One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these."
NRSV
There was a rookie lumberjack who started out determined to chop down more trees than anyone else. He made it his goal to beat his company’s average tree count of 15 trees a day.
On his very first day, he felled 10 trees. He said to himself, “That’s pretty good for my first day.” But on the second day, he chopped down 10 again. No progress at all. Then on the third day, he managed only seven! Now he was puzzled, but not discouraged yet. He simply doubled his efforts the next day. Imagine to his surprise when he finished with only five trees down!
Every day it got worse — no matter how hard or often he swung the ax, when each day ended, he had felled fewer trees than the day before.
After two weeks of discouragement, the young man approached a grizzled old veteran. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I work hard every day, swinging my ax from dawn to dusk, but I keep doing worse and worse. What can I be doing wrong?”
“Young fella,” the old man replied after a long pause, “I can see them calluses on your hands and bigger muscles in your arms, to prove you been swingin’ good. But let me ask you somethin’ — When was the last time you sharpened your ax?”
Today begins a series of sermons on “sharpening our ax” in one important task we’re given as Christians—sharing our faith with others.
This morning’s sermon is on “sharpening” tips on sharing our faith through our words.
We have a team in this church named, “Outreach.” That’s not the original name for that team. If we’d kept the original name, we would have had difficulty recruiting members for it. The original name of the team was…EVANGELISM! Just the word conjures up all sorts of scary images. You think of knocking on doors, passing out tracts, and asking people if they know the Five Spiritual Laws. You think of standing on a street corner with a bullhorn shouting, in a strong Southern accent, “REPENT of your sins, BELIEVE in Jesus, or you will go to…hell!”
You feel like the barber, who thought that he hadn’t shared his faith like he thought he ought to. So one day he decided that he would do that more with his customers. He said, “Today I am going to witness to the first man who walks through my door.” Soon after he opened his shop, a man came in and said, “I want a shave!” The barber went in the back and prayed a quick, desperate prayer, “God, I’m going to witness to him. So please give me the wisdom to know just the right thing to say to him. Amen.” He then goes back out and, with a razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other, says, “Good morning sir. I have a question for you .... Are you ready to die?”
A bit awkward, don’t you think? And that’s what we fear. We’ll look bad. We’ll sound awful. We’ll stumble all over our words. So, we choose not to say anything. Instead, we rationalize things by saying, “We’ll lead others to Jesus by how we live. They’ll see that, and they’ll want to live like us. THAT is the way we’ll share our faith!”
However, I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind for his followers. When he sent out his disciples on a missionary journey to the neighboring towns, he never said, “Go into the towns, live a nice, sweet, middle class life, so that after a few weeks people will look at you and say, ‘My, aren’t they special?’” No—Jesus said, “Hurry! Don’t let anything slow you down! Go into the towns and without delay say, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you!’”
So—how can you share your faith with integrity—so that the words are natural for you, and that others will hear without being turned off? Let me suggest three things to do, in this order.
First: GET EXCITED!
QUESTION: What happened in St. Louis last month that closed highways, made people call in sick, and was front page news for a whole week?
ANSWER: The All-Star game, with all its festivities. Everyone was talking about it! Tickets were exorbitantly expensive, and if you got one, you instantly became smug and obnoxious. That’s because EVERYONE was excited about it. That’s what you do if you’re in St. Louis—you’re a Cardinals fan.
Think of how excited people get over baseball, or football, or whatever sport that arouses their passions. They have no problem whatsoever talking about that which excites them, that which makes them happy and enthusiastic.
You feel that excited about your faith, then I guarantee you, you will have no problem talking about it.
Remember how Andrew talked to his brother Peter about Jesus? He went [deadpan]: “We have found the Messiah. Whoppee.” No, of course not!
Remember how Philip told Nathanael about Jesus: "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." NO! [He went excitedly].
You will ONLY share your faith with another if you feel passionate about your faith. Period. So, work on renewing your faith, stoking up the fire in your belly for Jesus, and THEN you will know what to say.
Before you ever say anything to anyone else about Jesus, you have to first ask yourself:
WHAT DIFFERENCE HAS JESUS MADE IN MY LIFE?
I challenge you for the next week: begin your day asking yourself that question, and take time to reflect and pray over it. IF YOU CAN’T CLEARLY DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE JESUS HAS MADE IN YOUR LIFE, HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU TELL OTHERS OF THE DIFFERENCE JESUS WILL MAKE IN THEIR LIVES???
Andrew and Philip knew the difference Jesus made in their lives. Jesus was the fulfillment of their hopes. They felt alive in his presence. They felt loved unconditionally. They felt forgiven. They felt that their lives now had meaning, purpose. And so, just as naturally as we talk about the Cardinals or the Rams or whoever, so naturally did they talk about Jesus. With passion and energy they could say, like the woman at the well said, “Come, see a man [who is utterly amazing!]”
Are we expected to feel or say anything less?
After you get excited, the next thing you do is this:
INVITE!
Notice that Andrew and Philip didn’t say a whole lot. Andrew just took his brother by the hand to see Jesus. Philip simply said to Nathanael, “Come and see!”
Your witness to another person about Jesus doesn’t have to sound otherworldly. It doesn’t have to be filled with great theological insight. It doesn’t have to sound awkward—“Good morning, sir—are you ready to die?” Your witness is just a simple invitation for the person to come meet Jesus. To come connect with the most amazing man who ever lived.
The best invitations are invitations to be connected to the faith community. You invite someone to worship or to a church event, you’re inviting someone to witness Christ’s love expressed through flesh and blood people. And never underestimate how such a simple invitation can change a person’s life—and maybe even the course of history.
Listen to this story of someone whose life was changed:
Although I never doubted the existence of God, I think like all people I’ve had some ups and downs in my faith. When I first moved to California in 1981 to join the faculty at Stanford, there were a lot of years when I was not attending church regularly. I was traveling a lot…One Sunday I was in Lucky’s Supermarket not very far from my house — I will never forget — among the spices, and an African-American man walked up to me and said he was buying some things for his church picnic. And he said, “Do you play the piano by any chance?” I said, “Yes.” They said they were looking for someone to play the piano at church. It was a little African-American church right in the center of Palo Alto. A Baptist church. So I started playing for that church. That got me regularly back into churchgoing…I tell this story because I thought to myself, “My goodness, God has a long reach.” I mean, in Lucky’s Supermarket on a Sunday morning.
—Condoleeza Rice, “Walking in faith,” Dateline: Heaven, August 31, 2002,
Thus are the words of…
…Condoleeza Rice, former Secretary of State.
Never underestimate the life-changing power of an invitation. Who do you know who is lonely, or lost, or bored, or in pain? Give a simple invitation—offer to meet them at the door, or even pick them up. You never know how that could change their lives. And they will always remember you, like Condoleeza remembers to this day the man she met in the spice aisle of Lucky’s Supermarket.
And the third and final thing to do in sharing your faith:
GET OUT OF JESUS’ WAY.
Did you notice that after Andrew and Philip gave their invitations, they didn’t say much? They could have gone on and given reasons why they thought Jesus was the Messiah. They could have tried to prove Jesus was the Son of God. They could have debated how Jesus was different from other religious figures. But they didn’t. Andrew and Philip simply gave an invitation, led Peter and Nathanael to Jesus, and then got out of Jesus’ way. They let Jesus do the talking.
And did Jesus ever do the talking! When Peter came to Jesus, Jesus smiled at him and gave him an instant nickname—“Rocky.” When Nathanael came to Jesus, Jesus joked with him—“Here’s an Israelite who has no deceit!” [Yea, right—Nathanael was the one who was prejudiced against people who came from Nazareth—Jesus’ own home town!] Jesus hooked Peter and Nathanael from that moment on.
You invite someone to Jesus, don’t use a lot of words. You don’t need to explain yourself, defend yourself, anything like that. Just point to Jesus—let him do the work!
Jesus will take over. Jesus will engage. And in some small or great way, now or years from now: the person you connect to Jesus will be changed. Jesus will see to it. Guaranteed.
Words. They can get in the way of sharing your faith.
In the 1800’s, missionaries in Nigeria ran into trouble with words. In some languages in Nigeria, different tones or pitches give words completely different meanings. It was difficult for missionaries, coming from the outside, to catch all these nuances. This was particularly interesting when they tried to translate hymns into the native language. For many years the missionaries had the Igbo people of Nigeria singing favorite hymns like: "God's pig, which is never shared," and the not-so-stirring hymn that begins: "There is no egg on the bicycle."
--Ross & Kathryn Petras, "The 176 Stupidest Things Ever Done"
Yes, words can get in the way. But don’t worry, and don’t be afraid. Surprising words WILL flow when we’re excited, when we invite, and when we don’t get in Jesus way!
