JDL - Direction Fifty-six - Putting it together

But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. (1 Peter 3:15 (ESV))

After His resurrection, Jesus gave us the office of the keys (John 21:22-23). Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). With these gifts, Jesus gives us His authority as well as His promise to be with us as we go about living our lives. As we live our lives, a natural part of that living is that we share our faith with others. At appropriate times in one’s life, as a person is given faith, baptism is administered and the teaching continues (as it does in our own life and faith life). Accordingly, God has called each believer to faith also through His means of grace, that is, through Holy Baptism for those who were baptized as babies and children and given faith and brought into His Kingdom in this way. And for some, later, as older children and adults God called them to faith as the Holy Spirit first worked through the Word (heard or read) to give faith. Thus, all believers are a part of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9). God’s first calling then is a call to faith, to believe in Jesus alone for one’s salvation, but the call does not end there.

The calling of the believer to faith is similar to God’s calling the Children of Israel out of all the nations of the world. When God called Abram, whom He later renamed Abraham, He called him and said to him, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3). In other words, to Abraham and to his descendants, through the line of the Children of Israel, the Savior of the world would be born. The Children of Israel were given the duty, the responsibility, and the privilege of being the nation with this blessing, and as such, they were not to keep this blessing to themselves but were to be lights shining through the darkness for the world. They were to live lives of witness to the Lord.

When we get to the book of Acts, we are told account after account of people being given faith and becoming a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the book of Acts, we are given many descriptions of the church’s growing (Acts 2:41-47; 4:4; 6:7; 9:31) and in each of the descriptions, what gives faith is the Word of the Lord that is shared with others.

The fact of the matter is, as Christians, filled with the gifts of God and filled with the Holy Spirit, we cannot help but overflow and share our faith with others. The best illustration I like to use is the one with a cup and a pitcher (and remember, please do not overdo this illustration, or you will destroy it). God is like a never-emptying pitcher. We are like empty cups. Every time we make use of the means of grace, hearing the Word read and proclaimed, reading the Word on our own, remembering our Baptism, participating in the Lord’s Supper, confessing our sins and being given absolution, the Lord fills us, His cups, from His never-emptying pitcher. We could come and be filled and then go away and not return to be given any more gifts, but just as a cup of water will eventually become dry as the water evaporates, we could eventually lose any gifts we have been given. We could return time and again, even with the larger cup of expectations, demanding more each time so that we are never filled with our Lord’s gifts. Or we could make regular and diligent (every Sunday and every day) use of the means of grace and be filled until we are overflowing and the gifts God gives to us spill out from us onto others. In other words, our faith overflows as we share it with others. This devolvement is also a response of faith, that is, doing the good works which God has for us to do (Ephesians 2:10; James 2:14).

James complements Paul in his epistle by suggesting that there is a great connection between faith and works, that these two go together, hand in hand, with faith bringing and showing itself in works of faith. Thus, as Christians, we cannot help but share our faith with others, or if we do not do so, we must ask ourselves, is there really faith at all?

Thus, we are to bring a message. We are to bring a message of hope (certainty) based on our faith (in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of our living God) through love (the act of doing good to others, even and especially to those who hate us). Jesus’ explanation to the disciples was that they were not to worry about what they would say (Matt. 10:17-19) because it would be given to them by the Holy Spirit. This same message is for us today. We are not to worry about what we will say because what we will say will be given to us by the Holy Spirit. This fact does not negate any preparation on our part; rather, according to the Third Commandment, we are to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace by reading, hearing, studying, worshiping, praying, etc. It is through our regular and diligent use of these means that our Lord fills our hearts and minds with the words that the Holy Spirit will use when the time comes. And we are not to be concerned about whether or not we make a “good” witness, at least whether or not our witness is a good witness in our own minds. God can and does take our witness (good or bad in our own opinion) and uses it for the best, to His glory. Thus, there is no need to second guess ourselves and wonder if we should have said something else or not said something at all.

Finally, we are to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). This is not something we do in a confrontational, “in your face,” way. Instead, we are to do this as a way of life. It might be considered a passive/aggressive approach to sharing one’s faith. It is rejoicing in one’s salvation, by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus given as a gift from God through His means of grace. It is responding to all God’s good gifts and blessings by doing the good works He has planned in advance for us to do. It is confessing and being given the greatest gift of all, the forgiveness of sins, which always brings life and salvation with it. It is living a life of faith so that others see that there is something different, something special, about us so that they will ask, What is it that is so different about you? What do you believe? Then, we will be able to respond by giving an answer for the hope that is in us. This is truly living a Jesus-directed life.

Think About
Rejoice in the gifts God has given to you. Live your life in such a way that it says, “To God be the glory.”

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for all Your good gifts and blessings. Forgive us when we fail to be the people You would have us to be. Help us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Jesus and when the opportunity arrives, gives us the courage, the words and Your authority to speak concerning our faith and to say, “Come and see,” for Jesus’ sake. Amen.