Ankerberg Show

Guest (Male): Welcome to the John Ankerberg Show Discipleship segment. Whether you've recently discovered your faith in Christ or have been a long-time follower, we aim to provide you with the tools and encouragement to strengthen your relationship with Him. We are dedicated to equipping you to confidently share the hope that resides within you, as instructed in 1 Peter 3:15. Join us now for the John Ankerberg Show Discipleship segment as we embark on this journey of spiritual growth and learning together.

As a follower of Jesus, you have His message, which is too good to keep to yourself. It can bring hope to the hopeless and change the eternal destiny of those around you. So how do you share this message with others? In this session, I want to show you five simple Bible verses you can use to tell those you love how they can come into a personal relationship with Jesus. Join us for this session of the John Ankerberg Show.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. Our topic today is, how can I share my faith in Christ with someone else who's not a Christian? My name is John Ankerberg and my good friends, Sunder and Shamala Krishnan, are here with us. Last week, Sunder and Shamala, we were talking about Jesus' statement in the Great Commission that we are to go and make disciples of all nations. When we bring that home to ourselves, Jesus' words mean that we need to share His message with our neighbors and friends.

Right at that spot, a lot of Christians say, "I'd like to, but I just don't know how to lead my friends to Christ. I don't know what to say." Let me give you a quick story of why this can be dangerous when they don't know what to say. We visited a little church where the man that was the head deacon had gone to church for 22 years. He lived next door in this little town next door to a neighbor that did not know the Lord and was not a Christian.

They would talk over the fence, they would mow the grass, the kids knew each other. For 22 years, the non-Christian neighbor watched the Christian deacon go to Sunday morning to Sunday school, to Sunday church, then did the evening service, and then to the Wednesday night prayer meeting. He saw this the whole time but never went with him. They always talked over the fence and everybody was really friends.

As life went along, it came to the point where this man got sick and he knew he was going to die. So he asked his wife to go next door to his neighbor and ask him to come on over. The lady went over to the person's house and knocked on the door and said, "You know, I know your husband's a deacon and you folks go to church every Sunday and you must know God. My husband's dying and he knows he's going to meet God pretty soon and he doesn't know what to say or what to do, but we know that your husband knows. Would you please come over?"

When the husband heard this, he got all nervous. This is the deacon of the church. He thought, "Boy, what am I going to say?" So he quickly went to the telephone and he dialed up the pastor, but the pastor had left. He said, "Oh, goodness sakes, where's the pastor just when I need him?" The pastor was going to the church. So he got his coat on, he went next door, the lady of the house said, "My husband's in the bed over here and we're so glad that you came. We're really looking forward to what you have to say."

He said, "Before I go and talk to your husband, could I make a phone call?" So he went back and he called on her phone, tried to get the pastor, but couldn't get him again. He thought, "Now what am I going to do?" This time he had to go up to the bed and he was standing there talking. His neighbor said to him, "You know, I've watched you and your family for all of these years. I've seen that you've gone to church and you know the Lord. I recognize that I'm going to die. So before I do, I want to ask you, what should I do? What do I need to know?"

He said, "Well, I want to tell you, but let me try to make a phone call first." So he went and he tried to make a phone call and get the pastor one more time, but couldn't get him. He thought, "What am I going to do?" He came back and he said some just nice things. "I'm really sorry that you're sick," and he tried to read Psalm 23. Then the man started getting tired. He said, "Well, I'm so glad that you came to help me, but I'm really getting tired. I appreciate you coming to talk with me, but I just need to say goodbye now."

The man went out and he never shared the gospel with him. That night, his neighbor died and he went to hell. That bothered that deacon. For 22 years, he went to church and he never learned how to present just a few simple verses of how to invite Jesus into your life and have Him forgive your sins.

In this program, what I'd like to do is start off by showing you five simple verses that you can use. I've used them all the time. If you ever get into that situation, you'll know how to easily lead somebody to the Lord. When I was a high school student and I was just learning how to witness, I really didn't know how. I had my Bible and I opened it and I'm going to show you five verses from the book of Romans. The reason is that they're all close together. You don't have to look very far. They're just a few pages apart. In five verses, it can clearly present the gospel.

People say, "John, you're going to present these verses. How do I even get into a conversation where I can present these verses to somebody that they'd be willing to actually listen?" It goes something like this. If you are in a spiritual discussion of any kind and maybe you get a chance to share your testimony, at the end of it, maybe you could say something like this: "Would you mind if I was to show you how you could personally know Jesus and how you could know for sure that you're going to heaven?"

Most people, if you ask them that, will say, "Yeah, I'd like to see that." You say, well, you open your Bible and you've got your verse underlined. You say, the first thing that God wants us to know is Romans 3:23 and I'd like you to read the verse for me. So they read the verse: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Now, I've always known people, they read the verse very slowly, but I always compliment them and I say, "That was great. Let me ask you a question. When the Bible uses the word 'all,' does that include both you and me?"

I say it that way rather than saying, "The Bible says you're a sinner." Don't say it that way. Just say, "When the Bible uses the word 'all,' does that include both you and me?" They'll say, "Sure, 'all' means everybody." You say the first thing God wants us to know is that we're all sinners. We've broken His moral laws. We stand guilty before Him and our sins separate us from God.

The second thing is this: then you turn to Romans chapter 6, verse 23. We've broken God's moral laws and there's a penalty for it. I'd like you to read what God has to say. So they read the verse: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." After they read it, say, "That was great. Now, what are wages?"

The guy says, "I don't know." I say, "Do you have a job?" "Yeah." "Do you get paid with something?" "Yeah, I get paid money." Those are your wages. God says we get paid wages for our sin and notice what it is: the wages of sin is death. That is not only physical death, but when we die, it's separation from God eternally. So it's serious.

But notice in the verse, there's a gift mentioned. It says, "But the gift of God..." By the way, what is a gift? The person says, "Well, let's see. It's something that somebody gives you and you don't have to pay for it." I say, "That's right." If I'm talking to a guy or a gal, I'll say, "Listen, do you have a girlfriend?" "Sure, I've got a girlfriend." I say, "Now, if you brought a box of chocolates to your girlfriend and you said, 'I want to give you this gift,' and she says, 'Oh, I'm really excited about that,' and then you say, 'And I'll be willing to give you this gift if you go out and wash my car for me,' she would say, 'Well, then you can keep your gift because I'm not working for it.'"

A gift is when you get something and they pay the price for it and they give it to you and you don't have to do anything. God says in this verse, "The gift of God," notice what it is, "is eternal life." You want eternal life? God says the gift of God is eternal life and it comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. So God wants to give us this gift of eternal life, but we cannot earn it, we can't work for it, we can't pay for it. God says He's done all the work.

How did He do it? That's our next verse. Turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 8. Ask them to read it and they say, "But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I say, notice, God proved His love for us. He demonstrated His love for us. How did He do that? While we were still sinners, He knew that we were sinners and He still loved us. He sent Christ to die on the cross and pay for our sin. That's exactly what Jesus did.

While He was dying on the cross, all of our sins were picked up, placed on Christ, and He was punished as our substitute. Our sins were placed on Him and He paid for it all. Now God can offer us forgiveness of our sins, a relationship with Himself, and also the gift of eternal life.

The next question is, how do you get it? That's our next verse. I'd like you to read Romans chapter 10, verse 9. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Notice two things here. First, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. He is God. And also that He is going to be the Lord of your life. If He's God and you invite Him into your life, He's the boss. You're going to want to try to follow Him and do what He says. Second, you are to believe in your heart that when Jesus died on the cross and paid for your sins and was buried, that God raised Him from the dead and Jesus is living right now.

You know what? If you believe those two things, the Bible says you will be saved. So where do we go from there? That's the fifth verse I want to show you. What do we do next? Read Romans chapter 10, verse 13. And they read, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Again, I ask them, does the word "everyone" include you and me? Yeah, of course. So, Tom, put your name there. For if Tom will call on the name of the Lord. How do you call on the name of the Lord? Calling on the name of the Lord is praying, just asking the Lord to save you. For if Tom will call upon the name of the Lord, notice what God promises: Tom will be saved.

Here's what you ask them when you get to that point. It's a very important question right here and a lot of Christians miss this one. If you get that far, just stop and say, "Tom or Mary, whoever you're talking to, is there any reason why right now you wouldn't want to invite Jesus to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior?" If there's a reason, they'll tell you. If not, most of them will say, "Yeah, I'd like to do that." Would you be willing to just say a prayer with me? I'll say a sentence and you can say a sentence and just mean it in your heart and God will listen. They'll say, "Yeah, I'd like to do that."

The prayer doesn't have to be any set prayer, but just make it simple for them and ask them to repeat it after you. I usually bow my head and I say, "Bow your head and let's just pray and ask the Lord to save you." I start out, "Dear Jesus," and they say, "Dear Jesus." "I know I'm a sinner," and they say, "I know that I'm a sinner." "And that my sin separates me from You. Thank You for dying for me and paying for all my sin. Right now, I confess You are God and invite You to come into my life and be the Lord of my life. I believe You rose from the dead and ask You to forgive me of my sin and give me eternal life. Help me to live my life for You. Amen."

After they've said that prayer, say, "You know, that was terrific." Go back to the verse: "Remember, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." You did what right now? You just prayed and asked the Lord to save you. What does He promise He will do? Will be saved. That's what God did to you right now.

You can add other verses to these five verses that I shared with you, but here's a starting point that takes you through the gospel very simply. Now we're going to take a break. When we come back, I want Sunder and Shamala to get into this and we're going to talk about how should we prepare ourselves spiritually as we begin to share our faith with other people. Okay? So stick with us. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Join us next time for part two of our discipleship series, Follow Me, Experiencing the Joy of Walking with Jesus, as Sunder and Shamala pick up where we left off this week. Thank you for joining us on our journey of discipleship. To deepen your understanding and grow in your faith, explore our extensive discipleship resources at jashow.org and engage in transformative courses at jabible.org. ATRI is dedicated to encouraging believers, defending the faith, and challenging the skeptics. Join us in this mission by subscribing to our YouTube channel for more in-depth teachings and practical guidance to deepen your faith.