“When I was a new Christian 50 years ago, I read two little booklets

“When I was a new Christian 50 years ago, I read two

little booklets by John Stott on personal evangelism

that changed my life. Matt Smethurst has written a

short book on the same subject that is every bit as

good as those older essays, but of course far more up

to date. Read it—it could change your life!”

Timothy Keller, Redeemer City to City

“Matt Smethurst has given God’s people a

tremendously valuable resource: something to help

prepare us for evangelism. He addresses topics that are

often skipped over or assumed in evangelism training.

And he does so with excellent prose and gospel grace.”

Randy Newman, senior fellow for apologetics

and evangelism, The C. S. Lewis Institute; author,

Questioning Evangelism

“Jumping to the ‘how’ in evangelism is the norm.

But Matt Smethurst prepares us for the jump by

unpacking why we should jump in the first place...

and it’s fabulously helpful in every way. This book

aligns your heart to answer evangelism’s ‘why,’ and

then graciously kicks your behind to get involved for

the glory of God.”

Shelby Abbott, campus minister, Cru; podcast/

radio host, FamilyLife; author

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

“Matt Smethurst has written a helpful book for what

seems like the bulk of us—those who want to share

our faith, but haven’t quite gotten there yet. He gives

us a view of the gospel we proclaim, the obstacles we

encounter on the way, and the God who overcomes

them. I am happy to commend this handy resource to

ministry leaders and anyone looking to get after the

work God has given the church.”

Derek Rishmawy, campus minister, Reformed

University Fellowship; co-host, Mere Fidelity podcast

“Few people can write a warm, winsome book

on evangelism while still maintaining biblical

faithfulness, but Matt Smethurst has pulled it off.

Matt is a player-coach who walks alongside us,

outlining the foundational components of sharing

our faith and never forgetting that evangelism is part

of every faithful believer’s life. This book will instruct

the fearless and invigorate the fearful.”

J. Mack Stiles, director, Messenger Ministries;

author, Evangelism and Marks of the Messenger

“Packed with pastoral wisdom, theological clarity,

and a contagious zeal—both for Christ and for the

lost. I can’t think of a better short encouragement

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

toward evangelism. Read it with friends, and

getsharing!”

Glen Scrivener, evangelist and author

“Every Christian would love to tell their friends

about Jesus. So why don’t we do it more often? It’s

certainly not due to lack of opportunities. What if

the barriers are not so much what’s outside us but

what’s inside? Matt Smethurst’s book will remove

barriers and motivate you to share your faith—as the

title promises! It will be life-changing for you, and for

the friends you tell about Jesus.”

Sam Chan, City Bible Forum, Australia; author,

Evangelism in a Skeptical World and How To Talk

about Jesus

“This is a delightful book on evangelism! Matt

Smethurst focuses on the crucial topic of how to

prepare for witness—before the opportunity arrives.

His writing is clear, concise, compelling, and

insightful. This is an important contribution on a

very important subject.”

Rebecca Manley Pippert, author, Out of the

Saltshaker and Into the World and Stay Salt

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

“People tend to overcomplicate things. We can be

so busy looking for the Bible study plan that we

forget to study our Bibles. We form well-intentioned

discipleship pathways that are more of a maze than a

map. That’s why I love this book by Matt Smethurst.

It doesn’t dodge the challenges we face, but it does

something many evangelism books don’t: it shows the

simplicity and wonder of the gospel. Matt takes a step

back to explain how any believer can be prepared to

share this good news with both strangers and friends.

Read this—and put what you read into practice. It’s

really that simple.”

Ed Stetzer, executive director, Wheaton College

Billy Graham Center; dean, School of Mission,

Ministry, and Leadership

“I must confess that sometimes I don’t share my faith

when I should. But this little book is not designed to

make me ashamed of myself (I don’t need help in

that department), but to help me do better. If you

are a Christian who never wavers on this front, don’t

bother reading this book: you don’t need it. Otherwise

read it thoughtfully and gratefully.”

D. A. Carson, cofounder and theologian-at-large,

The Gospel Coalition; emeritus professor of New

Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU

your

FAITH

FIVE WAYS TO BE

EVANGELISM READY

MATT SMETHURST

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from The ESV

2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible, New

First published in Great Britain in 2022

The right of Matt Smethurst to be identified as the Author of this Work

has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs

and Patents Act 1988.

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without

the prior permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-913896-84-3

Designed and typeset by Pete Barnsley (CreativeHoot.com)

Printed in Denmark by Nørhaven

10Publishing, a division of 10ofthose.com

Unit C, Tomlinson Road, Leyland, PR25 2DY, England

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.10ofthose.com

1 3 5 7 10 8 6 4 2

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

To Dan Flynn, who was gospel-centered

before it was cool, and who showed a

young college kid that sharing Christ is

the most exhilarating privilege on earth.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CONTENTS

Introduction:

Not Your Typical Evangelism Book .................... 1

1. Grasp the Gospel ............................................ 5

2. Check Your Context ..................................... 23

3. Love the Lost ................................................ 41

4. Face Your Fear ............................................... 55

5. Start to Speak ................................................ 69

Conclusion: The Highest Motivation ............... 89

Appendix: Twelve Verses for Fighting Fear ....... 97

Recommended Resources .............................. 103

Notes .............................................................. 107

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

INTRODUCTION:

NOT YOUR TYPICAL

EVANGELISM BOOK

I have a love-hate relationship with evang-

elismbooks.

On the one hand, they have helped me

immensely. It’s surely no coincidence that in the

seasons of life when I’ve been most deliberate

about sharing Christ with others, a good book on

the topic has invigorated me. And vice versa: in

the sluggish seasons, it’s usually the case that I

haven’t pondered the subject in a while.

I’m quite skilled, you see, at avoiding things

that are good for me. Exercise. Kale. Books on

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

this topic. (Come to think of it, evangelism books

can sometimes taste like kale.)

The main reason I’m tempted to avoid

evangelism books, though, is because they

reawaken something I’d rather keep suppressed:

a low-level guilt, humming beneath the

surface, that whispers: You, Matt, are a lousy and

inconsistentevangelist.

And here I am writing a book on the topic!

The gall! Except, I’m not. I’m actually doing

something a bit different.

This is not a handbook of evangelistic jujitsu

tips. I’ll leave that to more able voices. This

volume is about getting ready to open your

mouth at all. It’s about the preparation for

theconversation.

In a previous book, Before You Open Your Bible,

I observed that how we approach things matters

in a huge way. The world of sports is an obvious

example—and a general analogy for life. Whether

we’re talking about a soccer player during warm-

ups or a runner at the starting line, an athlete’s

simple approach can make all the difference.

Many evangelism books—including some

excellent ones—start a little too downstream

for me. I need help further up and further back,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

INTRODUCTION: NOT YOUR TYPICAL EVANGELISM BOOK

because I am so often stuck at the water’s edge,

unsure and immobilized, not quite ready to

divein.

Sometimes the problem is the inertia that

comes with feeling out of practice—and the

aforementioned guilt, or at least the lack of

confidence, accompanying such a feeling. Other

times it’s simply the age-old presence of fear, or

perhaps more accurately, the absence of love. My

view of God can shrivel so much that it makes

humans look inflated and intimidating.

I don’t know why you picked up this book,

or if you did at all. (Perhaps someone shoved it

into your unsuspecting hands.) But regardless of

your reason for reading, here we are, exploring

evangelism together. My hope is that the Holy

Spirit would use these pages to ready your mind,

and energize your heart, so that you joyfully and

expectantly brag about the One who has changed

your life.

Nothing is more worth talking about. And

nothing is easier to stay silent about.

The remedy for this spiritual dilemma? I

believe it may be hidden in what happens before

we share our faith.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

Among the preludes to sharing your faith that I

am commending to you, this one tops the list.

Why? Because without it, there is no list. You

cannot do evangelism if you do not grasp the

evangel, the good news of Christianity.

Let’s face it: the word “gospel” gets

thrown around somewhat loosely in Christian

conversations today—so much so that its weighty

meaning can get lost, or at least muffled. To grasp

the good news of the gospel, then, we must

internalize the significance of that word “news.”

After all, this is what separates Christianity

from every other religion. Christianity is not

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

fundamentally an ethical code, or good advice. It

is, above all, an announcement of good news.

You don’t need to go to seminary in order to

grasp the gospel. You don’t need to be in ministry

to grasp the gospel. You don’t even need to have

been a Christian for five minutes in order to grasp

the gospel well enough to convey it to others.

All you need to understand is that two

thousand years ago, an invasion took place.

Heaven came to earth in the person of Jesus,

and he inaugurated a whole new kingdom.

For

thirty-three years, he lived a life of unflinching,

perfect faithfulness to God the Father. In other

words, he lived the life that, try as we might, we

cannot live. And because he loves us, he died the

death that we deserved to die. As a believer in

Jesus, I can know that on the cross he was treated

as if he had lived my sinful life, so that I might be

treated as if I have lived his righteous life.

And then Jesus was buried. Until he wasn’t—

because three days later, he got up and walked

out of his tomb. Now everyone who turns from

their rebellion—whether of the plainly wicked or

subtly “religious” variety—and trusts in Jesus is

united to him in this life and the next. Believers

will one day be resurrected in new bodies fit for

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

a new, resurrected earth. We will enter into the

joy of our triune Lord—Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit—and will rule under him as kings and

queens of the universe, forever.

In a skeptical age, this may all sound far-

fetched, like a fairy tale for gullible kids. Too good

to be true. But this news is entirely true. It just

isn’t deserved—indeed, it isn’t fair. As one song

phrases it, “Why should I gain from his reward? I

cannot give an answer.”

But mercy is never fair. That’s why it’s

calledmercy.

ONE GOSPEL, TWO ANGLES

I live in Richmond, Virginia, and there are things

about my city—size, layout, population density,

and so on—that I can best learn from the vantage

point of an airplane. There are plenty of other

things, though, that I can better learn by walking

down Broad Street. Both perspectives are helpful,

even necessary, for understanding Richmond. A

street-level view without an aerial perspective to

frame it, or an aerial view without a street-level

perspective to fill it out, will inevitably yield a

truncated frame of reference. Sure, we are just

talking geography—Richmond’s history and

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

culture, for example, must be learned by other

means—but a failure to see the city from various

angles creates a one-dimensional, distorted

outlook. Not to mention an impoverished

appreciation for the area in all its fullness.

Likewise, the gospel can be profitably

observed from two biblical vantage points: “in

the air” and “on the ground.”

Just as there are

not two capital cities in Virginia, so there are not

two gospels. There is one, which we can marvel

at from two angles.

The gospel “in the air” is the sweeping

story, from Genesis to Revelation, that can be

summarized in a few plot points (for example,

creation, fall, redemption, and new creation).

The gospel “on the ground,” meanwhile, fleshes

out how this epic narrative becomes good news

for sinners like us (for example, by looking at

God, humanity, Christ, and our response).

At the outset of this chapter, I offered a brief

summary of the gospel story. But we can fill it

out even more. Perhaps one way to synthesize

the best of these complementary perspectives—

both “in the air” and “on the ground,” both

“wide lens” and “zoom lens”—is to consider the

gospel story in four movements: the Ruler, the

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

Revolt, the Rescue, and the Response. I hope that

this deeper dive will provide a rich context from

which to share your faith.

THE RULER

“In the beginning, God...” (Gen. 1:1). The Bible

opens with history’s most basic statement about

reality.

God created, sustains, and rules everything

that exists. Contrary to cultural misconceptions,

he is not Santa in the sky, nor a cosmic vending

machine, nor an irritable drill sergeant, nor a

deadbeat dad. He is the King of glory and the

Lord of love. In fact, he is an eternal community

of persons, a Father loving his Son in the joy

of the Holy Spirit. And because this loving

and joyful God is Trinity—one God forever

existing in three persons—love is at the heart of

theuniverse.

This triune God made humanity—you and

me—in his image to know and enjoy his love.

So we were made by God (which means he

alone owns us) and for God (which means he

alone satisfies us). Human beings were custom-

designed to find meaning and fulfillment and

life in our Creator above all else—above success,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

above popularity, above recreation, above

romance, above self.

Now, is that the story of your life—being

totally satisfied in your Maker and treasuring

him above everything? It certainly isn’t the story

ofmine.

What happened?

THE REVOLT

We look for love in all the wrong places, because

something has gone terribly wrong in our

hearts. This echoes what happened when our

first parents, Adam and Eve, turned their backs

on God and chose to call the shots themselves,

fracturing his creation and plunging his image-

bearers into an ocean of sin. Instead of living for

our Maker, we live for ourselves. The tentacles

of sin have deformed our hearts and disordered

our loves. Every one of us has rebelled, by both

nature and choice, against the Lord of love.

It’s easy to think of sin as a relatively minor

thing—outward naughtiness perhaps, or a kind of

THE TENTACLES OF SIN HAVE

DEFORMED OUR HEARTS AND

DISORDERED OUR LOVES.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

heavenly parking ticket. But when the Bible talks

about sin, it’s talking about cosmic treason—an

insurrection against heaven itself.

It is vital that we grasp at least two truths

about the nature of sin.

First, sin is more relational than behavioral.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, it

wasn’t just a behavioral boo-boo; it was a heart-

level betrayal. We’ve cheated on our Maker,

which is why Israel’s sin in the Old Testament is

so often cast in terms of spiritual adultery. We’ve

desperately sought to build our lives around

other things—anything—but him. We’ve taken

good gifts and turned them into stand-ins for

theGiver.

Second, sin is more vertical than horizontal. Its

horizontal effects can be devastating, but sin is

fundamentally a vertical problem. David, the

“man after God’s own heart,” confesses well the

predicament of us all:

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight

(Ps.51:3–4; cf. Gen. 39:9; Luke 15:21).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

Here’s something fascinating: “sin” is the only

noun in the English language that is larger in

its singular form. “Sin” is a bigger category

than “sins.” At the deepest level, then, we are

not sinners because we sin—we sin because we

aresinners.

But it gets worse. Ponder this: the result of

our me-ism and idolatry is nothing less than the

creation of a catastrophic chasm between us and

God. “Your iniquities have separated you from

your God,” the prophet Isaiah declares, “your

sins have hidden his face from you so that he

does not hear” (Isa. 59:2, ). We have bucked

God’s design for us, his image-bearers, and so we

are severed from the ultimate Source of life and

love. And when we die, it’s time for justice: “It

is appointed for man to die once, and after that

comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

As a result of our sin, we are justly under

God’s wrath—his holy and settled opposition to

evil. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Paul asks believers (Rom. 8:31). But the reverse,

for those outside of Christ, is also true: if God is

against you, who can be for you?

In grasping the gospel, then, how good do you

have to be to enter heaven? Here’s the staggering

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 12 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

answer: as good as God. Only persons whom God

considers perfect can live with him forever.

This need for moral perfection, of course, is

everlastingly bad news. Left to our own merit,

we are standing on the precipice of a hopeless

future in hell—not just God’s absence, but the

presence of his right and good justice.

Here’s how Paul explains it to the Ephesians:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

in which you once walked, following the course

of this world, following the prince of the power

of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the

sons of disobedience—among whom we all

once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying

out the desires of the body and the mind, and

were by nature children of wrath, like the rest

of mankind (Eph. 2:1–3).

Instead of the credits rolling, though, Paul

continues: “But . . .”

Have you ever thought about the fact

that your entire eternity hangs on this one

little word?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 13 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

THE RESCUE

Something happened in history to change

the trajectory for those who rely on Jesus for

salvation, and here’s the decisive “but”:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the

great love with which he loved us, even when

we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive

together with Christ—by grace you have been

saved (Eph. 2:4–5).

After centuries of rebellion by God’s people,

God’s Son—the second person of the eternal

Trinity—became an embryo, a baby, a teenager,

a man. We couldn’t get to God, so God came

to us (Heb. 2:14–15). For thirty-three years,

the carpenter from Nazareth lived a life of

uninterrupted devotion and obedience to his

heavenly Father. He prayed a lot of prayers, but

never once a prayer of confession, because he

never had any sin to confess.

Jesus lived the life of moral perfection that

Adam failed to live, that Israel failed to live, and

that you and I have failed to live.

And the Bible says Jesus became “obedient

to the point of death, even death on a cross”

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 14 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

(Phil.2:8). The One who made the law kept it,

and then died for those who had broken it. The

law-maker became the law-keeper and died in

the place of law-breakers.

We have now reached the white-hot center of

the Christian faith: the death of Jesus Christ. On

the cross God punished his Son, who is perfect,

for the sins of those who are not.

But that’s not the only thing that occurred. If

all God did was cancel our sin, that would have

simply brought us back to zero.

Think about it this way: there are eighty-

two games in a National Basketball Association

regular season. No team has ever achieved a

perfect season—one without any losses. “But

wait,” some fan might object. “My team’s record

is currently 0-0. That’s a perfect season—we

haven’t lost any games!”

To which we would rightly roll our eyes.

“Your” team hasn’t lost because they haven’t

played all their games. To have a perfect season

you must never lose and always win—right

through to the very last game.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had

a moral record, as it were, of 0-0. They hadn’t

sinned, so they were “undefeated.” But neither

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 15 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

had they achieved a lifetime of righteousness,

so it wasn’t a “perfect season.” And when they

turned from God, they became spiritually

bankrupt. They plummeted to 0-82, the moral

record we now inherit.

However, in the middle of history, one man

amassed an unprecedented record: 82-0.

Continuing the illustration, here’s the point:

if Jesus only paid for our sins, our moral record

would be 0-0. But on the cross, Jesus didn’t

just absorb our eighty-two losses; he also gave

believers his eighty-two victories, certified by his

empty tomb (Rom. 4:23–25). So our record shifts,

in an instant, from 0-82 to 82-0. In the eyes of a

holy God, it’s now as if we’ve done nothing to

offend him and everything to pleasehim.

Paul puts it like this, referring to Christ: “God

made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that

in him we might become the righteousness of

God” (2 Cor. 5:21, ). To reiterate, on the cross

God treated Christ as if he had lived a believer’s

sinful life, so that he could treat us as if we had

lived Christ’s spotless life. No wonder theologians

call this “the sweetexchange.”

What does this mean practically as we grasp

the gospel for ourselves and others? Well, in the

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 16 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

words of the Puritan Richard Sibbes, “There is

more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

No matter

who you are or what you’ve done, hear the

magnificent news: there is more mercy in Jesus

than sin in you.

In our cultural moment, it is vital to grasp that

Jesus didn’t merely die to boost our self-esteem

or to set a moral example. Such a perspective,

however well-meaning, domesticates what he

did. He stooped to take our place on the cross

because we scramble to take his place on the

throne. I love the way John Stott explains it:

The concept of substitution may be said to

lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For

the essence of sin is man substituting himself

for God, while the essence of salvation is God

substituting himself for man. Man asserts

himself against God and puts himself where

only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself

NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR

WHAT YOU’VE DONE, HEAR THE

MAGNIFICENT NEWS: THERE IS MORE

MERCY IN JESUS THAN SIN IN YOU.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 17 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

for man and puts himself where only man

deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that

belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that

belong to man alone.

Amen. And yet we must be careful, when

presenting the gospel, not to leave Jesus hanging

on the cross.

After his death, his brutalized corpse was

placed in a “secure” tomb (Matt. 27:65–66),

never to be heard from again. Except, he was

heard from again—because the power of death

could not suppress the Author of life (Acts 2:24;

cf.3:15). And so, as he had promised, on the third

day he exited the tomb.

Again, as we prepare to share our faith, the

resurrection is not an “add-on” to the gospel

story—because without it, there is no gospel

story. In raising Jesus from the dead, God was

publicly affirming that his sacrifice on the cross

had been accepted, a just and complete payment

for sin. If on Good Friday redemption’s check

was signed, on Easter Sunday the check cleared.

And one day, this same Jesus—who died and

rose and ascended to heaven and intercedes for

his people—is going to make a comeback. Those

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 18 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

who have not trusted him will receive justice;

those who have will receive mercy. Our ultimate

hope as Christians is not evacuation from this

earth, but the restoration of this earth.

God’s

redeemed people will inherit a remade world,

unmarred by the scourge of sin. This is why

the Scriptures portray our future home in

concrete, material terms—“new heavens and a

new earth” (Isa. 65:17; cf. 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1–4).

Contrary to popular belief, we won’t be floating

around playing golden harps with chubby angels.

We’ll be running and working and playing and

singing and laughing and resting and reveling

in the endless wonders of our good and

beautifulGod.

THE RESPONSE

When you pass through a highway toll and

interact with the person in the booth, is it

OUR ULTIMATE HOPE IS NOT

EVACUATION FROM THIS EARTH,

BUT THE RESTORATION OF THIS

EARTH. GOD’S REDEEMED PEOPLE

WILL INHERIT A REMADE WORLD,

UNMARRED BY THE SCOURGE OF SIN.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 1910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 19 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

a meaningful experience? Not exactly. It’s a

business transaction: you pay the money; they

raise the bar. You do your part; they do theirs.

Becoming a Christian, friend, is not like this.

It’s not a cold transaction. It’s more like getting

married—an intensely personal union. You

throw yourself on Jesus for mercy; he catches

you and never lets go.

So, as we grasp this gospel we long to impart

to others, we can be ready to answer the most

important question one could ask: What must I do

to be right with God?

First, we turn from sin. We’re skilled at

confessing the evil of others, but we should be

most devastated by our own. This is the meaning

of repentance—changing your mind and doing

an “about-face,” a 180-degree pivot from living

for yourself.

Second, we trust Jesus Christ. We say “no”

to sin and “yes” to him, embracing what he has

accomplished for us and his invincible promise to

forgive. Repentance and faith, after all, are two

sides of the same coin.

Third, we treasure Jesus. Now, technically

this is not a third step—it’s the outcome of

the second. But it’s worth spelling out because

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 20 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

GRASP THE GOSPEL

many “accept” Christ the way I might accept,

say, a root canal. Grasping the gospel, though,

entails embracing Jesus as your Lord and Savior

andTreasure.

What this means, among other things, is that

Jesus Christ is infinitely more than a get-out-

of-hell-free pass. He is a living person to follow,

worship, cherish, and enjoy. Indeed, knowing

him is the only way to be restored to a right

relationship with the God for whom we were

made (John 14:6; 17:3). Through him we can

experience the joy of forgiveness, the help of the

Holy Spirit, and the hope of the world to come.

No person is saved by getting baptized, going

to church, retweeting Christian sentiments,

praying a prayer, signing a card, walking an aisle,

or throwing a pinecone into the fire at summer

camp. The critical question facing each of us

blows right past everything outward, for it is

laser-aimed at the heart: Are you, right now, relying

on Jesus alone for your standing before God?

JESUS CHRIST IS INFINITELY MORE

THAN A GET-OUT-OF-HELL-FREE PASS.

HE IS A LIVING PERSON TO FOLLOW,

WORSHIP, CHERISH, AND ENJOY.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 21 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

The gospel demands a response. “Now is the

day of salvation,” Paul insists (2 Cor. 6:2). In

sharing our faith, let’s urge people to respond to

the claims of Christ—and so bring them to that

eternally consequential point of decision.

This is the greatest story ever told—and

anybody can get in on it. Who are you going

toinvite?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 22 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR

CONTEXT

“Jesus is an American god!”

Though a missionary overseas at the time,

Iwas unprepared for this answer. I had just asked

my new friend, an educated college student, what

he knew about Jesus Christ. I certainly was not

expecting him to recite the Nicene Creed. What

startled me, though, was the confidence with

which he answered. I might as well have asked

the name of his school.

Now, imagine if I had promptly replied by

explaining that Jesus loves him and died for

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 23 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

his sins and rose again so that he could go to

heavenforever.

What does that have to do with me? he would’ve

rightly wondered. We’re not in America.

Cutting to the glories of Good Friday and

Resurrection Sunday may well have made me

feel valiant in the moment—I am not ashamed of

the gospel!—but it would have been foolish, even

unloving. Because first I needed to clear away the

static in the air.

WHO’S THE AUDIENCE?

In order to share our faith effectively, we need

to know our audience. And not only know

someone’s name and maybe where they go to

school or what they do for a living—but, as the

saying goes, “where are they coming from?”

Now, on one level, we should be careful not

to overemphasize humanity’s various differences.

Regardless of culture, ethnicity, language, or

background, a common denominator unites us:

having been made in God’s image, we have all

rebelled against him and need rescue from our

deserved plight. The good news of the Bible,

then, is applicable to every society because the

bad news is relevant to every sinner.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 24 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

But we also should not underemphasize

cultural differences, as if they have no bearing on

how people hear the message. And this is not just

a principle for missionaries in far-flung places.

In the modern West, as I’m sure you’ve

noticed, things are not as they were just a few

years ago. Previously, you could pretty much

assume the other person was coming into a

conversation on spiritual matters furnished—

with a basic understanding of a creator God; of

sin as breaking the Ten Commandments; of the

Bible as a respected resource; of life after death in

heaven; and so on.

Clearly, those days are over. In a secular, post-

Christian age, we cannot presume any basic

assumptions in those we are trying to reach with

the gospel.

So we must take care to lean in and

listen well, to climb into the other person’s way

of seeing and inhabiting the world. Otherwise,

we will be speaking about terms—even biblical

WE MUST TAKE CARE TO LEAN IN

AND LISTEN WELL, TO CLIMB INTO

THE OTHER PERSON’S WAY OF

SEEING AND INHABITING THE WORLD.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 25 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

ones—that will be simply misunderstood or

rejectedoutright.

• God loves you is great news, but meaningless

if you don’t understand the nature of God

(or for that matter, love).

• You are a sinner is true, but meaningless if

you don’t know what sin is or don’t feel

that badly about it.

• You need a Savior is true, but meaningless

if you don’t grasp what you need to be

savedfrom.

• The Bible says... is great, unless the Bible

is considered an archaic, patriarchal

collection of fairy tales.

TO CONTEXTUALIZE OR NOT TO

CONTEXTUALIZE, THAT IS NOT

THEQUESTION

This is where discussions concerning (big-word

alert) contextualization often go awry. How

should ambassadors of Christ communicate an

unchanging message in ever-changing contexts?

When it comes to the gospel, we don’t need

to dress it up in order to make it cool. We need

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 26 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

to break it down in order to make it clear. That

is the purpose of studying your surrounding

culture in light of God’s Word. What are people’s

prevailing values, hopes, and fears? How does the

gospel story both fulfill their deepest longings

and subvert their most cherished idols?

Such questions are not original to modern

missiologists. Rewind the clock two thousand

years and even the Son of God did not engage

lost persons in a one-size-fits-all manner. He took

a certain approach with self-righteous Pharisees

(e.g., Mark 12:13–17), another with skeptical

Sadducees (e.g., Mark 12:18–27), and another

with notorious sinners (e.g., Mark2:13–17).

Paul did likewise: in Acts 17, he took

one approach with biblically literate Jews in

Thessalonica (vv. 1–9) and Berea (vv. 10–15), but

a different approach entirely with pagan Greeks

in Athens (vv. 16–34). Was the apostle confused?

Cowardly? Spiritually schizophrenic? Not at all.

He was simply dialed into his various contexts,

WHEN IT COMES TO THE GOSPEL, WE

DON’T NEED TO DRESS IT UP IN ORDER

TO MAKE IT COOL. WE NEED TO BREAK

IT DOWN IN ORDER TO MAKE IT CLEAR.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 27 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

and willing to adapt accordingly. We aren’t

left to psychoanalyze him, either. He laid out

hisstrategy:

For though I am free from all, I have made

myself a servant to all, that I might win more

of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order

to win Jews. To those under the law I became

as one under the law (though not being myself

under the law) that I might win those under

the law. To those outside the law I became as

one outside the law (not being outside the law

of God but under the law of Christ) that I

might win those outside the law. To the weak

I became weak, that I might win the weak. I

have become all things to all people, that by all

means I might save some. I do it all for the sake

of the gospel, that I may share with them in its

blessings (1Cor. 9:19–23).

In claiming to be “free from all,” Paul meant that

he didn’t answer finally to people. Elsewhere, he

put it pointedly:

For am I now seeking the approval of man,

or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 28 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

were still trying to please man, I would not be a

servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10).

And yet, even though Paul didn’t answer to

people, he did accommodate to them. Why? To

remove any barriers that might make it harder for

someone to have a direct encounter with Christ.

Reflecting on 1 Corinthians 9:19, the Protestant

reformer Martin Luther captured the dynamic

well: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all,

subject to none. [And] a Christian is a perfectly

dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

Three hundred years after Luther, in 1854, a

young British missionary named Hudson Taylor

arrived on the shores of China. As he started

traveling around and seeking to share Christ,

he quickly found that the Chinese people were

distracted by his foreignness; they were more

interested in his Western outfits and manners

than in hearing his message. This frustrating

discovery prompted Taylor to change not his

gospel, but his game plan.

What did the missionary do? He started

living like a Chinese man. This included not

only wearing Chinese garb, but even dyeing his

hair black and wearing it in a traditional Chinese

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 2910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 29 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

braid. Why was he contextualizing like this? Was

it to deceive people about his own heritage? Or to

feel like an ancient hipster? Of course not. It was

so that he would not himself be a distraction from

his message of gospel grace.

Hudson Taylor went on to spend fifty-one

years in China, and the little organization he

founded became the largest missions agency

in the world. Missionaries from China Inland

Mission eventually reached every province in the

country, establishing roughly 125 schools and

seeing, according to some reports, over 18,000

conversions to Jesus Christ.

My point is not that Taylor’s particular

approach would be wise now—it probably

wouldn’t. But note the gospel fruit that was born

from one man’s sacrificial choice to creatively

adapt to his context—to relinquish some of

his own cultural preferences and, by so doing,

remove barriers to sharing Christ.

It is easy, when reading 1 Corinthians 9:19–

23, to so fixate on “I became... I became...

I became” that we overlook what grounds

the refrain: “I serve.” Fundamentally, good

contextualizing is not about being cool; it is about

being a servant. It’s about creatively laboring to

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 30 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

make the message of the cross and the joy of the

resurrection crystalclear.

It does not take a seminary degree to see what

Paul was pursuing in his daily life. The thing that

drove him—to flex, to adapt, to sacrifice—was his

paramount passion to see lost persons brought to

Christ: “I do it all for the sake of the gospel”(v.23).

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

To be clear, these statements from Paul are not

meant to be infinitely elastic. He is stretching

as far as he can to reach the lost, but he’s not

going to compromise truth to get there. Nor is

he advocating that we indulge in sinful behavior

in order to be relatable. “All things to all people”

means all legitimate things. Paul is not saying, “To

the gossips I became a gossip; to the drunkards I

became a drunkard; to the cannibals I became a

cannibal.” But he is saying, in essence, “I move as

near to other people as I possibly can. I flex and

adapt to meet them on their turf—as far as truth

and wisdom allow.”

I think the first words in 1 Corinthians 9:20

represent one of the most incredible statements

Paul ever made: “To the Jews I became as a

Jew.” What? He was already a Jew. This would be

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 31 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

like me saying, “Here is my grand evangelistic

strategy: to Americans from Virginia I become as

an American from Virginia; to lovers of candy I

become as a lover of candy.”

What’s going on?

It’s not that Paul is ashamed of his ethnic

identity; in other places he refers warmly to

“my fellow Jews.” But he can propose this

counterintuitive concept—“to the Jews I become

as a Jew”—because he wears his Jewishness loosely.

It’s almost like he can speak of putting it on

and taking it off—not because it doesn’t matter,

nor because he’s in denial, but because his most

fundamental identity is no longer, “I am a Jew, a

Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin”

(cf. Phil. 3:5), but rather, “I am a disciple, the

chief of sinners, of the people of Jesus.”

I can think of two examples of this principle at

work in Paul’s own life. One is a passing reference

in Acts 18 to Paul cutting his hair because he was

“under a vow” (v. 18). We don’t know the exact

nature of the vow, but it was some kind of Jewish

ritual, perhaps similar to the Nazirite vow in

Numbers 6.

The other, more complicated, example is

Acts16:3:

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 32 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and

he took him and circumcised him because of the

Jews who were in those places, for they all knew

that [Timothy’s] father was a Greek.

Now, if you’re familiar with the Book of Romans

and especially Galatians, then you ought to be

a little puzzled—if not scandalized—when you

read that. Because in Galatians 2 Paul had refused

to circumcise Titus.

So what in the world is he doing getting

Timothy circumcised? Well, the main difference

is that, unlike the Titus situation, in the Timothy

situation the gospel is not at stake. In the former

case, false brothers were saying, “Titus needs to

be circumcised in order to be saved,” whereas no

one is saying that about Timothy. But there is a

community of unbelieving Jews who would be

easier to reach with the gospel, Paul calculates, if

he accomodates culturally on this point.

Paul, sometimes in surprising ways, is willing

to adapt and to accommodate. But he steadfastly

refuses to assimilate.

In our age of identity politics, this claim—“To

the Jews I became as a Jew”—is a bombshell. The

world wants to shrink and reduce you to certain

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 33 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

identity markers—your ethnicity, your class,

your gender, your sexual desires, your political

affiliation, and so on. But beneath all of those

descriptive markers is a deeper truth: you belong

to God and his people first, and this is the most

important aspect about you.

What a good reminder to wear our various

identity markers loosely—just as Paul wore

his Jewishness loosely—as we cling to the one

thing that cements our communion with other

believers above all: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Still, it is easy to go wrong here, isn’t it?

SUBVERT EXISTING CATEGORIES,

CREATE NEW ONES

To be effective in our cultural moment, we

must excel at asking questions.

We will think

more about this in the next chapter. If we don’t

understand where a person is coming from,

TO BE EFFECTIVE IN OUR CULTURAL

MOMENT, WE MUST EXCEL AT

ASKING QUESTIONS.

then we risk wasting our time (and theirs) with

a message that will only be misunderstood.

Raining abstract “truth bombs” on late-modern

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 34 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

people is to risk being not just unproductive,

but counterproductive: it may reinforce their

misconceptions and calcify them in their

resistance to gospel grace.

This is not to suggest we try to squeeze biblical

truth into the mold of fallen human thought.

Part of our task is to create categories where they

don’t exist. John Piper sounds an aptwarning:

As we think seriously about contextualizing

the message of the Bible, let’s remember that we

must also labor to bring about, in the minds of

our listeners, conceptual categories that may be

missing from their mental framework. If we only

use the thought structures they already have, some

crucial biblical truths will remain unintelligible,

no matter how much contextualizing we

do.. . . God brings about this new seeing and

understanding and believing. But he uses us to

do it. So we should give as much effort in helping

people have new, biblical categories of thought

as we do in contextualizing the gospel to the

categories they already have.

Bottom line: we must climb into people’s existing

categories, excavating their cultural assumptions

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 35 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

for points of gospel resonance; and we must

also, with the Spirit’s help, labor to create new

categories that accord with supernatural truth.

In recent months, my friend Sarah and

her housemate have engaged in spiritual

conversations with a neighbor, Carl (not their

real names). Despite growing up in church, Carl

rejects the authority of the Bible, insists that

Jesus is just a moral example, and dismisses the

reality of hell. But his fundamental stumbling

block, Sarah believes, is his view of evil and

suffering. This is not surprising—his father died,

then he witnessed his stepfather die, and Carl

has struggled with drug addiction for years. “It is

what it is,” he often says about his pain. And yet,

he also seems to use his story of hardship as a

weapon to one-up Sarah and her housemate—or

perhaps just as a way to avoid facing what they

have to say about God and his Word.

So what did these women do? They remained

sensitive to the particular person—a unique

image-bearer of God—in front of them. They

climbed into Carl’s existing category for suffering

by becoming to him, in the first place, fellow

sufferers. Sarah shared about the devastating

effects of an eating disorder, and her housemate

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 36 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

was honest about her struggle to cope with

her own sister’s tragic death. Before, Carl had

been able to dismiss these “goody-two-shoes”

Christian gals; now, he ascribes to them “street

cred” and seemed to respect them more. Sarah

and her housemate have been gently unearthing

his cultural assumption that suffering is

meaningless, while seeking to create a brand-new

category of supernatural truth. The greatest human

pain, they contend, is not worth comparing to

the glory that awaits Christ’s people (Rom. 8:18;

2 Cor. 4:17), nor is the brokenness of this world

worth comparing to the depth of our need for

forgiveness of sin, which only Christ can provide

(Mark 2:1–12).

The conversations continue, and Carl’s story

isn’t over. Sarah and her housemate remain

intentional, and hopeful, because they trust a big

God who does miracles in human hearts.

The apostle Paul is clear:

The natural person does not accept the things

of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him,

and he is not able to understand them because

they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 37 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

In other words, nonbelievers like Carl do not

embrace supernatural truth for one simple

reason: they cannot. The third person of the

eternal Trinity must break in, granting ears to

hear and eyes to see.

HAPPINESS QUESTS

It has been wisely said that people are not so

much on truth quests as they are on happiness

quests. The average nonbeliever does not roll out

of bed thinking, How can I find the truth today?

But they do think, What will make me happy today?

As Christians, of course, we have discovered that

real and lasting happiness is found only in the

One who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and

the life” (John 14:6).

Human history, C. S. Lewis observed, is

“the long, terrible story of man trying to find

something other than God which will make

him happy.”

And our privilege, as gospel

communicators, is showing nonbelievers how

their deepest longings and hopes are resolved

only in Jesus Christ.

In preparing to share your faith, be prepared

to “question people’s answers” (which we’ll

explore in chapter five) by explaining how

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 38 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

every substitute for God is a taskmaster that

will enslave you. But not Jesus. Only Jesus is a

master who will free you. And whereas your

idols—replacements for God—will demand

and disappoint and crush you into the ground,

only Jesus shows up and says, “I’ll be crushed

for you.”

As Tim Keller often says, no created thing can

satisfy your heart if you get it, or forgive your

sins if you fail it.

But Jesus can, and will. If this

is true, what a story you have to tell!

Until we see Jesus as supremely beautiful—

the One for whom all things were created

(Col.1:16)—we will remain a slave to something

he has made. But he loves us enough to pardon,

liberate, and satisfy. And where does this good

news intersect with an idol-addicted heart? At

the point of substitution. We have substituted so

many things for Jesus. But in astonishing grace,

he substituted himself for us.

OUR PRIVILEGE, AS GOSPEL

COMMUNICATORS, IS SHOWING

NONBELIEVERS HOW THEIR DEEPEST

LONGINGS AND HOPES ARE

RESOLVED ONLY IN JESUS CHRIST.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 3910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 39 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

If your main goal in evangelism is to hear

yourself talk, especially with highfalutin biblical

jargon, then many late-modern skeptics will

walk—or run—away confused (at best). But if

your goal is to be effective, then listen in order

to understand, speak in order to be understood,

and respectfully engage your fellow image-

bearers in their lane of life with the best news

they’ll ever hear.

Otherwise, you’ll just be adding static to

theair.

WE HAVE SUBSTITUTED SO

MANY THINGS FOR JESUS. BUT

IN ASTONISHING GRACE, HE

SUBSTITUTED HIMSELF FOR US.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 40 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

Had I written this book several years ago, I

would have swapped the order of the next two

chapters, with “Face Your Fear” coming before

“Love the Lost.” Why? Because I was convinced

that fear was the primary obstacle to evangelism.

It certainly characterized my failures to speak

thegospel.

Or so I told myself. Until one day it hit me: the

main thing holding me back from speaking the

gospel wasn’t actually the presence of fear. It was

the absence of love.

Perhaps this strikes you as a rather silly

distinction. As I internalized it, though, I was

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 41 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

overcome with conviction. I had been using fear

as an excuse when love was my problem. It wasn’t

even that complicated, I realized. If I love someone

enough, I will overcome my fear and share Christ with

them. But if I don’t, I won’t.

So welcome to chapter three, not chapter

four. We must consider the role of love before

the challenge of fear.

LOVE DRIVES OUT FEAR

This realization shouldn’t have surprised me,

since it is an explicit biblical principle. “There

is no fear in love,” the apostle John observes,

“but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

In context, John’s primary focus is on the fear

of divine punishment, but his words constitute

a powerful argument from the greater to the

lesser. If a deeply felt sense of God’s love has the

power to banish fear of his judgment, how much

more can it banish lesser fears, such as human

ONE DAY IT HIT ME: THE MAIN

THING HOLDING ME BACK FROM

SPEAKING THE GOSPEL WASN’T

ACTUALLY THE PRESENCE OF FEAR. IT

WAS THE ABSENCE OF LOVE.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 42 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

rejection? One is eternal; the other is momentary.

No wonder John concludes that “whoever fears

has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). For

fear is a love problem.

And, it turns out, applying this truth

horizontally—God’s fear-killing love for us

producing fear-killing love in us—accords

with John’s train of thought. He immediately

writes, “We love because [God] first loved us”

(1John4:19).

As we prepare to witness, we must prepare

tolove.

BEFRIEND

Jesus was accused of many things; one was

being a “friend of tax collectors and sinners”

(Luke 7:34).

He wasn’t criticized for being

a passerby or an acquaintance—but a friend.

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost

(Luke 19:10), and he did so in the context of

authentic relationships. Paul, too, modeled such

“relational” or “friendship” evangelism:

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children,

so we cared for you. Because we loved you so

much, we were delighted to share with you

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 43 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

not only the gospel of God but our lives as well

(1Thes. 2:7–8,

niv

In this portion of Scripture—“more perhaps than

anywhere else in his letters,” John Stott notes—

Paul “discloses his mind, expresses his emotions,

and bares his soul.”

The apostle was emphatic

that his team’s ministry in Thessalonica wasn’t

some hit-and-run gospel invasion. They were

happy to stay, to form friendships, to invest their

lives in the lives of others.

Are we?

TWO DITCHES

This is not always easy, of course. Good intentions

can get derailed, landing us in one of two ditches.

(And seldom do we suddenly swerve off the road.

Most of the time our wheel alignment is simply

off, and so the drift is subtle—but certain.)

The first ditch is ignoring “friendship

evangelism” altogether, which can lead to treating

people as projects. We’re probably most susceptible

to this when initiating gospel conversations with

strangers.

What might it look like?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 44 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

• Being a poor listener.

• Rushing too quickly to the gospel.

• Not caring enough to remember their name.

I’ve fallen prey to this before—treating an

evangelistic encounter more like a box to be

checked than a person to be loved. But Jesus never

did this. He never treated a person as a burden,

a mere means to an end. He understood that

every human life is a miracle; every human life is

fascinating; every human life bears the imprint of

God. C. S. Lewis’s observation is striking:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible

gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest

and most uninteresting person you talk to may

one day be a creature which, if you saw it now,

you would be strongly tempted to worship, or

else a horror and a corruption such as you

now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare....

There are no ordinary people. You have never

talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures,

arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and

their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it

is immortals whom we joke with, work with,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 45 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or

everlastingsplendors.

Evangelism is not manipulation, and we don’t

work in sales (2 Cor. 2:17). Nor is striking up

a gospel conversation a bullet point for your

spiritual résumé. Faithful witnessing requires

healthy doses of social awareness, common

courtesy, and authentic concern. Which is just

another way of saying that faithful witnessing

requires love.

The second ditch is practicing “friendship

evangelism” indefinitely, which can lead to

idolizing relational comfort. As we have seen,

friendship evangelism can be a beautiful

thing—so long as the friendship doesn’t crowd

out the evangelism. It is dangerously easy

to build relationships with nonbelievers in

the name of gospel witness... without ever

getting around to gospel witness.

If the danger of the first ditch is rushing the

clock, the danger of the second is assuming the

clock will tick forever. “You are not worth my

time” is patronizing; “We have plenty of time”

is presumptuous. The first ditch is immediately

tactless; the second is finally spineless.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 46 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

It would be a mistake to conclude that contact

evangelism—sharing Christ with strangers—is

inherently impersonal and unloving. As we will

see in chapter five, this approach has rich biblical

precedent and has led to countless conversions

over the years. Extensive time in a relationship

is often evidence of love, but it’s not always a

precondition. You can genuinely love someone

in a brief interaction, just as you can fail to truly

love someone in a forty-year friendship.

LITMUS TEST

Loving the lost is not simply a spiritual virtue. It

makes practical sense, too—because where love

is not felt, the message is unlikely to be heard.

It’s that simple. Trust is essential, in other words,

and this is downstream from a sense that you

actually care. Though not all clichés are helpful,

one is undeniably true: people rarely care what

you know until they know that you care. Failing

to love someone inserts a very real obstacle in the

FRIENDSHIP EVANGELISM CAN

BE BEAUTIFUL—SO LONG AS THE

FRIENDSHIP DOESN’T CROWD OUT

THE EVANGELISM.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 47 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

way of establishing a genuine connection. Not

only does it hinder your own efforts to impart the

gospel, but it may also harden their heart toward

Christians in general and make the task harder

for the next believer who witnesses to them.

But loving the lost must never be limited

to the category of practical strategy—indeed,

it is the healthiest litmus test of whether you

know the God you profess. At the outset of

one of Scripture’s most famous chapters,

1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s words could not be

morebracing:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of

angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong

or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic

powers, and understand all mysteries and

all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as

to remove mountains, but have not love, I am

nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I

deliver up my body to be burned, but have not

love, I gain nothing (vv.1–3).

WHERE LOVE IS NOT FELT, THE

MESSAGE IS UNLIKELY TO BE HEARD.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 48 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

You may be the most intentional and consistent

evangelist in the world. You may even see

conversions. But God is reminding us that if

we lack love—don’t miss this—we are “a noisy

gong... nothing... gain[ing] nothing.” Quite

simply, but profoundly, love is critical to living

out all our horizontal relationships—from those

we live with, to those we do life with at school or

work, to everyone with whom we dare to share

our faith. And lest we reduce it to a warm and

fuzzy feeling, Paul goes on to flesh out this love—

it’s patient, it’s kind, it’s humble, it’s honoring, it’s

not irritable, it’s not quick to anger, it keeps no

record of wrongs, it always protects and trusts,

hopes and perseveres. A tall order indeed.

MIND YOUR MANNERS

There’s more, though, to what biblical love looks

like. Contrary to modern inclinations, it certainly

doesn’t look like affirming people in their sin.

LOVING THE LOST MUST NEVER BE

LIMITED TO A PRACTICAL STRATEGY—

INDEED, IT IS THE HEALTHIEST LITMUS

TEST OF WHETHER YOU KNOW THE

GOD YOU PROFESS.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 4910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 49 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

That’s a popular, and satanic, distortion. Nor

does it mean compromising truth. Love without

truth is a fiction—unworthy of the name love.

Nevertheless, there are wrong ways to

beright.

We live in the age of outrage, if you haven’t

noticed. It can seem as if the temperature of

virtually every conversation and debate, however

trivial, is set to blazing hot. Scripture crashes

into our feverish culture with both warning

and command: “Do not be conformed to this

world, but be transformed by the renewal of

your mind” (Rom. 12:2). If you are feeding the

Perpetual Outrage Machine, you are conforming

to the pattern of this world, letting it “squeeze

you into its own mold.”

Jesus would say you are

like salt that has lost its saltiness (Matt. 5:13)—

indistinct, unnoticeable, useless. Your gospel

witness, sacrificed on the altar of worldly fury,

is not just ineffective; it is counter-effective to the

cause of Jesus Christ.

Again, none of this is to say Christians must

be milquetoast, mealy-mouthed individuals

who shrink back while the world stands up.

But our manner, our posture, and our tone

matter tremendously to the One who faced all

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 50 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

manner of unfounded accusation, yet without

sin. Sadly, there is a way to approach evangelism

that emits an air of disdain: “I’m right, you’re

wrong, and I would love to tell you about it.”

Such a spirit might make you feel noble, but it

is not Christian. And it will likely obscure the

gospel from being recognized as the good news

it is.

“But I’m a truth-teller!” a believer might

respond. “I’m authentic. I do love people—by

speaking the truth.” But friend, the Bible never

says that speaking the truth is love; it says we are

to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Ponder that

distinction—it is subtle but crucial.

In short, the way we communicate our faith

in Jesus will either adorn and beautify the gospel

we profess (Titus 2:10), or undermine it. There is

no third option.

One of the most concrete ways to love

well is to listen well. That’s not just good

THE BIBLE NEVER SAYS THAT

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IS LOVE; IT

SAYS WE ARE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH IN

LOVE. PONDER THAT DISTINCTION—IT

IS SUBTLE BUT CRUCIAL.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 51 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

advice for struggling romances; it’s Emotional

Intelligence 101. In fact, being listened to is so

close to being loved that most people cannot

tell the difference.

No wonder Scripture

exhorts us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak”

(James 1:19, ). How often, though, do we

reverse this—and risk turning people off to the

voice of God because we’re too in love with

our own?

Listening well entails asking thoughtful

questions. Evangelism is not spiritual interr-

ogation; no one wants to be barraged with

rhetorical questions that reek of an agenda.

Rather, heed the counsel of Proverbs: “The

purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,

but a man of understanding will draw it out”

(Prov. 20:5). Engage the person with attentive

questions, praying for sensitivity and wisdom,

and then take the time to carefully listen.

We need to speak to others as if we remember

what it was like to be lost, too. In this age of

HOW OFTEN DO WE RISK TURNING

PEOPLE OFF TO THE VOICE OF GOD

BECAUSE WE’RE TOO IN LOVE WITH

OUR OWN?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 52 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

LOVE THE LOST

outrage, a countercultural message will not be

compelling without a countercultural tone.

LESSONS FROM AN ATHEIST

Penn Jillette, a well-known magician and author,

doesn’t believe in God. And yet listen to his

perspective on evangelism:

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize.

I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that

there’s a heaven and hell and people could

be going to hell or not getting eternal life or

whatever, and you think that it’s not really

worth telling them this because it would make

it socially awkward. . . . How much do you

have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How

much do you have to hate somebody to believe

that everlasting life is possible and not tell them

that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow

of a doubt that a truck was coming at you,

and you didn’t believe it—but that truck was

WE NEED TO SPEAK TO OTHERS AS IF

WE REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO

BE LOST, TOO. A COUNTERCULTURAL

MESSAGE WILL NOT BE COMPELLING

WITHOUT A COUNTERCULTURAL TONE.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 53 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

bearing down on you—there’s a certain point

where I tackle you. And this is more important

than that.

I might phrase things a bit differently, but don’t

miss the significance of this atheist’s words. He

goes further than implying that evangelism is the

most loving thing a Christian can do. He explicitly

states that remaining silent is the least loving

thing you can do—indeed, it’s a form ofhatred.

Who in your life, right now, do you love

enough to share the hope of Jesus Christ?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 54 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

Maybe you turned to this chapter first. I hope

you’ll go back and read the pages leading up to it,

but I certainly get the impulse. It’s no secret that

one of the main reasons we shrink back from

sharing our faith is because we are afraid. Perhaps

it’s the fear of a painfully awkward interaction; or

the fear of outright rejection or embarrassment;

or the fear of being unequipped—lacking a ready

answer for a skeptic’s objection. The list goes on.

Some of our fears may feel wimpy, but they

are real. Only God knows how many gospel

opportunities I have squandered due to a fear

that froze me in my tracks.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 55 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

But evangelism is not complicated: if we wait

to share our faith until our fears have completely

evaporated, we will never share it.

HELP!

This is easier said than done. Just yesterday I

overheard a coffee-shop barista remark to her

colleague about my T-shirt, which featured a

church name. I couldn’t make out everything she

said, but I heard something along the lines of,

“I used to go to a Baptist church.” Boom. Gospel

opportunity, baby. What did I, your trusty author,

do? I slunk back to my table and continued

writing a book... on evangelism.

I don’t always fail to speak up for the same

reasons. In this case, for example, I didn’t fear that

the barista would ridicule me, nor that she would

reach behind the counter and hurl a Richard

Dawkins book at me. I think I froze simply

because the situation wasn’t... perfect. She was

busy making drinks, and I’d already taken a step

IF WE WAIT TO SHARE OUR

FAITH UNTIL OUR FEARS HAVE

COMPLETELY EVAPORATED, WE

WILL NEVER SHARE IT.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 56 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

toward my seat. (Don’t give me too much credit,

though: there was nobody in line. She could have

chatted for at least a moment.)

I have mastered the art of passing up good

enough opportunities in the wait for a perfect one.

This is not just cowardly—it’s foolish. The simple

fact is that sharing Christ will almost always be

inconvenient. There will be something unideal,

something about the environment prompting

the Devil to whisper two of his favorite words:

“Not now.”

This, in fact, is one of the reasons I’m writing

this book. So much evangelism literature, I’m

convinced, begins too far down the field. Even if

you were the most knowledgeable and eloquent

communicator in your whole church, it would

matter little if you weren’t prepared to open

your mouth when the moment arrived. Rather

than being perpetually caught on our heels,

Ipray this book will help us more consistently

live on our toes.

DON’T WAIT FOR THE PERFECT

SCENARIO; IT’LL NEVER COME. JUST

RESOLVE TO SEIZE, AND STEWARD,

THE ONE GOD HAS GIVEN YOU.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 57 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

Don’t wait for the perfect scenario; it’ll never

come anyway. (We’ll think about this more in the

next chapter.) Just resolve to seize, and steward,

the one God has given you.

WHEN THE MOMENT ARRIVES

When the moment arrives and the door

cracks—suddenly, you sense, you could redirect

the conversation to spiritual things—you may

feel physically miserable. Seriously. Pit in your

stomach? That’s normal. Racing heart? Normal

again. Shaky voice? Welcome to evangelism. But

these unpleasant feelings are not a signal to escape,

to postpone, to kick the can down the road with

a resigned sigh of “next time.” No, this is the

moment to face the fear head on and put it in its

place: “Yes, Fear, you are real and powerful—but

you are not omnipotent. You are not my king.

Idon’t answer to you; I answer to King Jesus. I’m

going to lean on him and take a step of faith.”

Imagine—especially if you didn’t grow up in

a Christian home—if the person who first spoke

the gospel to you had instead been frozen by fear.

What if they had concluded, No, Lord, not me! I’m

still not equipped, still not ready. Plus, the environment

isn’t ideal. Where might you be today?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 58 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

DON’T DO IT ALONE

Most resources on evangelism, including this

one, focus on personal evangelism. We certainly

need all the help we can get. Too often, though,

we neglect to also consider the unique potential

and power of corporate evangelism.

Such neglect is not intentional; it’s simply

natural when we have an anemic view of

the local church. Weak ecclesiology does not

generate strong evangelism. In Mack Stiles’s

book Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of

Jesus—notice the subtitle!—he lists some benefits

of corporate or communal evangelism:

• We hold one another accountable.

• We strengthen our mutual resolve.

• We learn from one another.

• We rejoice together in success and cry

together in disappointment.

• We bond through shared experiences in

intense situations.

Perhaps you can think of more. The point is that

we should, whenever possible, congregationalize

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 5910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 59 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

ourevangelistic efforts. I don’t mean you should

ask your pastor to schedule another evangelistic

event; I mean you should get busy yourself—

and bring others along. Any church can pull off

an event or launch a program. But nurturing

a contagious culture of evangelism—a loving,

magnetic, gospel-sharing community that the

world can neither understand nor explain—

requires dogged intentionality and the Holy

Spirit’s supernatural power. It happens when

a church begins to see itself as God’s most

genius plan for evangelism, and when gospel

conversations with the lost become a shared way

of life.

Since difficult tasks tend to become easier

when we’re not alone—when we can share the

load with others—corporate witness is a game-

changer in facing down our fears. The world,

our own flesh, and the Devil constantly oppose

CORPORATE WITNESS IS A GAME-

CHANGER IN FACING DOWN OUR

FEARS. THE WORLD, THE FLESH,

AND THE DEVIL CONSTANTLY

OPPOSE US. BUT WHEN WE’RE

WITNESSING ALONGSIDE OTHERS,

THE WIND IS AT OUR BACK.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 60 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

us in evangelism. But when we’re witnessing

alongsideothers, the wind is at our back.

THE BLINDING BUSINESS

Okay, back to the personal angle. If I’ve learned

one thing over the years as I’ve stumbled along

in evangelism, it’s this: the interaction almost

always goes better than I feared.

Which makes me wonder, Might there be

someone else in the equation who is scrambling,

desperately, to postpone our gospel conversations until

it’s too late? When it comes to evangelism, Satan

is busier than we are:

Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to

those who are perishing. In their case the god

of this world [that is, Satan] has blinded the

minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from

seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of

Christ, who is the image of God. For what we

proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as

IF I’VE LEARNED ONE THING AS I’VE

STUMBLED ALONG IN EVANGELISM,

IT’S THIS: THE INTERACTION ALMOST

ALWAYS GOES BETTER THAN I FEARED.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 61 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’

sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of

darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the

light of the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:3–6).

The Devil is busy keeping sinners from opening

their eyes, and he does so by keeping you from

opening your mouth. He knows he can prevent

sight if he can simply prevent speech. And so he

is laser-focused on keeping us quiet—and thereby

shielding the lost from spiritual light, which

streams through the beautiful, hope-filled gospel

he hates.

SOVEREIGN HOPE

If I did not believe God was sovereign over all

things, I would have no motivation to share my

faith. Why? Because God describes every human

heart in its spiritually fallen state as “dead in...

THE DEVIL IS BUSY KEEPING SINNERS

FROM OPENING THEIR EYES, AND

HE DOES SO BY KEEPING YOU FROM

OPENING YOUR MOUTH. SATAN

KNOWS HE CAN PREVENT SIGHT IF HE

CAN SIMPLY PREVENT SPEECH.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 62 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). We dare not

substitute a tamer word.

And yet Jesus summons his followers to be

fishers of men (Matt. 4:19; cf. Jer. 16:14–16). How,

then, can we ever hope to rescue spiritual corpses?

Because someone else gives them life.

Remember Lazarus? His physical state was our

spiritual state—until a voice from outside the

tomb defibrillated his heart and breathed life

into his lungs. Likewise, the world is a spiritual

graveyard. Our job is to walk through the

cemetery and speak to caskets. God’s job is to

crack them open.

Many misunderstand this high view of God’s

sovereignty in salvation—as if he drags people

into the kingdom, kicking and screaming against

their will. But the picture the Bible paints isn’t

like that at all. Imagine humanity—dead toward

God but alive toward sin—sprinting toward

what they’re convinced is the beach. Everyone

THE WORLD IS A SPIRITUAL

GRAVEYARD. OUR JOB IS TO WALK

THROUGH THE CEMETERY AND

SPEAK TO CASKETS. GOD’S JOB IS

TO CRACK THEM OPEN.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 63 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

is wearing blindfolds, so they can’t see what’s

really ahead: hell. And those who’ve already been

rescued—believers in Jesus—are on the sidelines,

shouting out in love, “Stop! Turn! You’re going to

perish!” Yet the blind, unbelieving rush of people

only shouts back: “Oh be quiet, religious fanatics.

We’re not going to perish. We’re going to the

beach! We can feel it getting warmer now...”

But here’s what happens. The God of mercy

intervenes and begins removing blindfolds.

When someone finally sees where they’re

actually heading, what do they do? They freely

turn and run the other direction with joy. God

doesn’t make us come against our will. He makes

us willing to come.

And here’s the liberating lesson for us: we

are not in the blindfold-lifting business! We

cannot unblind a single mind or heart. Our job

is to simply hold out Christ; God’s job is to lift

the blindfold. Who is someone in your life right

now—someone with whom you will interact

soon—who needs to hear the gospel? Resolve

to speak to them, and ask the Spirit to send a

blaze of light into their darkened heart. What

if, unbeknownst to either of you, they have an

appointment with him? What if, for the first time

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 64 12/01/2022 17:1912/01/2022 17:19

FACE YOUR FEAR

in their life, they see their need for salvation in

Jesus Christ—and reverse course and run into

his arms? What if the God of glory is about to

remove their blinders?

This is the antidote to fear. For people who

reject the gospel are not finally rejecting us;

they are rejecting God. We are just mail carriers

delivering his message.

STAND-ALONE GOD

I’m so grateful that my college campus minister,

Dan Flynn, loved to emphasize these twin truths

from Scripture: “God can” and “God cares.”

Ididn’t realize it at the time, but in those simple

words he was distinguishing biblical Christianity

from every other religion on the market.

Protestant liberalism, for example, offers a God

who is “good,” but not great. He cares, but he

can’t. He’s a nice buddy, an experienced life coach,

even a world-class psychotherapist, but ultimately

he’s just “the man upstairs.” Meanwhile, religions

such as Islam offer the opposite: a God who is

PEOPLE WHO REJECT THE GOSPEL

ARE NOT FINALLY REJECTING US;

THEY ARE REJECTING GOD.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 65 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

“great,” but not entirely good. A God who can,

but perhaps doesn’t care.

When we open our Bibles, though, something

unprecedented happens. It’s stunning, really.

We encounter a living Lord who is both great

and good, sovereign and kind, who can and

whocares.

If God were only good, I would climb into

bed—and enter every evangelistic encounter—

frightened. How could I trust the power of

someone who, bless his heart, means well

and is doing his best? But I would also be

frightened if he were only sovereign. What

assurance is there in knowing he’s mighty if

he’s not merciful? What comfort is there in a

deity who doesn’t care enough to plunge into

human pain, and rescue us? What hope is there

in a God withoutscars?

THE LAMB IS MY SHEPHERD

In Luke 12, Jesus exhorts his disciples not to

be anxious, since their Father in heaven is

simultaneously great and good. Then he utters

one of the most beautiful statements in all the

Gospels: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s

good pleasure to give you the kingdom”(v. 32).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 66 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

FACE YOUR FEAR

Did you catch it? Shepherd. Father. King.

One tiny verse, three massive truths. The

God we meet on the pages of Scripture—and

only that God—is the Shepherd who seeks us,

the Father who adopts us, and the King who

lovesus.

And two thousand years ago, in the Lord Jesus

Christ, the shepherd King became the Lamb

slain. As comforting as it is to hear “the L is

my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1), there is an even better

promise: the Lamb is my shepherd (Rev. 7:17).

And just before he ascended to glory, he left

us with this indomitable assurance: “Behold,

I am with you always, to the end of the age”

(Matt.28:20).

You may be afraid in evangelism, but you will

never be alone.

UNBROKEN STREAK

Do you know what is the most repeated command

in the whole Bible? “Fear not.” Clearly, God knew

we would need constant reminding.

YOU MAY BE AFRAID IN

EVANGELISM, BUT YOU WILL

NEVER BE ALONE.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 67 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

Human history is the long story of God’s

faithfulness to scaredy-cats. He has never failed

one of his own—and he won’t end his streak with

you. Hasn’t he been faithful to you over the course

of ten thousand yesterdays? You can trust him to

carry you in that gospel opportunitytomorrow.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 68 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

“Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary,

usewords.”

This well-known quote, misattributed to

Saint Francis of Assisi, is both clever and catchy.

There’s only one problem: it’s not biblical. While

it may admirably aim to highlight that all of life

is worship, it wrongly implies that words are

secondary to works. Or optional altogether.

Evangelism—communicating the good news

of Jesus Christ—always requires words. To be

sure, Christians are called to adorn the gospel

with actions (Titus 2:10), but our actions are not

the gospel. No amount of righteous living can

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 6910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 69 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

replace the necessity of verbally proclaiming

what God has achieved through Christ.

This has been a book about preparing for

evangelism more than the task itself. (There are

plenty of excellent books on that; see my list of

recommendations at the back.)

And yet this little book would be incomplete

without this chapter. After all, someone could

master everything we’ve discussed—grasping

the gospel, checking their context, loving the

lost, facing their fear—and never actually get

around to speaking. “Pre-evangelism” is vital, but

the prefix is there for a reason. It’s not the real

thing. Indeed, if we’re not careful, we can pre-

evangelize people into hell.

THE FIRST CONVERSATION

If you’re afraid to share your faith, you’re in good

company. So were the earliest Christians. These

were not comic-book heroes—men and women

of superhuman valor and strength. They were

ordinary folks like us.

In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested and

warned to cease and desist from speaking Christ’s

name, “in order that it may spread no further

among the people” (v. 17). After being released

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 70 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

and returning to their spiritual family, for what

did the trembling assembly pray? “And now,

Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your

servants to continue to speak your word with all

boldness” (v. 29).

The apostle Paul, who penned a third of the

New Testament, ministered to Corinthian pagans

“in weakness and in fear and much trembling”

(1 Cor. 2:3). And he concluded his letter to the

Ephesians requesting prayer for one specificthing:

Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words

may be given me so that I will fearlessly make

known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am

an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare

it fearlessly, as I should (Eph. 6:19–20,

niv

In the weighty endeavor of evangelism, prayer

must never be an afterthought. It is not a nice

accessory or optional add-on. It is central to the

mission and critical to the task. We are in a war,

after all. The enemy is real. The stakes are high.

Eternal destinies hang in the balance.

It’s great to know we serve the ultimate

commander-in-chief, sovereign in the heavens.

It’s even better to know we can talk with him.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 71 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

But do we?

It may be uncomfortable to admit, but our

prayerlessness reveals our pride. H. B. Charles

puts it simply:

Prayer is arguably the most objective

measurement of our dependence upon God.

Think of it this way. The things you pray about

are the things you trust God to handle. The

things you neglect to pray about are the things

you trust you can handle on your own.

When we don’t pray, we are not just

neglecting a spiritual discipline.

It is far more

serious than that. We are giving ourselves a

promotion we don’t deserve. We are daring to

play God.

PRAY TOGETHER

Private prayer is nothing short of our lifeline

to our heavenly Father. Most of us know

that. But just as we underestimate the value

of corporate evangelism, I fear we similarly

underestimate the value of corporate prayer. In a

radically individualistic age, I believe it’s time to

congregationalize our prayer lives.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 72 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

Prayer is mentioned twenty-one times in the

Book of Acts. Interestingly, when it shows up it

is overwhelmingly public and corporate. One

of my favorite things about my own church is

the weekly prayer meeting, which often focuses

on evangelistic requests. Yes, it can be tough to

remain engaged at the end of a long day. But

perhaps we shouldn’t be overly surprised when

we struggle to concentrate. After all, the satanic

powers come to prayer meetings too, and they

scramble to derail our focus by any means—even

if it’s just our hunger or our to-do list diverting

our attention. But there’s another, simpler factor:

prayer is not designed to be entertaining. This

doesn’t jibe with a culture that has formed us to be

addicted to images and screens, fascinating trivia

and immediate results. No wonder prayer can feel

like a slog! And so, as you approach evangelism

knowing you need heaven’s power, it may be time

to lean into your congregation’s prayer life.

Don’t assume this is only for your benefit,

though. To pray with your church is a profound

WHEN WE DON’T PRAY, WE ARE

GIVING OURSELVES A PROMOTION

WE DON’T DESERVE.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 73 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

declaration of love. How so? Megan Hill explains

in her excellent book A Place to Belong:

A church prayer meeting doesn’t look like much.

A group of people spending an hour with their

eyes closed taking turns addressing an unseen

God is unlikely to draw the acclaim of the world.

At best, it seems like a quaint ritual. At worst,

outright foolishness.... The people of the world

dismiss our intercessions with barely a thought.

But though they don’t know it, the church at

prayer is their very best friend. People walking

in darkness have no better ally than a group of

believers on their knees, united in the work of

pleading for the light of Christ to shine in their

undying souls.

As God’s people, we advance his kingdom on our

knees. When it comes to evangelism, a faithful

church is a praying church.

It has been said that life’s two greatest

privileges are to speak to God on behalf of

others, and to speak to others on behalf of God.

And that’s the proper order: after we’ve talked to

the Lord about the lost, the time has come for us

to talk to the lost about the Lord.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 74 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

SPEAK TO THAT STRANGER

In chapter three, we noted some of the dangers

inherent in “contact evangelism”—striking

up gospel conversations with strangers.

Among other things, it can tempt us to treat

people as projects. Building a friendship with a

nonbeliever—and taking the time to earn their

trust—is almost always preferable. But life is

short and we are finite. It’s simply not possible to

befriend the vast majority of the nonbelievers we

meet. It is possible, though, to look for spiritual

inroads in everyday life.

When I was in college, my campus ministry

would often gear its outreaches around contact

evangelism. This would sometimes elicit eye-

rolls from the friendship-evangelism-only crowd,

who thought our approach was cold, impersonal,

even deceptive.

Any good thing can be abused, of course, and

contact evangelism can certainly end up being

unloving and unhelpful. But it doesn’t have to

be. In fact, this method is explicitly modeled

inScripture.

In John 4, for example, Jesus strikes up a

conversation with a woman beside a well. Not

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 75 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

only is she a complete stranger, she’s someone

he “should” avoid since she’s a woman and

a Samaritan (a double no-no). Nonetheless,

Jesus goes out of his way to meet her, and he

turns their “natural” chat about water into a

“spiritual” one about himself. He doesn’t waste

much time, either—moving from “Will you give

me a drink?” (v. 7, ) to “If you knew the gift

of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,

you would have asked him and he would have

given you living water” (v. 10, ) in the span

of just three verses.

Jesus’ strategy here is not a New Testament

anomaly. The early church also engaged in

contact evangelism:

Day after day, in the temple courts and from

house to house, they never stopped teaching

and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the

Messiah (Acts 5:42,

niv

On the Sabbath we went outside the city

gate to the river, where we expected to find a

place of prayer. We sat down and began to

speak to the women who had gathered there

(Acts16:13,

niv

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 76 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

[Paul] reasoned in the synagogue with both

Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in

the marketplace day by day with those who

happened to be there (Acts 17:17).

The earliest Christians were eager to initiate

gospel conversations with “random” persons—

with whomever their sovereign God put in their

path (Prov. 16:9; 20:24).

As you go about your day, then, be on

your toes. Ask the Lord to arrange “divine

appointments”—unforeseen encounters that

may seem coincidental to you, but were on

God’s schedule all along. Some of my richest

gospel conversations over the years have

not been planned... by me. But God has a

calendar of his own, and he delights to arrange

encounters that stretch and strengthen our

muscles of faith, for the good of the lost and

the glory of his name.

SOME OF MY RICHEST GOSPEL

CONVERSATIONS OVER THE

YEARS HAVE NOT BEEN

PLANNED . . . BY ME. BUT GOD

HAS A CALENDAR OF HIS OWN.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 77 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS,

QUESTION THEIR ANSWERS

Back in chapter three, we noted the importance

of asking good questions—drawing people out

about their life stories and beliefs, their hopes

and their doubts—and then listening with

deliberate care. Such conversations often evoke

spiritual questions.

But at some point, we must go beyond simply

answering the nonbeliever’s questions—we must

also question their answers.

For even though a

modern skeptic doesn’t typically enter a gospel

conversation “furnished” with biblical truth,

their mind is not empty. There is furniture

everywhere, well-worn and comfortable and

loved. It’s just badly out of place.

Everyone you encounter has some vision

of “the good life,” and some sense of how to

achieve it (or why they’re failing). Whether

the driving ambition is career advancement,

WE MUST GO BEYOND SIMPLY

ANSWERING THE NONBELIEVER’S

QUESTIONS—WE MUST ALSO

QUESTION THEIR ANSWERS.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 78 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

or sexual satisfaction, or financial stability, or

social capital, or the picture-perfect family, or

something else entirely, the Bible is clear that

we seek life in things that cannot deliver. I’m

reminded of God’s sweeping invitation—and

searching question—in the opening verses

ofIsaiah 55:

Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which

is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

(vv. 1–2).

Perhaps your mind travels to other passages:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;

be shocked... declares the

Lord

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 7910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 79 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water

(Jer. 2:12–13).

Those who cling to worthless idols turn

away from God’s love for them

(Jonah 2:8,

niv

[A bleeding woman approached Jesus for healing,

as for twelve long years she] had suffered much

under many physicians, and had spent all that

she had, and was no better but rather grew worse

(Mark 5:26).

Every soul in the universe is after some kind of

feast, some recipe for life and joy.

In Isaiah 55, God is essentially saying, “If it’s

not at my banquet table—if it’s not me—then

you are impoverishing your life and starving your

soul to death.”

Of all the images God could have used in

Isaiah 55:2, why wasting money? I suspect it is

because false gods always make you pay, always

exact a cost, and always finally disappoint. In

explaining this to a nonbeliever, you are not

standing on a balcony of superiority, speaking

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 80 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

down to them as a hopeless idolater. Instead, you

are coming alongside them, assuring them that

you haven’t graduated from idolatry’s grip either!

Even Christians convince ourselves that this sin,

this time is manageable—as if we are signing up

for a free trial of something. Sure, there’s some risk,

we think. I could forget to cancel the subscription. But

it’s worth the risk because I probably won’t forget and,

in the meantime, I’ll have access to all this stuff. That’s

how we treat false gods and substitute saviors.

We assume we can dabble a bit here and manage

it there. And all the while we’re plunging ever

deeper into debt, with compounding interest and

diminishing returns.

To see the folly of an idol, then, you must

recognize its faulty price tag. You assume you’re

getting a deal; in truth, the idol is worth far less

than you think and will cost far more than you

can afford. But idols are in the false-advertising

business. They are like slave-traders disguised

as abolitionists.

They promise to free you, but

if you listen carefully, you can hear the sound

ofshackles.

In a gospel conversation, then, don’t let

the nonbeliever entirely set the agenda.

Answer their questions, sure, but don’t stop

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 81 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

there. Also question their answers. And don’t

be surprised if you find some beloved idols

lurking underneath.

SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY

In the previous chapter, I mentioned that we

shouldn’t wait for perfect situations in order to

speak of Christ. Paul didn’t sit around waiting

for people to come to him, to enter his world

and comfort zone, before he dared open his

mouth. So often we pray, and hope, and wait

(rinse and repeat)—but never act. We rightly

love 1 Peter 3:15, about living in such a way that

people ask us to give a reason for our hope, but

do we live as if that’s the Bible’s only verse on

evangelism? Don’t get me wrong: it is great if

someone approaches you and asks to hear the

truth. If you’re delaying boldness until that

scenario, though, you’re not going to have many

gospel opportunities in your life.

So, again, let’s not drag our feet waiting for the

“ideal” situation. For instance, if you’re a parent

at the park, surrounded by rambunctious kids,

that’s not an ideal environment. But it’s where

God has placed you. Why not maximize the

moment? When we focus on the opportunities

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 82 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

we have, not the ones we wish we did, we invite

the Holy Spirit to accomplish what he’s great

at—doing “immeasurably more than all we ask

or imagine, according to his power that is at work

within us” (Eph. 3:20, ).

I’m reminded of a quip from Mack Stiles: “It’s

not that evangelism has been tried and found

wanting; it’s that evangelism has been found

difficult and left untried.”

He’s right. There

is a real sense in which the greatest obstacle to

evangelism is not unbelievers, nor even Satan

himself. The greatest obstacle to evangelism is

Christians who don’t share the gospel.

And here’s the interesting thing: most lost

persons you meet—likely, most whom you know

right now—have never rejected the gospel. That’s

because they’ve actually never heard it. Sure,

they’ve rejected what they think is the gospel.

But if you ask the average person on the street to

explain it, you’re not going to hear Ephesians2:8–

9 with its rich declaration of salvation by grace

through faith. You’re probably going to get some

THE GREATEST OBSTACLE TO

EVANGELISM IS CHRISTIANS WHO

DON’T SHARE THE GOSPEL.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 83 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

version of moralism, some version of “I’ve been

a decent person.”

And yet God has placed you in their life—at

this specific place and time (Acts 17:26)—for a

reason. Even if you speak the gospel and they

reject it, that’s a win. Progress will have been

made, because at least now they will finally be

rejecting the real thing and not a counterfeit.

Why not speak up in order to clarify the truth

and give them a chance—an actual chance—to

embrace the most misunderstood message of

alltime?

WATCH YOUR FOCUS

In his book Word-Centered Church, Jonathan

Leeman recounts the following story:

A group of American Christians in the

nineteenth century planned to visit London for a

week. Their friends, excited for the opportunity,

encouraged them to go hear two of London’s

famous preachers and bring back a report.

MOST LOST PERSONS HAVE ACTUALLY

NEVER REJECTED THE GOSPEL. THAT’S

BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER HEARD IT.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 84 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

On Sunday morning after their arrival, the

Americans attended Joseph Parker’s church.

They discovered that his reputation for

eloquent oratory was well deserved. One

exclaimed after the service, “I do declare, it

must be said, for there is no doubt, that Joseph

Parker is the greatest preacher that ever

therewas!”

The group wanted to return in the evening to

hear Parker again, but they remembered that

their friends would ask them about another

preacher named Charles Spurgeon.

So on Sunday evening they attended the

Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon was

preaching. The group was not prepared for

what they heard, and as they departed, one of

them spoke up, “I do declare, it must be said,

for there is no doubt, that Jesus Christ is the

greatest Savior that ever there was!”

What is true of preaching is also true of

evangelism. There is an old hymn by Kate

Wilkinson, the final verse of which reads:

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 85 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

May his beauty rest upon me,

As I seek the lost to win;

And may they forget the channel,

Seeing only him.

The most important factor is not our oratory or

training or smarts, but the Savior to whom we

point. Let’s keep the spotlight on him, and watch

his grace transform hearts.

GOD LOVES TO SAVE

Don’t ever forget that God loves to save sinners.

Really, he loves it! The whole thing thrills him.

That’s why he does it so often. In the first book

of the Bible, to help Abraham visualize the scope

of his spiritual offspring, God doesn’t point to a

cluster of trees or a pile of pebbles.

And he brought [Abram] outside and said,

“Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if

you are able to number them.” Then he said to

him, “So shall your offspring be” (Gen. 15:5).

DON’T EVER FORGET THAT GOD

LOVES TO SAVE SINNERS.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 86 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

START TO SPEAK

“I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply

your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the

sand that is on the seashore” (Gen. 22:17).

Stars and sand... as far as human eyes can see.

This is not a God who is stingy with mercy.

Sure enough, the last book of the Bible pulls

back the curtain to let us glimpse this promise

fulfilled. The apostle John marvels:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude

that no one could number, from every nation,

from all tribes and peoples and languages,

standing before the throne and before the Lamb

(Rev. 7:9).

We often focus on the multiethnic, multicultural

diversity of this multitude, which is indeed

glorious. But don’t miss its size. There are too

many persons, John says, for any mortal to count.

Each has a unique story. And each is present

around the throne because, once upon a time,

an ordinary Christian mustered up some courage

and told them about the Lamb slain.

God is far more merciful than you and Iare,

far more generous-hearted. And what this

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 87 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

means, amazingly, is that he is far more willing

to save sinners than sinners are to be saved

(cf.Ezek.33:11; 2 Pet. 3:9).

Remember: evangelism is not converting

people. Faithful evangelism is simply taking the

initiative to share Christ, in the power of the

Holy Spirit, and then leaving the results to God.

Oh, how this should steel us with confidence,

with excitement, with hope as we go about the

sacred task of sharing our faith!

EVANGELISM IS NOT CONVERTING

PEOPLE. IT IS SIMPLY TAKING THE

INITIATIVE TO SHARE CHRIST, IN THE

POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND

THEN LEAVING THE RESULTS TO GOD.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 88 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

CONCLUSION:

THE HIGHEST

MOTIVATION

Several years ago, I attended a ministry

conference, evangelistically earnest and

theologically confident. At one point, a speaker

challenged us, “I want everyone to write down

the answer to this question: what is the highest

motivation for witnessing to people?”

I ran through the options in my head.

Obedience to Jesus? Nah, too simple. Service to the

church? Nope, too obligatory. Joy for the evangelist?

Maybe too selfish. Ah, got it...

I scribbled my answer—Love for the lost—and

leaned back in my chair, waiting for others to

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 8910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 89 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

finish. After a few moments, the speaker returned

to the stage and asked what we’d written. As

the answers started flying, I heard my own and

smiled. I sat up. He popped it like a balloon:

“Love for the lost is a very important motivation,

but I don’t believe it’s the supreme one.”

And then someone voiced it: The glory of God.

“Yes,” the speaker replied. “Nothing in the

world should motivate us more than this.”

Though not a profound story, to my twenty-

four-year-old self it was a bombshell. The correct

answer hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Let’s not finish this book peering at a merely

human horizon. For the most fundamental axis in

evangelism is vertical. John Stott captures itwell:

The highest [evangelistic motive] is neither

obedience to the Great Commission (important

as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated

and perishing (strong as that incentive is,

especially when we contemplate the wrath of

God), but rather zeal—burning and passionate

zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only

one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is

concern for his Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ,

and for the glory of his empire.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 90 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

CONCLUSION: THE HIGHEST MOTIVATION

The ultimate reason we cross cultures—and cross

the street—with the gospel is not love for people,

but love for God. Note the order, for example, in

Psalm 67:

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the

peoples praise you! (v. 3).

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy (v. 4).

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the

peoples praise you! (v. 5).

The middle verse is important, but the two

surrounding it are ultimate. The joy of people is

downstream from the praise of God.

God’s glory as our supreme motivation carries

into the New Testament as well. In the apostle

Peter’s words:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a

holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession,

that you may proclaim the excellencies of

him who called you out of darkness into his

marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 91 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

Our highest objective, Peter is saying, is to

magnify the worth of our God by declaring the

wonder of our salvation. Likewise Paul, in the

passage we considered in chapter four—about

the blinding work of Satan and the illumining

work of the Spirit—goes on to say, “But we have

this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the

surpassing power belongs to God and not to us”

(2 Cor. 4:7). The treasure is the gospel; we are

just the clay jars holding it. Think about it: if the

treasure were housed in something beautiful

(like fine china) or something strong (like iron),

it would be easy for a neighbor to conclude that

any apparent “surpassing power” belongs to us,

not to God. But we’re not impressive containers.

We’re not iron, and we’re not fine china. We are

pots of dirt, brittle and plain.

Believers, there is news residing within us

that’s worth more than all the jewels beneath the

earth. Everywhere we go, we are transporting

treasure. Our inadequacy is not a liability—it is

OUR INADEQUACY IS NOT A

LIABILITY—IT IS THE POINT. THE

WEAKNESS WE FEEL IS A PLATFORM

FOR CHRIST’S MIGHT TO SHINE.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 92 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

CONCLUSION: THE HIGHEST MOTIVATION

the point. For the weakness we feel is a platform

for Christ’s might to shine.

Or consider again John’s vision, as recounted

in the Bible’s final book:

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you

ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people

and nation,

and you have made them a kingdom and

priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth”

(Rev. 5:9–10).

It is difficult to imagine a grander purpose

for anyone than being ransomed from sin and

reigning forever over a remade world. And yet,

there is a grander purpose. Brilliant as such

realities are, they are like background music

to eternity’s greatest hit: “Worthy are you...

for you were slain.” A believer’s redemption

is infinite in beauty, massive in scope, eternal

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 93 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

in length, and yet . . . so much more. For

above all else, it’s meant to magnify that one

main thing: the renown of God. No wonder,

after John glimpses this diverse multitude,

the spotlight dramatically shifts from us to

someone greater:

And I heard every creature in heaven and on

earth and under the earth and in the sea, and

all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might

forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13).

In his classic book on world missions, John Piper

opens with a striking observation. I have simply

replaced “missions” with “evangelism.” Ponder

the significance of these words:

Evangelism is not the ultimate goal of the church.

Worship is. Evangelism exists because worship

doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not evangelism,

because God is ultimate, not man. When this

age is over, and the countless millions of the

redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 94 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

CONCLUSION: THE HIGHEST MOTIVATION

God, evangelism will be no more. It is a temporary

necessity. But worship abides forever.

As we dive into the privilege of sharing our faith,

let’s not miss the forest for the trees. It isn’t the

work of evangelism—but rather the worship in

evangelism—that matters most. It is dangerously

easy to get so caught up in good strategies for

grasping the gospel, checking our context, loving

the lost, facing our fears, and starting to speak

that we lose sight, somewhere along the way, of

the God who is the reason for it all.

Evangelism has an expiration date. But John’s

vision heralds a celebration that will never end.

Forgiven sinners will bask in the evangel—the

good news of Christ—forever and ever on a new

earth. As an act of worship to your King, who

will you invite?

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 95 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 96 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

APPENDIX:

TWELVE VERSES

FOR FIGHTING FEAR

It shouldn’t surprise us that God’s Word is

replete with verses that speak directly to one of

our besetting tendencies: fear. Here are twelve

Bible passages that have proven particularly

helpful to me in approaching evangelism. What

if you memorized one per week for the next

three months? What might that do to fortify

your heart, to calm your fears, to help you speak

truth in love? As Paul told Timothy, “All Scripture

is breathed out by God and profitable for . . .

training in righteousness, that the [servant] of

God may be complete, equipped for every good

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 97 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

work” (2Tim. 3:16–17). Every good work. Sharing

our faith is no exception.

PSALM 56:3–4

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in you.

In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

PROVERBS 29:25

The fear of man lays a snare,

but whoever trusts in the

Lord

is safe.

ISAIAH 8:12–13

Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But

the

Lord

of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.

Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 98 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

APPENDIX: TWELVE VERSES FOR FIGHTING FEAR

ISAIAH 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

JOHN 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever

abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much

fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

ACTS 18:9–10

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision,

“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do

not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will

attack you to harm you, for I have many in this

city who are my people.”

ROMANS 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is

the power of God for salvation to everyone who

believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 9910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 99 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

100

1 CORINTHIANS 2:1–5

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not

come proclaiming to you the testimony of God

with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to

know nothing among you except Jesus Christ

and him crucified. And I was with you in

weakness and in fear and much trembling, and

my speech and my message were not in plausible

words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the

Spirit and of power, so that your faith might

not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power

of God.

2 CORINTHIANS 3:5

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim

anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency

is from God.

GALATIANS 1:10

For am I now seeking the approval of man,

or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If

Iwere still trying to please man, I would not be

a servant of Christ.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 100 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

101

APPENDIX: TWELVE VERSES FOR FIGHTING FEAR

1 THESSALONIANS 2:3–4

For our appeal does not spring from error or

impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as

we have been approved by God to be entrusted

with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man,

but to please God who tests our hearts.

2 TIMOTHY 1:7

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power

and love and self-control.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 101 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 102 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

103

RECOMMENDED

RESOURCES

SEVEN BOOKS FOR CULTURAL

APOLOGETICS

• Timothy J. Keller, How to Reach the West

Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary

Encounter (Redeemer City to City, 2020)

• Timothy J. Keller, Making Sense of God: An

Invitation to the Skeptical (Viking, 2016)

• Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting

Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the

World’s Largest Religion (Crossway, 2019)

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 103 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

104

• Rebecca McLaughlin, The Secular Creed:

Engaging Five Contemporary Claims (The

Gospel Coalition, 2021)

• Joshua Chatraw, Telling a Better Story:

How to Talk about God in a Skeptical Age

(Zondervan, 2020)

• Gavin Ortlund, Why God Makes Sense in a

World That Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian

Theism (Baker Academic, 2021)

• Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop, The

Compelling Community: Where God’s Power

Makes a Church Attractive (Crossway, 2015)

TEN BOOKS ON EVANGELISM

• Isaac Adams, What If I’m Discouraged in

My Evangelism? (Crossway, 2020)

• J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty

of God (InterVarsity, 2012)

• Mack Stiles, Marks of the Messenger:

Knowing, Living, and Speaking the Gospel

(InterVarsity, 2010)

• Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole

Church Speaks of Jesus (Crossway, 2014)

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 104 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

105

• Mark Dever, The Gospel and Personal

Evangelism (redesigned edition:

Crossway,2017)

• Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole

Gospel Wholly by Grace Communicated

Truthfully and Lovingly (fourth edition:

InterVarsity, 2012)

• Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism:

Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did

(second edition: Kregel, 2017)

• Rebecca Manley Pippert, Stay Salt: The

World Has Changed—Our Message Has Not

(The Good Book Company, 2020)

• Sam Chan, Evangelism in a Skeptical World:

How to Make the Unbelievable News about

Jesus More Believable (Zondervan, 2018)

• Elliot Clark, Evangelism as Exiles: Life on

Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land (The

Gospel Coalition, 2019)

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 105 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 106 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

107

NOTES

INTRODUCTION: NOT YOUR

TYPICAL EVANGELISM BOOK

1 Matt Smethurst, Before You Open Your Bible:

Nine Heart Postures for Approaching God’s

Word (10Publishing, 2019).

2 Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God

Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency,

and the Fear of Man (P&R, 1997).

GRASP THE GOSPEL

3 The incarnation was the fulfillment of

centuries of promises—of pent-up longing

and hope. Jesus is the serpent-crushing seed

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 107 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

108

of the woman (Gen. 3:15), the offspring of

Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3), the son of David

(2Sam. 7:14), and Israel’s long-awaited

servant King (Isa. 52:13–53:12).

4 Stuart Townend, “How Deep the Father’s

Love for Us” (1990).

5 I am indebted to Matt Chandler for this

distinction. See The Explicit Gospel (reprinted

by Crossway, 2014).

6 For a breathtaking treatment of God’s

triune nature and fatherly love, see

Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity:

An Introduction to the Christian Faith (IVP

Academic, 2012).

7 Though difficult to determine the original

source, this statement and the preceding

idea of “cosmic treason” are commonly

attributed to R. C. Sproul.

8 I heard this in a sermon from Tommy

Nelson, longtime pastor of Denton Bible

Church in Denton, Texas, though it also

appears in Sinclair Ferguson, Devoted to God:

Blueprints for Sanctification (Banner of Truth,

2016), p. 178.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 108 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

NOTES

109

9 Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (1630;

reprinted by Banner of Truth, 1998), p. 13.

10 John Stott, The Cross of Christ (twentieth

anniversary edition: InterVarsity, 2006), p.159.

11 Parts of this paragraph are taken from Matt

Smethurst, “Is There Proof of Heaven?”

(The Gospel Coalition, April 6, 2016).

Available at https://www.tgc.org/article/

is-there-proof-of-heaven.

12 As Sinclair Ferguson observes, “Faith

will always be penitent; repentance will

always be believing.” See The Whole

Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel

Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still

Matters (Crossway, 2016), p. 104, note 17.

CHECK YOUR CONTEXT

13 See Timothy J. Keller’s booklet, How to

Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements

of a Missionary Encounter (Redeemer City to

City, 2020).

14 Martin Luther, On the Freedom of a

Christian(1520).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 10910P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 109 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

110

15 Randy Newman’s work is useful in this

regard. See, for example, Questioning

Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way

Jesus Did (second edition: Kregel, 2017).

16 John Piper, “Preaching as Concept Creation,

Not Just Contextualization” (Desiring God,

April 10, 2008). Available at https://www.

desiringgod.org/articles/preaching-as-

concept-creation-not-just-contextualization.

17 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952;

reprinted by HarperCollins, 2001), p. 49.

18 Tim Keller’s advice for preachers applies

to any believer conducting an evangelistic

Bible study: “One way to preach with a

Christ-centered focus is to find ways to

identify gospel ‘pieces’ that only Christ can

resolve (themes), receive (law), complete

(stories), or fulfill (symbols).” See course

notes from Timothy J. Keller, “Preaching

the Gospel in a Postmodern World”

(Reformed Theological Seminary’s Doctor

of Ministry Program, January 2002), p.35.

Available at servantofmessiah.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/09/Timothy-Keller-

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11010P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 110 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

NOTES

111

Preaching-the-Gospel-in-a-Post-Modern-

World-Rev-2002.pdf.

19 See, for example, Timothy J. Keller,

Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to

Life’s Biggest Questions (Viking, 2013), p. 38.

LOVE THE LOST

20 This section is adapted, in part, from Matt

Smethurst, “3 Ways to Share the Gospel This

Week” (The Gospel Coalition, January 25,

2016). Available at https://www.tgc.org/

article/3-ways-to-share-the-gospel-this-week.

21 John Stott, The Message of 1 and 2

Thessalonians (IVP Academic, 1994), p.45.

You can also find this quote, and further

interaction with the passage, in Matt

Smethurst, 1–2 Thessalonians: A 12-Week

Study, Knowing the Bible (Crossway,

2017),p. 22.

22 For a positive look at “contact” evangelism,

see chapter five.

23 C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (reprinted

by HarperCollins, 2001), pp. 45–46.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11110P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 111 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

112

24 This is how J. B. Phillips’s New Testament in

Modern English renders the verse.

25 Christian hip-hop artist Shai Linne opens

his song “Taste and See” with a simple

question: “The world is not subtle; why

should we be subliminal?” Taken from his

album The Attributes of God (2011).

26 I am indebted to Timothy Keller for

this language: https://twitter.com/

timkellernyc/status/394842579491360769.

27 David Augsburger, Caring Enough to Hear and

Be Heard (Baker, 1982), p. 12.

28 You can watch Jillette’s comments

at https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=6md638smQd8.

FACE YOUR FEAR

29 This idea of sanctified self-talk has rich

biblical precedent. For example, the

psalmist writes, “Why are you cast down,

O my soul, and why are you in turmoil

within me? Hope in God; for I shall again

praise him, my salvation and my God”

(Ps. 42:5–6, 11). Reflecting on this passage,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11210P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 112 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

NOTES

113

Martyn Lloyd-Jones opens his book

Spiritual Depression with an observation:

“Have you realized that most of your

unhappiness in life is due to the fact that

you are listening to yourself instead of

talking to yourself ?” See D. Martyn Lloyd-

Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and

Cure (Eerdmans, 1965), pp. 20–21.

30 Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole Church

Speaks of Jesus (Crossway, 2014), p. 43. He

also sounds this important note: “In a culture

of evangelism, there is an understanding

that everyone is engaged. Have you ever

heard someone say, ‘Evangelism is not my

gift,’ as if that excused him from sharing his

faith? That’s a kindergarten understanding

of evangelism. All Christians are called to

share their faith as a point of faithfulness,

not gifting” (p. 54).

31 For a beautiful story of “swarm” or “mob”

evangelism, see Jamie Dunlop, “The Power

of Mob Evangelism” (The Gospel Coalition,

October 26, 2015). Available at https://www.

tgc.org/article/power-mob-evangelism.

See also Mark Mittelberg, Contagious Faith:

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11310P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 113 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

114

Discover Your Natural Style for Sharing Jesus

with Others (Zondervan, 2021).

32 Two verses from Jeremiah have galvanized

my quaking faith over the years. The

first is Jeremiah 1:12, where God says: “I

am watching over my word to perform

it.” Communicating his truth is our

job, but performing it—making it bring

about something—is his. How liberating!

Likewise, in Jeremiah 23:29 we read, “Is

not my word like fire, declares the L,

and like a hammer that breaks the rock

in pieces?” Don’t miss the point: God is

guaranteeing that his Word, faithfully

proclaimed, can melt and shatter the hardest

heart. Dare we labor and pray for anything

less? (Credit for the spiritual-graveyard

image goes to Mark Dever, “How to Survive

a Cultural Crisis” [The Gospel Coalition,

May 27, 2013]. Available at https://www.

tgc.org/article/how-to-survive-a-

cultural-crisis.)

33 Portions of this chapter are adapted from

Matt Smethurst, “What Are We Afraid

of ?” (Tabletalk, January 2018). Available

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11410P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 114 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

NOTES

115

at https://tabletalkmagazine.com/

article/2018/01/what-are-we-afraid-of.

34 Rebecca McLaughlin, D. A. Carson, and

I discuss evangelism-related fears—and

ways to overcome them—in a brief video

conversation titled “Help! I’m Not Ready

to Share My Faith” (The Gospel Coalition,

March 5, 2019). Available at https://www.

tgc.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/help-im-not-

ready-share-faith.

START TO SPEAK

35 Mack Stiles, in personal conversation.

36 H. B. Charles, Jr., It Happens After Prayer:

Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer

(Moody, 2013), p. 16.

37 Apathy in evangelism, John Stott warns, is

downstream from neglecting one’s interior

life: “Nothing shuts the mouth, seals the

lips, and ties the tongue like the secret

poverty of our own spiritual experience. We

do not bear witness for the simple reason

that we have no witness to bear.... If the

Bread of life has evidently not satisfied us,

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11510P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 115 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR FAITH

116

why should non-Christians suppose it will

satisfy them?” See John Stott, Evangelism:

Why and How (InterVarsity, 1962), p. 29.

38 Megan Hill, A Place to Belong: Learning to Love

the Local Church (Crossway, 2020), p. 114.

39 I first encountered this idea in Andrew

Wilson, “Tim Keller’s Invitation to the

Skeptical” (The Gospel Coalition, September

21, 2016). Available at https://www.tgc.org/

reviews/making-sense-of-god.

40 I am indebted to John Starke for this

poignant image.

41 Stiles is echoing G. K. Chesterton’s famous

quip. See Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the

Whole Church Speaks of Jesus (Crossway,

2014), p. 42.

42 This story is recounted at the outset of

chapter six in Jonathan Leeman, Word-

Centered Church: How Scripture Brings Life and

Growth to God’s People (Moody, 2017), p. 109.

43 Kate B. Wilkinson, “May the Mind of

Christ, My Savior” (1925).

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11610P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 116 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

NOTES

117

44 See J. C. Ryle’s reflections on Luke 15:1–10

in Expository Thoughts on Luke, vol. 1 (1856;

reprinted by Banner of Truth, 1986).

45 I am indebted to Bill Bright, founder of

Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru), for

this wording.

CONCLUSION: THE HIGHEST

MOTIVATION

46 John Stott, The Message of Romans, The Bible

Speaks Today (IVP Academic, 1994), p. 53.

47 John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!: The

Supremacy of God in Missions (third edition:

Baker Academic, 2010), p. 15.

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11710P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 117 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20

10Publishing is committed to publishing

quality Christian resources that are biblical,

accessible and point people to Jesus.

www.10ofthose.com is our online

retail partner selling thousands of

quality books at discounted prices.

For information contact: [email protected]

or check out our website: www.10ofthose.com

10P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 11810P_Before You Share Typeset_H22-10P-019 v6.indd 118 12/01/2022 17:2012/01/2022 17:20