The idea for this BLOG post started a few months ago somewhat as a joke over lunch with some friends. We were discussing the concept of so called “friendship evangelism.” In many circles, friendship evangelism is where a Christian develops a relationship with a non-Christian with the hope one day of sharing the Gospel with his unsaved friend. The thing about this that is so ironic to me is that if Jesus is the most important thing in a persons life, then wouldn’t they talk about Him all the time instead of saving the information about this important relationship until months or years after a relationship develops?
Think of it this way. When we meet new friends they find out right away our home town, our favorite foods, our favorite sports teams, our kids interests and grades and our wife’s name. Wouldn’t it be odd to meet someone and not tell them for two years that you are married and have five kids? Well, in the same way, if Jesus is the most important relationship in your life, wouldn’t it make sense to tell them right away.
Jon Speed, in his book Evangelism in the New Testament, proposes a new definition for friendship evangelism:
“This is true friendship evangelism: a friendship that begins (not ends) with the proclamation of the gospel. It is based entirely on the gospel rather than on sporting or social events designed to sneak the gospel into the conversation at some later date.”
With this in mind, it bring me back to that lunch with friends a few months ago. We were talking about how sometimes we get friend requests of Facebook from people that we have never known. Since I mostly post on facebook about Jesus, witnessing and the Bible, I figure that anyone who I “friend” will hear the Gospel. But, to takes Jon’s approach, would be to actively try to “friend” people with the intent to share the Gospel up front. So tonight I decided to give it a try. I was actually looking for a friend. But, when I searched for his name and did not find a profile for him, I found that there were two other people on Facebook that had the same name as my friend. So I decided to send a friend request to introduce myself, share the Gospel and ask if they want to be friends in the context that they have heard the Gospel. I sent them the following message message within the friend request:
Hi – you don’t know me. I was looking for another friend with the same name as you. So I thought, hey, I’ll just send a friend invite anyway.
So that is an interesting profile picture that you have. And the message “caught in reality for an eternity” is sure interesting.
Speaking of eternity, where will you spend eternity?
The Bible says it is appointed once to die and then the judgment based on God’s Ten Commandments. Have you kept the Ten Commandments? Have you ever told a lie? What does that make you? (a liar) Have you ever stolen anything? What does that make you (not just a thief, but a lying thief) Have you ever looked with lust? Jesus said to look with lust is the same as adultery. What does that make you? (a lying, theiving adulterer at heart). If God judges you by this standard, will he find you innocent or guilty? Will he send you to heaven or hell?
Does that concern you?
The good news of the Gospel is that God does not want to send you to hell. 2000 years ago he sent his son Jesus to earth. Jesus being fully man and fully God, lived a perfect life and fulfilled God’s Law.He paid the price for your sin (and mine) when he willingly went to the cross and died. Three days later, he rose from the dead and is now in heaven. The Bible says he will come again in judgment. How do we get eternal life? Jesus says “repent or perish!” If you will repent (turn from sin) and put your trust in Jesus alone, then you will have eternal life.
So there it is. The gospel. Jesus is the most important thing in my life. I wanted to get that out in the front. I hope you’ll accept my friend request so we can discuss eternity.
Carl
I won’t know how this turn out until I hear back from them!
