The Lost Art of Gospeling

The Lost Art of Gospeling

Sharing your faith should come naturally. But sometimes we get frustrated because we don’t’ feel “good” at it. American Christianity has built a culture of “revivalism” which is at times less effective than more ancient methods. While revivalism is helpful in reaching masses with the message, it is not as effective long term at making disciples.

Jonah is a deep snapshot of God’s heart and his expectations of us.

I. The message of Jonah: God wants to

• The Gospel message does not start with God’s love alone; it starts with our sin and that we deserve judgment. Yet, to those who will turn and repent, God offers hope. The reason Jonah is to preach is so that the people will turn before the coming destruction.
• God wants to offer hope to hopeless people.
• God involves me in his desire to reach the lost. Have any friends that always want to involve you in their cause? God’s cause is the Gospel.
• Jonah hated Ninevites. He counted them out from God’s salvation. Who do we count out?
• The theology of Jonah is important. It is a loud Old Testament message to Israel that salvation did not belong solely to Israel. Israel was to be a light to the “nations.” That is, God wanted to save the world, he only started with Israel. That should resonate with the church today. The Gospel is not “ours” alone, but is meant to be taken to the lost world. We are a light to the nations.
• What if people you thought were the enemy, were actually the mission field; and what if the devil made you think the mission field was actually the enemy?
• Jonah 1:4, God sent a “mighty tempest.” The ship “threatened” to break up. In the text, the ship takes on a life of its own. As if it has a will.
• Jonah 1:17, Yahweh “appoints” a great fish to swallow Jonah. The text does not say what kind of fish this is.

Jonah 2 takes us inside the fish. A kind of exciting Journey, until you realize where Jonah really goes is not just down into a fish!

I Believe God

• Jonah 2:2, “sheol.” The place of the dead. NIV, Depths of the grave. KJV, “out of the belly of hell.”
• Jonah 2:4, he is “banished” from the Lord’s sight.
• Jonah 2:6, he went “down” to the “roots of the mountains.” In Biblical symbolism hell is down while heaven up.
• Jonah 2:6, he went to “the land whose bars closed upon me forever.” He’s in another land, or place.

Hell is a place of:

1. (Jonah 2:4)

2. (Jonah 2:6)

3. (Jonah 2:6)

More notes:

• Jesus said hell was created for the wicked “devil and his angels.” Matthew 24:41. Hell is a place reserved for disobedient angels. Humans end up there because they choose to rebel with Satan. Jesus came not to rescue or die for demons, whose doom is eternally sealed, but for humans who can be rescued.
• See Matthew 12:40, Jesus used Jonah as a picture of the Resurrection. It’s possible that Jonah died inside the fish, and God raised him. In Jesus’ analogy, the fish is a picture of the earth, and Jonah being spewed from the fish a picture of the Resurrection.
• Jonah 2:8 is his big realization. Idol worship is the forsaking of true HOPE and love.
• Jonah 2:10, the fish did not vomit Jonah because he was difficult to digest; but because the Lord commanded it to.

II. Our Strategy:

The greatest impact for the Gospel is made one on one. We want to win millions at once; Jesus wants us to reach out to friends in the lost world we already engage with.

ILLU: Greatest impact for the Gospel: Is done 1/1.

Our Plan… Short… friends, life, share, stay.

1. I

Whoa re people in your life who need the Gospel? Make a list of who these people are that you want to share the Good News of Jesus with.

2. I

Pray for the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself will do the heavy lifting. I don’t have to convict any hearts, or move people to the Gospel. In fact, I can’t! So I have to pray to He who can.

3. I

Don’t’ just dump your lost friends, bring them into your life! Include them. Jesus told us in the Great Commission “as you go…” as you go about life, share the Gospel. I should purposefully build meaningful relationships with the lost.

4. I

At some point, we want to make a clear path for our friends to follow Jesus. Here’s the thing, most people want a spiritual conversation. What they don’t want is a sales pitch. You don’t need to get them to a “professional” Christian. You need to talk to them about Jesus and how to follow him. We don’t do that because we are afraid we’ll mess it up and then our friends will be eternally doomed!

5. I

Keep walking together! To “make disciples” requires a long term investment. Instead of teaching Jonah the ways of the Lord, he went on a hill and sulked. (Jonah 4:5.) The result was that their repentance, while genuine at the start, did not take root or go down to their children. Nahum is Jonah part 2. In Nahum, the prophet declares God’s final judgment because the people reject God. But what if Jonah had stayed?

III. The heart of God: God Loves People!

He even loves their cows!

Jesus died so no one would go to hell. God hates the idea of hell.

Good evangelism doesn’t flow from obligation, flows from heart of love.