The First Step to Telling Someone About Jesus

So you wanna help people come to know Jesus?

Great!

I'm here to help.

How are you supposed to persuade someone to come to know Jesus? Well, there isn't any magic formula (and theologically speaking, God brings people to himself using us, we don't really do a whole lot), but practically speaking, we want to know what the best things to say to someone is when they are thinking about accepting Jesus into their life.

Many people will tell you that you should study Christian apologetics (the defenses of the Christian faith).

But guess what...

It doesn't work.

Why?

Because people don't reason their way to God, they have an experience with God. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity talks about how man is unlikely to  "reason themselves to God," but rather it is more likely that they have an encounter with God which surpasses reason.

Apologetics is good for teaching people who are ready to believe, but not for bringing the unbeliever to faith in Christ.

So where does that leave us?

Right here.

"For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." - 1 Corinthians 1:17

Imagine that you were bringing news to your parents that you are going to have a baby (or your significant other is for all you men out there), you might try to reveal the news in a clever way, but the reality is, if you simply told them that you were going to have a baby, the same amount of excitement would be instilled.

Why?

Because it's not the way the news is presented that makes it powerful, but the news itself.

That is the way the gospel is.

The gospel does not need to be (in fact, it shouldnt!) presented with "words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power," but rather presented as you would any exciting news.

You wouldn't reason with someone that there really is a baby in your stomach (women, that is), you would simply say "here are my experiences, thus there is a baby in my stomach." We should do the same with the gospel.

"Here are my experiences, thus faith in Jesus is satisfying."

Share YOUR faith. Share YOUR experiences. Share YOUR passion.

Only when people see YOUR excitement about the gospel, will the gospel seem more real than ever before.

Experience is more powerful than reason.

So stop reasoning, and start experiencing.