In October 2001, Paolo Ricca, then leader of the Italian Baptists, presented a wonderful two-day conference on telling people the "evangel," or good news. In his talk on what our message is as Christians, Ricca invited us to think about what convinces us to follow Jesus ourselves. He cited the four things about Jesus that convinced him: Jesus' words, his life, his death, and his resurrection.
It was the first of these that surprised me. In all I had heard and read on the subject over the years, I think Ricca was the first to suggest the words of Jesus as a key element in the Christian message. When you think about it, that's pretty surprising!
Ricca gave his short list of the words of Jesus that convinced him:
- "Love your enemies."
- "The last shall be first, and the first last."
- "Call no one on earth your Father, for you have one Father - the one in heaven."
- "This person, too, is a descendant of Abraham."
- "Truly I tell you that even in Israel I have not found such great faith."
What is your short list of the words of Jesus that you would highlight in explaining the good news to someone? I'll post my list tomorrow.
