How Did Jesus Share "Jesus" With Others?

We have been looking at one of our purposes as Christians and that is to share Jesus passionately with those who do not know him.  It is very easy to look around and try to find tools that can help us do this effectively.  However, I believe it is better to first ask the question, "How did Jesus passionately share himself with those who did not know him?"  Once we have answered that question then we can better discern whether certain "tools" can really help us or not.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the "radiance of God's Glory," and the "exact representation" of God.  So whatever he did, he did it exactly as God would have done it because he was one with the Father and was God.  We can have no better example to look at.  Some approaches to evangelism that have been employed over the years, whether by cults or legitimate Christian groups, are not "christlike."  If we do not understand the heart of Christ then our own pride can blind us to this.  We can get caught up in the mere pragmatism and numbers of sharing and lose the heart of it all.  Now this is one problem.  The other problem would be those who say that they don't have the "gift" of sharing the gospel with others.  Really?  Then you should really stop and ask yourself am I following Jesus or am I co-opting Jesus message for my purposes?  Jesus shared the gospel with others.  He instructed his disciples to do so.  They instructed all believers to do so.  So...we are left without reason to overlook this purpose in our life.

Now last week we focused on the need for us to truly be connected to Jesus in faith.  We must truly have been spiritually birthed into God's family.  The Holy Spirit must truly be dwelling within our body-temples.  Then and only then can we attempt to follow Jesus in his message and style.  So let's get to it.  How did Jesus share "Jesus" with others?  Join me in the Gospel of John chapter three.

Jesus was Available / Accessible

Nicodemus is one of the highest religious leaders in Israel at this time.  His group, the Pharisees, have rejected Jesus.  However, some of the individuals were not completely convinced.  It is in this context that Nicodemus visits Jesus late at night so that he won't be seen.

The first point that I will focus on is the obvious availability of Jesus.  He apparently didn't have "office hours" during which people were to make appointments.  When Nicodemus knocks on the door he is allowed to enter and the Lord spends time with him answering his questions.  Now to make this clearer, picture yourself sitting at home after a busy day, with your feet kicked up, trying to relax when a person from a group that has publically rejected you is at the door.  Are you inclined to invite them in and stay up talking about what they want to talk about?  We see this principle at another time when the disciples tried to do the "Secret Service" thing.  They were blocking little children from coming to see Jesus.  Clearly they thought Jesus had more important things to do.  However, Jesus corrected them and said to let them come to him.  Jesus was a man that made himself available to people without berating them for being too pretentious.  What might this say to us about God the Father?  Perhaps the problem is not that we come to God too often, but that we rarely turn to him.  God has never turned away a sincere heart that sought him and neither should we.

Another issue is that we tend to "cocoon" our lives.  That is we develop these insulated areas of our life wherein we wall ourselves off from outside interaction.  We start in our homes that are like our little castles and then we drive to our workplace.  Then we drive home, maybe out to an entertainment place, back home and start over again.  We quickly develop routines that give us less and less real interaction with neighbors, co-workers, or new people.  This walls us off from what God might want to do for those who are lost and for those who have the Truth.

Leave room in your schedule so that you are not driven to be blind to these kinds of interaction.  Too busy.  Too rushed.  Too-"I can't help you.

Jesus was not mean-spirited

The next thing we can take note of is that Jesus had every right to be a bit offended here.  The pharisees have basically called Jesus a false teacher and accused him of having a demon.  They had worked publically to try and make him look bad and they have conspired behind the scenes to get him killed.  So when one of them shows up, it would be easy for Jesus to act in anger.  On top of that they guy wants a "secret" meeting.  In other words, Jesus will you teach me in secret, while by day I pretend to agree with my other friends?  It is interesting to note that of all the things Jesus could have said, he didn't challenge Nicodemus on this.  Instead he lets him in and talks with him.

Here we see that Jesus was not mean-spirited.  They had been mean to him, but he would not pay back wrong for wrong.  He wasn't looking for reasons to push away the heart that came to him with questions.  Instead he deals with Nicodemus where he was and this is where Nicodemus was: a religious man who was lost, fearful and full of questions.  Jesus gave him answers that would point him in the right direction.  However, Jesus also left it up to Nicodemus what he would do with those answers.  There is no high pressure sales from Jesus to get Nicodemus to become his disciples and say a sinners prayer.  There is no dictation of public actions Nicodemus should do to prove he is sincere.  Jesus simply puts the ball back into his court.  Now don't get me wrong.  It is essential, if we are to truly be "saved," to have some real changes in our life.  However, we must be careful of pressuring people to do the (Insert list here) things that we think they should do.  Jesus shared the truth with him and left the rest up to the Holy Spirit's work in his life.  In fact, this is at the heart of Jesus' message to Nicodemus:  You have to be spiritually born to have a place in God's kingdom.

The Message of Jesus was Clear

Now to set up this next point, we need to understand what was meant by "God's kingdom."  Israel knew that they belong to God, but, because of sin, they were not "God's Kingdom."  Moses and the Prophets all pointed to a coming "Anointed One," who would be king of Israel and usher in the era of God's True Kingdom.  This leader would demonstrate the perfect righteousness and wisdom of God in his rule.  All of Israel waited in hope for this leader and a place in the kingdom that he would make.  Some even taught that there would be a resurrection of all those who had died.  These resurrected people would get to participate in this kingdom of God.  However, those who had been wicked would not be allowed to enter into that kingdom.  People like Nicodemus who were the religious leaders were viewed as guaranteed a place in the kingdom.  He would have felt that he already had a "ticket" into this kingdom.  So when Jesus warns him: unless one is born again he will not see the kingdom of God, Nicodemus is perplexed.  He knew that he didn't know what Jesus was talking about.  Yet, he thought he had a "ticket."  Can you imagine purchasing Tickets to the NCAA National Championship Game and then when you get there you find out there was something wrong with your tickets.  To miss the game after believing you were going to watch it live would be a tremendous let down.  How much more something like this.  Israel had waited for God's Kingdom for 1500 years.  Nicodemus is being told that there are some requirements that he doesn't even understand.  In verses 3 thorugh 8 Jesus makes it plain that being "born again" is a way of saying that we need to be born spiritually.  John had already laid out this teaching in chapter one verses 12 and 13.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (NKJV)

Jesus had a very clear message for Nicodemus.  You cannot be born into the kingdom of God because of DNA or biology.  No one will get into the kingdom merely by being of a certain race.  This is what is meant by flesh gives birth to flesh (vs. 6).  Being Israeli would only secure you a place in the earthly, imperfect kingdom of Israel that God certainly had set up.  But it would not secure you a place in the coming Kingdom of God.  No work of our flesh or our parents can secure us a place.  It must a work that is done by the will of God and by his spirit.  Spiritual birth is a mystery.  We can't control it by having people recite certain prayers, or say certain statements of faith.  We can only speak the Truth and observe the Spirit work in others lives.  Jesus knew that if Nicodemus was to truly have a place in God's kingdom, he must first spiritually become a child of God.  This is his message to Nicodemus.  In fact in verses 13 through 21 Jesus takes some of the mystery off of how one is spiritually born.  He states emphatically in verses 16-18 that those who would put their faith in Jesus as this "Anointed One" from God, would be "saved" and not "condemned."

Thus, here is the teaching in a nutshell.  God has sent Jesus to be his Messiah that would set up his Kingdom on earth.  Those who believe this will only do so by the help of the Holy Spirit.  To believe in Jesus is to be spiritually birthed into God's family and to have a place in the coming Kingdom.  It is still a mystery how the Spirit touches hearts and how they respond.  But it is not a mystery what must be done.

The Purpose of Jesus was Clear

Just as his message was clear, so Jesus had a clear purpose.  In verses 17 and 18 Jesus states that he did not come to condemn people like Nicodemus.  Now the word "condemn" is a bit of a loaded word.  It has come to mean anybody who thinks that there is a definitely right and wrong.  Jesus clearly taught what was right and what was wrong.  But he did not do so for the purpose of trying to condemn people.  You see the problem is that we were already condemned.  God doesn't need people to go out and condemn others.  Rather it is because they are already condemned that Jesus came to try and save them.  His purpose was a rescue mission.  His purpose was to provide a way of escaping a coming judgment in which Nicodemus and others were surely to be condemned.  They were condemned by the Law of Moses that they said they loved.  They were condemned by their actions that were not in accordance to that law.  Lastly they were condemned by their own words, thoughts, and heart.

Do you realize that people today are in the same boat?  They are living their lives under the doom of a certain judgment in which they will be condemned.  Do we seek to save them or condemn them further?  Do we seek to grab them out of the fire or do we seek to rub their nose in it?  What is our purpose?  It is not to despise those who live a life in rejection of God and his ways.  Our's is a mission of compassion.  We are to be going out after the lost sheep.  They many times will bite our hand and continue to run on, but we know that they are going to be destroyed if they do not come into God's pen of safety.  May we have a clear purpose that it is our business to save people and that we can only do so by giving them the truth about life and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Understood He would be Rejected by Most

At the end of this discussion, Jesus points out that he knew not all would receive him.  In fact the testimony of Scripture is that most men will not embrace Jesus.  In verse 19, Jesus says that "Men loved darkness rather than the light."  Now he is speaking in general here.  There were individuals that came to Jesus, the light, and received him.  But the majority rejected him, hated him, and crucified him.  This is who we are as men.  Mankind as a whole rejects God.  Many have given themselves over to evil and hate that which exposes them.  We need to get a hold of this truth in our hearts.  If you share Jesus with very many people then you will find that most will throw it back into your face.  It will not be a rosey road.  But it will have its rosey moments.

Now those who reject Jesus in this day and age often do so with a grand Culpea Harengus.  I will save you the time googling what that means.  It is simply Latin for a red-herring.  The modern red-herring is that of intellectualism.  It poses as the perfect "reason" for rejecting the Truth of who Jesus is.  I call this a red-herring because it is not their intellect that keeps them from embracing the Truth.  Throughout history many brilliant men have believed in Jesus.  But I would not say that the majority of brilliant men have done so.  Intellect is not the barricade to faith.  Rather the barricade to faith is whether or not I love evil.  Those who love evil will not come to the Truth.  If they do then it is a ruse to destroy the Truth and will eventually be exposed.

But, those who come to the light demonstrate that they have loved Truth.  This does not mean they are perfect.  The Scriptures reflect that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.  However, in them in a desire to have Truth and God.  They try to do what is right.  Often their flesh gets in the way, but they seek to make things right and look to God for help.  They do not enjoy correction when it comes, but they do receive it, like David of old.  2 Thessalonians 2:10 tells us that those who perish "refused to love the truth."  God is trying everyday to give people truth through his followers and by his Spirit.  This is what he is doing right now and we should be cooperating with him.

I challenge all of us to not look for excuses but to ask God to change our hearts that we might be freers of men and givers of life.

Sharing Jesus with Others audio