2 Corinthians 4:1-5
The silent witness
Wayne Rooney scores goals for the England soccer team, but he needs ten other blokes to create the opportunities for him. This is how churches grow – when we all do our part in the team to make the goals happen!
Last week we saw that, before we even open our mouths, we have an impact on people. This happens in two ways:
- Remember the pretty girl at the perfume counter? She wants you to try the fragrance on and see if you like it. Every Christian is redolent of the fragrance of Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:14-15)
- Remember how Paul established his credentials? Other preachers needed a letter of reference, but Paul had a more persuasive letter (2 Corinthians 3:1-3). You are a letter from Christ to your family and friends.
I cannot exaggerate how important your ‘fragrance’ and your ‘letter’ are to the reputation of Jesus in this city! You are an essential part of the team and you line up the goals that Pete or myself may whack into the back of the net! How do you play your part? You just have to walk across the room and say hello to someone!
We like this idea of being a silent witness to the gospel, don’t we? Everyone can do that. St Francis of Assisi put it like this:
“Preach the gospel, use words if you have to”
But I am afraid this will not do! Think about Jesus for a moment: if he had remained silent, he would have impressed people deeply but no-one would have had a clue what was going on! Sooner or later we must speak (Paul affirms this in 2 Corinthians 4:13) so how do we get people to talk about this? And when they do… what do we say?
This is Paul’s advice in 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 [1] .
Two key principles
In our desperation to communicate the gospel we can go to extreme lengths. But it is important to see that, even if our activities are well-meaning and passionate, they can be counter-productive. Jesus taught us how to avoid these pitfalls, “Do to others what you would have them do to you”, he said (Matthew 7:12 & Luke 6:31).
I do not like religious people knocking on my door; I do not want to be shouted at in the street or accosted to take part in a bogus survey. So why should I do these things to others? So many ordinary people are turned away from the church because they feel we don’t care how they feel – they are usually right. Jesus’ ‘golden rule’ is a good place to start thinking about evangelism.
Second principle; Paul says ‘keep it simple, keep it pure’ (that is the gist of chapter 4 verses1-2) “We tell the truth before God”, he writes, (New Living Translation - or “set forth the truth plainly” - New International Version). But how can you begin to do that when you are:
- Inexperienced
- Don’t know very much
- Terrified!
I want to give you five simple things that you can do that will enable you to move from being a silent witness to being vocal about your faith.
Five simple steps
- Make friends – don’t use the church as a ghetto, get out and mix in with people who are not Christians (yet!). Don’t make friends with people because you want to share the gospel with them either, make friends because it is good to make friends, because friendships are good in themselves, and then just see where it goes. I run with friends, I climb mountains with friends, I sail with friends – these things are good in themselves, and they lead to terrific conversation! Just walk across the room, make friends with someone.
- Pray – speak with God about your mates. You can ask him to make opportunities to chat about the things that matter. This is good, but pray for peoples practical needs, too. Recently my cell group has been praying for a young guy we know who had cancer; we sent a card to him most months just to let him know. Just before Christmas he came to our group just to say thank-you to us. He has not woken up yet, but he sure can smell the coffee!Just walk across the room, and pray for the people you meet.
- Make it obvious you are a Christian – There are some naff ways to do this. It is not a good idea to carry a big black Bible around with you, and you should only have a fish sticker on your car if your driving is exemplary (Institute of Advanced Motorists at least). The key is to be natural. I am excited by the way The Messagee expresses this idea; "We keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God” The most natural way to do this is to include your Christian activities in your everyday conversation. If your friends brag about how many pints they drank before they fell over, boast back about how many hymns you sang before you fell over – be as natural about your faith as they are about theirs! Just walk across the room, and be open about yourself.
- Create opportunities for your Christian friends to meet your not-yet-Christian friends. In the Living Bible (the 1970’s Christian hippy bible!) there is a nice piece of advice in Jude 21; “Always remain within the circle where God’s love can reach and bless you” – we need to find ways of bringing people within this circle. Your Christian friends carry with them the fragrance of Jesus and are a letter from him – so introduce them to people. Just walk across the room… introduce people from outside the circle to those who are inside the circle..
- Learn to tell your story. Work with others in your cell group to hone your personal story until you can tell it in about two minutes. When you get the chance, tell your story! Just walk across the room! Tell someone your story.
Believe me, if all of us do this, the church will grow. More and more people will come into the circle where God’s love can reach and bless them.
Jesus the Ikon (3-6)
So far, so good, but sooner or later the focus has to shift from my story to his story (5-6).
This is such a helpful passage because it prevents us talking about stuff that doesn’t matter – we are not here to talk about evolution, or homosexuality, or sex before marriage. We are here to talk about Jesus – who he is and why he matters. All that other stuff will fall into place sooner or later.
It is the truth about Jesus that changes people’s lives.
A good conversation should focus on Jesus. Verse 5 describes Jesus as the image of God. The word image translates the Greek word ikon – an exact representation of something. We are used to the idea of an icon in computing, a little picture that represents millions of lines of computer code. Click the icon and the power of something incomprehensible (to most of us!) becomes available. Jesus makes the incomprehensible God visible and understandable – the image of God. Every aspect of our outreach should aim to bring Jesus to people’s attention.
When I was in my mid twenties I set out to explore a cave in Derbyshire. My friends had failed to turn up at the rendezvous so I went underground alone. After several happy hours crawling around in pitch blackness I began the journey back to the entrance only to find myself lost in a maze of passages I could not recognize. This was a bad situation; the batteries on my lamp were giving out, I was tired and worried, and I was completely lost.
After an hour or so I was sitting with my back to a rock wall trying to catch my breath and calm my wobbly nerves, and then I saw something. Off to my left, at the end of a narrow fissure, was a large rock. On top of the rock was a green leaf.
Plants need light to stay green otherwise they loose their colour, so his leaf must have arrived in the cave very recently. I crawled towards the leaf, looked up and saw daylight; I was free!
Just as the leaf was the clue I needed to escape the darkness and enter the light, Jesus is the clue our friends need to help them do the same (verse 6)
It’s all about Jesus, really.
[1] The Message renders this pungently: “ Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.”