Is it more offensive to reach out with the Gospel, or to keep it to ourselves?

4/23/16               John Doe,  about 35

Let me tell you about a man I'll call “John Doe”. I call him that because he didn’t want to talk with me, not to mention tell me his name. I was at Menards, my favorite store, and had finished my shopping and thought I would reach out with the Gospel to a fellow customer or two before I checked out. I saw John Doe looking at some lawnmowers and thought I would use a “trillion dollar” Bible tract as a conversation starter. “Excuse me, I wanted to give you one of these” He looked at me, eyebrows furrowed, wrinkling his forehead , trying to figure out what I was doing, unwilling to take the tract I was offering him.

I said, “Its kind of a funny collectors item – your first trillion – but it has a serious question on the back. I call it the trillion dollar question – ‘Will you go to heaven?’ “ He still refused to take it or respond to my question, so I kept talking. “I give these out to try to get people to think about that. You know it’s so easy to get caught up in all the problems and distractions of this life and not think about what happens next. Is that something you think about very often?”

He finally spoke, “You can keep it, I’m just trying to buy a lawnmower.” “Hey no problem, I just want to encourage you though, try to be open to God suddenly working to get your attention when you least expect it.”

No response, and I went on my way. Yes, I felt like an idiot. But only briefly. I have talked with enough people and seen enough positive and grateful responses, or at least cordial responses, to know that people generally are interested and open to talking about the Gospel, and that John’s response was more of an exception. Besides, I’m willing to be a fool for the Gospel, right along with Paul who wrote “We are fools for Christ…” in 1 Cor. 4. My self-esteem isn’t wrapped up in what other people think of me, not in the strangers I reach out to or other Christians who also think I am foolish to try to reach out in this way.

I too was one of those believers who looked down on this sort of outreach. I used to believe that it was Christians being obnoxious with witnessing like this who turn people off to the Gospel and make them unwilling to ever consider it. And that may often be true. We don’t need to add to the offence of the Gospel by being offensive ourselves. But I now believe what is more offensive is the lack of urgency for the Gospel that so many Christians have. The indifference and silence of most church people when it comes to not sharing their hope in Christ sends a far deeper and memorable message than the “foolish” message of those who do. It says either that the Gospel is not a heaven or hell decision, or that we really don’t believe it, or we really don’t care for unbelievers and just want to stay in the holy huddle we call church.

The Gospel is urgent, but not because I believe it’s up to me to “save” anyone – that’s for God to do. But I do believe that life is short and we have an opportunity here and now that we will never have again for all eternity – the chance to tell unbelievers about Jesus and to honor Him in this way.

Why bother a man innocently shopping for a lawnmower with the Gospel? Because the only way to a right relationship with God is to enter into it according to His terms, not ours. And that often means hearing and obeying God’s call when we least expect it and even when we don’t want to welcome it.