Have you ever realized why Christianity places a high emphasis on evangelism? Evangelism is when Christians get to share their faith with other people in effort to persuade them that Jesus is worthy of our worship. God, in the Bible, calls Christians to evangelize lovingly and to do so with great patience (1 Timothy 4:2). Evangelism means a lot to us; so much so that it is the reason why our team is traveling to Osaka, Japan. For three weeks from June 18th through July 8th, we will be working with a local Japanese church sharing Jesus Christ with Japanese college students.
While sharing the gospel, we will be pointing the Japanese students to Hamadera Bible Church in Osaka. Our hope is that they will come to understand why God’s church is so important. It is important because church is where people come to learn about God through the preaching of the Bible. The Bible not only teaches us how to live righteous lives, but we believe it is the very word of God and thus perfect in every way (2 Peter 1:19-21).
In the Bible, we can see God described as our creator who made the whole world and everything in it, including us (Genesis 1-2). God is perfect, holy, and righteous and if we expect to be part of His family then we must be the same (Matthew 5:48). The Bible teaches that when sin entered into the world, everyone was made guilty. There is not even one person who has not rejected God (Romans 5:12, 3:10-11). We all struggle with sin, which is anything that is against what God has commanded in the Bible. This sin causes us to fall short of God’s standard of perfection (Romans 3:23). And because God is just, He cannot let our sin go unpunished (Habakkuk 1:13, Romans 6:23).
However, there is good news! God is also infinitely loving and does not want to punish us because He loves us. Therefore, God sent Jesus, who was both God and man, to earth to live a perfect life and to die on the cross to bear the punishment for our sin. Three days after His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead to show that he had the power to conquer sin and death.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus died once and for all to atone for our sins, and through the power of His resurrection, we know that He can raise us up too (Ephesians 2:4-9). This means that we have the opportunity to be made right before God and spend eternity with Him in heaven if we place our faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
While sharing the gospel, we will be pointing the Japanese students to Hamadera Bible Church in Osaka. Our hope is that they will come to understand why God’s church is so important. It is important because church is where people come to learn about God through the preaching of the Bible. The Bible not only teaches us how to live righteous lives, but we believe it is the very word of God and thus perfect in every way (2 Peter 1:19-21).
In the Bible, we can see God described as our creator who made the whole world and everything in it, including us (Genesis 1-2). God is perfect, holy, and righteous and if we expect to be part of His family then we must be the same (Matthew 5:48). The Bible teaches that when sin entered into the world, everyone was made guilty. There is not even one person who has not rejected God (Romans 5:12, 3:10-11). We all struggle with sin, which is anything that is against what God has commanded in the Bible. This sin causes us to fall short of God’s standard of perfection (Romans 3:23). And because God is just, He cannot let our sin go unpunished (Habakkuk 1:13, Romans 6:23).
However, there is good news! God is also infinitely loving and does not want to punish us because He loves us. Therefore, God sent Jesus, who was both God and man, to earth to live a perfect life and to die on the cross to bear the punishment for our sin. Three days after His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead to show that he had the power to conquer sin and death.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus died once and for all to atone for our sins, and through the power of His resurrection, we know that He can raise us up too (Ephesians 2:4-9). This means that we have the opportunity to be made right before God and spend eternity with Him in heaven if we place our faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ (John 3:16).