Why Should I Witness? the Importance of Sharing the Gospel

I don't have time to do it. People might get hostile. My friends not want to talk to me anymore. Everyone has already heard about it anyway. People have the right to choose to believe whatever they want. I don't really know how. There are many excuses we use when avoiding witnessing to others about Jesus and the salvation he brings. The gospel is not a gospel of excuses however, and there are many good reasons to witness to others and spread the good news of Jesus. In this article I'd like to address the concerns and excuses we use and give some very good reasons why we should witness to others.

The first and best reason we should evangelize is because God said so, it is one of the most major themes throughout the bible and especially in the New Testament. The end of Matthew, Mark and Luke all have the same message, go out and spread the Gospel. Throughout acts the main theme is sharing the good news, all the apostles, their disciples and the other believers all go out and preach the Word to others, bringing many people to salvation in the name of Jesus Christ.

The next big reason is because we are commanded by Christ to love our neighbor, and to love our enemies too! As a Christian I believe that if one does not accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and repent of their sins that they will go to hell. I can't really say I'm loving someone very much if I let them go to hell without at least trying to stop them. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ tells us of a man who helped a total stranger while others, who should have been holy, passed by the wounded man and left him dying. We are called in this parable to minister to the needs of others and the biggest need of anyone is Jesus, only He can save people from destruction in hell.

A third reason I believe it is important to witness is because when a person comes to repentance and is saved, there is a great celebration in heaven as God and the angels rejoice. Now as a believer in and servant of Jesus there is nothing that makes me happier than pleasing God, the thought that just by getting into a conversation and praying for the Holy Spirit to work through me might cause God to rejoice is reason enough for me to face any persecution that may come in spreading the Gospel.

Now that I have established what I think is very solid motive, I would like to go back and look at these excuses we make in detail and discuss some ways to get around these excuses. We have a calling to serve God as Christians and a great comforter in the Lord, we are not alone and should remember that God will help us and strengthen us as we prepare to spread His Gospel.

-I'm too busy: This is one of those excuses that I'm glad Jesus didn't make when it was time to go to the cross. Reading the accounts of Jesus in Gethsemane we can see that he was afraid and wanted to turn from the cross if he could. Instead of turning the other way and running however he said 'your will be done.' This is something we as Christians need to do more, surrender and follow the prodding we get from the Holy Spirit, no matter how busy we are.

-People might get hostile: There is a chance people could get hostile, either aggressively hostile or more passively hostile, either way it may not be a pleasant experience. The apostles knew this, they suffered continuously for their willingness to serve God and spread the message, Peter had this to say about it.

'If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified' -1st Peter 4:14

What the apostle is saying here is that if you suffer for God, and if people become hostile towards you for your dedication to serving Jesus than you are blessed. Besides what is really the worst thing someone can do to you? Kill you, yes they can kill us, but then we just go to heaven. This is kind of like punishing a child for wrongdoing by sending them into a toy store. If the worst someone can do to me is send me to heaven then I don't have anything to worry about.

-My friends might not want to be my friends anymore: There is a chance of this happening, unfortunately there are some people who will not want anything to do with you when you bring up Jesus a lot, the name caries a lot of weight and power and many people want nothing to do with it, at first. Lets think about something though, if you had a terminal illness and found out that one of your friends had the cure but didn't tell you, how mad would be you? You might make your friends mad by trying to talk to them about Jesus, but they will be a lot more angry with you when they get sent to hell because you didn't follow the prodding of the Holy Spirit. Also, any friend of yours that refuses to be a friend because you talk about Jesus would only be a temporary friend anyway, when a Christian gets to heaven none of their non-Christian friends can come, don't you want to see your friends in heaven with you?

-Everyone has already heard about Jesus: There is a good chance that if you live in a modern westernized country that most people have heard of Jesus. Most people have heard about heart surgery too, that doesn't mean they know how to perform it. There is a big misconception on the world about who Jesus was, who he still is and why he died on the cross. People may believe that they can get to heaven by being good enough, they may think Jesus died for them so they don't need to repent or they may believe that Jesus is just a story. Its important we set people straight on the issue and tell them just how important it is to understand the real, biblical Jesus, and the salvation he offers. Also, i have read that it takes an average of 7 times hearing the gospel to accept it, we never know which number we're going to be when we start a conversation!

-People have the right to believe whatever they want: In most places this is true, people do have that right. Just because you have a right to believe something however does not make it right. After all if that were the case then Hitler had a right to hold to his truly vile beliefs. Some people complain that by saying there is only one way to be saved we are narrowminded and intolerant. All truth is really very narrow, it is not narrowminded to say that 2+2=4, or to say that there is only one current American president. A statment is not intolerant or narrow if it is true. Its also important to point out that we have the right to believe what we do, and to speak openly about it. If someone refuses to believe the Gospel after I share it with them, so be it, the important thing is I was loyal to God and followed the Holy spirit's lead. The decision to accept Christ is all between a person and God, they don't reject us, but they reject God. While I don't want them to reject God I don't have power over them, I only have the power to serve God.

-I don't know how: It can be hard trying to witness when we don't know how, even frightening. However looking closer we really do know how. We know that we were saved by God's grace through faith. That's really all we need, but to learn more we should do a few things; first and foremost read the bible let God's word guide your actions, next we should read books by other evangelists. Mark Cahill is a very talented writer and evangelist who wrote a wonderful book, 'One thing You Can't Do in Heaven' I suggest this book to all my Christian friends. Ray Comfort is another great evangelist with many good books on the subject who can also be found on you tube. I will also be posting some new articles soon on some of my own approaches to evangelism, some of which is based off these two. Of course the best way to improve is to go out and do it! Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else you meet about the way to salvation today!

I hope this article has helped alleviate some fears and provide some motivation for witnessing. It is very frightening to start at but once you get into it you get hooked. It is a great way to get out, meet new people, find out some interesting things and most importantly it is a wonderful way to serve the Lord and win souls to Christ. Thank you for taking the time to read this, God bless and keep you.