This morning, I want to begin a new series, and this one will be a bit different, as it will be an interactive one. Over the next several weeks, I want to train you on how to share the Gospel. I’ve asked the deacons to pass out a small “Gospel of John”, and we are going to use that as a gospel tract of sorts - you might say the original gospel tract. I’m giving this book to either give to someone else or keep in your car for use when you have opportunity to share.
What I want to train you on is a method for sharing the Gospel using the Gospel of John. You might have heard of the Roman Road, where you start in Romans 3:23 and move from one passage to the next, asking someone to read each passage as you share the Gospel with them. Well, this is like that, but I would call it the Road of Life. You need to hold onto your copy of the “Gospel of John” and bring it back with you, because each week we are going to highlight a passage in the Gospel and make some notes about it. I also want to teach from each passage we highlight so that you can understand it well and be ready to share it.
This morning, we need a beginning. How do Gospel conversations usually start? When and where are we when a conversation turns from the ordinary to the spiritual? Well, it has been my experience that they don’t start on someone’s front porch in a door-to-door outreach program. Granted, they can and have started there. But, I want to suggest that there are thousands of opportunities for Gospel conversations that just fly past us without our noticing. There is that moment with a co-worker, when he really opens up about his struggles with addiction. There is that quiet moment out under the stars with your granddaughter when she is marveling at the beauty of the night. There is that moment of honesty from a classmate about his family struggles. All of these, and more, are open doors to a deeper conversation. We begin to share the Gospel when we recognize that people aren’t just concerned about the here and now. They have real struggles that only Jesus can meet. They are searching for answers that only Jesus has. But, so often, we just let the moment hang there and never push it to the real conversation that needs to happen. I’m as guilty as anyone about this. Why do we let those moments pass? One reason is fear. We are afraid that we might violate some code of etiquette, or that we might offend and lose a friend, or that we won’t know what to say when the conversation turns hard. Another reason is that we are ill-equipped. So often we don’t speak because we don’t know what to say. Lastly, we might avoid the moment because we think we have to do it all ourselves.
Today, I want to offer an antidote to these reasons for avoiding the Gospel moment. The antidote is simply this: you have no power. Encouraging, right? You have no power to convince someone of the truth of the Gospel. You have no power to meet their needs. You have no power to make them receptive to Jesus. You have no power… but God does. Romans 1:16 says, “the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.” Paul does not say “Nathan is the power of God” or “Billy Graham was the power of God.” It says that the Gospel message itself is the power of God unto salvation. And, more than that, Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes through hearing the words of Christ.” Again, Paul doesn’t say that faith comes from hearing Nathan give a powerful argument. It says that faith comes from hearing the Gospel.
So, where do we begin when we want to share the Gospel? We begin with the Gospel. We don’t begin with our story. We don’t tell our testimony. We don’t present an argument against evolution or a clever analogy. We start with the Gospel story itself because, through the power of the Spirit, that message changes people. This is why you have a copy of the Gospel of John. I want to show you how you can walk someone through the Gospel of John in hopes of leading them to Jesus.
Before we consider our first passage, we should answer the question of how to begin. Most evangelism methods teach you to ask some version of this question: “If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?” That question might have been useful in the past, but today, I think it can hurt more than it helps. I think if you were to ask most people today if they were going to heaven, they’d answer yes. We live in a society that teaches that people are basically good, God loves us just the way we are, and the world should change to meet our felt needs. I think there are some better questions to ask. I’d encourage you to write these questions (or at least one word from each) on the front page of your Gospel. The first question is: Where do you find purpose? (Or, just write, “Purpose?”) Second, what gives your life meaning? (Or, “Meaning?”) Finally, how do you determine what is true? (Or “truth?”) Give the person all the time he or she needs to answer those questions, and also give them the space to answer honestly without interruption or direction. By hearing them out, you earn the right to speak. When they’ve answered, ask if you can share what you believe to be the answer. Then, you can say something like, “I think meaning, purpose, and truth are found in knowing and following Jesus Christ. Do you mind if I show you a few things from the Gospel of John about him?” It is also good, at this point, to explain that John was one of the disciples of Jesus. He saw him after his resurrection and then went on to tell the world about it. Once you’ve set that up, you can begin with our first passage, John 1:1-5. I’d encourage you to underline it as I read.
The point of this passage is found in four words: Word, Made, Life, and Light. Double underline those words, as we want to point them out to the person we are sharing with. Let’s consider what John means by those four words. First, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The first thing that John wants us to know about Jesus is that he is the source of all truth. So, he uses the word “Word” to speak of Jesus. This is kind of like saying that Jesus is the blueprint for everything. He is the source behind everything good and beautiful and true in this world. He is the source of truth because he is one with God. He was in the beginning with God and was God from the beginning.
The second word John uses to speak of Jesus is the verb “made”. Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all things. Because he is one with God, he was active in creation, and he sustains all things even now.
Third, John says, “In him was life.” This word, “life” is important to John. He uses it 33 times in his Gospel, and when he uses it, he never means our physical lives. John is talking about life in its fullest sense. He is talking about eternal life - life that never ends. Jesus is the source of that kind of life. If you want to have a life that is meaningful, not just here and now, but for all of eternity, it must come from Jesus.
Finally, John uses the word, “light” - “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Certainly, God gives us physical light - he made it on the first day of creation. But, what John means here is more than the light we see. He means illumination - the ability to understand things for what they really are. As physical light reveals a room for what it really is, so too Jesus reveals the world for what it is. Jesus is the light of the world. He reveals who God is. He shows us who we really are. And, he reveals the love and grace of God to us.
As we close this morning, I think it’s important for us to turn these questions on ourselves. I don’t want to assume that everyone here has been saved. It would be a mistake to think that everyone here is walking with Jesus. So, I want to end by asking these questions to you. Where do you find purpose? What gives your life meaning? Where do you find truth? The answer to all of those questions is found in Jesus. Maybe, today, you need to follow Jesus. I’d love to talk with you about what that means.
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