When was the last
time you talked to somebody about Jesus? We live in a wordy, talky world.
Because of amazing communication technologies, talk and words literally
saturate our world. Social media is now the favorite way to talk and tell
something, and it seems at times, tell anything. Words from Catherine Hankey’s
1866 gospel hymn “I Love To Tell The Story” continue to remind Christians of our privilege and duty
to tell others the greatest story ever told! Included in the third stanza of
that beautiful song are these words – “I love to tell the story, for some have
never
heard The message of salvation From God’s own holy word.” Again I ask, have you talked to anyone about Jesus lately? If not,
what have you talked about lately? And what do you talk about most?
The early
church loved to tell the story! A hike through the book of ACTS reveals a
compelling truth – early Christians were either telling the story of Jesus, or
preparing to tell the story of Jesus, or reaping some kind of result from
having told the story of Jesus. People they preached Christ to were left either
mad, sad, or glad, but never the same. The church either prospered and grew or
preachers were run out of town – or worse – but they never stopped telling the
story. When told not to tell the story, and that pain was coming their way if
they did (cf. Acts 4:17-18), the apostles and early disciples refused to be
threatened or intimidated into silence.
Thus the text of ACTS contains statements like the one
from Peter and John who answered their critics and persecutors with these
courageous words – “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you
more than God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). They loved to tell the story. Don Loftis, pulpit
preacher for the Old Hickory church of Christ in Hermitage, TN, wrote in
December, 2007 – “We need to do a better job of engaging our friends and
associates in religious discussion. James Jones of the Restoration Radio
Network accurately says of our personal work activities, ‘We simply just
stopped.’ Contrary to what some would say, there are many people who are
seeking truth today. While some of the questions have changed in the past 40
years and certainly the teaching methods have evolved, the need for a
one-on-one teaching environment remains the same” (church bulletin article).
Loftis’ words bring to mind the story of a
man from the Appalachian Mountains who had to go to California. It was
his first trip by airplane and the small jet made two or three scheduled stops
along the way. The mountain man had a window seat and he watched with great
fascination as the fuel truck refueled the plane at each stop. When they landed
at their destination, the man seated next to him commented, “We made pretty good
time in spite of the stops.” The mountaineer replied, “Yep, and that feller with the gas truck did all right,
too!” Acts 8:4 says early Christians scattered by persecution “went everywhere
preaching the word.” Our problem today is not that we don’t go everywhere. We
do. The problem is that we go but are not telling the story of Jesus and His
love. Many preachers and elders and most members of the churches of Christ are
running low on evangelistic gas. We are talking, but not often enough about
Jesus. God help us love lost people enough to overcome our fears and apathy and
distractions, and tell them the story of Jesus and His love.
--Dan Gulley
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