Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Tell People About Jesus | New Testament | 2 Corinthians 5

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

You might already know that Jesus is the only way to God, and you might even feel equipped to talk to people about Jesus. So why don't you? In today's episode, Keithlooks at 2 Corinthians 5 when Paul gives 4 motivations to talk to others about Jesus. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Corinthians 5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Jesus made a lot of controversial claims, but perhaps his most controversial claim is that he is the only way to God. In John 146, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So when Jesus said that, he made Christianity a missionary religion. All I mean by that is if Jesus, Jesus,

is the only way to have a relationship with the God who created us and loved us, that it's incumbent upon us as Christians to share the good news that in Jesus there's forgiveness and joy and peace and security and life. When the authorities discouraged his earliest followers from talking about Jesus and even threatened them if they continued to do so, the disciples said that they couldn't and wouldn't stop talking about Jesus because, and this is Acts 412, salvation is found and no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Because Christians are called to share their faith in Christ, I was very interested in a poll on that very topic. It was produced in 2019 by the Barna Group. And very high percentages of Christians

from every generation said that they believe that the Bible teaches them that they should talk to others about Jesus. And they also agree, again, with very high percentages across all generations, that people are far better off when they know Jesus, when they have a relationship with him. People even indicated in the survey that they feel capable and equipped to talk to people about Jesus. But then weirdly, a pretty high percentage, almost 50% of millennials, said that they believe that it is wrong to talk to people about Jesus in the hope that they will come to faith in Jesus. Now, how do you make sense out of that? Well, one reason people might think it's wrong to talk to others about Jesus is because they have a bad view of what that looks like.

Maybe they think of it as a street preacher or someone who is very condemning in their message. We need a paradigm shift when it comes to talking to people about our faith. We need a new way of looking at old things. Stephen Covey described a mini paradigm shift that he experienced on a subway in New York City one Sunday morning. He tells a story of everyone sitting on the subway quietly. some reading their newspaper, some sitting with their eyes closed, either sleeping or meditating. It was a very calm, peaceful scene. And then a man and his young children get on the subway.

And the man sits down and the young children run wild. They're yelling, they're bumping into people, they're knocking people's newspaper out of their hands. Everyone's kind of looking at the dad thinking, aren't you going to do something, say something, anything? Finally, Stephen Covey says to the man, sir, your children are acting a bit wild. Is there anything you could do to control them better? He said it was as if the man were in a fog, and he looked at Stephen Covey and looked at his kids

and looked back at Covey and said, You're right. I should do something. We just left the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't think they know how to handle it, and I don't either. When Stephen Covey got all the information, it radically changed his perspective on what he saw happening in that subway car. There was a paradigm shift, a new way of seeing old things. I think for many of us,

2 Corinthians chapter 5 provides that kind of paradigm shift. Talking to someone else about Jesus doesn't have to be awkward or weird or turn into an argument. Talking to people about Jesus can be one of the most exciting and meaningful experiences you will ever have in your life. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul gives us four motivations to talk to others about Jesus. The first motivation, is that we all have to stand before God and give an account of our life. Here's verse 11. Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others.

See, Paul is saying, look, one day I'm going to stand before God and give an account of my life. And on that day, I'm sure that God is going to ask me questions. Like, how did I use my time and resources, the ones that he gave me? Did I use that to serve people in need? Did I use the time and resources he gave me to share with others the good news that's found in Jesus? The second motivation to share Christ with others is because of God's love. Here's verse 14. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all. God's love compels us to share Christ with others. We want people to know him. We want others to

know the peace and joy and security and forgiveness and, yes, love that can only be found in Jesus. For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. Jesus was motivated by love to lay down his life for sinners. If you spend just one minute thinking about how Jesus lived, you quickly realized that he spent a lot of time with people who are far away from God. He loved being around people who didn't understand his message, people who rejected his teaching, people who lived by very different moral standards. And Jesus didn't just love them because it was his job to love them. I mean, he really liked them.

He enjoyed being with them. He sought them out, and they saw him out. You just couldn't keep Jesus and lost people apart. And that's Jesus' plan for his followers. It's just about this simple. When you love Jesus, you'll love the people he loved. You'll want to spend time with the people he spent time with. You will be committed to the same mission he was committed to.

The third motivation to talk to others about Jesus is their personal need. Paul writes in verse 16, so from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. See, we tend to see people as the world sees them. We look at them and see their physical appearance, or we see them by the kind of job they do, or by their family status, or something else. Now, none of those are bad things, but they're not enough, because people are far more than their job, their family, their appearance. When God sees people, he sees into their heart. Jesus calls people who don't have a relationship with him sheep without a shepherd. That means that they are lost.

They are in need. But if we only see the outside of their life, we might miss out on their true spiritual needs. The truth is that people are hungry for God. Most people you know haven't rejected Jesus. They've rejected a caricature of Jesus. Maybe they've rejected a misrepresentation of Jesus. Now, they may not say that they're hungry to know God. God. But the people you know, they're hungry for truth and they're hungry for satisfaction and a

clean conscience and they need hope. And those things can only be found in Jesus. Here's another thing most people you know agree on. Nothing that they've used, nothing they've tried to fill that hole in their heart has worked. Just because they live in a nice house or drive an expensive car or go on good vacations doesn't mean that they're happy or at peace or have a clean conscience. We need to see people the way God sees them. Fourth and last motivation to share Christ with people is that God has designated us as his ambassadors. Here's verse 20.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. The American president appoints ambassadors to represent. him and American foreign policy all over the world. Well, in a similar way, we represent God wherever we go. Which kind of makes us wrestle with the question, which people has God sent us to? Who should we try to share Christ with?

And I think the answer to that can be as simple as this. We should look for opportunities to share Christ with people that we have a relationship with. Just think about how influence works in people's lives. If you have young kids and you're going to look for a babysitter, what would you do? How would you find one? My guess is that you would ask a friend for recommendations. If you're visiting a new city and you're looking for a good church to attend, what would you do? Well, my guess is that you would ask a friend, someone you trust, for their opinion.

Now, if some random person walked up to you on the street and said that he wanted to set you up on a blind date, how would you respond? Well, that's obvious, right? You tell the freak to get away. When it comes to what matters most to us, our finances, our relationships, our futures, we don't usually put ourselves in the hands of total strangers. Instead, we listen to people that we trust. Friends influence friends. And if that is true in general, it is especially true when it comes to the ultimate issues in life. That means if people are going to become Christians, it's probably not going to happen because they were approached by a stranger. Most people don't start following Jesus because someone they saw on television or because of a social media influencer.

People usually, not always, but usually become Christian so the influence of someone they know and trust. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul has given us motivations to talk to other people about Jesus. Let's pray for opportunities to do so. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.