Faith Hurdles (2)

But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.Acts 13.8

A second hurdle
The biggest obstacle to people coming to faith in Jesus Christ is that they’ve never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel with understanding. Christians wrongly assume that their unbelieving friends and co-workers already know the Gospel but just aren’t interested. In fact, just the opposite is the case, so we need to renew our commitment to become more active and effective as witnesses for the Good News. Full faith in Christ will see us becoming bold, Spirit-empowered witnesses for Him (Acts 1.8). We have a glorious offer to propose to our unbelieving friends, and they will only be able to hear it if we are faithful in our calling to be witnesses for Christ.

A second obstacle to faith can be the views of influential others, like Elymas the sorcerer.

I saw this some years ago when two young men appeared at my door trying to persuade me to believe their version of the Good News, which I knew to be false. I listened politely as one of the men – obviously the trainer in this situation – waxed eloquent about his works-oriented view of Christian faith and how I, too, could join the army of witnesses who, through their obedience, were earning the right to become children of God.

After a while he asked me to respond. I said, “I appreciate your interest in my eternal wellbeing, and I admire the zeal and thoroughness of your witness. However, I cannot believe it because what you are presenting is not what the Bible teaches.”

He looked at me amazed. As he started to respond I looked over at his friend, who was looking at him a little shocked. He said to me, “Didn’t I just show you from this Bible what the teaching of the Kingdom is all about?”

I answered, “You did, indeed, but what you showed me is not what the Bible teaches.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

I said, “What you explained as the true nature of Christianity and the Kingdom is not what the Bible teaches. It is instead what someone has told you the Bible teaches. In fact, I’m not convinced that you know what the Bible teaches at all, but only what others have told you about it.”

Now he was more than aghast; he was offended. I hastened to say, “May I show you what I mean?”

He said, “Do tell.”

“OK,” I said. “Can you tell me, in a single sentence, the basic message of the book of Amos? What, in a nutshell, was the burden of this prophet?” No answer. “All right,” I continued, “that was perhaps a bit too hard. How about the book of Genesis? In a single sentence, what’s the message of Genesis?” Silence, as he looked down, thumbing at his Bible. “How about Judges?” I asked. “Or Romans? Ephesians? In fact, any single book at all? Can you tell me in a single sentence the message of any single book of the Bible?”

He didn’t even look up.

Then I turned to his companion and asked, “What do you think? It’s obvious your friend knows the message he wants you to learn. But do you think he knows the Bible well enough to be able to tell me the true nature of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God?”

The friend looked nervously at his trainer, who didn’t even look at him, and said – not surprisingly – “Yes.”

I thanked them for stopping by and gave a brief summary of the true Gospel, and then they left.

Sow a little doubt!
I didn’t change any minds that day, but hopefully I was able to sow some doubt into the thinking of at least one of those young men.

Many people today are kept from believing because someone influential in their lives – a friend, family member, or some respected or admired public figure – is keeping them from hearing the true Gospel.  We see this with people who have heard some scientist raving about the glories of atheism, or who admire some pop culture icon who sports a life and spouts a creed of unbelief. It may be necessary for us to challenge the views of that influential other in order, first of all, to shake free from their grip those who are looking to them for their understanding of truth.

So we’ll need to be ready, by working hard to understand the times in which we live, and considering the best ways of making the Good News of Jesus known to the people God sends our way.

 For reflection
1.      Who are some “influential” people today whose views may be keeping others from believing the Good News? What do these people believe?

2.      How would you begin to approach the task of examining the views of influential others in order to understand and refute them? What would that require? How does 2 Corinthians 10.3-5 lead you to think about this?

3.      We need to think of the work of bearing witness more like a process and less like an event. Explain the difference:

Next steps: One of the great “influential others” of our day is advertising. How does advertising discourage people from coming to faith in Jesus? How should we respond to that modern “Elymas”? Talk with some Christian friends about these questions.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 7 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Faith Hurdles” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.