Why witnessing for christ

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Storylines Showing God in action in and through His people. Press Hear what others are saying about Cru. Contact Us. Spiritual Growth. Sharing the Gospel. Helping Others Grow. Why We Witness Bill Bright. The writer of Ecclesiastes observes: Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart Ecclesiastes God wants you to witness because of the benefits He offers to those who receive Christ: They become children of God.

Their bodies become temples of God. All of their sins are forgiven. They begin to experience the peace and love of God. They receive God's direction and purpose for their lives. They experience the power of God to change their lives. They have assurance of eternal life.

God also wants you to witness because of the benefits you will receive. Witnessing will stimulate your spiritual growth, lead you to pray and study God's Word, and encourage you to depend on Christ. You will experience the tremendous privilege and honor of representing Jesus to the world 2 Corinthians What is the most important experience of your life?

What is a Witness? Describe what a witness testifies to in a courtroom. How is that like sharing your faith in Christ? What are you admonished to do in Psalm ? Why is this hard for you? How have you followed this admonishment today? This week? This month? If not, what has kept you from witnessing? Read Acts , How important would you say Paul's ministry of witnessing was to him and why? Read II Corinthians What caused Paul to witness? The Lord Jesus commanded us to go forth with His precious gospel to all the creation, meaning everywhere, and to all the nations, meaning all people of every race.

So we must proclaim the gospel because our Lord, the One who died for us and rose from the dead, commanded us to do so. He has given us the responsibility to preach the gospel to sinners all around us, and even to the whole earth.

He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. The picture of branches in the vine shows us our relationship with the Lord. By staying attached to the vine, the branches enjoy the life of the vine and flourish. But the goal of this enjoyment is that the branches would bear fruit. Fruit in John 15 refers to people who are saved through us.

Every one of us believers is a debtor. We owe it to our relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others to tell them about the Savior so they can believe in Him and receive eternal life. And how shall they believe into Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without one who proclaims Him? If people never have the opportunity to hear the gospel, how can they believe?

This is why we must proclaim the Lord and His salvation to others. Satan wants to keep people under his evil authority. They receive forgiveness of their sins and obtain a rich spiritual inheritance. Unlike the heroes of Roman or Greek mythology, Jesus's story is rooted in verified and chronicled facts.

Where mythology doesn't require an accurate retelling to maintain the gist, the gospel rests entirely on its accuracy. This is why we see the testimonial aspect of witnessing so present in the Gospels.

John appeals to it when he says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life" 1 John He wants his readers to understand that he isn't passing down a tale he's heard.

He is providing a firsthand account of events that he witnessed. But the gospel writers don't merely tell you what happened.

They also interpret the events so that their readers can understand their significance. Throughout Matthew's Gospel, he points his Jewish readers back to Old Testament prophecies to help them understand how an incident fulfills a prophecy. Another example of this comes from the most famous verse in the New Testament. Jesus has a remarkable conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. After sharing their discussion, John interprets the conversation for us:.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him John — We see these two elements revealed in the way early Christians contended for the gospel.

When Peter preached his first sermon in Jerusalem, he told Jesus's story through the lens of Israel's history. It was a perfect blend of the facts about Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection explained in a way that made sense to the audience Acts 2. You can see the same thing in Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin Acts 7.

In the Sermon on the Mount , Jesus explains this using the metaphors of salt and light :. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven Matthew — First-century people used salt to preserve dried meats and, like us, used it to bring out a food's distinct flavor.

But for salt to work, it needs to come into direct contact with a person or a substance. Like salt, Christians are to positively impact the people and things that we come into contact with. Unlike salt, a lamp does its job from far away. It's not trying to draw attention to itself, but it's illuminating the world around it. Jesus highlights the point of this kind of witnessing when He indicates that the good deeds of Christians should reveal the Father.

It's clear that Christian witnessing isn't just verbal testimony. We don't have to work at anything or worry about anything - we just need to receive Jesus and rest in what He has planned for our lives. As a Christian, I still have many problems in my life, but I try to get through them the best I can. I know nothing I do will be perfect, or the best-in-the-world, but God's not worried about that - He just wants me to love Him.

Sometimes I'll pray to God, and it doesn't seem like I get an answer. At this point, many of us think that God has left us to wither away for the rest of our lives…but really, He's just testing us and building our character. He gives us many tests in life… for me, as a teenage Christian, one of my tests is loneliness. But really, would God have put me on this earth to be lonely? Did he just put me here so every day he could laugh at my "mistakes"?

Of course not. He put me here - like all of you -- so we can bring Him pleasure. We're His children, and He wants us to grow up in His plan and purpose for our lives. To put all of your faith and all of your love into someone you can't see… is hard!