Connecting the Dots with The Gospel

5 Oct 2013 by Adeline Lum CM-

On Sept 27, Michael Ramsden explained in DUMC, how Paul developed a habitual pattern or method in sharing the gospel.

Acts 17:2-4

As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

There are a series of active verbs that Paul used to share the gospel, i.e. reason, explain, prove, and persuade.

REASON- SAY SOMETHING THOROUGHLY

The Greek word for ‘reason’ is to say something thoroughly.

Have you noticed when people asked us why we are Christians; we often answer them on how we become Christians. If you are using a ‘how’ answer for a ‘why’ question, isn’t that nonsensical? In other words, you are saying if you went to a temple instead of a church during a time of seeking, you would end up have another faith. Answering how without why also gives an impression that you have been brainwashed.

Hence, if someone were to ask you why you are a Christian, can you say why thoroughly? Why did Christ have to die for our sins? Let us look at two scenarios:

Scenario #1

Supposing you were walking in the jungle and a tiger sprang out to eat you, but a man came from nowhere and beat the tiger while you escaped. The man got eaten instead and priest said in the funeral, “The man today died so that you can live.” Of course, in this scenario, you would have no trouble paying gratitude to that man.

Scenario #2

Given the same scenario of meeting the tiger, this time the man stood 30 meters away from you and screamed, “Come and eat me!” to get the tiger’s attention. Then, the man jumped into the well and drowned. The tiger turned aside and attacked you, but you were able to fight the tiger and lived. At the funeral, the priest said, “The man today died so that you can live.” Now, in this scenario, that tribute would not make sense at all, wouldn’t it?

But in fact, if we do not explain the ‘why’ we are Christians and make the gospel relevant to the nonbelievers, they would feel how we would feel in Scenario #2.

To a nonbeliever, Jesus Christ is a Jewish man who claims to be the Son of God and died for our sins 2000 years ago, personified by the 30 meters distance of the man in Scenario #2.

The nonbeliever may asked, “How does that relate to me 2000 years later since I am left off in this world to fight my own ‘tigers’ or challenges? As far as my experiences say, whatever I get today and the reason I continued to live is because of my own sweat, blood, and tears. Who is this Jesus that I need in my life anyway?”

Jesus dying on the cross for our sins is irrelevant to nonbelievers, making Him sound ancient. To make the gospel relevant, we must be able to thoroughly connect Christ’s death with the personal lives of people.

REASON- OPEN SOMETHING THOROUGHLY

Secondly, ‘reason’ in Greek also means to open something thoroughly. And in Paul’s case, it was to open the Scripture thoroughly. “Many of the words that are beautiful to Christians need to be opened up,” Ramsden said.

And reasoning from the Scriptures also depends on the unique person and circumstances of the person.

#1 The taxi lady

Ramsden shared how he struck a conversation with a taxi lady, who shared about her marriage life with him. Divorcing her husband to marry another man, the lady thought she found happiness but was quick to fall into a deep emptiness. It was apparent that she was looking for a fulfilling type of joy, not one that is fleeting.

Sharing the prayer of the Mount by Jesus, Ramsden asked her, “Do you know what blessed is? It means a life joy and happiness that go beyond outside, right from the center of who you are.” The lady was interested to know about the gospel because Ramsden was making the gospel relevant to her.

#2 Teenage girls

He also shared about leading a group of 13 teenage girls. Finding out their needs by assigning them to write down their respective needs in a piece of paper, Ramsden quickly found out they have one common question, which is the meaning of love.

He took the next five days to fast and pray for directions from God. On that day of discussion, he had all of the girls close their eyes and imagine their high school crush confessing their love to them, and then imagine their beau saying the exact same words to another girl the next day. All of the girls appeared clearly disappointed.

“The word ‘I love you’ is meaningful because it is exclusive and involves a committed relationship,” said Ramsden. “That’s why Spice Girl say, ‘Don’t tell me you love me, just tell me you be there.’”

Explaining to them what love means in a boy-girl relationship would make it relevant for Ramsden to explain God’s love for them, the similarities and also differences. Many of the concepts we know about God are not foreign at all but relevant and plain to see in our lives.

#3 Financial bankers

Can you connect the cross to everyone’s every day lives? Ramsden was invited in a room with Hong Kong bankers during the financial crisis to talk, “What does the gospel say to the heart of finances?”

“God is wanting the gospel to talk about every area in our lives,” said Ramsden who has a unique exposure of growing up in the middle-east most of his life, in addition to doing a PhD and teaching philosophy.

PERSUADE

‘Persuade’ is the most common word in the book of Acts, which means to be convinced morally. One cannot be fully persuaded unless he or she knows the moral character of the person. Likewise, we also asked ourselves if God is truly reliable and trustworthy. And most of the questions directed to apologists were about God’s moral character; is God fair? Is God right? Is God good?

“If He’s not right, then we will be crazy to trust Him. You cannot fully trust someone if you don’t trust a person as morally correct. At the back of your mind, sometimes God is good; sometimes, He is nasty. If something bad happens, you say I know that God is like that,” he said.

He recalled a couple in their 60’s who had been faithfully serving the church- paid tithes, ran small groups, ran hospitality groups- but one day, they found out that the husband had terminal disease. In a rage, both decided to not go to church and proclaimed that they did not want to know anything about God anymore. The next day, Ramsden got another phone call from the couple; the wife told him that the medical exam was a mistake and her husband did not have any terminal disease. She reflected and said, “I wonder what happened to me.”

“Are you telling me that you had this intimate relationship with God before this and something happened? You cannot lose what you never had. Even though something happens to you, the first thing a bad thing happens, turn to God,” said Ramsden.

When a crisis strikes our life, that crisis would truly reveal how far we are persuaded of God’s internal character. Do we still believe that what God says He is and stay with Him?

CALLING OF CHRIST

In Luke 14, Jesus underlined his mission of God in hosting a big banquet of everyone. In this chapter, the invitations have already been sent out before. And when the food is prepared, the servant is called to invite the guests but everyone rejected with an apparent lie.

One said he bought a field, which he did not know about it until the banquet is held. Another said he bought five oxen, which did not make sense because in the Middle East, you would always buy a pair of oxen. Still another said he managed to get married in the brief period between food preparation and feasting.

The master was angry in the parable and asked the servant to invite those who are poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. But even after inviting them, there was still room. So, the master said, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”

“And we as servants should persuade for people to come. At the end of the world, God will throw a great banquet. God is going to throw a banquet and every seat in that banquet will be taken,” said Ramsden.

In other words, the take-home message is to talk to and relate the gospel to a nonbeliever. Be prepared to answer why you are a Christian, besides how you became one.