What are the things that keep you from sharing the Good News? When you feel the need to speak to someone about Christ, what causes you to say no? I can’t speak to the exact thoughts of every person reading this, but I know for me, and for many others, it’s selfishness. It’s the selfish desire to protect yourself on this Earth fighting against the desire to protect someone else’s eternity.
Think about that: if you don’t share the Gospel because you’re more afraid of the consequences you might face in this life than you are of the consequences of an eternity in Hell for the person you’re speaking to, that’s really selfish, at its core, don’t you think? And more than that, it’s misguided selfishness, in most cases, because you’re valuing life on Earth more than you’re valuing life in Heaven with the Father. (There’s a bit of gray area where a father/mother might be less selfish if the consequences are death because they have children to care for, but that’s rarely the case.)
Philippians 1:21 says, “For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.” For you, to die should be gain. So why, then, do you avoid sharing the Gospel if the consequence is death? Or even less, what if the consequence is just to potentially lose a friend here or make things a little awkward at work for a while? Because the consequences for sharing the Gospel are rarely death for most of us.
That’s why it’s a desire for me, and it should be for you, to live with the same fervor for Christ that those like Stephen, Peter, James, Paul, and many others lived for when they died for preaching about Jesus. A good song to hear to get your heart and mind into this living ideal is “Bury the Workman” by Unspoken.
An old hymn writer, Charles Wesley, was quoted saying, “God buries His workmen but carries on His work,” which some allege is the inspiration for this song, and it makes sense because the chorus practically quotes Wesley.
Cause you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And you can silence the voices but you can't stop the song
When the Spirit's moving, His will will be done
And you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And while these lyrics should move you significantly, it’s important to keep in perspective why the work goes on when the workmen are dead and gone. Work doesn’t get done without men/women to do it. So, the important follow-up is that when one workman is buried, another must come to fill his place, and that’s the key.
The thing that motivated all those who were martyrs for Christ was their love for Christ and their love for others, but, at least in small part, there was hope in their death that those they discipled would carry on the work they did. You can see the evidence of this idea in most of Paul’s letters, and Peter’s, and James’s. It’s almost implicit in the system of discipleship: one teaches a student who then becomes a master and teaches his own student and so on. One of the clearest examples is Jesus, who said to his disciples, “I’m leaving now. Go and teach what I’ve taught you.”
If you’ve ever read a great battle in a fantasy novel, you’ll have read the expression, “for every one enemy they killed, two more took his place.” It makes the army the hero is facing look to be unending. That’s the impression we ought to be giving to this world; for every Christian they take down, we should have two more stepping into the hole that formed from his/her death.
And it’s important, too, to remember that we do have a job that needs to be finished. If you picture our work as believers as mining souls, which is pretty much what it is, there will come a day when the mine will run out. That’s our goal. The work will go on until that moment, so the more of us working, the faster it gets here, right? (Don’t take that as me trying to rush the day and hour the Lord returns, but it’s a good sentiment we need to work towards. The more souls we can save faster, the better!)
Look, I know it’s hard to step out and do the work when you’re afraid but remember that the Lord is with you when you go to fulfill your responsibility, and when the Spirit moves, His will is done. If you are hurt by this world, what does it matter? If you are alive, you become more like Christ. If you die, you go to be with Christ in perfection for eternity. It’s a win-win situation.