Graham Cray put it, “Tesco ergo Sum, I shop therefore I am”. People demand freedom of choice and satisfaction guaranteed. In this Post-Modern supermarket of beliefs, many people think that any preacher is “just another dodgy salesperson almost certainly out to con you.” For all these reasons, Christians need to change our attitudes and our stance in our evangelism. Stuart Murray suggests this will require “renouncing imperialist language and cultural imposition, making truth claims with humility and respecting other viewpoints.” We must remember that we are only ever “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” We must recognise how alien church and Christian things can appear. We need to express the Good News in words and metaphors which our neighbours can actually understand.
The very word “preaching” carries negative connotations. “Don’t preach at me!” But even in Acts public preaching and proclamation were not the only ways that the gospel was communicated. The patterns of evangelism we see in Acts were written to give us examples of what we could, and probably often should, be doing. 17 times the gospel was preached (17 times) and 10 times it was proclaimed to large groups. But there was also debate (twice) and teaching (10 times) both in public and in private homes (Acts 20:28). Sometimes we see small groups and even one-to-one conversations (for example Philip with the Ethiopian Official in Acts 8:26ff). 5 times Christians explained the gospel and 4 times they attempted to persuade or convince other people. Often they did not even need to initiate the conversations. On 10 occasions we find Christians simply answering or replying to questions. Sometimes they pointed to Scripture. In other situations occasions they simply testified (6 times) or acted as witnesses (9 times) regarding their personal experiences. And that word testifying or being a witness appears 69 times across the New Testament. In passing, this gives us just in Acts a list of at least 74 instances of verbal communication when the first Christians evidently found it necessary to use words to communicate the gospel. But less than one third of those occasions were public preaching or proclaiming.
Back in the 1990s I came up with a slogan: “Dialogue teaches the parts monologue can’t teach.” I used it in the first book I wrote on Christian education which was published by the Baptist Union. In evangelism I would phrase it slightly differently. “Dialogue reaches the hearts monologue can’t reach.” Often the best way to convey the gospel message today will be through dialogue, by engaging in conversations which explore spirituality and share faith, by teaching and explaining, persuading, convincing, sharing Scripture, and frequently just by answering questions.
Stuart Murray has written that evangelism should become “Engaging in conversation rather than confrontation – evangelism alongside others, not declaiming from an authoritative height, through dialogue instead of monologue,” “Gentle questioning must supersede domineering assertions. Bold humility must replace arrogant insecurity. The images of fellow travellers and conversation partners must usurp memories of inquisitors and crusaders.” We can share the gospel humbly and simply in conversations about Jesus.
You will still read and hear the saying we started with: “Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.” I hope you can now see why I really, really don’t like it. Christians can’t hide behind it. Of course, we are allowed to talk about Jesus. More than that, the Bible makes clear that out of gratitude to God it will always be appropriate for every Christian to express the life-saving Good News of Jesus in words as well as in actions. No trendy slogan will ever give us permission to be silent. The evangelist Michael Green said this. “It is not until church members have the enthusiasm to speak to their friends and acquaintances about Jesus that anybody will really believe we have got good news to share.” We should show God’s love in our actions, but people will only be saved if we also tell them about Jesus in words. We all need to make the best of every opportunity to talk about Jesus. We need to be prepared to give an answer for the hope which is in us. Preach the gospel – since it is necessary, use words!

Can you remember what life was like when you first became a Christian? Before I became a Christian when I was 16 I had no contact with church or Christian things at all. So when I discovered Jesus many things were unfamiliar to me. I had so much to learn. And that is true for anybody who becomes a Christian today, especially if they have not been involved in church before. Let me remind you of some of the things a person will discover in their early days of following Jesus.
To begin with they will find out what being a Christian is actually about. Being a Christian is not about turning over a new leaf, working hard to become a better person. It is living a new life, that is a change as dramatic as a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.
When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17 Living Bible translation)
Jesus has died so that our sins can be forgiven.
All we like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way.
But the Lord has laid on HIM the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Jesus has risen from the dead and He shares with us His resurrection life. That mighty power of God which raised Jesus from the dead is at work in OUR lives day by day! Through Jesus, God gives us a new life to live.
Christ was without sin, but God made Him share our sin, so that in union with Him we might share God’s righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21 in the Good News Bible)
Our PAST is dealt with – all our guilt and failure is replaced by forgiveness.
Our PRESENT is transformed – as we live life in all its fullness in a personal relationship with God.
Our FUTURE is certain as the fear of death is replaced by the happy certainty of heaven.
This is the Good News Jesus Christ brings to us all. This is the new life He offers EVERY ONE OF US. When a person first starts following Jesus, it is very important that they understand what it actually means to be a Christian. A new life has begun!
Then especially in the early days it is important to be certain of our salvation. We have a brand new life. But we still sin. We still do and say and think things which we wish we did not. A new Christian can be worried that they might somehow sin so badly that they lose their salvation. But this cannot happen. Jesus promised, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10 :27-30)
Jesus is promising us that the eternal destiny of every true Christian is completely secure. We are once saved, always saved, for at least three reasons.
Firstly, because of our new relationship with God. God has changed us from His enemies into His friends. More than that, we are adopted into God’s family as His beloved children We are no longer “lost sheep” – instead we belong to Christ’s flock. Nothing we can do will cause God to take that new status as His children away from us again. Jesus promises that our loving heavenly Father would never turn away or reject or disinherit one of His own children (John 6:35-40).
John 6 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. … 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. … 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Secondly , we can be assured of our salvation because we have been born again to a new life. A Christian is someone who has been born again. They share in Christ’s resurrection life. They have passed from death to life. They are no longer in darkness – they have come into the light. It is God the Holy Spirit living inside us which gives us this life in all its fullness and God will never take His Holy Spirit away from us.
Thirdly , we can be certain that God can and will keep us safe. The eternal security of every believer rests ultimately safe in God’s hands, not our own. We do not have to work hard to “keep our place” in God’s family – that place is guaranteed by God Himself. God is greater than everything. He CAN and WILL keep us safe. God will never reject us and NOTHING in the universe can ever separate us from God’s love. Once saved, always saved.
Many Christians go through times of discouragement and even doubt when they might say “But I don’t FEEL as though God loves me.” Physical problems, like tiredness, illness and stress, can cause us to doubt our own salvation. Emotional upsets can shake our faith, like grief, anxiety, fear or disappointment. It is vital that we recognise that what SEEMS to be true is not always the same as what IS true. Feelings don’t change facts. We can’t trust our feelings in spiritual matters Instead we put our trust in God Himself, and His promises in His Word the Bible. We need to see our spiritual situation from the eternal perspective of God and His promises, and not let ourselves be weighed down by circumstances. We all need to learn to live by faith, not by sight.
Sometimes our faith is shaken when, even as established Christians, we fall into sin. We are overcome with guilt, and feel that God could never forgive us if we have rejected His love so badly. It may be our pride that is most hurt – we have failed to live up to the standards we demand of ourselves. But however much we may be surprised at our own sinfulness, God isn’t. Jesus died for those sins too! We are already forgiven. As Christians we do not forfeit our eternal life when we sin (however deliberately or seriously) otherwise none of us would ever stay saved for very long! We can always come back to God in confession. “It’s not the falling that hurts, but the staying on the floor!”
Once saved, always saved. Then as well as assurance of their salvation, New Christians need encouragement to live their new life. The Bible word for a follower of Jesus is a disciple, which means a learner. New Christians need to work out what is means to follow Jesus in their daily lives. Giving a Bible to a new Christian and leaving them to find their own way is like putting a baby into a larder with a can-opener and saying, “Get on with it.” New Christians need help to understand the Bible.
New Christians need help in learning how to pray. Prayer is conversation with God and it takes us all more than a lifetime to learn to pray as we could. Like learning to ride a bicycle or learning to play the piano, we learn to pray by praying. As C.H.Spurgeon once said, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.” We learn thanksgiving, adoration, worship, praying for others. And we also need to learn how to listen to God as we pray. But like many aspects of the Christian life, prayer is better caught than taught and new Christians best learn how to pray by praying with others.
There are other aspects of being a Christian which can be unfamiliar to new Christians. One is church. The church is not a building, or an organisation. The church is the people, the Family of those who have God as Father. Our salvation is a shared experience. But lots of things in church will be very strange to a new Christian. They need to discover what worship is all about. And there is this weird thing called “fellowship” which simply means helping each other live our Christian faith, caring, sharing and bearing one another’s burdens. Established Christians know what Communion is about, but eating bread and sharing non-alcoholic wine to celebrate Jesus’s death and resurrection will be something new and mysterious to a new Christian.
Being a Christian is not like being a soloist, but rather a member of a choir or orchestra. It is not like playing an individual sport – it’s a team game. Christians need each other – we belong together. C. S. Lewis wrote, “The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted. So we must be regular practicing members of the church. Of course we differ in temperament. Some (like you – and me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude; but we must go to church as well. For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities, but the body of Christ, in which all members, however different (and (God) rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”
Living the Christian life is not easy! We are in a ”tug of war” between our old life and our new life in Christ. The entrance fee to heaven is free, Jesus has already paid it by his death on the cross for our sins. But the annual subscription is everything, everything we own, everything we have, everything we are. Discipleship is an ongoing commitment to Jesus Christ, all or nothing, day after day, the never stopped, unceasingly! You can have a part time job. You could even be a part time policeman or a part-time nurse. But you can’t be a part-time Christian. That idea is a silly as the idea of being a part time husband or a part time parent or a part time human being! New Christians need to see examples of what it really means to follow Jesus, the Good News of Jesus translated into daily living.
If all of this sounds difficult, remember that God gives the Holy Spirit to every Christian. The Holy Spirit is God Himself living inside us to be our “Helper.” The Holy Spirit helps us to know Jesus better, to understand the Bible and to pray. The Holy Spirit helps us to tell others about Jesus and the Holy Spirit helps us to become more like Jesus. All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Every Christian needs to experience for themselves the love and joy and peace and power which the Holy Spirit brings.
So here are the most important things a new Christian needs to discover. Just what it means to be a Christian. How we can be sure that we are truly saved. Learning how to pray and how to understand the Bible for ourselves. Learning how to live the Christian life. Finding their place in the church. How to follow Jesus and how to resist temptation. And discovering the difference Jesus makes through the power of the Holy Spirit, God living within every Christian.
Think back to when you first became a Christian. What helped you to grow as a Christian? What kept you going when things got tough? It probably wasn’t inspiring sermons or Christian meetings or events. I suspect it wasn’t particular Bible passages or Christian books. I am sure that the most important positive influence on new Christians is having Christian friends. Friends who accepted us and took care of us. Friends who would stay up into the night answering our weird questions. I am forever grateful to my school friends Neil and Paul. They introduced me to Jesus through their own lives and by welcoming me to the Christian groups they belonged to. And they patiently cared for me in the early days and months when I was finding out what following Jesus really meant.
It really helps a new Christian to have established Christians around who will help them form their basic beliefs and also help them to settle into a church. It is good to have somebody there to talk through issues and problems. And of course it is good for a new Christian if they have others who are praying regularly and faithfully for them. New Christians really appreciate help and encouragement from more mature believers as they are beginning the Christian life. Having a friend, or a ‘‘spiritual aunt or uncle’’ to study the Bible with, and pray with and just to talk about faith with can make all the difference. Sometimes such friendships develop naturally but if not it helps if they can be intentionally established.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:8)
Here is the perfect example for “spiritual friends and aunts and uncles” who want to help a new Christian take the first steps of faith. You are not just helping them understand the basics of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. You are sharing your life. You are showing them what it means to you to be a Christian in everyday living. You are their role model for praying, for understanding and applying the Bible, for living a loving and holy and Christ-like life. This happens through friendship, discussion and caring and above all by praying, for them and with them. You may be the first close contact they have ever had with a Christian. You are an Ambassador for Christ and for the Church and the new Christian you are helping will be looking at your example of loyalty and enthusiasm.
Among other things, you will be aiming to help them to find a pattern of daily prayer and Bible reading. You will point them to appropriate Christian books to read, music to listen to, DVDs to watch and websites to visit. You will introduce them to your Christians friends, especially helping them not to feel left out or lost in their early days in church. Above all you will be there to answer their questions and to encourage them.
Five years ago, to celebrate my quarter century as a Baptist Minister, I gave everybody a copy of my first book, “Making Disciples One-to-One.” If you weren’t with us then please ask and I can give you one today. Part 4 of that book is an eight-week course called “One to One for New Christians”. It is a framework for an established Christian to meet up with a new Christian to encourage them in their faith and talk through exactly the issues I have been talking about this morning. Each session contains some notes introducing the theme for the week, Bible passages to look at, questions to discuss and relevant subjects for prayer.
If you are an established Christian, would you be willing to get together with a new Christian to work through that course with them? To be their spiritual friend, or aunt or uncle in the early days of their new faith? Then please come and tell me and I will have you in mind when the opportunity arises.
Or are you a new Christian? Would you like to work through the course of “One-to-one for New Christians”? Would you appreciate meeting up with somebody who can help you find your way as you are starting to follow Jesus? Please come and speak to me and I will suggest somebody you might like to meet with.
After a distinguished career as a performer, the famous virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz became a professor of music. Somebody asked him what had prompted his change of career. The violinist replied: “Violin playing is a perishable art. It must be passed on as a personal skill; otherwise it is lost.” None of us can learn to live the Christian life just by reading books or following courses. We all need instruction in the “perishable art” of Christian living. And many people have found “One-to-One for New Christians” to be a wonderful help in following Jesus and a great way for the church to care for new Christians.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV)

Every church and every Christian needs to be making the very best of every opportunity to talk about Jesus. Michael Green wrote, “Personal conversation is the best way of evangelism. It is natural, it can be done anywhere, it can be done by anyone.” We wish we could have more conversations about Jesus and share our faith with our friends and neighbours and colleagues. But often we are scared that we won’t know what to say. We are afraid we will say the wrong things, or that people will ask us questions we cannot answer. But there are things we can do to help ourselves.

1 Peter 3:15. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

Be prepared to give an answer. As a witness would prepare to give their testimony and to answer questions in a court of law. We talked about this important subject last autumn. This morning let me remind you of just a few of the things we said then as we look forward to our Family Fun Afternoon and particularly to our Mission Weekend with Marina and Nick and the Healing Bus at the end of November. We can make sure we are prepared to give an answer.

We can prepare to share our story. Things we might say to tell other people about the difference Jesus makes in our lives. Answers to prayer. Ways that God has guided us or healed us. Experiences we have had of God’s love and joy and peace. In particular we can think through what we might say if somebody asked us how we became a Christian. Talking about what life was like before we knew Jesus, how we came to know Jesus and then the difference becoming a Christian made to our lives then as well as now. Before. How. After. You may remember that last year we talked about Jesus over our refreshments and many of us also stayed on and shared two lunches together practising talking about Jesus to each other. It’s true what they say. “Practice makes perfect.” Prepared to tell our story.

Sometimes when we are talking about Jesus the very best thing we can do is share a verse from the Bible or tell our friend a story from the Gospels about Jesus. Spurgeon said, “Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.” Sometimes we just need to unchain the lion and share the Bible with our friends. That is why last year we had those memory verses to learn. I wonder how many of them you remembered? John 3:16, Mark 10:45, Philippians 4:6-7, John 10:30, John 14:6, 2 Cor 5:21 As Psalm 119 says, I have hidden your word in my heart. Prepared to share the Bible.
Then before we talk to our friends about God, we need to talk to God about our friends. We need to pray about talking about Jesus, especially if we are scared about sharing our faith with other people.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:18-20)

The apostle Paul was asking the Ephesian Christians to pray for him that he might be a faithful ambassador for Jesus. He asked them to pray that he might talk about Jesus without being afraid. If the apostle Paul needed people to pray those things for him, then we do even more. We should be praying those kind of prayers for ourselves and for each other. Especially if we are scared or worried about talking about Jesus, we should pray about that. Paul also asked the Colossians to pray for his witness for Jesus.
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (Colossians 4:2-4)

Here Paul asked other Christians to pray for him, that God will open doors for him to talk about Jesus and that he will be clear in what he says when he does. We can pray those things for ourselves and for each other; very specific prayers that God will give us opportunities for conversations about Jesus. Even the Early Church needed to pray for courage to speak out about Jesus, and God answered their prayers. And remember what happened when they prayed.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:29-31)

So we can prepare ourselves to share our story of the difference Jesus makes in our lives, and by learning Bible verses. We prepare by praying about talking about Jesus. And then we can prepare by thinking about the kinds of questions people who are not Christians have about Jesus and faith and spiritual things and thinking through some answers we might give them. We had a whole series of sermons on this topic last Autumn. Let me just refresh your memory of some of those.

1. What is salvation?
We used the picture of a lifeboat rescuing somebody from drowning to talk about salvation. We have been saved from sin. We are being saved as we enjoy life in all its fullness here and now. And we will be saved as our eternal life continues beyond death into our glorious inheritance of heaven. We also used the picture of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly to illustrate Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:17, When a person becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun! The starting point for anybody of course is to recognise that they need to be saved.
2. What is the point of life?
Human beings were created to enjoy a relationship with God. We have a God-shaped gap in our hearts and lives which only knowing God can fill. Life in all its fullness, joy and peace and freedom and victory are all wrapped up in this wonderful relationship with God. That is the point of life.
3. How can we have a relationship with God?
God has made a way for us to know Him – and that way is Jesus Christ.
But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3 verses 21-22)
All human beings share a common problem. We are cut off from God by sin. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (verse 23 in the New Living Translation.) Sin is that little word with “I” in the middle which sums up everything which goes wrong when people live with “I” in the middle of their lives and shut God out. Sin leads to physical death and to spiritual death. But God has dealt with this problem of sin.
But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. (Good News Bible verse 24) God’s way of salvation is all wrapped up in Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (verse 25 NIV) Our forgiveness comes at the terrible price of the crucifixion of Jesus. But through Jesus human beings may enter into a relationship with God.

4. How should we respond to the Good News?
The heart of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is God, Jesus had died for our sins, Jesus is risen from the dead and Jesus is Lord. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. More important than any employer, or military figure, or political leader. More important even than the Emperor of the Roman Empire. Jesus is Lord. And Paul writes in Romans 10
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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

We respond to the gospel by faith which is both heartfelt and outwardly expressed. We put our trust in Jesus who is risen from the dead and Lord of all. As we put our trust in God and receive His promises for ourselves, we are born again to eternal life. (BLONDIN) Jesus called the fishermen Peter and Andrew, James and John with these words, “Repent and believe the good news.” As we turn away from sin and towards God, as we make a U-turn in our lives and put our trust in Jesus, our new life begins. (FREDERIC II)
5. Didn’t he used to be dead?
The resurrection is the heart of our Christian faith. The historical event of God raising Jesus from the dead is the turning point of human history. Christians will want to be able to defend our belief that Jesus rose on that first Easter Sunday. So we can talk about the evidence that the tomb of Jesus was empty. We can talk about the many occasions after his death when Jesus appeared to his disciples alive again. We can talk about the growth of the change in the disciples and the growth of the church. And we can point to the difference which the Risen Jesus makes in the lives of Christians today, and even in our lives.
6. What makes you believe that God exists?
It makes no sense for anyone to say that God could not possibly exist. They should only say that if God does exist, they have not seen evidence that he does. So Christians can point to the Bible and to the Church. We can point to signs of the glory of God in the wonderful design of Creation. We can point again to the difference Jesus makes in the lives of Christians today. And we can point to Jesus Himself. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” said Jesus. “I and the Father are one.”
7. Just how did God make the world?
We can point to the many Christians who are also scientists and that doesn’t stop them from believing in Jesus.
8. Can we trust the New Testament?
We can talk about the Gospels being written by eyewitnesses and the fact that the whole church supported those claims. We can talk about the inspiration of the Bible, the impact which God’s Word has had on so many people through the ages and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to the truth of the Bible
9. Is Jesus the only way to God?
Everything about Jesus was unique: his birth, his teaching, his ministry, his death and above all His resurrection. And this is what Jesus said about himself. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

These are the most common questions people ask about Jesus and the Christian faith. And there are answers for each of them in the book, “Prepared to Give an Answer.” We can all prepare ourselves to give an answer when the opportunity arises.

Paul encouraged Timothy, Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season. (2 Timothy 4:2 NIV). Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. (New Living Transl)

God calls every Christian to share the Good News of Jesus with our friends. We are all Ambassadors for Jesus. As Michael Green says, “It is not until church members have the enthusiasm to speak to their friends and acquaintances about Jesus that anybody will really believe we have got good news to share.”

In his book, “Becoming a Contagious Christian,” Bill Hybels of Willow Creek holds out an exciting vision of what could happen as more Christians are empowered to talk about Jesus. “When ordinary Christians throughout the fabric of the church get trained and active in spreading their faith – you’d better watch out! A whole new era of lifechange is going to explode!”

I have shared before with you a dream I had just before we came to North Springfield. I was all set to preach a sermon on taking risks for the sake of the gospel, in preparation for a town-wide mission I was leading. On the night before I had a dream which I believe was prophetic. In the dream I was looking at the wall of our church and there I saw a painting. The painting showed fields next to a river on a bright sunny day. On the riverbank a large group of people were having a lovely time enjoying a picnic together as rowing boats went past along the river.

Then in my dream, next to that painting on the wall I saw another painting. It showed a scene further along the same river. Just around a bend, just out of view of the people having their picnic, there was a Niagara Falls sized waterfall. All the people in all the boats passing by were plunging to their deaths over the waterfall.

And all the time the people on the riverbank just went on enjoying their picnic. Nobody was throwing out lifelines to the boats passing by. Nobody was shouting out warnings to the boats. Nobody had even put up a sign saying, “Danger, waterfall ahead.” They just went on with their picnic. Those were the two paintings I saw in my dream. The picnic and the waterfall.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16) It is the message of Good News which is the difference between death and life for this lost world. Christians dare not be silent. Christians need to make the most of every opportunity to talk about Jesus. We all need to be prepared to give an answer.

“What makes you believe that God exists?” “Is Jesus the only way to God?” Here are just two of the questions which Christians will want to be prepared to answer. In each case, as in many other conversations we may have, there is one thing we will want to talk about: the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead! To me the resurrection is clearly the most important evidence for the existence of God. At the same time the resurrection is the historical event which sets Jesus Christ apart from all other religious figures and demonstrates the uniqueness both of Christ and of the Christian faith.
The resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of our Christian belief. This was the content of the good news which the first disciples preached: Jesus is risen from the dead and we have seen Him! (Acts 2:32; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10). It was an encounter with the Risen Christ which transformed the enemy of the church Saul into the Apostle Paul. The resurrection was at the heart of the creed of the Early Church (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) and the ultimate proof that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of all. The resurrection is integral to the most simple confession of faith,
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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NIV)
It follows that Christians will want to be able to defend our belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There are at least four strands of evidence we can point to.
We can start with the empty tomb. The evidence that the tomb was empty is conclusive. The burial site was known to Christians, Jews and Romans. If any of His opponents knew where the body of Jesus was, they would have said so. No alternative theory for the disappearance of the body holds water. The first Jewish response to claims of the resurrection, “the disciples stole the body,” is recorded in Matthew 28 but that presupposes the fact that the tomb was actually empty. The empty tomb it was discovered by women who in those times would be viewed as very unreliable witnesses and that makes it highly implausible that the story of the empty tomb was invented.
The gospel accounts of the resurrection are based on earlier accounts which may have been written or may equally have been passed on mouth-to-mouth in oral tradition. Both would have been reliable and surely originated within only a few years of Jesus’s death, as were the many mentions of the resurrection in the New Testament Letters. The four gospels contain different accounts of the resurrection, and the Longer Ending of Mark then makes a fifth account all telling a similar story but with enough differences to imply independent witnesses. D. H. van Daalen has pointed out, “It is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions.”

We can then talk about the resurrection appearances of Jesus to His disciples. The catalogue of appearances in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 is very likely a pre-existing Christian tradition which Paul received from the Jerusalem apostles early in his ministry, which dates it to within five years of the death of Christ. Many of those named eyewitnesses to the resurrection were certainly still alive when Paul wrote and the combined impact of their testimony cannot be dismissed as mere “legend.” New Testament scholar Norman Perrin wrote, “The more we study the tradition with regard to the appearances, the firmer the rock begins to appear upon which they are based.”
Defending the historical event of the resurrection we can go on to points to the origins and the growth of the church and of the Christian faith. William Lane Craig wrote, “Without belief in Jesus’ resurrection, Christianity could never have come into being. The crucifixion would have remained the final tragedy in the hapless life of Jesus. The origin of Christianity hinges on the belief of these earliest disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead.” That belief could not have arisen from “Christian sources” since Christianity was only beginning to be established! Nor was it consistent with Jewish understandings of resurrection, which some anticipated but only after the end of the world, not during human history, and for all of God’s people, not just for one individual. The only coherent explanation for the emergence of the belief in the resurrection and the consequent expansion of the church is that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. As C.F.D. Moule wrote:
“If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested by the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of the Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with? … the birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church … remain an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the church itself.” Jesus did indeed rise from the dead!
The popular notion that the disciples stole the body and invented the story of the resurrection is unconvincing. Honest men seeking to invent a religion which prizes truth so highly would not build its whole foundation on a lie. And a group of people who had seen their leader crucified and were terrified they would be next would not suddenly start preaching and even be martyred insisting that that Jesus was alive if they knew that was untrue. The only credible explanation for the dramatic change in the lives of all the disciples is that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. It is equally unrealistic to suggest that Jesus did not actually die on the cross but merely swooned and then woke up in the tomb, or to suggest that all the disciples experienced hallucinations. Sherlock Holmes made the point well. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
In this post-modern post-Christendom world people are not always persuaded by, nor are they necessarily even interested in historical facts. As well as being able to produce evidence for the historicity of the resurrection it is also appropriate for us to point to other evidence that Jesus Christ is alive. Christians should not be afraid of talking about our own experiences of Jesus, the differences Jesus makes in our own lives and that we have seen Jesus make in the lives of other people: answers to prayer, experiences of healing and peace and joy and guidance. From our own personal experiences, Christians have very good reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead and is alive with us today!
The theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said this. “The evidence for Jesus’s resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things. First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.” So Christians can talk about the evidence for the empty tomb, the resurrection appearances, the spectacular rise of the early church and the difference the Risen Christ has made in the lives of Christians through history and even in our own lives. Separately and together these point to the historical event when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. It proves that the claims Jesus made about Himself were true. It gives us good reason to believe that the rest of the Bible is true too and equally to believe that the God of the Bible exists. The resurrection points to the uniqueness of Christ and the uniqueness of the Christian faith which confirms the claim Jesus made, “No-one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) The resurrection is God’s warning to humanity of impending judgment (Acts 17:31). At the same time in the face of post-modern pessimism regarding life beyond death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the grounds of a genuine hope of eternal life. Because He lives we will live also! This is the Good News Christians have been given to share.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) For four months leading up to Christmas we were getting “prepared to answer” – learning how to talk about Jesus more wisely and boldly, confidently and effectively. Our message today wraps up that series. Firstly, it talks about the wonderful new life we enjoy as Christians.

A BRAND NEW PERSON
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Actually most translations are not accurate at this point. Most say, “He is a new creation,” or “he is a new person”. Literally Paul says, “there is a new creation”.
The MESSAGE puts it well. “Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.”
The Living Bible expresses this wonderful truth beautifully.
When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun! (Living Bible)
Most religions are all about turning over a new leaf, working hard to become a better person, struggling to try to live up to God’s standards. But becoming a Christian isn’t about turning over a new leaf. Becoming a Christian is about beginning a new life! God doesn’t just call us to follow the example He has given us in Jesus Christ and to live by Jesus’s teachings. God actually makes it possible for US to share in Jesus’s life! So as Christians we enjoy a brand new life. That newness of life is not just “less old”, like changing to a newer car. Nor is it like so many washing powders just some “new improved” version of the old life.
It is not the kind of superficial change you see in all those “makeover” shows. God’s work in our lives is not mere cosmetic surgery. It is a heart transplant. God gives us a brand new life – a dramatic transformation from the old, like the butterfly emerging from the caterpillar.
But God does not want Christians to keep this amazing good news to ourselves!

WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

We are Christ’s ambassadors. We are His representatives. We are His Messengers. What an amazing privilege. And what an awesome responsibility!
We could all name literally hundreds of famous people. Monarchs. Politicians. Sports people and entertainers. Although their influence representing our country is enormous, I can only name one ambassador. Andy Sparks, CMG was Her Majesty’s Ambassador first to the Congo, then to Kosovo, and most recently to Nepal. We happened to be at university together. Ambassadors are very important diplomats. But most of the time we haven’t a clue who our ambassadors are. The glorious task of an Ambassador is to draw attention to the one they are representing, not to themselves.
Ambassadors don’t have any choice about whether they deliver their Sovereign’s messages or not. That is their job. That is their responsibility. They may be scared of the reaction their message may provoke. But ambassadors don’t have the option of staying silent. Their job is to speak!
We may be scared of talking about Jesus and delivering the life-saving message of salvation. But we don’t have a choice. Even the apostle Paul was scared of talking about Jesus, understandably because among many other sufferings Paul had ended up in prison for preaching the gospel! But Paul was conscious of his responsibility as an ambassador for Christ, so he asked the church at Ephesus to pray for him.
“Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:19-20)

If we find ourselves anxious or afraid of fulfilling our responsibilities as ambassadors for Christ there is one thing we should bear in mind. What is the source of an ambassador’s authority? They never speak on their own authority. They always speak on the authority of the ruler who they represent. In the first century a Roman Ambassador was the personal representative of the Roman Emperor himself.
Christians do not talk about Jesus on their own authority. We don’t share the gospel on our own authority. We do so because Almighty God commands us to. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
… as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
20 Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us.
We are speaking for Christ, on His behalf. The message is not our message but God’s message. And we are not delivering it on our authority but on the authority of the One we represent, even Almighty God.
Matthew 28 18Jesus drew near and said to them, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”
When we talk about Jesus and share the good news, and seek to help others to become His disciples, we are only doing so in obedience to the command of Jesus Himself, Jesus who has all authority in heaven and on earth! Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And Jesus has appointed us to be HIS ambassadors. We are HIS representatives. We are HIS Messengers.
But Jesus’s Great Commission isn’t our only motive, or even the most important motive for talking about Jesus. Earlier in the passage Paul says, “Christ’s love compels us.”
2 Corinthians 5 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Paul talks about the love of Christ. He is not talking about the love we have for Christ, although that should be a motive for obeying Christ. Paul is talking about Christ’s love for us. Jesus loved us so much that He died for us! So we should live new lives, not doing whatever we want but doing what Jesus wants. Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead to give us this new life. When we realize just how much Jesus loves us, we will want to tell other people about Jesus so they can come to experience this new life for themselves. Christ’s love for us will indeed compel us to reach out with His love to our friends and neighbours and colleagues and even to strangers. God loves them too – and we will want them to know that!
Probably the greatest evangelical thinker of the 20th Century, Karl Barth wrote, “The church exists to preach the gospel. The life of the one holy Universal Church is determined by the fact that it is the fulfilment of the service as ambassador enjoined upon it.”
“Where the life of the Church is exhausted in self-serving, it smacks of death; the decisive thing has been forgotten, that this whole life is lived only in the exercise of what we called the Church’s service as ambassador, in proclamation.”
“The “Christ-believing group” … is sent out: “Go and preach the gospel!” … In it all the one thing must prevail: “Proclaim the gospel to every creature!” The Church runs like a herald to deliver the message.”
God has appointed us to be Ambassadors for Jesus. To drive home his point, Paul then explains for us the heart of God’s masterplan of salvation.

THE GREAT EXCHANGE – OUR SIN FOR GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
This one verse explains perfectly the wonderful salvation Jesus obtained for us by His death on the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Good News Bible translates the verse like this.
21Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
God took the initiative in bringing us back to Himself. There was nothing we could do to make a way for us to know God. So God gave His one and only Son for us. And Jesus took all of our sin on Himself by dying on the cross.
Jesus took the physical place which the notorious revolutionary Barabbas should have occupied on that middle cross between the two thieves. But Jesus took our place spiritually taking upon Himself the wrath of God. Jesus shared our sin. In fact, Paul says something even more amazing. Literally Paul says that the holy and sinless Son of God was made to BE sin for us, on our behalf. All the sin of humanity splitting the eternal Holy Trinity in two for our sakes, for our salvation, so that we might share or even become the righteousness of God!
Again the Living Bible expresses this verse beautifully. “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us.”
The second century Bishop Irenaeus explained it like this. “Christ became what we are in order that we might become what he is.” God became a human being so that we could become God’s children. In the incarnation Christ shared in our humanity so that we could share in His divinity. On the cross Christ became sin so that we could become righteous.
As the old hymn says,
“Bearing shame and scoffing rude. In my place condemned He stood.
Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Like that glorious phrase of Graham Kendrick’s, “Exchanging for my wretchedness your radiant robes of righteousness”
Martin Luther explained it this way. “Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness but I am your sin. You took on You what was mine; You set on me what was Yours. You became what you were not that I might become what I was not.”
That is the good news! This is what Jesus has accomplished for us. These are the blessings His death on the Cross have bought for us. And this is the wonderful gospel we have to proclaim. The message which reconciles people to God. The message which changes us from God’s enemies into God’s friends. The great exchange – our sin for God’s righteousness.
So as Christ’s ambassadors we take this good news to a lost world.
We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! 21Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
Over the last three months in this series “Prepared to Answer” we have been thinking about how we can talk about Jesus more boldly and wisely, confidently and effectively. We have been thinking about how we might make the best of every opportunity for conversations about Jesus. Talking about Jesus isn’t something we should just talk about. Talking about Jesus is something we should DO!
I have a recurring nightmare. It is that on my way to the gates of heaven I will have to walk up a path past all sorts of friends and neighbours I haven’t seen for years. Past work colleagues and even members of my family who are trapped outside never to enter. The nightmare is that I will hear each one of them saying to me, “you never told me.” I knew the way to heaven, I had found the way to eternal life, but they say to me, “you never told me. I never knew.”
We are all Ambassadors for Christ.
18… God …through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. 19Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. 20 Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!

This was the first sermon I preached at NSBC before I became their minister. Belatedly I post it here because it fits very well into the series “Prepared to Answer”.

There is a lovely story about a woman who went into an ice cream shop to buy an ice cream. While she was ordering, another customer came in. She placed her order, turned and found herself staring face to face at the legendary actor Paul Newman. He was in town making a film. His blue eyes and his smile were overwhelming. The woman finished paying and quickly walked out of the store with her heart still racing. Then she realised that she hadn’t got her ice cream! She turned to go back in and met Paul Newman at the door coming out. He smiled gently and asked her, “Are you looking for your ice cream cone?” She was too overawed to speak but nodded yes. “Don’t worry,” he said, “You put it in your handbag with your change.”

When was the last time that the presence of God made you forget what was going on around you? Made you forget the dinner cooking at home? Made you forget what you have planned for this afternoon? Made you forget the problems of the week? Made you forget you are sitting in Church? Made you forget what the friends and strangers around you might think if you just let go and worship God? When did you last enjoy being with God so much that nothing else mattered?

Jesus said in John 10:10. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” To “have life and have it more abundantly.” That is what salvation is. Life in all its fulness. “A rich and satisfying life” (New Living Translation) “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message) And this life in all its fulness brings many blessings.

Love – knowing that God loves us and His love will never let us go.
Joy – not the passing happiness which so many people find in the false gods like money and entertainment but true joy which no-one and nothing can take away.
Peace – the calm of knowing that everything is safe in the hands of Almighty God.
Eternal life – which not even death can take away.
Victory over the devil and all the powers of evil – a life which isn’t lived under the circumstances but which triumphs OVER the circumstances.
Freedom – the glorious liberty of the children of God – if the son shall set you free you will be free indeed.

Life in all its fullness! But some Christians are disappointed with the quality of their Christian experience. They have eternal life but they don’t seem to enjoy the love and joy and peace and victory and freedom as much as they hoped they would.

Jesus explains to his disciples and to us what salvation and eternal life and life in all its fullness are really about in John 17:3 as part of His High Priestly prayer.
John 17: 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

That is what eternal life really is all about – knowing God and knowing Christ. Salvation is all about having a personal relationship with God.

That is the whole reason why God has made a way to forgive our sins. There’s no real point in being forgiven in and of itself. The whole point of forgiveness is that God has dealt with the sin which separated human beings from the Holy God. The purpose of forgiveness is so that we can have a relationship with God, that relationship with God for which we were designed and created. Sin has spoiled mankind’s relationship with God. But now the barrier of sin is removed – we can come to know God as He knows us. A personal relationship with God.

Some Christians misunderstand this point. They think that eternal life is some mysterious spiritual something, some quality of life which God gives to Christians when they are born again which stays with them forever. Eternal life isn’t like that at all!! Some Christians think that after we are born again, love and joy and peace and victory and freedom are experiences which will come to us in some way apart from God, separate from God Himself. But that is NOT the way it works. Love and joy and peace and victory and freedom DO come to Christians, but they come THROUGH our relationship with God and not apart from Him. Knowing God brings us love. Knowing God brings us joy. Knowing God brings us peace. Knowing God brings us victory. Knowing God brings us freedom. But all these blessings only arise from and through our relationship with God.

I am going to say that again so everybody will understand. Our relationship with God is a NOT a means by which we can enjoy blessings like love and joy and peace and victory and freedom. Knowing God is not a means to anything – knowing God is the most worthy and desirable end in itself. All the wonderful blessings of salvation are incidental to the true blessing which is the blessing of knowing God. Eternal life IS that relationship with God – and there are NO blessings which come outside of that relationship with God!

We believe in the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one substance, God the three in one. God Himself, within Himself, is relationship and community. In our salvation God invites us to enter into that community within God himself. At the same time we become part of that eternal community, God’s forever family, the body of Christ, the church. This is the key to understanding what salvation and eternal life are all about. Eternal life is experiencing a relationship with the Almighty and Eternal God. Like the relationship between the Good shepherd and His sheep.

John 10:3… the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

More than that, Jesus promises His disciples that we will have the same kind of intimate relationship with God the Father as He Himself enjoys.
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever— 17 the Spirit of truth. … you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ….20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. …. 23My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

That close personal relationship with God is what Jesus prays for us in John 17: , Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us … . 22 … that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. 26 in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

This is what eternal life is – that relationship with God, God living in us, Father Son and Holy Spirit making their home in us. We experience our relationship with God in a variety of ways. The most important are also the most obvious – prayer, Bible Study, worship, fellowship with our brothers and sisters, and of course communion through bread and wine. These are not just ways which God might choose to bless us. They are the ways in which we talk to God and He talks to us. They are the ways by which we receive the joy and peace which come from loving God and knowing He loves us. They are the ways in which we experience that victory and that freedom which come from our relationship with God. So we should pray and read the Bible and worship because these are the ways we experience that relationship with God which is what eternal life is really about.

So how can we experience this fullness of life which Jesus promises us? Some Christians expect that all they have to do is just sit around, and then love and joy and peace and victory and freedom will flood into their lives. They have missed the point. They will only enjoy those blessings as they enjoy their relationship with God. For example, think about prayer.

God promises in Philippians 4:7, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
But how do we come to experience that wonderful peace?
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer
Oh what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

God’s peace comes from our relationship with God which lets us commit every part of our lives to Him in prayer. Paul continues,
11 … I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. …. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. ….

God gives us wonderful contentment and divine strength– but these do not come “in abstract”. They come as we enjoy communion with God and draw on His strength!

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Again, our peace comes from the act of fixing our minds on God, relying on him and consciously putting our trust in him. Joy is the same. It comes from our relationship with God!

Psalms 16:11 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Joy in your presence! I don’t understand how some Christians can say they are eager to get to heaven to spend eternity in God’s presence, when they don’t enjoy spending time with God now. The chief end of man, the destiny of human beings, the purpose for which we were created, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Our job on earth is to learn to enjoy God – that is what life in all its fulness is all about!

Psalm37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We receive everything we most desire and everything we most need, when we delight ourselves IN THE LORD.

We delight in God and we get to know God through prayer. Prayer isn’t just a useful tool to help us in our Christian service. Richard Foster wrote, “Prayer is nothing more than our ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Prayer is the heart of our relationship with God.

Then we also spend time with God by reading and studying our Bibles. The Bible is God’s love letter to the church. It tells us how much God loves us! We should want to spend time listening to what God has to say to us. And we spend time with God in Worship – giving time to praise and thanksgiving and adoration. Worship is God’s children rejoicing in God’s presence. Alone or with others, if we want to enjoy our salvation we need to devote time to meeting with God.

Probably my favourite author, A.W.Tozer has written this.
“The Christian is strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God. Paul devoted his whole life to the art of knowing Christ. He wrote, “All I want is to know Christ.” …. Progress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of … God in personal experience. And such experience requires a whole life devoted to it and plenty of time spent at the holy task of cultivating God. God can be known satisfactorily only as we devote time to Him. ,,,
A thousand distractions would woo us away from thoughts of God, but if we are wise we will sternly put them from us and make room for the King and take time to entertain Him. Some things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it.
God will respond to our efforts to know Him. The Bible tells us how; it is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task. (A.W.Tozer in The Root of the Righteous)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God, for they will be satisfied!” God really wants us to know Him better, to love Him more and more, and to “enjoy Him forever”! That is what eternal life is all about – this personal relationship with “Abba, Father”.

Imagine if you will the tragedy of a MARRIAGE which has gone wrong. The husband and the wife never speak to each other and never spend time together. He does all the cooking and prepares all the meals but they never eat together. Although she always does the washing up she never says thank you. He leaves dirty clothes around which she washes and irons but never sees him wearing them. He never sees her to say thank you. That is not what marriage should be. The chores are there but the relationship is not.
But there is a parable of what the Christian life is like for some people.

The story is told of a husband and wife who never spoke to each other anymore. They only communicated by sending one another notes. The wife always got up early and the husband rather later but one day he had a very important early meeting. So the night before he wrote his wife a note explaining the situation and asking her to be sure to wake him up the next morning at seven o’clock.
When he woke up the following morning it was already nine o’clock and he had missed his meeting. The husband was so upset he actually spoke aloud to his wife. “Why on earth didn’t you wake me up?” he asked.
The wife just pointed to a note she had left on the husband’s pillow. In loud capital letters the note read, “WAKE UP – IT’S SEVEN O’CLOCK!”

That is a sad parable of the way some Christians miss out on life in all its fullness. The
blessings of eternal life are all wrapped up in a personal relationship with the living God. A.W.Tozer said “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But we won’t enjoy eternal life, we won’t ever enjoy life in all its fulness, if we can’t be bothered to pray or read our Bibles or worship or meet with other Christians! Because your relationship with God IS life in all its fulness! Eternal life IS your relationship with God!

What makes you believe that God exists? We have been thinking about questions folk might ask us about our Christian faith and here is one of the most important. What makes us believe there is a God, or that we can get to know that God?
Many people question whether there is a God or not. Not so many are actually convinced that there is no God although some do think that way. In the Bible Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 both say, “The fool says, in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Nowadays people who say that write books about it and even get their own television shows. But the truth is that anybody who confidently declares “there is no God” as if that was a proven fact is indeed foolish. They are making a fundamental mistake. It makes no sense to categorically deny the existence of God who is generally unseen even by those who do believe He exists. It is not meaningful to say that something could not possibly exist. All anyone can reliably say is, “if there is a God I haven’t seen evidence of his existence yet.” People who say “God does not exist” are only expressing their own personal belief. Someone who declares that God cannot possibly exist is making the same mistake as someone who insists that Australia cannot possibly exist, just because they haven’t personally been there (yet). Or somebody who says “the Queen doesn’t exist” because he has never met Her Majesty, and refuses to believe the pictures or the people who claim they have met her!
Isaac Asimov made the same mistake as very many people – “I am an atheist, out and out. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he does not that I don’t want to waste my time.” Asimov had closed his mind to the evidence for God’s existence – so in the end he could not see what many others can! But Christians HAVE seen that evidence. We have experienced the power of God and seen him at work! As a teenager I used to argue vigorously that God couldn’t exist. Then God proved me wrong.
The way we all see the world, our “world view”, depends on where we are standing, where we are coming from. Two people were walking along a river bank one day when they saw a man across the river. “How can we get across?” They shouted. “Why would you be wanting to do that then?” The man asked. “We want to get to the other side” they explained patiently. “Don’t be daft,” the man replied. “You’re already on the other side!”
What we see depends on where we are standing, on our frames of reference and our world view. And we don’t always interpret what we see correctly. Our interpretations can be distorted by our presuppositions, our preconceived ideas, the things we assume and take for granted. A mind which is closed to God may not see God. But a mind which is open to spiritual things can recognise evidence for the existence of God.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
So when Christians and seekers look around the world with the eye of faith, evidence for God’s existence is everywhere. Let me offer you four areas which we can point to as evidence for the existence of God, in order of increasing importance. We might begin by pointing to
The BIBLE and the CHURCH
Some people are struck by the impact and the uniqueness of the Bible. Most people who say “the Bible isn’t true” actually haven’t read the Bible. So we can encourage our friends to open Scripture and rely on God speaking to them through His word. I’ve quoted Spurgeon before. “Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.” We need to unchain the lion and encourage our friends to read the Bible.
We can also talk about the historical impact of the church on the world, and the influence of Christianity on society today. We can talk about all the good things Christians have done and are doing in caring for the poor and working for justice and peace, from William Booth and Lord Shaftsbury to Mother Teresa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from Food Banks and CHESS to Christian Aid and Operation Christmas Child. These things point beyond the individuals to the living God working through them.
Then we can point to the many ways God has revealed Himself in
CREATION
Psalm 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
God has revealed Himself to the world in all He has created.
Romans 1 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
So the Bible tells us that God’s eternal power and His divine nature can clearly be seen. There are many different aspects of the created world which reveal God if we look at creation with the eye of faith. We can point to beauty and majesty in Creation. Sunsets and starry skies, waterfalls and flowers. It was the inventor of the process we use to preserve milk, the French biologist Louis Pasteur who said, “Posterity will someday laugh at the foolishness of our modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature the more I am amazed at the Creator.”
Those of a more scientific mind may appreciate the beauty inherent in mathematics and physics. The way creation works is marvellous to unravel! The 20th century British physicist Paul Dirac once said, “it is more important to have beauty in one’s equations that to have them fit experiment.” We can point to evidence of design in Creation. Biologists can point to the way eyes work, and memory and thinking in the human brain, and the complex interactions of DNA and RNA and proteins in the process of inheritance, which doesn’t happen if even one ingredient in the process is absent. Physicists talk about the “fine tuning of the universe”, the way that the laws of physics, the rate of expansion of the universe and the values of the fundamental constants all fit together in exactly the right balance to make life possible. If any of those were slightly different, no life could exist. All this is evidence of design in the natural world, and design points beyond itself to the Designer.
We can point to the universal spiritual experience of human beings. We are the only animals that pray or worship. When we answered the question, “What is the point of life?” we spoke about the “God shaped gap” in our lives. As Augustine said, back in the fifth century “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Another common experience of all human beings is conscience. Morality is a consequence of us all being created in the image of the holy and righteous God.
Romans 2 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
Our human conscience is evidence for the existence of God.
Finally from creation one of the classic “proofs” of the existence of God is the “cosmological argument.” Once there was nothing, no space, no time, no matter, nothing. Then there was something. The universe came from nothing – life came from not life and that requires a first cause, a first mover, something which started the whole thing off. And that first cause was God. None of these pieces of evidence for the existence of God are irrefutable knock-down proof that God does exist. But together they do give us grounds to claim that believing in God is reasonable and rational.
“God is not discoverable or demonstrable by purely scientific means, unfortunately for the scientifically-minded. But that really proves nothing. It simply means that the wrong instruments are being used for the job.” J. B. Phillips (1906–1982)
“Science without religion is blind. Religion without science is lame.” ALBERT EINSTEIN
God has revealed Himself in the Bible, in the church and in creation. But we can also point to evidence for God’s existence in human experience.
CHANGED LIVES
We can point to the changed lives of the first disciples. One day they were hiding away terrified that they would be next to be crucified. The next day these ordinary men and women were preaching a message which would turn the world upside down. We can point to countless inspirational Christians through the ages. We can talk about Christians we have read about but even better we can talk about the differences we have seen that Jesus makes in other people’s lives. Best of all we can talk about our own personal experiences of the difference Jesus makes in my own life. Answers to prayer. Miracles of grace and of healing. Experiences of peace and joy and forgiveness. We know God exists because we have experienced Jesus in our own lives. And then finally we know God exists because of
JESUS
Michael Green wrote, “One of the greatest tragedies in the ossifying Western church is that people do not, by and large, talk about Jesus. That is extremely foolish. Jesus is the supremely attractive one. If we exclude from our conversations the only really winning card that we have, we are of all people most to be pitied.” He also said, “It is not until church members have the enthusiasm to speak to their friends and acquaintances about Jesus that anybody will really believe we have got good news to share.”
We can point to the uniqueness of Jesus. We thought about this two weeks ago. Jesus’s birth, his teaching, his ministry and to his death on the cross all set him apart from all the other leaders of all the other religions. Then we can point our friends to the love Jesus showed and to his perfect character. We know God exists because we have met God in Jesus.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. We believe in God because we have met God in His Son Jesus Christ. And in all of this the most important evidence for God’s existence is found in one historical event. The historical event of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Everything rests on the resurrection of Jesus. That was the heart of the gospel the first Christians preached and it is the heart of our gospel today. Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive. The resurrection is God’s proof that everything that Jesus claimed about Himself is true. It is God’s proof that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the historical fact of the resurrection is the ultimate proof that God exists. The resurrection is that important!
As Paul says to the Corinthians, (1 Corinthians 5:17) if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
So God has revealed Himself in the Bible and in the church, and in Creation. God has revealed Himself in human experience, the experiences of other people and our own personal experiences. But ultimately we believe in God because of Jesus and supremely because of the resurrection. Jesus is alive! That is the good news we have to share!

England is no longer a Christian country. Whether England ever was a Christian country where everybody went to church and everybody lived by the ten commandments is debatable. But what is certainly true is that England is no longer a Christian Country. Christendom where everybody shared common Christian beliefs and values, is rapidly being replaced by a multicultural, multi-faith society where Christianity is only one option amongst many.
We live in a consumer culture, where people expect the right to choose and satisfaction guaranteed every time. These expectations extend beyond shopping to morality, relationships and even religion. So some people who have an interest in spiritual things shop around between the different religions until they find one that suits them. Other people like to pick-and-mix bits from different religions, a taste of Christian morality mixed with bits of Eastern mysticism, extracts from the Bible and quotations from the Koran, a sort of smorgasbord “eat whatever you like” buffet of religions. And with so many varieties of religion on offer, of course, lots and lots of people can’t be bothered to search for the truth and so they choose not to choose at all.
In this supermarket of beliefs, people object if you claim to have THE one and only truth. In this world of political correctness it is considered impolite and offensive, or even in some circumstances against the law, to claim that you are right and everybody else is wrong. And in this politically correct but morally and spiritually bankrupt world we Christians have to stand up and be counted. Because we believe that Jesus is Lord. Not just “one Lord among many”. Not just “Lord if you choose him to be your Lord”. But Jesus is Lord. THE LORD. The One and only Son of God. The one and only Saviour!
If people ask us WHY they should accept that Jesus Christ is Lord, we need to be able to answer. We need to be able to defend our faith, and explain why we are convinced that Jesus is unique. This morning, let me give you FIVE ways in which Jesus Christ stands apart from all other religious leaders.

BIRTH
The Bible tells us that Jesus was different from any other human being who has ever lived. Because He was much more than a man. He was truly God, born as a human being.
Matt 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” —which means, “God with us.”
Jesus Christ was not just another holy man, not just another prophet. He was God the Son,
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In this world of many different religious leaders, offering ways to find God, we need to shout the message that Jesus Christ is unique because He IS God, revealing Himself to us!

TEACHING
Very many people who wouldn’t call themselves Christians recognise that Jesus was the greatest moral teacher who ever lived. Many people claim to try to live their lives by the Sermon on the Mount. The teaching of Jesus Christ has shaped two thousand years of Western civilisation. Think of the parables –
The father who welcomes home the rebellious prodigal son.
The Good Samaritan who helps a stranger in distress.
The exhortations to forgive your enemies, Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile,
And look at some of the claims Jesus made about Himself.
10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Jesus was a Jew. He said that to Jews, who all knew Psalm 23 “THE LORD is my shepherd! Jesus was saying to them – I am the good shepherd – I am your God!
Jesus said John 6:35; . “I am the bread of life. 8:12; “…I am the light of the world. 10:7; … “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ,,,, 11:25; “I am the resurrection and the life. 14:6; …. “I am the way and the truth and the life. 15:1. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
Perhaps the most important claim Jesus made was when He said in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” Not – I am teaching you about God – but I AM God! Jesus’s teaching was unique!

MINISTRY
Jesus’s ministry was unique in history. The proof that everything Jesus claimed about Himself is true is found in every one of His actions. Everything Jesus did showed us God’s love, He forgave people’s sins, like that woman caught in the very act of adultery. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) Jesus preached with a unique authority, not like other Jewish teachers who just quoted each other. Jesus preached on his own authority. “Truly, truly, I tell you!” And then Jesus demonstrated that authority by driving out evil spirits. Jesus calmed the storm – even the wind and the waves obey Him! He walked on the water and fed the 5000 with just five loaves and two fishes. And Jesus healed the sick and even raised the dead back to life! Jesus’s miracles were God’s love in action. Concrete expressions of the gospel!
Luke 7:18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ ”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
If people ask what is so special about Jesus, get them to read the gospels, to read about His ministry. They will see for themselves Jesus is unique.
Napoleon Bonaparte (cited by Vernon C. Grounds, The Reason for Our Hope) said this about Jesus.
“I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity…. Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and sentiments, the truth which he announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things…. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me — everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man…. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life…. I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon certainly recognised the uniqueness of Christ.

DEATH
All great religious leaders have died. The death of Jesus is different from the deaths of every other human being because His death itself had a significance which places it at the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus’s death was not a tragic regrettable accident. Jesus’s death was the lynchpin of God’s plan of salvation!
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Christ Himself carried our sins in his body to the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24
Every great religious leader died for their own sins. Jesus was completely innocent – without sin. Jesus died for OUR sins, in our place. By paying the penalty for our sin on the cross, Jesus made a way for our sins to be forgiven. Jesus’s death made the way for God to welcome us back as his beloved children.
Here is the great difference between the Christian religion and every other religion in the world. Every other religion can be summed up in just two letters but the Christian faith needs three!
Every other religion says ‘DO. Do this, do that, do the other and you will find salvation”.
But Christianity says “It is DONE, it is accomplished, it is finished!”
So Jesus’s death is UNIQUE – it is the only way to salvation, the only hope for human beings who face the judgment of a holy God.

RESURRECTION
Here is the heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the supreme difference between Jesus and every other human being who has ever lived! All great religious leaders have died. But Jesus is different from everybody else. Jesus is didn’t stay dead! Mohammed – dead and buried. Buddha – dead and buried. Every other founder of religions large and small – dead and buried. Jesus Christ – risen from the dead, never more to die!
1 Corinthians 15 sums up the teaching of all the first Christians.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
On the day of Pentecost, this was the heart of the apostle Peter’s sermon.
ACTS 2:32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. ….. 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
The apostles were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was the gospel they preached – Jesus is alive! The arrival at Pentecost and the visible work of the Holy Spirit in the world through history and still today are God’s proof that Jesus is risen from the dead and that Jesus is Lord! The difference Jesus makes in your life and mine is proof that Jesus is still alive today. And in the Book of Revelation the risen Christ says this:
I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades

So Jesus Christ is unique. Jesus is not just better than the founders of other religions. In who he was and what He did, Jesus stands out apart from them in every way. His birth was unique. His teaching was unique. His ministry was unique. His death was unique. His resurrection was unique. And this is what Jesus said.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
We live in a world which has lost its way. A world which says that all ways lead to God – you pays your money and you takes your choice. But Jesus Christ says “I am the way” THE way, the one and only way. “No-one comes to the Father except through me.”
We live in a world which has abandoned the idea of absolute truth.
We each have our own truth, people say, it’s all relative and one person’s truth is as good as any other! But Jesus Christ says “I am the truth” THE Truth, the one and only ultimate truth!. “No-one comes to the Father except through me.”
We live in a world where people are looking for the meaning of life in all the wrong places. And Jesus Christ says “I am the life” – THE life – the one and only way to find life in all its fullness. “No-one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is the only way to God. This is what the first Christians believed and this is what they preached. Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Jesus is the only way to God. This is the message entrusted to the church. This is the message to which the Holy Spirit is the Witness. Jesus Christ is the only way and truth and life. Jesus who was more than a man – who was the God born as a human being, the truth of God incarnate. Jesus who revealed God through His teaching and through His Holy character. Jesus who healed the sick and raised the dead. Jesus who died on the cross as a ransom for many. Jesus who was dead but now is risen from the dead and now lives forever, and holds the keys to death and hell. It is this Jesus who declares to people of every faith and no faith, “no-one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus said in Matthew 13: 45-46 “ … the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The largest pearl in the world is called the pearl of Allah. It is more than 9 inches long and weighs over 6 kg. It is valued at more than £30 million.
The largest cut diamond in the world is called the Golden Jubilee. It weighs 545 carats and is valued at somewhere between £3-9 million. The second largest diamond used to be the Star of Africa which weighs 530 carats and is set in the Royal Sceptre in the Crown Jewels on display in the Tower of London. Its value is estimated at over £300 million – not that Her Majesty is planning on selling it. However a 1,111 carat diamond has been found in Botswana this month and that will be shaped into the second largest cut diamond.
People talk about “a champagne lifestyle”. The most expensive champagne you could buy is Cristal Brut 1990 and “Methuselah” (6 litre bottle) costs $17,625. 200 bottles of Heidsieck Champagne were bottled in 1907 but lost in a shipwreck in 1916 and only recovered in 1997. Those 110 year old bottles of vintage champagne are now sold in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow for $275,000 a bottle!
In terms of the price per litre of readily available liquids, champagne is only the third most expensive. Arguments rage whether the most expensive readily available liquid is Chanel No 5 perfume, or that substance commonly referred to as liquid gold, ink for inkjet printers. Which can cost as much as £10,000 per litre!
All sorts of thing are said to be “worth their weight in gold.” At close of trading on Friday gold was worth £710 stirling per troy ounce, £22,830 per kilogram. So an average person carrying all they could might be able to take somewhere between half a million and a million pounds worth of gold.
Of course there are some very valuable things you could buy but which you couldn’t carry around with you. The most expensive house in England is a six-storey Grade 1 listed Regency mansion in Carlton House Terrace just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. That house is valued at £250m.

All these expensive items – we could call them priceless if we didn’t have a price for them. But surely some things in life are even more precious than objects. What’s the point of life? Surely life is about more than possessions. Surely life is about more than money.
Jesus said, Matthew 13 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Some things in life are more valuable than all the money and all the possessions you could ever have. More precious than buried treasure. More precious than any pearl of great value.
Jesus said in John 10:10. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” To “have life and have it more abundantly.” That is the gift God wants to give us all through Jesus. Life in all its fullness. “A rich and satisfying life” (New Living Translation) “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message) And this life in all its fullness embraces many wonderful blessings.
Love – knowing that God loves us and His love will never let us go.
Joy – not the passing happiness which so many people find in the false gods like money and entertainment but true joy which no-one and nothing can take away.
Peace – the calm of knowing that everything is safe in the hands of Almighty God.
Eternal life – is a quality of life which not even death can take away.
Freedom – the glorious liberty of the children of God – if the son shall set you free you will be free indeed.
Jesus explains to his disciples and to us what salvation and eternal life and life in all its fullness are really about in John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
That is what eternal life really is all about – knowing God and knowing Christ. That is the real point of life! Knowing God. Salvation is all about having a personal relationship with God.
Three hundred years ago the churches were drawing up a statement of what Christians believe and they asked this question. “What is the chief end of man?” In today’s language – what are human beings created for. What is their purpose? What is their destiny? What is the point of life? And the answer they came ups with was this. “The chief end of man, (the purpose human beings are designed and created for) is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” To glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.
Back in the fifth century Augustine said this.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
This is the truth about the point of life. We are made to have a relationship with God. Without God our lives will never be complete. We will always have a “god shaped gap” which nothing else can fill.
In the seventeenth century the philosopher Blaise Pascal explained it like this.
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
What is the point of life? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. To receive that eternal life which is a personal relationship with the Living God.
All the wonderful blessings of knowing our wonderful God which are worth so much more than pearls or diamonds or gold or great big houses or a champagne lifestyle. Many people in Britain today are materially overfed but spiritually starving. Jesus came to offer us “life in all its fullness”. What is the point of life? To get to know God!

Where was God in Paris on Friday evening? On Friday evening the 13th November 2015 teams of Islamic State terrorists launched three separate attacks in Paris with machine guns and bombs. 129 people were murdered and more than 350 others were injured. This week people will be asking important questions. “Why doesn’t God do something to stop terrorists BEFORE they kill innocent people?” “Doesn’t the presence of so much evil in the world prove that God doesn’t exist at all?” “How can we believe in God in a world so full of suffering?” Where was God in Paris on Friday evening?
When we think about human suffering, all kinds of examples come to mind. The plight of refugees fleeing the evils of Islamic State. Famines and floods. The millions without food and billions without safe drinking water or the basics of medical care. And the individuals killed or maimed in car crashes and house fires. Sometimes people we know who are in agony from terrible diseases. And we may be experiencing suffering and grief in different situations ourselves. How can we believe in God in a world so full of suffering? This is one of the six big questions which people who are not Christians want an answer to – and as Christians we need to be prepared to give an answer which is true and satisfying. It first began to be asked after Auschwitz and Belsen, and came to a focus in Britain after Locherbie and Dunblane. Where was God in those places when so many innocent people were suffering and dying?
In many events, responsibility for the suffering obviously rests with people, with deliberate acts of evil. But in other situations nobody is to blame and nobody should be blamed! “Natural disasters” and tragic accidents happen and they could have happened to any one of us! So the question is very straightforward – why does God allow such accidents to happen? The problem of what is called “innocent suffering” is a vital issue for Christians to grapple with.
It’s a question which people who are not Christians will sometimes raise as their “proof” that God doesn’t exist at all. “If there was a God then he wouldn’t allow that kind of suffering,” they say. To some people the existence of innocent suffering is a knockdown argument which demonstrates to them that there is NO God at all.
The classic formulation of the problem of innocent suffering goes something like this.
If God is all-powerful he COULD stop all suffering.
If God is all-loving He WOULD stop all suffering.
So does the presence of suffering in the world prove that God is NOT all-loving?
Or does it prove that God is NOT all-powerful?
Or does it prove that God doesn’t exist at all?
Actually, when you stop to think about it, that argument doesn’t prove anything at all. “If there was a God, he wouldn’t allow innocent people to suffer,” people say. But saying, “if there was a God” in that kind of way is actually already making some important assumptions about what God is like. It assumes at least that God exists, that God is good, that God is just, that God is loving. Unless God exists, unless God is good and just and loving, there is NO reason to expect the world to be any different. Unless God exists and is good and just and loving, there would be no reason to expect him to do anything to STOP innocent suffering. Then the question also assumes that a God exists who is powerful enough to change events in the world if he wanted to. A God who wasn’t all-powerful could not be expected to do anything about innocent suffering.
So the person who asks, “where is God when innocent people are suffering?” is already assuming that a God exists who is not only good and just and loving but who is also powerful enough to prevent innocent suffering if He so chooses. The question is not really about whether God exists at all, but rather whether he is really the kind of God we believe him to be, in the light of events in the world which suggest the opposite.
The heart of the problem of innocent suffering is really best expressed like this. “Why does a good and just and loving and all-powerful God allow innocent people to suffer?” Does this mean that God is not really good and just and loving? Or does it mean that God isn’t really all-powerful after all?
In response to this question as Christians we want to say a number of things.

God IS good and just

The Bible teaches us in so many places that God is perfect in His justice, goodness, righteousness and fairness. The Bible talks about righteousness more than 500 times and justice almost 200. We are only human, limited in our wisdom and understanding. God rules the world with complete justice and fairness. And as well as being a good and just God, the Bible makes clear that

God IS all-powerful

The God of the Bible is God ALMIGHTY, Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them. We see God’s mighty power at work in the events of the Exodus, in the miracles worked by the prophets and supremely by Jesus. But since God is both good and just, and also all-powerful, why doesn’t God surely bring innocent suffering to an end? The answer to that question lies in the reality of the free will of human beings to make choices.
Life is full of risks. Where we live. How we travel. What we eat. All these decisions carry risks of us being harmed in some way. Some accidents are simply that, totally unforeseen circumstances that lead to accidents that could happen to anyone. But these are rare. Frequently somewhere along the way human beings have made some choices which have made the accident a possibility. We have chosen to put ourselves into a position where we might be hurt. So the only way God could prevent those kinds of accidents would be to take away our free will – to never let anybody take any risks, ever.
In the same way, so much suffering of innocent people is actually caused directly or indirectly by the sinful actions of human beings. Not only through murder and war, where the powerful inflict terrible suffering on the powerless. So many of the world’s problems are caused by greed. There IS enough food to go round. So often, it just doesn’t get to the people who are starving at prices they can afford to pay. And there is enough land for people to be able to build homes in safety, instead of on flood plains or along fault lines or in the shadows of volcanoes.
The one sure-fire way that God could deal with the problem of innocent suffering would be to make sure that NOBODY could ever harm anybody else. But the only way to do that would be to get rid of all the people who could ever possibly, maybe, one day, not just by deliberate action but by omission or even by accident, all those people who could conceivably cause harm to others. And that would mean all of us, everybody, the whole human race. Because we are all human, all fallen, all sinful. We all have free will. Any one of us could choose to hurt others. And we are all fallible, all imperfect. Any one of us by our mistakes and failures and accidents could cause others to suffer even if that was the last thing we intended. We all make bad choices. So the only way God could get rid of innocent suffering completely would be to get rid of all the people. God could do this. He IS all-powerful. But at the same time,

God IS loving and merciful

The God of the Bible is a God of love and of mercy. The reason that God doesn’t solve the problem of innocent suffering by the simple plan of wiping out all the people is obvious proof of God’s love and mercy.
If God were to intervene in miraculous ways to prevent EVERY incident of innocent suffering, what a strange world we would live in. The car with brakes failing wouldn’t hit the pedestrian, because God would lift the pedestrian 10 feet into the air as the car crashed beneath him. The African village wouldn’t be swept away because, just as in the parting of the Red Sea, the floodwaters would separate and flow each side of the village instead of through it. The starving millions might discover that stones really do turn to bread for them each day. That would indeed be a world full of strange miracles. It would be a very confusing unpredictable world to live in. But that isn’t the world God created!
We believe in a God of miracles. We believe in a God who DOES act in power to bring healing and deliverance and salvation. But we also recognise that God only works in those kinds of ways in rare and exceptional circumstances, usually in his church and for his praise and glory and not usually in the world which does not even believe He exists. God alone has the wisdom and justice to decide fairly when it is right for Him to intervene by miracles and when to let events run their natural course, however tragic the outcome. We trust in God’s justice and fairness. And we recognise that it is actually a sign of God’s love and mercy that, although He IS all-powerful, God generally does allow the world to continue in its own way, with natural laws operating unhindered and events unfolding in predictable ways. For most of the time, God leaves human beings to take responsibility for our lives, and to take care of each other as best we are able. Because the only alternative would be to bring this world to an end and make a radically different world!
Somebody once asked the German preacher and theologian Helmut Thielicke what he thought was the most important question facing the Western World. He pointed to the question of suffering.
“Again and again I have the feeling that suffering is regarded as something which is fundamentally inadmissible, distressing, embarrassing, and not to be endured. Naturally, we are called upon to combat and diminish suffering. All medical and social action is motivated by the perfectly justified passion for this goal. But the idea that suffering is a burden which can or even should be fundamentally radically exterminated can only lead to disastrous illusions. One perhaps does not even have to be a Christian to know that suffering belongs to the very nature of this our world and will not pass away until this world passes away. And beyond this, we Christians know that in a hidden way it is connected with man’s reaching for the forbidden fruit, but that God can transform even this burden of a fallen world into a blessing and fill it with meaning.”
“Suffering is part of the very nature of this our world,” said Thielicke. It would be a very, very different world which did not have such suffering. The continued existence of evil and the possibility of innocent suffering are both consequences of God’s mercy and patience. He could just bring judgement on us all here and now and that would be and end of it! Until that judgement comes, there will always be suffering.

Suffering is a consequence of human free will.

The fact is that human beings DO have free will. And in the world as it is, the only way God could remove the evil and suffering from the world would be to take away all human freedom of choice. Somebody may ask “Why doesn’t God do something to stop terrorists BEFORE they kill innocent people?” The answer is simple. Because the only way God could stop evil people from doing evil things would be to take away freedom of choice from ALL of us, for ALL the time! God chooses not to do that. God chooses to give us free will and leave us all with free will. We are able to make choices and sometimes we make bad choices.
BUT (some people object) if God knew that human choice would lead to so much evil and suffering why did He give us free will in the first place? Some answers to that question go like this:
(a) Our experiences of suffering and evil are in some ways “good for us”. They teach us to make good choices, develop character, inspire faith and so “refine our souls”. (Rom 5:3-5) (Irenaeus)
(b) God wants us to love him freely, not because we are programmed to do so like robots. Human free will and the resulting evil and suffering are necessary so that we have a genuine free choice either to love or to reject God. The world is “a Vale of Soul-Making” (John Hick 1968)
(c) The existence of so much evil and suffering in the world are necessary so that God’s divine and mysterious purposes can be fulfilled. As limited human beings, we may never understand God’s plan in this life but in heaven we will understand why so much evil was necessary. (1 Pet 1:3ff)
God IS good and just, God IS all-powerful and God IS loving and merciful. In His wisdom he leaves the world to carry on and doesn’t prevent innocent suffering by continually intervening. But we mustn’t conclude that God is aloof or unaffected when people are suffering and dying. Because last, but by no means least, there is something else very important which Christians want to say.
God shares our sufferings

Sometimes we can feel that God doesn’t know what is going on in his world, or that he doesn’t care about us anymore. But when we reflect on the events of the last week of His earthly ministry we are reminded why Jesus Christ the Saviour has been the strength and inspiration for so many who have suffered innocently. The poor and the oppressed and the slaves, the sick and the suffering and the dying in every age have found comfort and hope not only in the resurrection of Jesus, but in His dying on the cross for them. Because more than anywhere else, it was on the cross that Jesus the Son of God took upon Himself our pains and our sufferings
After the Dunblane massacre nearly twenty years ago Steve Chalke wrote some wise words which apply to so many instances of innocent suffering. “We know that what happened was neither His doing nor His will. God’s was the first heart to break over the events that took place there. He wept with us for the children whose lives were cut short and the family they left behind. When confronted with the pain of the death of his friend Lazarus, Jesus also wept.”
God is suffering right now with so many who are injured and dying and bereaved, homeless and terrified. God suffers with communities shattered by every dreadful tragedy. God suffers with the thousands dying in floods and famines and conflicts, and with the tens of thousands dying of hunger and of terrible diseases every day, whose innocent suffering we never know about but God sees in intimate detail. God is suffering with the bereaved and the injured in Paris today.
God suffers with us in EVERY incident of innocent suffering, and God knows that suffering so well because there was none so innocent as Jesus, the Son of God, the spotless Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, Jesus who experienced deeper grief and pain there on the cross than and human being before or since. God suffers with us.
How can we believe in God in a world so full of suffering? Because we know that, wherever people are suffering, God is there suffering with us. Where was God in Paris on Friday evening? God was there, weeping with the rest of us.