How Did Jesus Use Questions?

In last week's message, we explored how evangelism might change for us if we used more question marks than exclamation points. What if our immediate goal was not to get people to agree with us, but to get them to wonder about God and to ask great questions? What if we didn't pressure ourselves to be the "Bible Answer Man" and focused on raising questions that invite wonder?

We spent a little bit of time (too little) looking at how Jesus used questions. Here is the ultimate Bible Answer Man! There was no Bible question He couldn't answer, and so He never had the angst we have of "what if they ask a question I don't know the answer to?" Even with all that, He still chose to use questions continually! Apparently, Jesus wanted people to wonder about truth more than to have it spoon-fed to them. If it is a technique that Jesus favored, would we be wise to ignore it? (Do you see what I did there?)

I took a little bit of time to look at a long list of questions that Jesus asked (over 100!), and I grouped them into categories. I then summarized similar questions and worded them in ways that we might ask the same questions to our friends and neighbors. Just click on this website to get that list: http://doiop.com/JesusQs.

At the bottom of this list are more resources - a great book on using questions for evangelism, and three websites that list many of the questions Jesus asked.

I recommend printing out the list, reading through it several times, and keeping a copy handy (in your notebook, in your Bible). Use this to keep you thinking in terms of asking wonder-ful questions more than trying to have all the answers. We don't know all the answers, but we believe we know where all the answers can be found.

Use more question marks than exclamation points.

The Crusades are *Great* for Witnessing

You've probably heard it more than once. You're having a conversation with someone, and the dialog moves in the direction of spiritual things. You are (somewhat) prepared to discuss spiritual matters, and you feel like it could be a decent, civil conversation. But then ... they throw out the Crusades. There it is. No matter that it was 800 years ago, and you had nothing to do with it. Now you have to deal with it before the conversation can go anywhere ... if it's going to go anywhere. "How can you believe something that is responsible for that?"

Often, the Crusades "trump card" is a smokescreen. I rarely find that the Crusades really are the sticking point with someone. But, it's a lot more convenient than the real sticking point - which is often fear, guilt, shame, or other uncomfortable thought. It's much easier to talk about dead people who did bad things thousands of miles and hundreds of years removed from my fear, my guilt, and my shame.

But you still have to respond. What are your options? First, you can put down the people of the Crusades, which they deserve, but now you've presented Christian against Christian. Second, you can claim the Protestant-Catholic distinction, but then you've inserted denominationalism, which usually only makes it more complicated. Third, you can virtually ignore it and say, "But I'm talking about you," which really is the point, but leaves the question unanswered, as if Christianity doesn't have all the answers.

Sounds sticky. But actually, this can be an excellent opportunity to really talk about the Gospel! However, rather than trying to provide simple, pat answers to a complex problem, use this legitimate question as an opportunity to ask questions back to the one who asked. Use their question to cause them to ask even better questions.

Try questions like: "Do you think that their actions were in agreement with what Jesus taught?" and "What would have happened back then if these people took the words of Jesus seriously?" In the process, you've got to talk about what Jesus really did teach. Explore the issue with them, but find out what they think, rather than telling them what they ought to think. Let them explore the claims of Christ by comparison. Your point isn't to solve the problem with the Crusades, but to have that person interact with Jesus and His claims. So invite them to explore!

Instead of the Crusade question being a barrier, it's now a springboard. It's really not a bad question for them to ask, and we should reinforce that it's a reasonable question. But rather than trying to answer it, let it be a tool to talk about Christ.

In general, I find that asking questions to explore spiritual truths and respecting the other person enough to listen without arguing is a far more engaging and safe way to talk about spiritual matters, especially with the skeptic. It honors the person, it helps them discover (rather than be spoon-fed), and it moves the agent of change from your words to their internal thoughts.

You really don't have to have all the answers - so don't expect that of yourself. It helps, though, to ask really good questions.

The Hardest Class I Ever Had

The hardest class I ever had was also the best class I ever had. Dr. Wilkins' class on the study of the text of the Gospels ("exegesis" of the Gospels). Before every class began, my fellow students and I would compare how much time we spent that week on the homework for that class. The average was about 18 hours. And still, it was the best class I ever had.

The class had a lot of requirements before you could take it. You needed to have taken three semesters of Greek and two semesters of Greek exegesis. You needed to have hermeneutics (the discipline of interpreting the meaning of the text) under your belt. You needed these because in the class, we did our translations and analysis, grammatical diagramming, and exploration of each passage along several categories (textual, historical, theological, and pastoral). It was brutal, but we learned more about these passages than we would have with spending only a couple of hours with each passage.

But Dr. Wilkins' taught us one of the two most valuable Bible study techniques I've ever learned. For the first half of the semester, one of the most important parts of our assignments was to do one simple thing: Ask good questions. Each of our assignments had to include several good questions - questions about the text, questions about the historical background, questions about theology or application, and so on. Just questions.

We didn't have to come up with any answers to the questions! Before we worried about finding answers, we had to learn the discipline of asking good questions. During the second half of the semester, we then had to worry about finding answers using various resources, but that was actually easier than coming up with the questions.

It was hard for me to put unanswered questions in a homework assignment. That goes against my background. But once I started to follow his instruction, I found it to be invaluable for understanding a passage.

Try this: Spend some time in Scripture each day. Pick a book of the Bible to go through, and don't worry about getting through the book quickly. Pick a smaller book to start off, if you want. Just your Bible, a notebook, and a pen. Pick a small, complete unit, such as a paragraph. Read it. Read it again. Read it at least one more time. Then read it twice more. Then in your notebook, write down questions about the passage - questions about the words and phrase, about the historical context, about the theology involved, and questions about how the passage applies to us today. Don't worry about finding the answers - just practice asking excellent questions. If it takes you more than one day per paragraph, that's OK! Be sure to pray before and after each exercise. Work your way through the book, and then look back and reflect on what new insights you have into the text just by asking good questions.


I'll tell you about the other highly helpful technique next week.