Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Have you ever had a clear opportunity to talk about Jesus but got too nervous or scared in the moment to follow through? Well, let me tell you, we've all been there. I certainly have. Stay with me as we learn some easy steps to boldly talk about Jesus to others, even those who totally disagree with where you're coming from.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Today, we're hearing from guest teacher Aaron Pierce, who leads a mission called Steiger International, spending his life building bridges with people who've never set foot in a church.

Today, he reveals what it actually looks like to introduce someone to the person of Jesus. Aaron reminds us that the moment we commit to sharing His story, we should expect a little resistance, and that resistance can actually be a sign we're doing something worthwhile. Now here's Aaron Pierce with today's message titled, "Connecting Their Story to the Gospel."

Aaron Pierce: Last session, we talked about how to bridge the gap from friendship to the Gospel by having spiritual conversations. In this session, we're going to be talking about how we introduce Jesus and the message of the cross to non-religious people and then start a discipleship relationship.

The first point in all of this is that we need to remember that our only hope for this world is Jesus and the message of the cross. There are no other answers to the pain and suffering and brokenness of this world than Jesus and the message of the cross. We always need to remember that.

While our goal is to connect with people relationally and build authentic relationships, and while our goal is to challenge the assumptions that stand in the way of the message of the cross, ultimately the goal is that we introduce them to Jesus and the message of the cross. That is the only hope for this world. That is ultimately what people need to hear.

When you commit to making your life about the message of the cross, you better expect some spiritual opposition because there is nothing that the enemy hates more than when we begin to commit our lives to communicating the message of the cross.

As you commit to this and as you begin to take steps in this direction, you better expect all sorts of lies from the enemy. There are going to be lies like, "Who do you think you are? You're a fraud. You're a hypocrite. You're not adequate. They're not going to listen to you. Why even bother?"

All these lies begin to flood your brain that make you think maybe I shouldn't do this. Or the distractions of this world will begin to glimmer a little brighter and you think I guess I want to watch that Netflix show instead of developing a relationship with someone who I don't particularly agree with on a lot of topics.

You have to recognize that the enemy is going to do everything in his power to try to stop you from communicating the message of the cross. The first thing is recognizing that is going to be the case. When it comes to spiritual opposition, we stand on the truth. Jesus modeled this in the desert. He stood on the Word of God and he confronted lies with biblical truth.

We need to know the biblical truth, we need to stand on the truth, and then we also need to make sure we are not doing this alone. I've said this before, but this is not just an individual sport. This is a team sport. We want to commit to do this with others that are going to hold our arms up in the battle. I'm doing this with a community of people together.

The last thing is just to not give up and to persevere. So much of success in ministry is just not giving up. Showing up, persevering, and not giving up. Again, as we commit, as we recognize, as we remember that the only hope for this world is Jesus and the message of the cross, we should expect spiritual opposition.

Frankly, that is a sign that you're probably doing something that matters. If you have no spiritual opposition, you should question what you're doing. This is what's going to happen when it's about communicating the message of the cross, which is more than just meeting physical needs. It's more than just being a friend to someone. It's actually introducing them to the answer for the sin problem that they have. That's the key thing to remember.

The context here is that God has opened our eyes to the problem. We're aware of the fact that we are in a post-Christian context. He's opened our eyes and we have rearranged our lives to develop friendships with secular people, with people that wouldn't walk into a church.

We have begun to engage in good spiritual conversations. You've done all of this good work, now you've got to jump off the cliff. How do we do it? The first principle is to rely on the Holy Spirit, not scripts or tracts. It's better to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you in a natural conversation than using a script or tract.

Part of that is cultural. We live in a time where we are very skeptical of what people are trying to sell us, and the script vibe just feels that way. It also feels far less natural relationally because it's more about me getting my script out than it is about me just having a conversation with you about something that matters to me.

It's about being led by the Spirit and doing this. As I engage in this conversation and He's discerning and leading me, I might go a path that I didn't anticipate going on. If I have a formula and a script that I follow, there's just no deviating from that. It's a different mentality. That's why we need to wait for the right opportunity, be listening and responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

The second principle that relates to this is that people need to experience the power and presence of God. Especially in a post-Christian culture where people think they know who Jesus is or they have some idea of what the Gospel message is about, it's become white noise to them at best. It's become something that triggers a sense of hostility at worst.

The Gospel is not just about a transfer of information. It's about a supernatural revelation of God. When I communicate the Gospel message, people sense God revealing Himself through those words. There is a power and an authority and a sense of presence of God that goes beyond the intellectual arguments that I've had or the misconceptions about who I am.

In the end, we're not just trying to transfer information. We're trying to introduce them to the real living God. That's why we need to ask the Holy Spirit for boldness and courage. One of the signs that you're filled with the Spirit is that you are bold and courageous.

You look at that through the book of Acts. That was a key sign that the Spirit was moving and that there is authority and power in my words. I've experienced this in multitudes of ways in which there are times when I communicate and my words fall flat.

Other times when I communicate the same words, God's presence and His authority is on those words and it resonates and connects. That's because we need the Holy Spirit to be moving. We need to be praying. None of this can be done in the natural. Throughout all this training, we're talking about how none of this can be done in the natural.

We need to be praying for the Holy Spirit to give us boldness and courage. When you're filled with the Spirit, there's a conviction, an assurance that gives you the boldness to speak. We need to have that authority and power that our words carry weight beyond the words themselves.

The big idea here is that we're introducing people to the person of Jesus. The concept is that it's not about defending a philosophy or a concept or a set of intellectual beliefs. We're actually introducing people to the person of Jesus.

Sometimes, as followers of Jesus, we need to remind ourselves of that. It gives you the freedom when you're engaging a secular person that your goal is not to worry about their behavior, not to worry about the lifestyle that they live or the political view that they may or may not have. Your job is to introduce them to the person of Jesus.

When they meet Jesus, all that stuff begins to take shape. Who is Jesus? As you're having these conversations now, what do they think? Is it accurate? Often what we need to do is we need to begin to reframe Jesus in people's minds.

Christianity has become synonymous with a political party, for valid or invalid reasons. In some circles, Christianity has unfairly been associated with racism and misogyny and bigotry and the tool of the rich and the elitist. This is a view that some people have.

Many also point to the horrible things that were done in the name of Christianity throughout history and they say that's proof that it's a destructive, negative thing. As we're confronted by these misconceptions and these misrepresentations of Jesus, we have to patiently reframe him so that all that baggage we talked about in the last session, all that religious baggage that they bring to the table gets removed.

The reality is that Jesus does not fit into the stereotype that so many people have of him. In fact, the Jesus that they reject, I reject also because it's not the real Jesus. Jesus in his time was radical. He subverted the cultural and political norms of his day.

He was homeless, worked with a group of uneducated working-class folks, spent time with the diseased and the undesirables, defied racial and gender boundaries, healed the sick, fed the hungry. This is Jesus. This is not the picture that many people have of Jesus. It was the religious people of his day that hated him, the people of power.

While it's true, and we should acknowledge openly that horrible things have been done in the name of Jesus, they are not an accurate reflection of who Jesus is and what his teaching is. We can challenge that. In fact, over the last two millennia, true Christianity has been a catalyst for incredible, Gospel-fueled revolutionary change.

Unbelievable things. A group of powerless people upended the Roman Empire and the sexual ethic of the Roman Empire, which was crazy. They completely upended that. It was Christians that introduced orphanages and hospitals and universities and fueled the abolitionist movements.

Christianity has done so much to transform the culture and the framework in which we view the world today. If you really want to go deeper into that, I really recommend a book called Dominion by Tom Holland. He's a British author, but it's a brilliant and long, but really good book called Dominion.

He's not actually a Christian, but he talks about how incredibly influential Christianity has been in shaping the worldview of the West and everything that I basically just described. I'd really encourage you to read that book just as it relates to this idea of reframing Jesus, reframing the impact of who Jesus is.

One of the ways, as you're challenging and reframing Jesus, is to invite people to do a Bible study with you. What you find is a lot of people have heard about Jesus and heard about the Bible, but very few people have actually read it and studied it.

A really cool way, as you've developed the friendship, you've had the spiritual conversations, you're introducing Jesus is to say, "Why don't you find out for yourself?" Just pick a book of one of the Gospels and begin to read it together. You're reading it in the same way that we talked about how to do the spiritual conversations.

Not as an "I'm here to teach you" moment. No, just open it up, read it, talk about it. Create that environment where it's okay to ask questions, to doubt. Maybe they'll say something offensive and that's okay. What's amazing is when you begin to expose people firsthand to who Jesus is in the Word, it completely reframes him in a way that they had never understood before. That is a really awesome way that you can take a next step with someone.

Next thing after introducing the person of Jesus is we need to recognize: no cross, no power. The message of the cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus, what He did on the cross for us, is where the power of God lies.

The tension is that the message of the cross is both foolishness and the power of God. First Corinthians 1:18 says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

I think what's really good about that tension is that it forces us to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. In my natural words, the cross is foolish, but with God's power, with His authority, it carries His power. I can't communicate the message of the cross just with brilliant intellect. I need God's power.

It reminds us of that and it forces us to depend on the power of the Spirit. It reminds us that it's not about our wisdom or eloquence. In First Corinthians 2:4, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power."

I think that's what we need today in our culture more than ever. If we omit the message of the cross, we omit the power of God. In all of this, we're depending on the Holy Spirit, we're communicating the message, but that doesn't mean we don't want to do it in a contextual way, in a way that connects.

How do I communicate Jesus and the message of the cross that will connect with people I'm talking to? It goes back to understanding what are the false assumptions that they have about it. How do I challenge those? How do I remove those things so they can really see who Jesus is?

The thing about contextualization is that it's not about popularity or compromise. It's not about being loved. It's about clarity. When I communicate in a relevant way, in a contextual way, then I'm understood.

As we know from reading the Bible, reading the book of Acts, that doesn't mean you're going to be loved. Paul experienced riots, Jesus was crucified. The message is not always going to be loved, but it's going to be understood. That's what we want because there's nothing worse than communicating but no one's reacting because they don't even get it.

That's why we want to contextualize the Gospel and we want to avoid using Christian language that is weird and foreign and strange to a secular culture. Jesus used words and imagery that was very relevant to his time.

When he spoke of fishing and sheep and things of that nature, it was because that was the context and the people he was talking to. But if I go to Minneapolis and I talk about Jesus being the Good Shepherd, people might conceptually kind of understand, but there's not a lot of sheep running around in Minneapolis.

It's not powerful imagery that connects to their context. Political activism of our day is actually very powerful language you can draw on. Using your life for something that matters, for sacrificing my needs for the sake of others. Often we're using good biblical language that isn't connected at the heart, so we're not applying the principle that Jesus was showing us when he used that kind of language.

One key principle about this that can get a little challenging for us as we think about being faithful to the Bible is that we want to use the Bible as an argumentative authority. Frankly, a lot of our Gospel scripts are based on scripture that we share as if that is going to say, "Ah, okay, because the Bible says it, therefore."

We kind of have that kind of language. The reality is we have to understand that for a lot of secular people, the Bible is not an authority. Many of them question it. They question how it came to be and also what it says.

That doesn't mean the Bible isn't true, and it is, but I can't assume that when I use scripture, somehow that's an argumentative proof. It's not. Part of that is we need to understand how culture sees the Bible. So take a look at these guys.

Aaron Pierce: When I say the word Bible, what does it mean to you? What comes to your mind?

Guest (Male): I don't know. It's something that I feel gets talked about a lot and people reference it a lot without reading it.

Guest (Male): When I think of the Bible, I think there's a lot of things that are really outdated now in the Bible. So I think I tend to have more of a negative view that way just because of the way they talk about slavery or gays or women in the Bible. I think a lot of it's pretty outdated and doesn't really apply now.

Guest (Male): I'm not Christian, so I come from a different place anyway, but it's an interesting work of fiction that has moral messages. It teaches stuff like how you should live your life. But that's all it is. It's just a moral base that you could build your life around. For some people that's good, but it's not something to be taken literally or anything.

Aaron Pierce: Good communication is about knowing people's assumptions. If I'm talking to someone that takes the Bible seriously, then I can use it as an authority. But if I'm talking to someone who doesn't, I can't.

So here's the challenge or the principle, the way to go after it, is that we can leverage the truth of the Bible that is experientially verifiable. We can even say, "Hey, the Bible says this," but we can connect that to something that they experientially feel to be true.

Often that means using scripture in a different way. I'm going to show you a video. This is another one of our spiritual conversations videos in which we basically begin to draw on scripture but not doing it in an authoritative way but in an experientially verifiable way. Take a look to give you the example I'm talking about.

Guest (Male): It seems like the most self-destructive, suicidal people in our culture are celebrities. For all the stuff we chase, the things we consume, does anyone actually get to the point where they finally have enough?

It seems cruel to have a hunger this world cannot satisfy. But maybe this is trying to tell us something. Thousands of years ago, there was a king named Solomon. He was the richest, most powerful person in the world. No one's life could compare with him. And yet when it was all said and done, he said this: "I have seen all things that are done under the sun. All of them are meaningless, chasing after the wind."

Maybe that's our problem. We are stuck looking under the sun. Could it be that we aren't finding satisfaction in this world because we were made for more? Our science teachers tell us that we are the result of the Big Bang and evolution. We live in a purely material world, and all of us one day will be gone.

But what if that's not true? Consider whether God made you and I and everything around us, and that our deepest desires are satisfied only by knowing Him. Now, I can't tell you what to believe. But from what I've seen, until we look beyond that sun, we are left with what's under it. And like Solomon, sooner or later we'll realize that no matter what we get, it will never be enough.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge and a message from our guest teacher, Aaron Pierce, called "Connecting Their Story to the Gospel." Aaron unpacks so much more of this topic in his "Not Beyond Reach" participant's guide.

It's a ten-session video-based study built for small groups, parents, and grandparents who want practical tools for engaging with unbelievers in today's skeptical post-Christian culture. Across the sessions, you'll learn how to reframe common misconceptions about Jesus and how to expect a little resistance without losing heart.

Each session comes with a short video from Aaron, discussion questions, and simple exercises. Pick up your copy at a discounted rate right now over at livingontheedge.org/offers. For over 30 years, Living on the Edge has worked diligently to bring clear, practical Bible teaching to believers across the globe.

This impactful ministry work continues thanks to listeners just like you who choose month after month to fund it. If today's message gave you even one new way to think about sharing your faith, we encourage you to join those listeners with a generous gift today. Simply go online to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

You can also send your gift by mail addressed to Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Suwanee, Georgia 30024. And for a little extra encouragement between now and next time, be sure to subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast where you'll find all of these daily Bible teachings available anytime, anywhere you go. Now here's Chip, joined by Aaron, as they close today's lesson together.

Chip Ingram: Thanks, Dave. Hey, great series, Aaron. This has been so fun for me to have you share with the Living on the Edge audience. But as we wrap up today's program, I want you to take a minute and I want you to unpack an idea that you talked about. You said this: "No cross, no power." Would you take just a minute and explain: what is this power you're talking about, and why is that so important?

Aaron Pierce: Thanks, Chip. This concept of no cross, no power is so important because we need to understand that communicating Jesus and the cross, communicating the Gospel, is not simply a transfer of information. It's a supernatural revelation of God.

Paul said in First Corinthians 2:1-5 that he preached Christ and Him crucified so that people would not be convinced by human wisdom but by God's power. That's what people need today. That's what this younger generation needs today. They need to experience the power and presence of God. The power of God is in the message of the cross.

Now, there's a tension, because scripture says that the message of the cross is both foolishness and the power of God. I think this is really important because it forces us to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't make the Gospel cool enough.

We need God's power. We can't rely on our wisdom and eloquence. First Corinthians 2:4 says that my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

But if we omit the cross, if we try to water it down or make it more palatable, or just kind of an easy "God loves you" kind of message—the fact that we are sinners that require Jesus to die on the cross to pay the punishment for our sins, but that He rose again—if we take that message out, we take out the power that has the ability to transform lives. We need to courageously jump off the cliff and share the cross because there's power in the message of the cross.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey, inviting you back for part two of this message where Aaron will unpack how the Apostle Paul reached a room full of skeptics without ever opening a Bible. That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.