Outline For Sharing the Gospel
***This Gospel training Message was given specifically to people with righteous spiritual authority in their lives. Some that are listening it may not be the case…
There is no substitute for a Christian being a faithful example of Christianity to others and being in regular prayer for others, especially regarding their salvation. The Christian must still be ready to share the Gospel with others, even if they are not a preacher or a full-time Christian worker or anything along those lines. There is also no substitute for being in God’s Word daily and asking God for wisdom in the circumstances one finds themselves in. Yet preparing ourselves for important situations in life, and important situations definitely include opportunities to share the Gospel, is a key aspect of being faithful to the Lord. There is truly no more important ministry than preparation for ministry (which obviously needs to be followed through on in order to not be in vain). Since every Christian is called to minister in terms of being a ready witness for Christ, it is important to make an effort to prepare to share the Gospel of Christ with others. Here is a basic template which anyone can use whose principal intent is to glorify the Lord so that they can share the Gospel with others when the opportunity to do so arises (and if your principal intent is really to glorify the Lord then the labor of going through this outline and understanding it shouldn’t be a huge deal).
Don’t see this as an outline as something to bind you should circumstances dictate that you use another approach. You might be led to base your witness on a particular Scripture which you have been considering- and then go from there as you see good in the particular situation. You might see it good to simply share your testimony in certain situations. See this as a basic outline to follow when the opportunity to share about Jesus comes up and you don’t see a better approach to use in the particular circumstance.
One) Awakening: Sinners need to be awakened to the fact that God’s wrath is in truth against them for their disregard of His righteous authority and holy ways. Telling someone about Christ dying for them and offering them eternal life is pointless when they not even awakened to their need to be saved from God’s wrath and to be brought out of spiritual death. A multitude of Scriptures can be used for this, but here is one passage which shouldn’t be hard to memorize which you can fall back on.
Jude 14b-15: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Two) Conviction: People need to understand that God’s wrath against them is just and proper. Be praying that God would work through His Holy Spirit to bring an awareness of this as you use His Word to awaken them to their need to be saved. At the same time, also be ready to share Scriptures to follow up on step one which will enable the Holy Spirit to really drive home the point to a person that God is in the right to condemn them and send them to hell. This step in witnessing is probably the hardest in terms of how memorizing a particular Scripture isn’t certain to communicate to the person you’re speaking to what they really ought to know. At the same time, weakly communicating on this step is much worse than skipping it altogether. After all, the Holy Spirit can bear witness in this regard through the other Scriptures which you share to remind people of their past sins, their current enmity with God, and the intentions of their heart which oppose His authority in their lives. I recommend though that you memorize the Ten Commandments to put before people for this step (it’s really important you know those anyways). But also understand that God’s requirements are only generally summarized by the Ten commandments, not communicated with the great breadth and depth which only the entire Word of God properly understood can communicate. Understand also here that sin is not limited to actions which blatantly transgress God’s Law, but at its core sin is a commitment to pleasing oneself to in opposition pleasing the true God- the only One who is wise enough, good enough, and powerful enough to properly rule anyone’s life. Sin is treason against the ultimate highest authority in the Universe that is holy, righteous, good, and wise. Sin breeds chaos and anarchy. Sin is ultimately following the devil, and it is thus fitting that sinners be sent to the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. Understand these things and have them entrenched in your mindset as you witness to people. No matter how nice and likable they are, or no matter how unpleasant and irritating they are, they are in the same condemnation and have the same need for refuge in Jesus Christ in order to be properly related to God and delivered from His just and proper wrath against them. With all that in mind then, here are two general Scriptures to help people understand the wisdom of God’s wrath against them.
Revelation 4:11: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Ezekiel 18:20a: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Three) Christ’s atoning death: Now people can at least comprehend Christ’s atoning death in its proper context. If you’ve gone through the first two steps and the person is still listening and not blatantly resisting, or if the person you’re speaking to happens to already be convinced that they are justly under God’s wrath and deserving of hell for their sins (from all I have seen this is rare, nevertheless you might come across such a situation), then you can freely speak to the person of God’s true love and offer of mercy through Jesus’ death on the cross and the blood He shed therein to make an atonement for mankind’s sins (I mean, you can do this at this point without being guilty of casting pearls before swine). There are many appropriate Scripture passages for this, but here are two of these. The former describes the incredible nature of Christ’s atonement particularly well, while the latter emphasizes that Christ did this to bring us out of our sins (which is a key thing to emphasize in and of itself).
Isaiah 53:5-6: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities (lawless deeds- sin is the transgression of God’s law- 1 John 3:4): the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Galatians 1:4: “Who (speaking of Jesus Christ) gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”
2Co 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
2Co 7:11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
Four) Repentance unto faith in Christ and the new birth: An utter change of the mind about sin resulting in a change of actions. A change from commitment to the principle and practice of pleasing self to the commitment to the principle and practice of pleasing God in accordance with what He commands for Christians in the Bible. Galatians 1:4 quoted above really is a great bridge from step three to step four; or even a concise way to combine them both if you see it fit to do that in your circumstances.
To prove we must repent, and do works meet (fitting) for repentance, in order to properly turn to Christ you can reference the witness of John the Baptist (see Matthew chapter 3, Mark 1, Luke 3) as he sought to prepare the Jews to receive their Messiah.
Also: Luke 24:46b-47: “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
For proof that repentance is indeed a turning from sin to God rather than merely being sorry or some other wrong or inadequate definition of repentance which people might have heard, Ezekiel 18:30-32 is a great Scripture to memorize along these lines. Ezekiel 18:30-32: “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”
You can also reference the Ninevites’ repentance in Jonah chapter 3, and show from Matthew 12 or Luke 11, how Jesus referenced the Ninevites as an example of exercising the repentance which is required to properly believe in Him and be ready to meet God on Judgment Day.
Acts 2:36-40 then is a Scripture which is not only convicting in itself, it shows how repentance must be unto faith in Jesus Christ, how this results in the new birth through God’s Holy Spirit, and this passage even gives an exhortation to repent and be born again in order to be saved the ways of this evil world; or in other words, an exhortation to flee from the wrath to come!
Acts 2:36-40: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward (wayward or perverse)generation.”
Five) Continued obedience and enduring to the end in order to ultimately be saved from the wrath to come, restored to God’s image, and inherit glory: It should be emphasized that repenting and believing in Christ should be continued in by walking in the light of God’s Word (1 John 1:7 is a good reference for that). This walking in the light of God’s Word must be endured in, until the end of one’s life or when Christ returns, so that one’s repentance and faith in Christ is not nullified. Though much needs to be said about this, I am not going to put much on this here so this keep can be as simple and short as possible, and because you can consult and work with the righteous Christian authorities and examples in your life to help any you might help bring to Jesus Christ get baptized, do the other initial acts of repentance and obedience which they must do in their particular circumstances, and also get them into solid Christian fellowship. Yet you’re not likely to be able to consult with anyone in the very midst of a conversation in which you are sharing the Gospel with someone, which is what this training is particularly dealing with. Here are some Scriptures which show that faith in Christ should ultimately be a living faith which bears good fruit in working righteousness before God through Jesus Christ; and the necessity that this must be endured in.
John 15:1-6 (though it’s not put down here).
John 8:31-36: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
We must continue in His Word in order to be His disciples who are under God’s grace and not rather under sin’s power and condemnation (this is elaborated on in detail with key instructions in Romans chapter 6).
Colossians 1:20-23a: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel…”
You need to emphasize that to anyone whom you might help bring to Christ.
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]