The Power of Asking Why
It’s not the paid Chevy spokesperson who’s going to have the best odds of, say, selling you a new Camaro -- it’s the raving fan who voices over and over again what a great experience they have driving that car. It’s not the paid representative of a vacation club who’s most likely to get you to spend a week at Disney World -- it’s more likely to be me, going on and on about how magical the place is. We listen most closely to the voice of experience.
By that same token, you could argue that it’s not the paid pastor who has the greatest chance of reaching the skeptics and unbelievers in our communities (though we play a pivotal and necessary role in the kingdom of God) -- it’s you, using the voice of your experience, sharing the truth that you have come to know, sharing the Jesus that you have come to love in the Scriptures. You may be the most effective voice of Christ that your lost friends ever meet. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “Isn’t it your job to minister to others? It’s literally in your job title,” you’re not wrong; but part of my ministry work is to equip you to do the work of ministry too, to equip you to reach the lost and defend the faith, because you have a built-in credibility that springs from the fact that you’re not a “paid spokesperson” (Ephesians 4:12).
Will We Be That Voice?
All throughout history, God has equipped people who have acted as his voice in the world, people who have called and beckoned the lost and wayward back to himself -- from Abel in the book of Genesis to John exiled on Patmos, all the way down the centuries to us today. All of those people accepted the call to act as the voice of God, and so the question for us today is: will we be the voice of Christ? Will we defend our faith before the lost world, without being defensive? And if we will accept the call to be the voice of Christ today, then how in the world do we do it most effectively?
I’d like to help us answer those questions by taking us to the Scriptures and seeing how they develop our voice to be Christ’s voice. One of the ways that we see this done most effectively is by establishing the similarities that we share with the religious skeptics and non-believers, while also seeking to reveal where they perhaps haven’t really thought all the way through an issue.
Find Common Ground, then Press the Difference
When we think about people who believe differently than us, it’s very easy to think only in terms of difference: we get fixated on the fact that they have a different sexual ethic than we do, or a different political outlook, or an entirely different worldview altogether -- and although we may disagree on the most foundational things (and we will certainly need to discuss those differences), we still share similarities; there are, surprisingly, things that we probably do agree on. The apostle Paul shows us how we can find common ground with the lost by saying something we both agree with, and then he also shows us how we can go from there to probing the deeper differences:
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23).
Notice that Paul does not begin his message with a word of judgment. He’s not bashing people over the head with a scroll. He first states something that his audience would agree with; he disarms them and gets them to lower their guard so that they’ll listen to him for longer than a span of five seconds. You can almost hear the Athenians saying, “You’re right Paul, we are religious in every way and we’re proud of it!” Only from this common ground does Paul then launch into the proclamation and defense of Jesus and his resurrection. Only after finding something they can both agree on does Paul say “But tell me, have you thought about this? Have you ever thought about why you have this temple to an unknown God?” He was able to set the stage for these Athenians to say, “Hm -- I’d never really thought about it!” And such a “Hm” moment creates a door to share the gospel, to speak as the voice of Christ.
Yes, We Can Do That Too
We can do this too, and we can do it many times by asking that simple, one word question: why? Let me show you how with the example of human rights. Many people in our day and age are concerned about human rights. They believe all people should be treated with dignity regardless of race, gender, sexuality, and so on. Even the staunchest of atheists advocate for human rights. Christians, too, are strong advocates for human rights -- in fact, Christians have been advancing human rights for two thousand years.
So, as Christians we too want to advance human rights and see to it that all human beings are treated with dignity. We share that common ground even with atheists.
Now suppose you were having a conversation with someone who 1.) doesn’t believe in Christianity, yet 2.) advocates strongly for human rights. You point out that the both of you share this common ground of advocating for human rights -- but then you decide to take the issue a little deeper, so you ask this simple question: “I know you believe strongly in human rights, but I’m curious: why do you believe that humans have rights? (Pregnant pause, let them have a “hm” moment) Can I tell you why I, as a Christian, believe in human rights?”
From there, you might have an opening to share the gospel and be the voice of Christ: “I believe that all human beings are created in God’s image, and because God has bestowed upon human beings his unique image, they bear a dignity and value that cannot be taken away from them -- and that is why I advocate for human rights.”
When we ask unbelievers these kinds of “why” questions, typically one of two things will happen: they will give you a well-thought out answer that, as it turns out, reveals you have even more in common than you thought, which can provide another avenue for sharing the gospel (“Maybe we’re actually closer to believing the same thing than you think, maybe you’re not very far from the kingdom of God, maybe like the Athenians you’re simply ignorant of that which you worship”) -- or, they may not really have an answer at all, they may not know why exactly they believe that humans have rights; and when you don’t know why you believe in something or why you’re doing something, that can create some internal friction and dissonance. If they don’t know why they believe that humans have rights, then you will have likely created a “hm” moment -- and that moment can provide a way to share the gospel and be the voice of Christ (could it be that the reason we all advocate for human rights is because, as it turns out, there actually is a God and he has created us all in his image?)
So don’t be afraid to press the issue with your unbelieving friends, coworkers, and neighbors -- but as far as it depends on you, find some common ground first, so that the voice of Christ might be heard afresh by those who would otherwise have tuned it out.
