Megan looked intently at the picture I was drawing as I explained the gospel to her. Two lines were drawn, with GOD written on one side, MAN on the other and SIN in the middle. I talked about “asking Jesus into her heart” and drew a cross over the area labeled SIN, showing that Jesus was the bridge. As I leaned back and admired my artwork, she asked, “Where is that bridge so I can walk across it? Is it down by the lake? If Jesus comes into my heart, he is going to stick out all over the place.” It was at that moment that I realized her problem. She was not fluent in “Christianese.”
You may be bilingual, but most of those far from God are not. I’ll show you what I mean. You want to see people walking the talk. It starts with you doing life together with the de-churched and un-churched to draw them into a disciple-making process. One day they will start walking with Jesus and bearing fruit. If you understand what I’m talking about, you know Christianese. The only problem is that those far from God just heard you say they had some disease called “de-churched” and that you wanted to put them on a wellness program walking with some farmer named Jesús.
The gospel is good news. What news? First Corinthians 15 articulates it as Jesus dying for our sins and rising from the grave. If you have no background in Christianese, let me be clearer. We all do wrong things. This is called sin. We deserve death in light of a holy God. Because God is just, He could not let those things go unpunished. Because He is merciful and full of grace, He paid the penalty Himself. A few thousand years ago, Jesus, who is God in a human body, demonstrated His love for all of us and died a brutal death by being nailed to a beam that was stretched across another beam to form a cross. Three days later He came back from the grave, proving He was who He said He was and showing that there is life after death. Why is the news good? This act of love provided a way for us to have a full life now, and life forever with God. How? Give God control of your life, turn away from your life of sin, believe and trust in Jesus through obeying Him.
A good rule of thumb is to replace churchy words with ones you tend to use when talking to friends on the phone. Change words like “repent” to “turn from your current life to one where God is in control.” Clarify words like “sin” by saying “wrong things.” Modify words like “accept Jesus into your heart” to “make Jesus your boss, the one in control of your life.”
Of course, there is one other thing that can hinder your communication of the good news: keeping the news to yourself! If the news is so good, why are you keeping it to yourself? Megan talked to me the next week and told me she wanted to be baptized. I said, “I thought you didn’t understand.” She said, “Grandmama talked to me after you left, and it all made sense.” Thank God for grandmamas. Now, go start the conversation.
— If you struggle with sharing Jesus with someone close to you, consider reading “Close Encounters” by Lee Clamp, available at BaptistCourier.com/publishing.