The Most Powerful Evangelistic Invitation You Can Give

Let’s face it—evangelism is becoming more difficult. 

The growing gap between the Christian worldview and dominant culture means that there are a whole load of issues that need to be dealt with before people are prepared to even listen to the good news about Jesus. What Don Carson and others have called “defeater beliefs”—often about sex, suffering and science—are roadblocks that must be removed with care.

But there’s another issue that we ignore to our peril. For those who have not been raised within church life, there is a massive amount of ignorance about the very basic facts about the life and teaching of Jesus. And even for those who have had some “church” in their lives, the stories are half remembered, the details vague and obscure.

And we should not think that this ignorance is their fault, or that they are blameworthy in any way for having no idea, or false ideas about Jesus. But there is an easy and straightforward way to put it right.

Encourage them to read a gospel.

Barriers

For most people, a full Bible is intimidating. It’s huge; it’s filled with difficult numbers titles and terms; and they don’t really know where to start. But to simply ask the question: “Have you ever read one of the four short biographies of Jesus from the Bible?” Can open the door to someone encountering Jesus face to face for the first time.

Each Gospel has its merits as an introduction to Jesus:

• Matthew, with its rich background in the Old Testament can be very effective in speaking to both Jewish and Muslim people.
• Mark is the shortest of the gospels, so appears less intimidating.
• John is full of rich powerful teaching.

But we’d like to suggest that Luke is a great place to start with most people, for a number of reasons:

• It stresses that it is historical. The opening words establish its credentials as a historical document. Luke carefully researched the stories about Jesus and wrote them down. This will go a long way to reassuring people who might assume that Jesus is fiction that the stories are worth thinking about more deeply
• It starts with Christmas. Luke has many of the familiar stories that people are more likely to know, and has a logical start point.
• It has some well-known stories. People may have heard of the prodigal son, Zaccheus, the good Samaritan, the rich fool, and others. There are memorable gospel stories that will become a good starting point for follow up conversations.
• It emphasises the presence and importance of women. This is very important for both women and men to read in our egalitarian culture.
• It emphasises salvation for the world. Luke’s major theme is that Jesus came for the world, and so it connects with people of every nation and race.

We believe in the power of God’s word, applied by the power of the Holy Spirit to people’s hearts and minds. So as people read, they come face to face with the teaching, the person and the power of Jesus.

So perhaps the most powerful evangelistic invitation you can give are: “Would you like to read a copy of Luke’s gospel?”

Buy copies of Luke's gospel here