“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”  2 Timothy 4:1-5

Why does God endorse slavery? Why did God create Satan? Why does God allow such evil in this world? Why does a loving God send people to hell? Why do Christians think they have the only true religion? The Bible was just a book written by men, why do Christians think it’s the Word of God? The Bible is full of errors, who can trust it?

These are some of the questions people will ask when we bring up the topic of Jesus Christ. Do you feel equipped to answer some of these kinds of questions? Do you feel the need to answer these types of questions? When I was very young in the Lord, he seemed to launch (or rather, punt) me into situations like these where people would ask these kinds of questions. They are an opportunity not only for witnessing, but for getting to know the Lord and our faith on a much deeper level.

I used to have a friend that was very conversant with computers, and I’ll never forget him explaining to a client why his office network was so slow. He did it in such a comical fashion that I accidentally busted out laughing – he explained a very complex concept with humor and absolute brilliance. I could tell the client appreciated him explaining things in a way that wasn’t over his head. It’s no different in helping people to understand who God is; if we can give a reason for the faith that we hold, it’s effective. It’s even more effective if WE believe the reasons we give, rather than reciting some talking points that we’ve learned. It’s the difference between giving our own testimony, versus sharing the testimony of someone else.

My friend was very effective in his business because he truly knew his subject matter. He could explain it to a two-year-old, he could explain it to a savvy tech specialist, he could explain it to a senior citizen. It’s no different in evangelism. The whole point of us being here is to shine the light of Christ to an unsaved and dying world. How can we do that if we can’t even explain the Gospel? What the nature of sin is? Why God required the death of a righteous, innocent man who knew no sin to die for the most sinful people on this earth? We all know how to explain it in Christianese, but can we explain it in a way that the unchurched will understand? Apologetics is nothing more than being able to reason with people concerning our faith. That’s what Paul did. He reasoned with people. Obviously knowing the Word of God is key to a degree, but when you’re speaking with someone who has never opened a bible, that can be difficult, because they still have a veil over their understanding. Remember; the Lord must open the eyes of our understanding to understand scripture (1st Corinthians 1:18-25). I had a logic professor in college who could cite the bible in both Hebrew and Greek, but he couldn’t understand John 3:16.

It goes without saying that even more important than knowing the scriptures, is having a real relationship with Jesus. Remember the words of Jesus to the Scribes and Pharisees in John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” Unbelievers have an uncanny ability to spot a fake. You can quote all the scriptures that you want, but if you don’t have a real relationship with Jesus, people will spot it from a mile away. Remember who does the convicting; it’s not our words, it is the Holy Spirit. Remember the words of Jesus in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

There’s an old saying: “All Word and no Spirit, we dry up; all Spirit and no Word, we blow up; both Word and Spirit, we grow up (David Watson).” When we testify of Jesus and the reasons why we believe, it’s so important to speak out of that relationship – even if we use the simplest language, people will pick up on the fact that what we have is real – and the Holy Spirit will testify to them that what we’re saying is the truth; even if they deny it. This is where sharing our testimony comes in. Speaking of being real, if we want to be a good apologist for God, we can’t run away from difficult passages or even things that God does that offend us in scripture – if you’ve spent any time in the Old Testament there are plenty of passages that probably caused you to be uncomfortable or even afraid of God based on how he handled a particular situation. Honesty is always the best policy with God. If you see something in scripture that bothers you – talk to Him about it. I assure you, he can handle it!

God is not afraid of your hard questions. When I speak to unbelievers or whomever, I have asked the hard questions for myself. I don’t always know the answers to everyone’s satisfaction, but they can tell I’m not afraid of their questions and my responses are born out of relationship with Jesus and frankly, having to walk out a lot of very tough situations that have kept me at the feet of Jesus continually. This is how we come to know our God. It is from these times that we share out of that relationship. A pastor once said to me “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”. That was a perfect summary of Paul’s admonitions in the New Testament; our motives must be with love – FIRST. This takes really knowing Jesus and walking things out with him. The love he gives us for others, even those who hate us or spitefully use us, is a supernatural thing. We can’t love like that or care for others like that on our own.

I used to be in sales and I had a relationship with one guy in particular that was very unique. We would banter a lot, but we liked each other. He was an unbeliever or more accurately, an honest skeptic. We both considered ourselves experts in sales and we loved to prove it to each other. He said to me one time “I used to sell gym memberships. I would hammer people because I knew every objection out there and I would overcome that objection perfectly. People would walk out of our gym without a membership, you know why? Because people don’t like being “techniqued”. I’ve never forgotten those words because they were so sage concerning how we should be an effective witness for Christ. Don’t “technique” people – they don’t like it and it’s not befitting a Christian and most unbelievers have a knack for seeing right through it. People will pick up that all you’re about is the debate – making them look silly or making yourself look better than them. Don’t do that. Just speak from your heart. Speak out of a concern for their soul. Speak out of love for them. Defending the faith isn’t about winning arguments. It’s about contending for the life of the person you talk to. It’s about being willing to be humble and listening to understand instead of waiting to retort. It’s about knowing your faith and your God so that you can explain things to the simple, and to those who see themselves as wise. It’s about being all things to all men that you may win them for Jesus Christ.

I’m looking forward to participating in discussions with all of you and sharpening each other in the faith so that we may better serve those who come across our path and lead them to the Truth.