Sharing Christ During the Pandemic

God is real. He loves humanity - this broken, messed up humanity. We’ve botched this creation of His almost beyond recognition, yet He loves us so much that He made a way for redemption and reconciliation.

Those of us who have accepted His offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus now have the opportunity and privilege to extend His offer to others as His ambassadors. What does that look like? It looks like relationships infused with God’s Word. We need to represent Jesus to others through our actions and also extend Jesus’ offer to them through our words.

It’s not coercing anyone, arguing with them or tricking them. It’s extending His offer to them and holding the door open for them. It’s being prepared to share the reason for the hope we have. During these days of the pandemic, much like the time after 9/11, many people are fearful and unsure. Things like this have a way of rattling us out of our complacency. It reminds us that we’re really not in control of our lives and can cause us to look to the One who is in control. In other words, it’s a great time to share the hope we have in Christ because people are more likely to be open to Him.

If we break it down, there’s two different aspects to sharing our faith.

The first is how to get to the point of having a conversation with someone about their faith.

In our American culture, one’s religious beliefs can be fiercely personal. Many people feel that it’s an unwelcome invasion of their privacy to ask what they believe about God or for us to tell them what we believe. Others tend to stay away from any topic that’s too deep or introspective. It can be hard to even get to the topic of what someone believes.

The other aspect to it is what do we say when we get there?

How do you explain how to have a personal relationship with God through Christ? How do we not get side tracked on the millions of secondary issues? The second question is the easier to answer, so let’s start there.

What is the gospel? What does someone need to understand in order to accept Jesus?

We have all sinned and that sin separates us from a holy God.

Draw a straight, horizontal line on a piece of paper and put a stick figure on it. That’s us. Now draw a parallel line a few inches above it. That’s God. God is perfect and we are not. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Some may say that they haven’t killed anyone or stolen anything and they’re not really that bad of a person. In that case, you can take them to Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes it very clear that it’s not enough to be “clean” on the outside, but God wants us to be holy on the inside. The Pharisees (religious leaders of Jesus’ day) were pros at following all the religious rules and doing the outward things right, but Jesus denounced them over and over for missing the point and being wicked on the inside. Sin is sin, whether it shows up on the outside or it’s largely on the inside in the form of thoughts, attitudes, motives, etc. If the person you’re sharing with can’t admit that they’re sinful, then God needs to work on them more before they can accept Christ. Jesus said that He came for the sick, not the healthy. (Mark 5:31)

Doing good works or being a good person doesn’t fix the problem.

Back to our artwork. We typically try to do good things to reach God - go to church, be a good person, etc. You can draw arrows from the bottom line toward the top line that don’t reach the top to represent this. Some get farther up than others but none make it. No amount of good works can take away our sin. Because of our sin, we are separated from God both now and after we die. Romans 6:23 says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Because God loves us so much, He came to earth as Jesus Christ, died on the cross and rose again. His death paid the punishment for our sin.

We can’t do anything to earn our way to being reconciled with God, but because He loves us so much, He came down to earth for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” John 3:16 God put on a body and came to earth as Jesus. You can draw a cross connecting the two lines. Jesus lived a perfect life and then died on the cross in our place. He took the punishment that we deserved for our sin. We deserved death, but Jesus took that death in our place. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith - this is not of yourselves but is a gift from God. Not as a result of works so that no one can boast.” Jesus’ offer to us is that we accept His death on the cross as payment for our sin.

We have a choice.

God respects our free will. We have a choice to either try to work our way to heaven and do life our own way, or we can accept Jesus’ offer to “settle out of court” and accept His death as our payment for sin. When we accept Jesus and ask Him to be our Savior, we’re entering into a covenant relationship with Him, similar to marriage. God uses marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with Him all throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament. When we accept His offer we are forgiven for our sin - past, present and future - and free to live the way God intended us to live - in union with Him.

Use your own story.

Another suggestion is to share that message in the context of your own personal story. What has God done in your life? How did you come to know Him? Many times, that tends to be much less confrontational because you’re just sharing your own story. This is a great resource for how to put together your story to use in sharing with others.

Next week I’ll talk about how to get to that conversation to begin with.

Feel free to post questions in the comments! What is the biggest barrier to you sharing your faith?