Evangelism to your Family

April is here and this weekend we will be observing and celebrating Easter or, for the non-heathens, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Resurrection Sunday. This holiday is the most important one in the Christian faith because our entire belief system was established by it. The Apostle Paul said,

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. - 1 Cor. 15:12-19

Clearly, the resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of everything we believe. Because of His resurrection, we can also have faith that He is who He said He is and that He does have the ability to absolve us of our sins and offer us eternal life. This is the Gospel and it really is Good News. So, what do you do when you have good news? Naturally, you want to share it! This fits right in line with the Great Commission that Jesus gave to His followers and us after His resurrection and just before He Ascended before their eyes into Heaven.

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. - Mark 16:15

So, the famous last words of Jesus were specifically telling us to go out and tell others the good news about Him. Awesome! But, where and how do we start? All month long we’re going to be looking at the different areas of relationships in our lives and discuss how we can begin sharing the Gospel with them. This week, we’re starting the conversation with our families.

Communicating well with family is inherently challenging. We can hope that those closest to us would be the most eager to hear our good news and celebrate with us, but even in subjects far less touchy than religion, many joyful moments can be mishandled, feelings hurt, expectations shattered and rifts formed. Now, add in the context of religion and it often seems like a powder keg just waiting to blow. Fear can be a big stumbling block to evangelism and when it comes to talking to our families about Jesus, there seem to be endless opportunities for fear once the “what if” questions start. “What if I say the wrong thing.” “What if they get mad.” “What if they don’t believe?” “What if they reject me?” “What if they reject the gospel because of me?” Firstly, did you know that even Jesus was rejected by His own family? Matthew 13: 53-58 describes when Jesus returned to the place where He had grown up.

And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Even Jesus’ family did not accept Him as the Messiah at first. John chapter 7, verse 5 tells us that not even Jesus’ brothers believed him and in Mark 3, his family decided to go out and seize Him, thinking that He had lost His mind. Jesus exposed the root of the issue during His teaching in His hometown; “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”

Sadly, our common human tendency is to drag down someone else rather than allow their light to cast a bad shadow on us. Siblings can be particularly bad at this, especially in environments where there is a lot of comparison and rivalry. Imagine growing up and your older brother is literally God incarnate, the miracle child, never doing anything wrong, and you are having to follow that. Obviously, these are the perfect breeding grounds for resentment. Especially for a new believer, you can be so excited to want to share this amazing hope that you have found with the people you love and yet those can often be the ones it is hardest to share that with. Unlike Jesus, none of us were living perfect and sinless lives and we might be afraid that our past sins would make it hard for our families to accept that we have truly converted. On the flip side, we may be worried that one bad day or slip of the tongue would give them all the ammunition they would need to be able to say, “See. I knew you didn’t really change.” Thankfully, we can look to the life of Jesus to give us hope, encouragement and help in knowing how to reach our families with the Gospel.

As we read earlier, during His life and ministry, Jesus’ family rejected His claims to be the Messiah and even tried to shut Him down on at least one or two occasions. But, something truly awesome happens between the final chapters of the Gospels and the first chapter of the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 1, verse 14 we read;

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

Jesus’ family, His brothers who had rejected Him were now together praying with the disciples and it doesn’t stop there. James, one of the brothers of Jesus, actually became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. He is mentioned by name multiple times in the Epistles and noted consistently as one of the early church fathers. So, what happened to cause such a radical shift for James and the rest of Jesus’ family? Paul actually sheds light on this subject in the book of 1 Corinthians as he recounts how the Gospel was delivered to the Apostles and to himself.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. - 1 Cor. 15:3-8

The reason that James finally converted and put his faith in Jesus for salvation was because he was able to see Jesus resurrected. In fact, the faith of James is so well documented that we even have extra-biblical sources telling us how he died. In 95 AD, the contemporary Jewish historian Josephus Flavius wrote;

“...so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”

- Josephus, F. 95 AD. Antiquities, 20.9.1.

So, what can we learn about witnessing to our families from the example of Jesus and His earthly family? First, Jesus told them the truth even though He knew they wouldn’t believe Him right away. Even though He knew they would become angry and, at times, try to stop Him, He didn’t let those things stop Him from sharing. Side note, He also wasn’t a jerk about it. It is one thing for them to be offended by truth, it’s something else to use the truth to be offensive. It’s important to know the difference. Secondly, what actually brought about real change and radical conversion in the lives of Jesus’ family was not just hearing the truth, but seeing the truth for themselves. It may not be enough to just tell your family that you have received eternal life in Christ, but when they are witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit turning you into a new creation right in front of their eyes, that is the evidence that backs up the words you are sharing. Of course you’ll mess up, sometimes you’ll probably blow it in a major way, but the Gospel is not based on our perfection but His. Whether you’re a new convert, excited to share Jesus with your family for the first time or you have been a follower of Jesus for a while and you haven’t seen your prayers and labors bear fruit just yet, it’s important to remember that we aren’t the ones who save anyone, but God can and does use our obedience to save those around us, including our families.

We want to encourage you to take the opportunity afforded by this holiday weekend to share the good news of Jesus with someone in your family. It doesn’t have to exhaustive, and you don’t have to get every point just right. Just share who Jesus is, why we need Him and what He has done for us and trust God for the rest. If you have been encouraged, challenged or you have questions for us, be sure to let us know in the comments section below. Also, we are truly amazed at how many people we have been able to reach across all of the different platforms we are on. If you would like to partner with us in reaching more people with tools to build healthy and God-honoring relationships, sharing our videos goes a long, long way in doing just that.