Sermon Text: 1 Timothy 2:3-4; Colossians 4:3-6
Sermon Title: "Faith-Sharing"
By Rev. Joon-Sik Park

Why should we share our faith with others? Why share faith?

We do not seek to evangelize just to preserve the institution, or to fill up the empty seats. We share faith because God "desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

The question asked of Adam and Eve is asked of all humanity: "Where are you?" God looks for us long before we ever look for God. Faith-sharing is founded in the love of God. We share faith because of the overwhelming experience of the love of God in Christ Jesus. It is God’s love in us which sends us as his messengers.

Thus, faith-sharing is not a duty but a response to grace. The early church engaged in evangelism as naturally and normally as a robin sings or a happy child plays. Evangelism is not a special program that must be done by special people at special times and in special ways, but a natural, normal day-by-day ministry of the church. The church is alive only as it communicates the gospel. In faith-sharing we share God’s pain of rejection and the joy of acceptance.

Then, how should we share our faith?

First, we should pray that "God may open a door for our message."

It is God who guides and opens us a door for witness. In Acts, the evangelistic initiatives come from the Spirit’s movement. We find the Holy Spirit directing Philip to go near the Ethiopian eunuch so that he could proclaim the eunuch the good news about Jesus, and baptize him. It was also God who sent Peter to Cornelius even though he was not willing so that the whole household of Cornelius could hear the good news of Christ, and be baptized.

The Holy Spirit works on the sides of both the messenger and the hearer. Thus, we should be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and go into every door he opens to us for faith-sharing. If we are listening he will direct us to particular people.

Rev. Leighton Ford, a longtime associate of Billy Graham, was with him at the crusade in Birmingham, England. A large overflow crowd had gathered outside the stadium to watch on a large screen, and he went out to speak a word of welcome.

On his way back into the stadium a middle-aged man stopped him. "Does Billy Graham have any literature for bereaved parents?" he wanted to know. "Why do you ask?" Rev. Ford replied. "I’ve lost a 20-year-old daughter in a very tragic situation 18 months ago," the man said.

Then, Rev. Ford told him that two-and-a-half years ago before he had lost a 21-year-old son during heart surgery. For the next few minutes they talked about as one bereaved and grieving father to another, empathizing at the human level but also meeting at a deeper level of the Spirit.

The man told Rev. Ford that he had an intellectual faith but not much more, and that he was a rotten soul. When Rev. Ford asked him if he wanted to go forward he said he wasn’t worthy. But when told that it wasn’t a question of worthiness but of grace, he said, "I’ll go." And that night, in the midst of several thousand seekers, Rev. Ford stood next to one man to whom God had led him. It was only by the guidance of the Holy Spirit that Rev. Ford could meet and lead the one person to Christ who had the same experience with him.

Second, we should "proclaim the mystery of Christ," and proclaim it clearly.

Christian faith is a sure trust and confidence that "Christ died for my sins, that he loved me and gave himself for me." We are to share Christ whom we’ve met and believe in, and our experience of the love and grace of God. We are pointing persons to Christ, not to a certain point of view.

Witnessing is not preaching, not even teaching the Bible. It is giving evidence. You believe in Christ as your Savior and Lord and he lives in your life. You have already more than sufficient evidence in you, who is Christ. Just tell people clearly and plainly who Christ is and what he has done for you and how much he means to you.

Third, the gospel must be made visible as well as verbal. We should run to people not with a booklet, but with a life.

In the Acts, proclamation and good works are inextricably tied. There is a fusion of proclaiming and serving. The verbalization of the gospel must take place in the midst of doing it. The ministry of proclamation must be done with ministries of healing, serving, liberating, and reforming. We will find ourselves entering into the wounds of people, even as Jesus did. Announcement of the kingdom must be both verbal and visible, and we should never ask which is more important. That would be like asking which is more important, breathing in or breathing out.

We are sometimes reluctant to name the Name of Christ in whom we do the deed. This failure to "name the Name" leaves vacuum in the hearts of the people still unfilled. Let us not forget that we are called to offer a cup of cold water in the Name of Jesus. Sometimes it is far easier to settle with simply doing a good deed for others.

But this is not sufficient. People not only hunger for bread for their stomachs; they hunger for the bread of life. This bread cannot be purchased at anyone’s bakery. It comes through a right relationship with the living God in response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

No one way is the way, but each way can become a way by God’s grace. The most obvious danger is to take one method as God’s only way, and then impose it upon every one. We should respect the freedom of the Holy Spirit to work in countless ways, and acknowledge the enormous variety that is in people and the sensitive way in which God deals with each person.

Gospel means good news, and so evangelizing describes the spreading of the good news. It is God who converts; we are responsible to evangelize, that is, to spread the gospel of the kingdom. It is the spread of the good news of the gospel which constitutes evangelizing, regardless of results.

The essence of evangelizing lies in the faithful presentation of the gospel of the kingdom by word and deed. It means that we need not worry so much over the result as over whether or not we have made known the gospel. Many of us shy away from evangelism not only because they do not know what it is but because they are afraid of failure. The only failure we ought to fear is that of failing to spread the gospel. The results are in God’s hands.

Faith-sharers are constantly driven to their knees. We should pray for the unconverted around us. By prayer we invite Christ to work in their lives. We are utterly powerless without the power of God to help others be converted to Christ. We are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can draw people to Christ. One might sow and another water, but only God gives the increase.

We faith-sharers should also have hope. Hope is evoked in us because of the victory of Christ over death. The risen Christ is present with us now. We are driven to our knees in utter dependency upon God and simultaneously raised to our tiptoes in expectant hope, knowing that the Word of God will not return to God void. It will accomplish that for which God sent. Amen!