Read John 9:1-41

What risks does the man who was healed take as he tells the story of what Jesus has done for him? How does his relationship with Jesus change as he tells others about him?

How has telling others what Jesus has done for you impacted your faith?

Go and do

This week we are going to learn to share the story of Jesus with our friends. If you’ve never done it before, the task can feel daunting. We all have fears about sharing our faith. “What should I say? What should I not say? How will they respond?” Those are all questions we’ve asked as we’ve thought about evangelism. Most of the time our fears take us to the worst case scenario; we will look like fools and they’ll say “no” to Jesus. But you don’t know that. And like everything else we do in life, sharing our faith is easier the more we do it. So this week we’re going for it!

There are different ways of communicating what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection mean. In fact, this is nothing new. Even the gospel writers had different ways of talking about what Jesus had done. Some talked about Jesus’ death being a ransom (Mark 10:45), others likened his death to a shepherd laying his life down for the sheep (John 10:11), and still others referred to Jesus’ sacrifice as a substitute for our sin (1 Peter 2:24). All of those images are true. The point is, there are different ways of communicating what Jesus has done. We love using a gospel diagram called The Big Story to communicate the gospel. Let’s take a look at it:

Circle 1: Designed for Good - The world was designed for good. Meant to be in loving relationship with God, in harmony with creation, and true community with each other.

Circle 4: Sent Together to Heal - God wants us to join his resistance effort against evil. With the Holy Spirit, we forgive, fight injustice and oppression, and submit to Jesus’ leadership in our lives.

Circle 2: Damaged by Evil - Our self-centeredness damaged God’s world (sin). We still add to the mess. On our own, we can never be who we long to be.

Circle 3: Restored for Better God loves the world too much to leave it this way. Jesus came to restore the world for better. Evil and sin died on the cross with him. Resurrection means evil doesn’t have the final say.

Today we will learn how to use this diagram. Here are your instructions:

1. Grab a clean sheet of paper and a pen.
2. Using the Big Story diagram on the previous page and the additional resources to the right, get familiar with the gospel.
3. Practice drawing the circles to share the gospel story. To the best of your ability, put it in your own words.
4. Take turns practicing sharing the gospel in pairs.
5. Give each other feedback.

Our exercise today is meant to help you practice sharing the gospel, but to actually learn how to share the gospel you’re going to need to get out there and do it. And do it a lot. The more you practice with real people, the easier it will get. There’s no way around it.

Before our next meeting, share the gospel with three of your non-Christian friends. If you don’t know who to share with, look at your network map and ask God to show you who to share with.

Reflect on what you learned

• What was challenging about this activity? What fears came up for you as you tried sharing the gospel with your friends?
• How is this diagram useful in sharing the gospel? Have you used other diagrams in the past, and if so, how is this one different?
• What did you learn about sharing the gospel through this exercise?