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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 26, Issue 9
The Heart of Evangelism: BELIEVE in Jesus
By Roger Johnson February 2026
Note that Jesus’ summary of the Gospel is two- edged: people who believe in Jesus are promised eternal life, yet people who do not believe in Jesus are condemned. The Gospel is strong and de- mands a decision from all people: either believe in Jesus or deny Him. In Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas are arrested for preaching the Gospel and locked in a Philip- pian jail cell. God sent an earthquake through the city that literally broke their chains. The jailor guarding them, was struck with fear of losing his job, and pled desperately to his unchained cap- tives, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
We become people who pray for both our friends and our enemies. We respect Jesus’ claim upon our lives, listening to Him about how to spend our leisure time and invest our money and resources with which He has blessed us. We consult with Jesus on the critical decisions we must make for ourselves and our family’s future. We even ask Jesus who we should socialize with — comfortable friends or people who don’t yet know Jesus but present important mission opportunities?
Most of us are pretty good at stating what we believe: “I believe in the two-party system,” or “I believe in 8 hours sleep each night.” Fine to hold such convic- tions, and equally fine to order one’s life around such principles.
But when I tell someone that I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I
Our relationship with the Savior must continu- ally grow more intense. We must begin believing
am dealing in a bigger reality than any conviction that structures my life. Believing in Jesus is more dy- namic and far more life-changing than trusting in the circuit theory of electricity. Let’s start with what the Bible says about believing, and what that belief requires. In John 1:12, the Apostle John writes, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” To believe (translated from the Greek word “pisteo”) meant more than just knowing, and more than simply adhering to Jesus’ name and teachings. The New Tes- tament notion of believing incorpo- rates following, obeying, and even
in Jesus to do the improbable and the impossible. As our faith ma- tures, it grows hotter and deeper. Our belief will amaze our families, our friends, and even ourselves. Rather than believing in a static set of doctrines, believing in Jesus becomes an unpredictable set of action steps. Believing in Jesus means movement and action that we have never before thought of taking. Believing will always in- volve action, rather than filing our faith aside as a category of think- ing. Are you starting to catch hold of this new world of believing in Jesus? I certainly hope so! Without a strong force of believers, the church is stuck with weak and
swearing allegiance to Jesus. It connotes a deep and ongoing commitment to Jesus’ life, teachings, actions, sacrifice, resurrection and second com- ing. In John chapter 3, Jesus speaks directly with the Pharisee Nicodemus about what it takes to enter the kingdom of God. Here, Jesus brings be- lief to the forefront, telling Nicodemus in John 3:3 that he “must be born again.” Radical change is coupled with the call to believe. Listen to Jesus’ essential message as he drives to the heart of sal- vation in John 3:16-18: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever be- lieves in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Both Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.” (Acts 16:31). As these pioneer mis- sionaries spoke boldly to the jailor who held the keys to their own physical freedom, Paul pro- claimed spiritual freedom for him and everyone in his home. The truth of Jesus had set them all free, just as the Apostle John had famously pro- claimed: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32, NIV). While believing appears to come easily for Jesus’ apostles and New Testament missionaries, saving faith seems to have grown difficult for many mod- ern-day men and women. Today we hear stories of people who claim to have been saved at one point in life, only to doubt, question and even turn their back on Jesus at a later juncture. Are the intersections of knowledge, faith, temptation, self- expression and data overload tripping us up? Or do people just find it impossible to make commit- ments to spouses, families, nations, even their own God-given sexuality? Perhaps we have failed to understand God’s power when He lays claim to
motionless adherents — people who know what they should believe while doing very little about it. With a majority of actively-believing witnesses, Christ’s Church moves into mission, daily adding to its numbers of prepared soldiers. For the past 20 centuries, true believers have known that as a fire exists by burning, so the Church exists by mission. Belief grows as individuals commit themselves to following Jesus. Belief grows as people who have pledged their allegiance to Jesus actively an- chor their faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ our Savior. Belief grows as Christians raise the thermostat of their convictions and dis- play that new spiritual temperature through prayer, Bible reading, worship and witness to the Almighty King of Kings. Don’t be afraid of allowing your belief to look outrageously effective. Jesus our Lord has effectively saved each one of us. As Christians, we are to serve God and witness for Jesus in powerfully effective ways. Believing in Jesus is bigger, more dynamic, and more life-changing than trusting in the circuit theory of electricity. Believing in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection replaces your old view of history with a God-centered outlook of the future. And believing in Jesus’ promise of eternal life allows you to begin responding to God’s call to partici- pate with Jesus in building a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1). Belief is not holding to some time-bound reli- gious creed. Belief is not a matter of standing still upon a set of human traditions. Belief is igniting a spark and building a fire that cannot be de- scribed by dead nouns and adjectives. Just as a fire starts from a live spark and burns into an in- ferno, so Jesus’ gospel starts from a life-giving ember and grows into a great and never-ending conflagration. It involves all of us. We believe in Jesus, we set out to testify of Him in mission, and we gather an eternal band of believers as a faith- filled congregation. Our faith is translated into ac- tion and our belief in Jesus keeps growing until He takes us to His eternal home. Roger Johnson is an evangelist, writer and teacher from Kenosha. He served for nearly 40 years as an urban evangelist in Chicago. A graduate of Wheaton College and North Park Seminary, he completed the M.A. in Evangelism & Leadership at Wheaton Grad School in 2012.
our lives. We appear to prefer experimenting with our own spiritual adven- tures. Let’s try a fresh, new look at God’s intent for our believing. When Jesus knocks at our heart’s door, we cer- tainly do say “Yes.” We believe in Jesus’ life, res- urrection and power to re-create our own life. But rather than simply “signing up” to be a Christian, we take the big step to follow Jesus to- tally and allow Him to shape our life in the way He needs and wants. Rather than adhering to a set of Christian doctrines, we pledge our soul’s alle- giance to all that He would have us do. We be- come soldiers in His army, sold out to Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of our life.
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