Have You Been With Jesus?

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“And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”—Acts 4:13

A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life of Christ is his living biography, written out in the words and actions of his people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we should be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of him that the world would not have to hold us up and say, “Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness”; but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, “He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of him; he is like him ... in his life and everyday actions.”

A Christian should be like Christ in his boldness. Never blush to own your religion; your profession will never disgrace you: take care you never disgrace that. Be like Jesus, very valiant for your God.

Imitate him in your loving spirit; think kindly, speak kindly, and do kindly, that men may say of you, “He has been with Jesus.” Imitate Jesus in his holiness. Was he zealous for his Master? So be you; ever go about doing good. In all ways and by all means, so live that all may say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”—Charles Spurgeon

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I believe that the Christian life is a conversation with God and man. We should live as if the world is listening to what our every action says about the validity of our faith.—Shaun Groves1

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Do the people we encounter every day recognize us quickly as Christians? How many words must we speak before our listeners surmise that we belong to Jesus? What an embarrassment when a friend of several months exclaims in surprise, “I didn’t know you were a Christian!”

We need to learn to speak with a gospel accent. Speaking with a gospel accent means letting our speech be seasoned through and through with the words and attitudes of our Lord. Before we address this issue as it relates to our witness to unbelievers, we must confess that even among believers, even at church, we talk very little of Jesus. I think I first noticed this at seminary. Students who had given their lives to Christian ministry and who were in the process of preparing for their life’s work seldom spoke of the Lord in conversations with one another. Baseball, yes. Stock market, yes. Research papers, yes. Jesus, seldom! During worship, we sang about Him, talked about Him, prayed to Him, and called people to believe in Him. But when the service was over, we tucked Him away behind the scenes.

If we are ashamed to speak to one another about Jesus, then no wonder we do not speak to the lost about Him. Is it any wonder that unbelievers do not know much about the Lord? They simply do not hear anyone talking about Him.

I am not talking about presenting the gospel at this point. I am talking about simply letting Jesus into our conversations. We claim that He is the most important aspect of our lives—the very center of our existence—yet we do not talk about Him. Gandhi, a dedicated Hindu, quoted Jesus more often than we do.

Speaking with a gospel accent involves Christlike attitudes. When we defend some conviction, proclaim some ethical truth, or stand against some injustice, we bring Jesus’ teachings to bear upon the issue at hand.—Woody D. Wilson2

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No work of art is more important than the Christian’s own life, and every Christian is called upon to be an artist in a sense. … In a sense, the Christian life is to be a thing of truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world.—Francis A. Schaeffer

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I think it’s time we stop asking ourselves the question: “Am I a good Christian?” We live in a time when the term “Christian” has been so diluted that millions of immoral but nice people genuinely consider themselves “good Christians.” We have reduced the idea of a good Christian to someone who believes in Jesus, loves his or her family, and attends church regularly. Others will label you a good Christian even though your life has no semblance to the way Christ spent His days on earth. Perhaps we should start asking the question: “Am I a good Christ?” In other words, do I look anything like Jesus? This question never even entered my mind until a friend of mine made a passing comment to me one day.

Dan is a longtime friend of mine. In fact, he’s the pastor who performed my wedding. He was talking to me about a pastor named Von. Von has been working with youth in the San Diego area for decades. Many of his students have gone on to become missionaries and powerful servants of God. Dan described a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, with Pastor Von. (Von has been ministering to the poor in the dumps of Tijuana for years.) Dan didn’t speak of the awful living conditions of those who made their homes amidst the rubbish. What impacted Dan the most was the relationship he saw between Von and the people of this community. He spoke of the compassion, sacrifice, and love that he witnessed in Von’s words and actions as he held these malnourished and unbathed children.

Then he made the statement that sent me reeling: “The day I spent with Von was the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to walking with Jesus.”

Dan explained that the whole experience was so eerie because he kept thinking to himself: “If Jesus were still walking on earth in the flesh, this is what it would feel like to walk alongside of Him!” After that discussion, I kept wondering if anyone had ever said that about me—“The day I spent with Francis was the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to walking with Jesus.” The answer was an obvious “no.” Would any honest person say that about you? What bothered me was not that I hadn’t “arrived,” but that I wasn’t even heading in the right direction. I hadn’t made it my goal to resemble Christ. I wasn’t striving to become the kind of person who could be mistaken for Jesus Christ.

Isn’t it ironic that a man can be known as a successful pastor, speaker, and CHRISTian even if his life doesn’t resemble Christ’s? 1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” When John made that statement, he wasn’t speaking about how to be a church leader or even how to be a “good” Christian. He merely stated that anyone who calls himself Christian must live like Jesus did. So how did Jesus live? You could make a list of character traits to compare yourself to, but it would be far more beneficial to simply read through one of the Gospels. After you get a bird’s-eye view of the life of Christ, do the same with your own. Are you comfortable with the similarities and differences? Biblically, success is when our lives parallel Christ’s. Truth is, there are many good Christs that you’ll never read about in a magazine. They are walking as Jesus walked, but they are too focused and humble to pursue their own recognition.

May we make it our goal to someday have someone say of us: “The day/hour/15 minutes I spent with [insert your name here] was the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to walking with Jesus.”—Francis Chan3

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We know that the Gospel is a message for today’s world, but finding the manner to reach those who have not yet been attracted to the message, or who have been put off by it for one reason or another, is an ever-increasing challenge.

… We are called to bring a message about a man who lived and died and was resurrected 2,000 years ago—with the claim that this is the most important message they will ever encounter. It is therefore vital for the mission-minded Christian to find new and creative ways to express and deliver the timeless message of the love of God in a manner that speaks to the people of today’s world. No doubt Christians of the past have had challenges in their time periods as well, but today’s world is our challenge.

Each person in every country or culture deserves and needs to hear the Gospel. As Christians, we are commissioned to bring it to those in the country, culture, and community in which we live, in a manner that resonates with them.

There are certain practices which should be used by all witnessing Christians, such as being loving, tolerant, patient, and a good listener. These connect with the most vital aspect of delivery—the “you” factor. You are the one delivering the message. You are recommending the message, vouching for it. You are promising it works.

Many people today are wary of the messages they hear, and why wouldn’t they be? Every day on the Internet, on television, in the news, in advertisements, they are bombarded with messages that they need this, that, and the other, that this is the right way to think, the right position to take. To them the message of the Gospel might seem like another advertisement telling them what they need, how to live, what will make them happy. People are often not inclined to trust such messages, because their experience is that many messages contain little or no validity. People are searching for answers, but many are cautious regarding where they place their trust.

That’s why the “you” factor is so vital. You embody the message. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, dwells within you. Who you are, how you live, the love you show, the kindness, the compassion and concern, all reflect God’s Spirit which lives within you. The Holy Spirit gives the call to the individual’s heart, but that call is often heard through your example. They get interested because they see your light and feel your warmth; that brings about the desire to hear what you have to say and the trust needed to accept and believe what you tell them.

One of our challenges as Christians today is to live in a manner that allows the Holy Spirit to so reflect through us that people will be attracted and intrigued by the light that they see in us. Then, in coming closer to the warmth of that light, they will connect with the one who is the light of the world and who will give them the light of life. We reflect that light when we actively love God and genuinely live by the principles given by Jesus in the Gospel.—Peter Amsterdam4

Published on Anchor May 2012. Read by Stephen Larriva.


1 Quoted by Baptist Press.

2 The Shadow of Babel.

3 Catalyst, May 2009.

4 “The You Factor,” DC, Jan. 31, 2012.

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