Let me tell you two stories. Here’s the first one:

Last night, my wife and I were kicking back watching TV when a UFO landed in our backyard. A little green man got out and invited us into his UFO. So my wife and I went inside. The UFO took us to Jupiter. We met the little green man’s friends and family and had a meal together. Afterward we got back into the UFO and traveled back to planet Earth. And we must have traveled through a time portal, because only one second of earth time had gone by.

Do you believe me? Of course not. Now let me tell you the second story:

About two thousand years ago, God sent us his son, Jesus. He was born of a virgin. And he was 100 percent God and 100 percent human at the same time. When he walked on earth, he did amazing things—like raise a dead girl back to life, give sight to a man born blind, turn thirty gallons of water into wine, and feed five thousand people with a few loaves and fish. But more than that, he died on a cross. Three days later, he rose from the dead. His Spirit lives in you right now. But more than that, Jesus ascended into heaven—where he is right now! And if you believe this, God will wash away all your sin, guilt, and shame. And when you die, your soul will rise up to be with Jesus in heaven. One day Jesus will come again and set up a physical kingdom here on earth. And when that happens, your body will rise from its grave and be reunited with your soul.

Do you believe me now? To many people, the story about Jesus sounds ridiculously unbelievable (even though it’s true). If we’re honest, we have to admit that the UFO story may even be more believable than the Jesus story. Yet we believe the Jesus story anyway.

One reason we’re hesitant to evangelize is that we’re worried our friends may find the Jesus story a little too hard to believe. We know it’s true, but how can we convince them it is? What if I told you that your non-Christian friends are more likely to believe the Jesus story than you think?

Chan, Sam, and Ed Stetzer. 2020. How to Talk about Jesus (without Being That Guy): Personal Evangelism in a Skeptical World. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Check out our Bible Study on Sam Chan’s book How to Talk About Jesus. It is on Amazon as well as part of the Good Questions Have Groups Talking subscription service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons–thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.

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