Written by: Lemuel Teo (Photo by: Lemuel Teo)

Why we all have a part to play in making Him famous

I’ve always had a problem with evangelism. While I understood the need for it, it wasn’t one of my priorities. I knew the typical rhetoric: people needed to be saved from this furnace called Hell and our job was to share the gospel with them (or at least invite them to church).  Don’t get me wrong, I loved it when I saw people raising their hands, inching to the altar, and saying that prayer to make Jesus their personal Lord and Saviour. I knew that all Heaven rejoices whenever someone pledges their life to Christ. Yet, I have never successfully brought a friend to church and have him/her connected with the church thereafter.

All these years, I busied myself with building the House of God: discipling younger Christians, playing in the music team, taking part in church committees. This was the mantra for my ministry: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom”. (Ecclesiastes 9:10) In the effort to build a magnificent house for our Lord, I had focused on contributing to any gaps found in my church.

One day, God turned this paradigm of doing ministry on its head. He asked me, “Lemuel, what is the point of building such a great house when the people who are supposed to populate it are on the outside?”

I froze. I pictured a vast land with colossal and magnificent buildings that resembled castles — exactly how I would envision God’s Kingdom. It was simply breathtaking! Yet, many rooms in the impressive territory were empty. I shifted my glance and saw gigantic walls of stone surrounding the entire Kingdom. As I took a look on the outside, throngs of people were wandering aimlessly, walking in circles and not knowing how to get in.

In that moment, I whispered to the Father, “Yes, Lord, there is not much point in building a magnificent Kingdom inside these sprawling walls when there are thousands of people stuck outside.” There had to be a shift in the way I viewed evangelism — it cannot be just about taking people to church or getting them to say the sinner’s prayer.

The lesson did not end here. As I was reading the book of Mark, God revealed these truths to me:

1. Those who had a personal encounter with Jesus could not help but talk about Him and the work He did!

Jesus healed a deaf-mute in Decapolis, and “commanded (those around) not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it” (Mark 7:36 NIV). After healing a leper in Galilee, “Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone…’ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news” (Mark 1:43–45 NIV). These people who had a personal encounter with Jesus felt compelled to tell of His works even though Jesus specifically told them to keep silent. I believe that this was the case as they were overflowing with gratefulness and excitement after witnessing such divine power.

2. Jesus was famous, like really famous!

People from everywhere knew about Jesus. When Jesus and his disciples stepped out of their boats at Gennesaret, the crowds instantly recognised them. They “ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was” (Mark 6:55 NIV). In fact, Jesus was so famous that “[he] could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere” (Mark 1:45 NIV). What would it be like if he were to walk our earth today? I would imagine hoards of paparazzi tailing his every move, fans tweeting about his exact whereabouts, YouTube flooded with video testimonies of his healing miracles, and Instagram inundated with #Jesus selfies.

You might laugh at me for over-dramatising Jesus’ fame transposed to our modern-day. But this ought to be the reality because we no longer live, but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). Furthermore, Jesus commanded us to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). I find it quite ironic that those whom Jesus commanded to stay quiet were the loudest in proclaiming his goodness, yet those whom Jesus commanded to declare his good news (read: we) are so silent about it.

As I reflected upon these truths, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Why is it so hard to talk about Jesus like he means something to me? Why couldn’t I testify about the goodness of Jesus to my non-Christian friends? Why wasn’t I making Jesus famous through my daily life?

As I trawled through my heart, I found scraps of fear and doubt lurking in the shadows. I was afraid of stepping on people’s toes; I doubted the goodness and power of the gospel. Living in multireligious Singapore, I was maimed with the fear of offending non-Christians with my religious rhetoric or aggressive evangelism. I settled for a “tamer” brand of evangelism — “lifestyle evangelism”. I found shelter in it as all I needed to do was live a nice and quiet Christian life hoping that others will see how “Christ-like” I was. The most Christian-y thing I would muster in the presence of my non-Christian friends was “thank God”; I didn’t even dare venture into the realms of “praise the Lord” or “God is so good”. The mere thought of explaining why I thought God is so good or why He was worthy to be praised crippled me.

However, the apostle Paul sets the example, saying that he was “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 NIV, emphasis mine). This means that the gospel is the power of God that saves all who believe. It is the lie of the devil to keep us doubting the power of God and be wary of offending people (Colossians 4:6). Let us not be deceived into shameful silence!

Be it in schools, army camps or in the marketplace, let us testify of His goodness in our lives, thereby disarming the devil’s scheme of shutting people out of the Kingdom. Let us be encouraged by Revelations 12:11, “They have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die” (NLT). May we love the eternal lives of those around us more than the temporal life we now live, that we might not be afraid of “losing face”; Jesus has promised to back you up with his power (Mark 16:17–18). May we make Jesus famous as we testify of his goodness.