GO SPORT
Our role in sharing Jesus Christ with sportspeople
Study 7
Ready
What was the most exciting conversation you have ever had about your faith and why?
The commandment to ‘go and make disciples’ is daunting. It is important to grasp the difference between our role and God’s role in pointing people to Jesus and leave him with the results. Otherwise, the weight of responsibility will either crush our spirit and leave us feeling dejected with God, or we’ll become proud and forget God when we see people come to faith.
Set
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:1-5
What you need to know:
Paul is writing to a church he knows well and who have been led astray by some eloquent speakers who put their value in their own power and ability to persuade. They accuse Paul of having an unimpressive ministry and being fruitless compared to them. In this passage, he is responding to those claims by showing clearly what our role is and God’s role in bringing people to Jesus.
1. What is it that ensures Paul doesn’t ‘lose heart’ in telling people about Jesus? (verse 1)
2. How can the same assurance help us as we think of the sportspeople we share life with?
3. As Paul communicates God’s truth, what do we learn from him about how he does it? What do we learn about how not to do it? (verse 2)
What you need to know:
When Paul talks about a ‘veil’, he is referring back to Chapter 3 and the veil Moses wore so people couldn’t see the glory fading (Exodus 34:33- 35). Paul makes a comparison with unbelievers having ‘veiled’ minds so they can’t see Jesus clearly.
4. Who is ‘the god of this age’ and why has he blinded the minds of unbelievers? (verse 4)
5. What does this mean as we think about sharing the gospel with our sports friends?
6. What would it look like to ‘preach ourselves’? (verse 5)
7. What is our role according to Paul to this verse?
In our eager desire to see our sports friends become Christians, we can often be tempted to leave the hard bits of the gospel message out. Paul says know your role: preach Christ and not yourself, present the truth plainly and trust it to do its work.
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:6-7
8. When his word is presented plainly, what does God do to unblind minds and what does it enable people to do?
9. In verse 7 it says there is a reason we are ordinary ‘jars of clay’ rather than impressive (like the Corinthian speakers), what is it?
10. How does this encourage you when you think about speaking to your sports friends?
What you need to know:
In Genesis 1:3 God says ’Let there be light’ He creates light out of nothing! Paul refers to it here saying that it takes the same amount of power to unblind a mind to see Christ as it does to create light out of darkness! We don’t have that kind of power, only God does.
