Beginning is often the hardest part of doing anything. We all want to be in better shape, but we never seem to get to the gym. We want to write our novel but never write the first sentence. We want to engage our neighbors and friends with the good news of Jesus, but we can never find a good place to start the conversation. We want to preach the gospel to our lost communities, but how do we start? What’s our opening line?
It’s no secret. A lot of us are struggling with how to reach our lost friends in our communities and neighborhoods. There are many reasons for our anxieties. Perhaps you remember the intense evangelism efforts of the seventies and eighties. Every church had a “visitation night” where members who had sat through an evangelism seminar were told to drop in on neighbors. I’ve heard stories of some communities where the neighbors learned not to be home on those nights. Most of us grew tired of, if not embarrassed by, this form of hard sell evangelism. We made a promise to ourselves that we would never do that. We didn’t, but instead of improving our evangelism, we stopped doing evangelism altogether.
Another reason for our evangelistic anxiety is that many of our neighbors are likeable and good people. They may not profess to any particular creed, but they are friendly and helpful, and honestly, if we compare them to some people we know in our churches, we’d prefer to hang out with our neighbors. These friends seemed to have figured out life without the help of any kind of religion, and they didn’t understand how Jesus could help them. They weren’t opposed to Jesus. They just didn’t see the need for him in their lives.
Add all of this and a few things to the current culture wars—where statements of truth can be seen as bigotry and oppressive—and most pastors are at a loss to find a place to begin. How do you preach the truth of God in a world that would consider such claims to be an opinion, not fact? How do you assert facts of good and evil if our culture—and yes, our congregations—don’t see an objective basis for morality? How does a pastor find a place to stand in a time when the whole world seems to be made of sand?
First, we need to relax and remember that the gospel was born in a time of religious, cultural, and moral confusion. The birthplace of Christianity was home to the emperor worship of Rome, the Greek pantheon of gods that had been appropriated by Rome, stoicism, and of course, Judaism. How does a new worldview and way of being get started in such a place?
The disciples—the early witnesses of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection—began to tell their stories. We met Christ. This is who we were before we met Him, and this is who we are after we met Him. This Jesus understands life in a way that no one else has. He has wisdom that gives life meaning and hope. Now that He’s been raised from the dead, He has the power and authority to bring healing, hope, and power to our living.
The early sermons started with the man Jesus. This doesn’t mean the incarnation and dual nature of Christ were denied, not at all. The man Jesus became the first point of connection. As God intended in the incarnation, a carpenter from Nazareth was approachable and available. People felt free to ask questions and yes, debate with Him. Jesus taught us how to live life in a way that matters.
And the next question is, “So, what?” There have been a lot of people with good insights into how to live life well. The bookstores are full of books written by “experts” on how to live the good life. Everything from how to get up early and start your morning routine to how to deal with toxic people in your life, book after book after book, and they don’t work. How do we know? People keep writing self-help books.
We need someone with more than good advice. We need someone with the power to enforce His word. With His resurrection, Jesus is shown to be that person. He is the conqueror of death, the giver of life. His word now has the weight of eternity behind it. This is not someone who gives us clever hacks on how to live our lives. This is the person whose words define reality—for now and all eternity. This is Jesus. The Savior with the power to heal our past and ensure our future.
Jesus tells us the truth. Jesus is the truth, and that’s where we begin. We begin our sermons with Jesus, and we end with the Risen Christ. We preach the salvation story that begins with God coming to us in Christ and ends with Christ welcoming us into His kingdom. It’s the same sermon that Peter and Paul preached in the first century.
That sermon worked then. It will work now.
Mike Glenn, Preaching in a Post-Truth World
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