Why Witness?

Introduction

Let’s talk about witnessing. The principles in this article can apply to any person a believer is sharing their faith with. In this blog post we will be answering certain questions about witnessing from a biblical perspective. It is my sincere hope that the readers of this article are blessed and encouraged by it so much so that they find themselves sharing their faith with all sorts of people.

Why Should I Witness?

            The first question that should be answered by a believer is simply “why should I witness? I am going to give you three biblical reasons as to why all believers should witness. Many of you reading this may be thinking that because you are not called into full-time ministry, that you are somehow off the hook for witnessing. But this simply is not true. Yes, those in full-time ministry definitely should be sharing the gospel with others, but so should every believer. In fact, we can see in Acts that, after a great persecution broke out, “those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4, ESV). These were not the Apostles, but other members of the church who shared the gospel to those around them (see Acts 11:19-21). You should witness because sharing the gospel is the responsibility of every believer. There is no exception.

            A second reason you should witness is found in the recorded words of Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew it says,

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20, ESV).

His words are also recorded in the book of Acts in which he says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, ESV). I want you to notice that Jesus was not simply asking his followers to make disciples and to be his witnesses, he was in fact commanding them. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you need to obey his instructions. So, a second reason you should be witnessing is because Jesus commanded it.

            A third reason every believer should be witnessing is because people’s eternal destinations are at stake. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew concerning the fate of the sheep and the goats; “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46, ESV). Those who don’t know Christ will spend eternity in torment. The Gospel of John says it this way, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36, ESV). How a person responds to Christ will determine their eternal destiny. This is why it is vital for every believer to do their part in sharing the gospel.

What Do I Need to Know?

            Hopefully I have convinced you from the scriptures that sharing the gospel is the responsibility of every believer. Now we are going to look at what a person needs to know to share the gospel, what I like to refer to as the “gospel basics”. To do that, I am going to ask some questions as if an unbeliever was asking them, quote some scriptures that answer those questions, and then share the principles found in those verses.

-        Why do I need God or His salvation? Paul gives the answer in the Book of Romans: for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, ESV). He declares that the penalty for sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Because all have sinned and disobeyed God, we are under his wrath and need forgiveness.

-        What is the answer to my problem? To put it simply, the answer is Jesus, the Son of God. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV). God sent His son Jesus into the world to pay the death penalty for us (Rom. 5:8).

-        How do I get saved? Let’s look at two scriptures to answer this question. First, in the Book of Acts Peter says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). Repentance simply means to turn from your sin and turn to God. We do this by confessing our sin to God and asking Him to forgive us (1 John 1:9). The second verse is found in Romans. Paul declares,

“… because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’” (Romans 10:9-11).

This passage is basically saying that we must put our faith in Jesus by declaring him our Lord and believing that he was raised from the dead. To say it succinctly, a person gets saved by repenting from their sin and putting their faith in Jesus.

            Before moving on from what one needs to know to share the gospel, I want to share one other piece of advice. Peter writes, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15, ESV). I believe that part of being prepared to witness for Christ is to be ready to share not only the gospel, but to give your own personal testimony of what Christ has done for you. Paul is a good biblical example of this. We can see in Acts that Paul shares his conversion story several times when he is preaching the gospel (Acts 22:6-21; 26:1-21). In these passages, Paul gives a brief overview of how he became a believer. Some of you may be thinking that your story of conversion is not as dramatic as Paul’s, but that does not matter. The important thing is to share how you came to faith and how Christ has changed your life.

How Do I Share?

            So far in this article, we have talked about why we need to witness and what we need to know to effectively witness. Now I want to talk about how we as believers should witness. The truth is that one can know both the why and the what and still fail miserably if they don’t know the how. Trust me, I know this from personal experience. When I first became a believer, I was very sincere in wanting to share my faith, but I did not understand how to properly go about it. I had to learn how to share the truth of the gospel in a way that was less abrasive. In this section, I am going to give you three principles on how to share your faith and a scripture for each principle. I am going to give them to you in the form of a list so that you can easily remember them.

a)     Tell the gospel (Acts 11:20). This may seem straightforward enough, but you must be able to open your mouth and share the truth of the gospel. This will be easy for some and difficult for others. If you are one of those who find it difficult, I want to encourage you to pray to God for boldness (Acts 4:31). God desires that you share the truth, and he will give you the ability to do so if you ask him.

b)     Listen to those you are speaking to (James 1:19). Don’t do all the talking, take time to listen to their concerns and challenges. This shows them that you are genuinely interested in them as people. If you take time to listen to them, they may be more open to listen to you.

c)     Love them, no matter how they respond (Eph 4:15; 2 Tim. 2:24-26). There will be a lot of people that will respond negatively to the gospel message. It is very important that believers respond in a loving way toward people who reject the truth. Why? Well, we must remember that just because they don’t respond positively now does not mean that they won’t later on. By treating them with love and respect you may well be keeping the door open for them to respond positively to the gospel later on in their life.

What should I Remember and Do?

We have covered a lot of information in this article. Here are the major points to remember:

-        There are three reasons that believers should witness:

a)     Sharing the gospel is the responsibility of every believer.

b)     Jesus commanded believers to share the gospel.

c)     Believers should witness because the eternal destination of people is at stake.

-        Believers need to learn the basics of the gospel so that they can properly share it. Those basics give the answers to the following questions:

a)     Why do I need God or His salvation?

b)     What is the answer to my problem?

c)     How do I get saved?

-        Believers properly share the gospel by telling it, listening to those they share it with, and loving people no matter how they respond.

Until next time, may you be blessed in your endeavor to know God and share his truth.