If You Were a Christian, Why Didn’t You Tell Me About Jesus? (Sermon Illustration)

How many Christians have missed a chance for evangelism because they were ashamed of talking about Jesus?

Too often we are guilty of “being ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” We’re embarrassed about bearing witness for fear that we might be violating the rules of social propriety.

Our failure to talk about Jesus cheats some of our friends out of the blessings that knowing Him can bring. This became very clear to me when I attended the ten-year reunion of my high-school class. It was fun to see so many of my old friends whom I hadn’t seen for years. Then one of my friends pulled me aside. He had been one of my closest buddies in high school. We had played basketball together and always sat together at lunch. He told me that a year earlier he had had “the most fantastic experience” of his life. He had become a Christian! He explained the change that had come over him and the new joy that he had experienced because of being in a relationship with Christ. He went on and on and on about his life as a new Christian.

After his first pause, I interrupted him and said, “Jerry, I’m so glad to hear this. You know, I’m a Christian too!”

Jerry asked, “When did you become a Christian?” I explained to him that I supposed it was when I was a little boy.

To this he responded with a most intense question. “If you were a Christian when we were in high school together, how come you never told me about Jesus? How come you never introduced me to Christ?”

I didn’t know what to say.

Tony Compolo, Let Me Tell You a Story: Life Lessons from Unexpected Places and Unlikely People (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2000), 110.

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