Meet Noah. He Warned People to Repent. Be Like Noah.
Back when Noah was building an enormous boat nowhere near water and before rain had ever fallen on the earth, he warned people to repent. He told them of the coming flood, which was the impending judgment of God. Tragically, only Noah and his family members survived the Great Flood. Everyone else went about the business of their sinful lives, paying no heed to Noah’s warnings.
In the same way, at the moment Jesus returns, countless people will be going about their lives ignoring the message that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). As Christians, we’ve been instructed to tell God’s story. The good news is that people love a good story.
Jesus Used Relatable Stories
Jesus always spoke to crowds using parables, which are simple stories that illustrate a spiritual or moral lesson. We can conclude that using stories and analogies is a fine way to do what we’ve been instructed to do, which is to reach the lost with the message of the gospel.
The truth is that we have all sinned (1 John 1:8), and our sin separates us from God for all eternity, unless we are born again through Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:23; John 3:16) By wearing a scripture t-shirt that looks like a commercial for a laundry detergent—Christ: Wash Away Your Sins—you are telling everyone you meet that Jesus cleanses us from sin.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 English Standard Version (ESV)
Your Testimony is a Story
It doesn’t have to be difficult to follow Jesus’ command to proclaim the gospel (Mark 16:15-16). When we share how we came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are sharing the gospel message. It’s truly essential that more Christians share the Good News with a lost and dying world. In Matthew 9:37-38, it says:
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In Luke 19:10, Jesus expressly tells us why he came down from heaven to walk among us:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Our work is to continue spreading the message so that lost people can be born again. The reason Jesus is delayed in returning as the apparent King of Kings is so that more can be saved, as it says in 2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Will You Be Like Noah?
Can you imagine how thoroughly Noah’s life was disrupted because he had to build the boat that saved his family and all the animals? It’s not usually convenient to do what we are called to do, but, if we love God, we will obey (John 14:15). None of us are excluded from the call to witness. If you don’t know where to begin witnessing about Jesus, spend some time in prayer. God will guide you. It says in Luke 9:26:
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
