The Missing Element in Our Witness

Wecould list many reasons
we don’t share the
gospel as we should. We
don’t have time. We’re
afraid of rejection. Our
calendars are too full. But I believe most of
the time it goes deeper than all of these.
We don’t share the gospel because we
don’t care.

I don’t mean that we don’t care about
the gospel. I mean that we have become
complacent in having the gospel and are no
longer burdened to be sharing the gospel.

Consider Paul at Athens. He presumably
went there for a few days of rest on his way
to the next city. But as he waited there in
the city for Silas and Timothy, “his spirit
was stirred in him, when he saw the city
wholly given to idolatry” (Acts 17:16).

Mar’s Hill didn’t begin with a great
strategy for interacting with the
philosophers of Athens. It began with a
Christian man whose spirit was stirred
over lost people without Christ.

Why don’t we share the gospel as
we should?

Perhaps it is because we are not as
stirred as we should be.

Somehow, we get more roused over
hobbies and vacations and fellowships
and sports and events and programs than
we do over the people around us who are
without Christ.

It wasn’t just at Athens that Paul was
stirred. We see it again as Paul was in
Corinth. This time, Scripture says “Paul
was pressed in the spirit, and testified to
the Jews that Jesus was Christ” (Acts 18:5).
Paul’s compulsion to share the gospel
was internal—in his own spirit. He didn’t
need someone telling him he should go
soulwinning. He didn’t need someone
telling him to witness to his coworkers or
neighbors or family.

For though I preach the gospel, I have
nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid
upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach
not the gospel!—1 Corinthians 9:16

I wonder what would happen if
Christians today had a renewed stirring
in their spirits for the needs of a lost world.

Our world isn’t more godly than Paul’s.
Our cities aren’t more bent toward Christ
than Athens or Corinth were. But too often
our spirits are less stirred than Paul’s, our
hearts less pressed to share the good news
of Christ. When the internal motivation to
share the gospel is missing, great programs
and well-planned strategies will eventually
fizzle out. When internal motivation to
witness is missing, the best strategies will
fizzle out. It has to come from within.