Full Confidence..

Today's talk was from Luke 24:36-49 and given by a 23 year old guy called Daniel (dunno his last name), a guest speaker to One Way. Here's a summary of the talk and also what I thought/learnt about it.

Basically, he had 3 main points about having confidence when evangelising.


1) We can evangelise with confidence because the gospel (God's word, aka the Bible!) is reliable (v. 36-43)

Daniel started by giving us an illustration of when he was following the scores of the NBA fifth game of the season (or something like that) between the San Antonia Spurs and the LA Lakers on nba.com. 10 seconds to go, and the Lakers were up 72 to 71. In the last few seconds, Tim Duncan scored a basket and Daniel thought the Spurs had won the game. Being the avid Spurs fan that he was, he called up his friend Earnest, an even greater sports fan than he, and exclaimed, "WE WON! SPURS WON!". Of course, Earnest was ecstatic. Anyway, Daniel went back to his computer, refreshed the screen, and to his shock horror, he looked at the scores again. Spurs 73, Lakers 74. In the last 0.4 seconds, the Lakers had managed to score the winning basket. The Spurs had lost, but even worse than his own disappointment, was the fact that Daniel had told Earnest that they won.

Daniel's information wasn't reliable... because he wasn't there. If Daniel had been physically AT the game, then he would've seen the Lakers make the winning basket, and Earnest would have been able to believe his information with full confidence.

The relevance of that illustration is that, we can have full confidence that Christ died, and rose from the dead, because he appeared to his disciples, and countless other people. They were eyewitnesses to that very fact. Verses 36-43 tell of Jesus appearing to his disciples in flesh and bone, with the holes still in his hands and feet, and he also ate before them.
I read this book that Darwin lent me about a month ago called 'The Truth About Jesus' by I forget who. From reading it, I learnt that the gospels (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) were primary sources, written by people who were there when the events happened. Two of the gospels were written by two disciples, and the other two by people closely linked to a disciple. Some people argue that the gospels were written too late after Jesus' life, that they had become like chinese whispers, but in fact, the books were written within around 50 years of Jesus's death and resurrection, and by people who were there when these things occurred.

The fact that the writers of the 4 gospels were eyewitnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection gives us, living 2000 years later, full confidence that the gospels are true and reliable.


2) We can evangelise with confidence because the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled (v. 44-48)

The gospel was fortold by various prophets during Old Testament times. Verses 44-48 say,

He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Jesus didn't just rock up one day and say, 'Hey, here's an idea for you'. No, Jesus suffering, death, and resurrection was fortold by Old Testament writers. We can have confidence in the fact that it wasn't just some spontaneous idea for Jesus to come to Earth and save mankind. It was a carefully planned and executed plot. It was foretold, people knew it was going to happen, people new that they were going to be saved, and finally, it did happen. But salvation didn't come in a glorious and mighty King brandishing his sword and crown (picture Aragorn). Instead, it came in a man, tortured, mocked, and crucified, covered in blood, a crown of thorns digging into his flesh.

Some people ask, 'why didn't God just raise everybody up with Jesus?' Well the answer is that God wants his kingdom to be great in number. He has given us this time, to spread the good news, and to bring more people into the great promise that he has given us of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and ultimately, of having eternal life with him in Heaven. Isn't that great? I think our God is so loving.

God has given us this time to spread the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection, until that fateful day comes, when all those who have believed and put their trust in Him will gather around His throne together singing 'Power, glory, honour, to you our King' *wink*


3) We can evangelise with confidence because we're equipped with God's power (v. 49)

Some of the problems that we find in sharing the good news is that we get discouraged because we think we're doing it all on our own, that it's all up to our ability to convince others. We treat evangelism like it's all about us. But it's not. We're in partnership with God. We plant the seed and water it, but God is the one that makes it grow. All we can do is tell the good news to others, and follow them up, but God is actually the power behind evangelism. We need to remember our place, and our role. God's Holy Spirit lives in the hearts of christians (genuine christians). It's the power that has been given to us from God. We need not rely on our own power, but can have full confidence in relying on God's power, the one who created all the earth and breathed life into all the organisms living on it.

Granted, we'll make mistakes, we might feel week, we might be rejected, but we can have confidence because we have been equipped with the power of God, and we need not be afraid or embarassed.


So in conclusion, remember the 3 points. We can evangelise with confidence because 1) the gospel is reliable; 2) the gospel fulfills the OT; and 3) we've been equipped with God's power.

I thought Daniel's talk was interesting, straight to the point, and humours. He gave excellent illustrations that kept people interested and also helped us to understand what he was trying to say better. Most importantly, it was faithful to God's word. I'd be happy to have him visit again.

I still feel a bit uncomfortable sharing the gospel with non-christians. It's something new, you know, and I think it takes some time to be able to do it naturally. With time and practice, I'm sure I will feel more comfortable about it. But it's great to be reassured that we CAN have full confidence in the gospel, and that gives us confidence when evangelising. I think the important thing is also to realise that evangelism shouldn't be the result of "doing good works" or earning brownie points. It should be the result of a genuine passion and love for God, with the love of Christ in your heart, and a genuine desire to see others saved by Him and welcomed into his family.

Shout out to William Setiawan btw (no, he's wholly unrelated to me.. lol) who got baptised this morning. Congrats Will and welcome to the family!