During His ministry on earth, Jesus Christ asked His disciples as to who the people thought He was. Now, it wasn’t that He didn’t know what the people were thinking or saying about Him, but He used this to challenge the disciples with His next question, “Who do you say I am?” To all who have heard the gospel of Christ, the same question applies today.
This post is a testimony to some of the mixed responses I encountered when asking people that same question, or similar. Some of them claimed to be Christians.
Standing at his gate, the bright eyed old man in his mid-eighties greeted me with a smile as he said hello. As we got talking, I told him I was a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ visiting in his street. Immediately he told me he had no beliefs and could not see the truth of what Christians proclaim. He said he wanted proof of Christ and His claims. This lovely old character was not entirely ignorant of the gospel, he told me his wife and fifty year old son were Christians and, “they’ve been praying for me for years.”
His next question – perhaps the most common mantra among non-believers was, “What about all the wars and suffering?” He didn’t really want explanations however, telling me he couldn’t see the truth of what I was saying. During this time of questioning, he was not rude or insulting to me, but very argumentative. Some of his responses were quite funny – but not this next one. He said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. If there’s a God, then what about the Jews? Why did God allow Hitler to kill six million Jews?” I replied that it was man who did that, not God. But it was not the response he wanted to hear. He then said, “It was a good job he killed them anyway. He should’ve got rid of all of them, they’re nothing but trouble makers.” I suggested to him that if he really believed that statement, then he and Hitler had many things in common, asking him, “Why blame God?” He just laughed.
I revisited this old man a couple of times. He was happy to show me his ten lawn motor-mowers that he’d proudly restored, plus his old car and “stuff in his shed.” He would say, “Don’t talk to me about religion,” but would then continue discussing Christ in argumentative ways. I don’t know if he ever turned to Him. What I and his wife and son do know however, is that Jesus Christ gave him countless opportunities to do so.
I met a Roman Catholic man who, at the time, demonstrated agitation and oppression. He told me he had once studied to become a brother, he’d shaken hands with the Pope and had his photograph taken with him. Because of these events he believed himself to be a Christian but had no idea if he was going to heaven or not. I offered to give him a Bible so he could read Jesus’ promises of eternal life for himself and know for sure. He declined saying his prayer book and missal were enough.
An old Italian Roman Catholic lady came to the door when I knocked, and she informed me that she had been bashed over the head visiting the cemetery the day before. She let me pray for her. When next I asked her if she knew Jesus as her Lord and Saviour, she asked me if I was a Catholic. When I informed her I was not, she squinted her eyes, shook her frowning head and told me to go away.
One elderly lady told me she was a Methodist who once used to “regularly go to church.” On the day I visited, she spoke about her slipped disc which she’d had for many years. She said she believed in Jesus but declined my offer of prayer for her, saying she didn’t believe in the power of prayer.
An angry Roman Catholic lady came to the door informing me that she’d recently had a heart attack, “so what do you want?” I then offered to pray for her as well as give her a New Testament Bible so she could read it and get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. She looked at me and said, “Oh God. Go away!” With that she slammed the door in my face.
A seventy-nine year old lady who attended the Assemblies of God denomination told me she didn’t believe in the gift of spiritual languages or ministry in the Holy Spirit. Upon enquiring further into her beliefs it was clear that they were not aligned with the words of Jesus from the gospels. I then said to her that because of such, her concepts of God and the Lord Jesus were faulty. She spent the next hour asking questions, then she asked me to pray with her as she invited the Lord to come into her life.
I had a long chat with a man called Jim. He shared that he had been separated from his wife for eighteen months after forty years of marriage and seven children. He lived in a rural city and operated a successful business there, but since the breakup he had to leave. He was now living with a woman running horses. He then told me that he didn’t believe in God, or Jesus, but was glad a minster from his former city was still praying for him. Then he said he was impressed with the ministry work of my church.
A lady walking on the footpath towards me stopped when I greeted her. In tears, she shared the loss of her daughter, saying she was baptised at eighteen years of age. Some years later, she died ten days after giving birth to a son. This very sad event had happened twenty-one years earlier but the memories came flooding back to her regularly. She said since her husband had died she had nobody to talk to.
I was pleased to be able to share with this lady, that based on her daughter’s relationship with Jesus, in Who’s name she was baptised, she was now with the Lord in heaven and her suffering was well and truly over. I spoke about the Biblical promises of life after death and that her daughter was now a recipient of those promises. I told her that her daughter was alive.
The dear lady’s face began to change and she was smiling as we walked to her home. She gave me permission to pray for her at her doorstep and I did so, asking God to reveal Himself to her. I then encouraged her to keep on believing Jesus’ promises of life after death and accept them for herself and also to think of her daughter as a gloriously happy young lady who would never want her mum grieving for her as she’d been accustomed to doing all these years.
Another lady complained to me about her illnesses. I said to her that Jesus Christ is the Healer as well as the Redeemer. She said, “I’m too ill to talk about God.”
In the course of a conversation with an elderly man, he said, “Well I go to church and I don’t go to church. Do you know what I mean?” I replied that I did not know. He then said, ” I believe in God and I don’t believe in God, if you know what I mean.” I said to him, “Sir, it’s none of my business, but either you do or you don’t. Which is it?” A flicker of anger crossed his eyes, but he continued to justify his thinking and speech in a similar manner. “Who do men say that I am?……..But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:13, 15.