Forty days after his resurrection, when Jesus was about to ascend up to the Father, he gave his disciples their great commission in Matthew 28. He told them to go and “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and the holy spirit.” He told them to teach others to observe all that he commanded and that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age. The message here was simple and yet daunting: preach the gospel everywhere. Find disciples throughout the world and then teach them how to truly follow Christ. To accomplish this massive task, we need God’s spirit and biblical examples of how to present ourselves. So, what are the foundational principles of effectively sharing the gospel?

The Apostle Paul helps us identify the key biblical principles of witnessing in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. He began by saying his own mission was to work at identifying with all people to better enable him to witness.

He then pointed out three broad categories of people he was attuned to, and these apply to us as well:

In three specific examples of sharing the gospel with others, both Jesus and the Apostle Paul demonstrated a powerful ability to capture the hearts of those they were speaking with. Their examples demonstrated five basic principles to help us be effective spokespeople for Christ.

We saw how this all played out in the accounts of Paul before King Agrippa, and then again at Mars Hill in Athens speaking to a pagan audience. We also looked at Jesus encouraging two disciples on the road to Emmaus using these same basic principles. The power of the gospel message combined with these five communication principles reveals a recipe for great opportunity!