December 4 - Telling Our Friends About Jesus

Text - Luke 2:8-14

“but the angel reassured them.”Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior-- yes, the Messiah, the Lord-- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! (Luke 2:10-11)”

As we thing about telling our friends about Jesus the second thing that we can learn from the angels proclamation is that the good news of Jesus is for all people. This is something that we all know but we don’t always believe deep in our heart. If you are like me you have written some people off and thought they will never give their life to Jesus. Maybe they do things that would make Satan blush or they don’t believe in God. One of our teens said that he has written people off so he didn’t feel obligated to talk to them about Jesus. Several of our junior high students said they have written people off because they cuss, lie, are mean, etc.

The good news of Jesus is that everyone can be saved no matter where they have been, what they have done, or what we think of them. I have seen people who have come from incredibly rough situations who have given their life to Christ and the transformation is amazing. We need to constantly remind ourselves that Jesus came for everyone and everyone can be saved. I love 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 because as Paul list all the sins that keep people away from God he says that people in the church did those very sins in their past. How amazing is grace that God desires to save pedophiles, prostitutes, and other perverse acts?

When we tell our friends about Jesus we need to assure them that no sin is strong enough to overcome God’s love, grace, and mercy.

November 27 - Telling Our Friends About Jesus

Text - Luke 2:8-14

As we enter the holiday season this is the perfect time to tell your friends about Jesus. Everywhere you go you will hear and see something about Jesus so it makes for a natural conversation. Stores have painted their windows with the nativity scene, everyone is playing Christmas music, TV shows are filled with Christmas themes.

So as you talk to your friends about Jesus what do you say? Over the next few weeks we will talk about things you can say. We will use Luke 2:8-14 as our launching pad for each lesson.
This Sunday we talked about the phrase “do not be afraid”. When the angel appeared to the shepherds in the middle of the night they were terrified. Most people in the Bible when they had an encounter with the divine were afraid. There is something about God that scares most people. In class it was unanimous that we are afraid of God because he can send us to hell. But we have great news. The angels begin their proclamation about our Savior by telling them not to be afraid. Why? Because they had good news.

So many times we focus on the concept that God is our judge and that he can sentence us to an eternity to hell. Some people see this and become legalistic trying to disect all the commands so they are perfect (see the Pharisees and me sometimes). Others simply think they can never do this so they run away from God. Some follow God but live in constant fear of did they do it right and question their salvation. The great news is that we do not have to be afraid of God. The whole purpose of Jesus coming was to save us. God desperately wants a relationship with us. He is not trying to send us to hell but to rescue us.

This week our challenge is to tell our friends that God loves them and there is no need to be afraid of God. He wants to have a relationship with them.