Christ In Me (6)
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Loving Non-Christians
Loving Non-Christians
Once we have our relationship with God right,
We’re loving God and having God’s love be poured into us filling our cups
Then that love spills over into a Christian’s daily approach to non-Christians.
So, the question is: why has God left us here on earth?
Christians, why has God not just saved us and immediately taken us to be with Him as a church in heaven?
Why has He not taken us out of this world of sin and suffering?
He has left us here for a purpose: To enjoy His grace and exalt His glory.
And we do this, not only in knowing the gospel, but in proclaiming the gospel.
There are people around us every single day who are on a road that leads straight to hell.
And if nothing changes, then they’ll spend all eternity in everlasting damnation.
And God has put us in their lives for purpose.
And the dangerous thing is, if we’re not careful, we will just completely miss this purpose.
You and I are tempted on a daily basis to sit back in our supposedly Christian lives to enjoy God, to pray to God, read God’s Word, worship God in church and talk about God with other Christians.
Yet, so often we rarely talk about God and the gospel with people who are not Christians.
We live in a Christian bubble; we’re quieter about Christ around our non-Christian neighbors, employees, and friends.
We don’t have an urgency oftentimes to tell them how they can be saved from their sin.
So I’m guessing that many of us, if not most of us—just to be honest, probably the large majority of us—are not waking up in the morning thinking, “Who can I share the gospel with today?”
We’re not thinking that way.
And we’re not living all day long trying, working hard, to lead other people to Jesus.
That’s an afterthought to us, or we think that is for the pastor or other people.
It’s just not for me. The reality is—I say this with as much compassion as is in me—if I were to ask followers of Jesus in this room to stand up if you led somebody to Jesus in the last year, I think the overwhelming majority of us would probably stay seated.
And the reality is many followers of Jesus in the last two years, or three, or four or five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, have not led somebody else to Jesus or maybe led one or two people to Jesus.
And please hear me.
I am not looking to heap guilt, condemnation upon you, make you feel bad if you’ve not led somebody to Christ or if you’re not actively leading people to Christ, or not to make you feel prideful if you are.
But I am saying these things to help us realize that if we’re not careful, our salvation can suddenly and inadvertently turn into self-consumption, where we’re receiving grace from God in our lives, but we’re keeping it to ourselves.
Make Disciples of All Nations
Make Disciples of All Nations
And if we’re not careful, Christians, we’re going to get to the end of our lives, and we’re going to look back and realize we missed the whole point.
God has given us this command: Make disciples of all nations.
It’s intended to infuse our everyday lives.
So are we going to get to the end of our lives, stand before God and say, “I didn’t do the one commission you gave me to do on earth. I didn’t make a disciple, or I made a disciple here or there.”
So I want to call all us out of a casual commitment to the commission of Christ, and to call us in Christ to say, “This is Christ’s invitation, for us to be a part of what He’s doing in the world for the spread of His glory, so that more and more people can enjoy His grace and exalt His glory. So that more and more people can know this precious truth that we hold tightly in our hearts this evening. And so that more and more people can miss hell and make heaven by the blood of Christ.”
So, I want to call us to this kind of picture. Colossians 4:2-6 says,
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Relinquish Your Rights
Relinquish Your Rights
So how do we approach non-Christians?
We daily relinquish our rights for the sake of the gospel.
We relinquish our rights on a dailey basis.
So the example in 1 Corinthians 9 is Paul. First Corinthians 9:4-6 says,
Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Then 1 Corinthians 9:12-14
If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Then we see verse 15, 1 Corinthians 9:15-16
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Seven different times in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about how he had a right to financial support from the church at Corinth.
He surrendered that right, though, for the sake of the gospel in Corinth.
Paul believed that taking financial support from Corinth would hinder the spread of the gospel in Corinth, so he set aside that right that he had.
So in this, hear the exhortation or principle for you and me.
You and I have rights every day—where we live, in the world around us.
You’ve got a right in this world to life, friends, marriage, family, safety, security, health, and happiness.
You have a right to eat, drink, watch, wear, read, study, listen to and say whatever you want.
You’ve got a right to organize your schedules, spend your time, choose your career, make your money, use your money, take your vacation, plan your retirement.
You have a right to do what you want to do, go where you want to go, and live how you want to live.
We cling to our rights. So this truth is huge for us.
Because, followers of Jesus, the cross compels you and me to surrender our rights every day for the sake of the gospel where we live in the world around us.
To surrender our rights, to say on a daily basis, “I have a right to do all kinds of things today with my time, my money, my family, my life, but I’m going to surrender them today to say, ‘How can I best spread the gospel with my time, my money, my family, my life?’”
This is what we do.
As followers of Jesus, we put it all on the table.
We use language around here at this church all the time about a “blank check,” no strings attached.
You put a blank check on the table of your life on a daily basis.
You say,
“Lord, what do you want me to do?
Where do you want me to go?
How do you want to use me to make the gospel known today?
And I’ll do it.”
This is what it means to be a follower of Christ.
This sounds kind of extreme, but this is basic discipleship—to lay down your life, to say, “My life is yours to make this gospel known.”
So, it’s what the cross compels us to do.
We relinquish our rights for the sake of the gospel, and we daily rearrange our schedules for the spread of the gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 9:19
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
Paul moves from language about rights to language about freedom.
He says, “Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all,” and the word there for “servant” is literally slave.
He says, “I’ve made myself a slave to all.”
Why? Follow it here.
Here’s the purpose: “I made myself a slave to all, that I might win more of them.”
What does that mean, “win them”?
Listen to 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
He says—here’s what I mean by this “win” language in verse 22. “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
Paul just said, “It may sound like old-fashioned religious language to some, but this is biblical reality.”
Paul knows there are all kinds of people around him—
Jews, non-Jews, people of different ethnicities,
People of different backgrounds in different situations.
What unites them all is they need to be saved from their sins.
Paul knows all kinds of people are on a road that leads to an eternity apart from God, and so he says, “I do whatever it takes.
I’ll flex my lifestyle.
I make adjustments.
I rearrange my life in order that they might be saved.
I’m a slave to this purpose,” Paul says.
See, followers of Jesus, in this gathering how Jesus frees you to be a slave.
That sounds backward to us, but it’s true.
Followers of Jesus, we are slaves of God.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:16
16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Do you realize what Paul just said?
He said, “I’m not preaching the gospel because I chose to do this.
This is God’s will for me to do.
It’s necessity.
It’s incumbent upon me.
Woe, condemnation on me if I don’t do what I’ve been commissioned to do by God.
I’m His slave.”
Which is exactly what Paul calls himself throughout the New Testament—a slave of God.
Followers of Jesus, this is what we are.
To use language from 1 Corinthians 6 earlier, you’re not your own.
We’ve been bought with a price.
We belong to God.
We belong to Him.
We’re slaves of Him.
First Corinthians 9:16-17 says,
16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
Which means, when it comes to Christ’s commission to spread the gospel, we’re obligated to obey.
We don’t have a choice.
Necessity is laid upon us.
Woe to us if we don’t share the gospel.
Not sharing the Gospel with the unbeliever is the greatest act of hatred that we could commit.
People don’t need salvation if they are righteous and without sin.
The problem is Romans 3:10
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
So everyone needs the Gospel
Much like a person doesn’t need a doctor if they are perfectly healthy.
The gospel is the cure to the most devastating disease in all of creation and history.
It’s like going to a hospital and seeing a patient suffering from cancer, days left to live.
And you have the cure in your hand and you are standing over the bed that they will die in.
What do you?
Put it in your pocket and walk away? No!
That would be evil of you.
You inject them so that they will be cured and live!
That is how sharing the Gospel with someone is the greatest act of love that we can practice.
We are literally spreading the cure for a bigger disease than cancer.
So go and share!
