Just Go Tell People How Awesome Jesus Is
The essence of evangelism that we’ve shared time after time with people is simply this: Just go tell people how awesome Jesus is.
“Just Go . . . ”
We need to recognize and teach the simplicity of evangelism. This is a simple charge for all believers to share Christ, always and often. To neglect personal evangelism is to disregard the mission of God, to ignore the command of Christ, and to cease being the kind of church that truly follows him:
In John 20:21, Christ describes the nature of the disciples’ calling when he says, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
In Acts 1:8, Christ gives his last exhortations to his apostles, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Most famously, in Matthew 28:19–20, Christ gives what has since been called his Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
We know you probably know those verses. Your church likely knows them too. But they need to be lived, not simply known. This isn’t optional for Christians. These are not mere suggestions or helpful tips for ministry leaders; they are God’s Word and should be revered as such. “Sentness” isn’t a spiritual gift, a personality trait, or a work rhythm—it’s our calling. We must take it seriously. We are sent, so we go. Is your church leadership paying as much attention to church members living out their calling to evangelism and going-ness as to their giving, small group participation, and service in the church?
“Tell People”
The Bible gives us various glorious identities as believers. Children of God, saints, brothers and sisters of Jesus and of each other, disciples . . . and witnesses. Every Christian is a witness:
Luke 24:46–49: “He also said to them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.’”
Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 2:32: “God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this.”
Acts 3:15: “You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.” (See also 5:30–32; 10:39–43; 13:29–31.)
Revelation 2:13: “You hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you.”
Let’s not underbake what it means to be a witness as part of our core identity as Christ’s disciples. Witnesses tell people what they saw. Witnesses explain what they experienced. Witnesses inform. Witnesses tell people the truth about what happened. And while we are not eyewitnesses in the way the apostles were, we are witnesses in the way Antipas was in the city of Pergamum. We are not the witnesses who took the gospel of Jesus to Jerusalem, to Judea, or to Samaria. We are those who are taking it to the ends of the earth. While not everyone has the gift of evangelism or considers themselves an evangelist, we are all called to do the work of a witness—to tell people what we have seen of Jesus with the eyes of faith, in the pages of history and in our own lives.
“How Awesome Jesus Is.”
People are often nervous about evangelism because they don’t want to wade into the culture’s hot topics, or they don’t feel equipped to engage in apologetic arguments. The apostle Peter helps us reframe the content of our evangelism in 1 Peter 2.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9–10)
Most of this passage is about who we are, as believers. After framing our identity, Peter sets the activity that flows from that identity—“that you may proclaim.” The word “proclaim” here in Greek is only used one time in the whole Bible. The word is exangéllō, similar to the word “gospel”: euangélion. Peter sees Christians as proclaimers, heralds, “make-knowners” of the gospel and the excellencies of Jesus. He says we are to proclaim “the excellencies of him.”
In other words, the task and the privilege of every Christian is to simply tell others how awesome Jesus is. We can tell them how wonderful he is.
We can tell them how incredible he is. We don’t have to get embroiled in an argument. Proclamation isn’t argumentation. We don’t have to have every answer. We can say, “I don’t know—let me think about that and get back to you. But for the moment, can I tell you why I believe Jesus is the key to life and eternity?” We can think about the ways in which Jesus is amazing—his perfection, sinlessness, deity, kindness, mercy, power, miracles, teaching—and make them known. And most of all, we can talk about how incredible it is that Jesus would die on a Roman cross for sinners like us. We can share how amazing it is that Jesus would die in our place and that he would rise again from the dead and is reigning in heaven, offering real joy-producing, life-altering forgiveness for anyone who believes in him. We can talk about amazing grace, non-expiring mercy, eternal life, and the love of God.
What amazes you about Jesus? What do you love about Jesus? Talk about that with people.
And, by the way, talk to your church about how excellent Jesus is. Notice that Peter spends more time in this text exciting Christians about their identity in Christ than he does telling them what to go and do. If Christians are amazed by who they are by faith in Jesus, then they will be far more likely to go and tell others how awesome Jesus is. After all, all of us talk about what we love and what excites us. For some, that’s last night’s game or the show we went to at the weekend or what our toddler just started to do. For me (Jeff), it’s Jeni’s ice cream, as I’ve shared. For us as believers, it’s always and supremely Jesus.
Peter does something else here: he connects the personal experience of conversion to our proclamation of Christ’s excellencies. “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” That is every believer’s story. Our personal testimonies of conversion and God’s work in our lives can be a part of our proclamation because they are part of his excellencies. This is why we see Paul, who never missed an opportunity to share the gospel, sharing it through telling his own story (Acts 21:37–22:21; 26:1–29). Paul sets out who he was before Jesus intervened, who Jesus is, what Jesus did for him, and the difference Jesus has made to him—and then he asks those he’s speaking with what they make of Jesus.
This article is an excerpt from The Soul-Winning Church: Six Keys to Fostering a Genuine Evangelistic Culture by Doug Logan, Jr. and J.A. Medders (The Good Book Company, 2024). Learn more at thegoodbook.com/soul-winning.