When you read the stories of Christ’s birth in Luke 2, it is possible to come up with sermons that are pleas to be more evangelistic: the shepherds investigated the revelation of the angels by going to find the new-born Christ and then declared what they discovered to others. This provides potential opportunity for another heavy-handed, guilt-enducing sermon on our need to e more evangelistic. “We need to be like the shepherds…” “Here are three (or four or five) methods to use to be more evangelistic…” I know. I’ve preached at least one of those sermons during a past Christmas season.
But as a I read these accounts again, I see a more simple pattern emerge: those who encountered Christ and believed He was the Savior simply told their story. If you want to simplify the accounts, it might look like this:
- The Shepherds Told (v. 17)
- Simeon Talked (vv. 25-32)
- Anna Thanked (v. 38)
While there is certainly a place to think carefully about the content of the evangelistic appeal (I surely want the gospel explained clearly), the essence of the evangelistic encounter is that the believer and follower of Christ simply tells the story of Christ’s transformation in his own life.
So the shepherds went to see if the angelic testimony was true. And it was! So they simply “made known the statement which had been told them about this Child” (vv. 17, 20). There’s nothing fancy in that evangelistic outreach. This is simply a group of men telling others what had they had been told and seen and believed about Christ.
And the same is true of Anna — she had been praying and fasting for years as she served in the temple. (Was she praying and fasting for the advent of the Messiah? It seems likely.) And after seeing the baby Jesus, she thanked God (for the answer to her prayers???) “and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (v. 38). Like the angels, she simply gave thanks to God and told others what she had seen and experienced about Jesus.
In fact, isn’t it interesting that we don’t know the exact content of what the shepherds and Anna said? Their example is not what they said, but simply that they said something clear about the person of Jesus. They said what they’d seen.
We do know what Simeon said (vv. 28-32) — and while his comments were rich in theology, they were also basic — “salvation is here for all people, both the Gentiles and the Jews!” Simeon had been given a promise about seeing the Messiah and like the shepherds and Anna, he simply talked about the promise and what he’d seen.
Mention the word evangelism and most believers immediately become tense and anxious and feelings of guilt overwhelm them. But the most basic part of evangelism is simply to tell the story of your encounter with Christ — “this is who Jesus is and this is how He saved me from my sin…” To increase our opportunities and effectiveness with the gospel we do well to follow these three examples and simply tell what we’ve seen and experienced about the transforming work of Christ in our lives.
Words of Grace 