Sharing Jesus with Muslims: A Step-by-Step Guide

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The late Dr. Nabeel Qureshi desired that we write a book together on building transformational relationships with Muslims. Millions of Muslims are searching for hope and peace. Jesus the Savior can give what cannot be taken: peace in the heart and hope for the future. Although my friend Nabeel was not able to write due to his illness, my deep appreciation goes out to him and to all who have helped with this book, especially Stan Guthrie and the whole team at Zondervan.

Additional thanks to Crescent Project ministry teams of volunteers, interns, and staff. Your love for sharing Jesus with Muslims is contagious.

I am grateful for the support of my family throughout this writing project. You are loved and valued beyond measure.

I am amazed how the Savior Jesus changes lives. I praise his name, for he is the guiding light in this present darkness our world is going through. I praise Jesus for saving me and releasing me from hate. That salvation experience gave me a hope worth sharing with all people.

INTRODUCTION

BEIRUT, LEBANON

It’s 4:00 a.m. I’m waiting for sunrise. Sounds of mortar cannons and AK-47 assault rifles fill the warm night air. My country, Lebanon, which was once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, is being turned into rubble by rival militias. Members of my extended family on both sides of the Green Line are in danger.

This scene, repeated for me night after night as a teenager, hardened my heart to the world and to the gospel. I was filled with hate for people of all backgrounds, especially when the Palestinians killed one of my best friends, Walid.

Daily battles and bombings followed by suicide attacks and car bombs created in me a heart of hate toward all peoples, neighbors, and enemies. Death and destruction were all around me. The future looked dark, and God seemed far away.

I had been raised in a Christian home, but in that time of despair, I turned my back on the existence of God and investigated other religious traditions. My religious exploration led me to see the uniqueness of the Messiah Jesus compared with all other religious founders. The Lord Jesus’s actions and sayings were vastly different from those of his contemporaries or any religious sage. The Messiah Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbors and their enemies. He demanded repentance and confession of sins. Jesus invites all people to follow him, for he is the only Savior from sin.

I had the mental conviction that the Messiah Jesus is unique and that he is the Savior from sin, sin that enslaves all humankind. Yet my hard heart refused to repent and confess that I am a sinner in need of the Savior Jesus. The Messiah was someone I respected and loved, but I wasn’t willing to repent.

One night a friend of my parents was eating dinner with his wife and four children. His youngest child, age two, had spilled his milk. My friend quickly scooped up his boy and took him to the bathroom to wash up. Right then a mortar shell blasted through the balcony door, exploding in the middle of the table. Racing back to the kitchen, my friend discovered what was left of his wife and three other children. With a plastic bag and a heavy heart, he gathered their remains and buried his family members.

When I heard this report, my conviction was confirmed: Religion and politics will not bring peace. Only a changed heart—a repentant heart—and a renewed mind will change a person. That day I went alone to a quiet place in our apartment in Beirut, and I knelt by the bed and lifted my prayer to God. I asked God to forgive me for the sin of hate and to renew my mind by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus, I prayed, when you came to earth, you healed the sick. You raised the dead. You washed the feet of your disciples. The more hate there is in Lebanon, the more I want to be a soldier of love. The more war there is in Lebanon, the more I want to be a soldier of peace. Forgive me for my sin. Forgive me for hating Palestinians and Israelis. Change my heart and make me a new person. I want to follow you as my Savior and Lord.

Right there I committed my life to follow Christ.

It was a life-changing moment. I started to pray for the Jewish people. I started to pray for the Palestinians, most of whom are Muslims. Only the love of God can change a heart. Despite my fear, I received the beginnings of a changed outlook, one I would come to understand more deeply as I matured in faith. When you are a follower of Jesus, you don’t judge people by race or religion or social status. You see them as God’s creation. You remember that Jesus says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10 ESV).

God saved me from sin, released me from guilt, and gave me a love for all people. This change is needed in the hearts of all people. Whatever our religion, race, or social status, the major issue is the sin that resides in every human heart. Only Jesus the Messiah can save us from our sin. He alone is the answer to the wars and hate surrounding—and indeed permeating—us.

For the thirty years since that prayer, I have served among Muslim people in many countries and in many settings. I have committed my life to sharing Jesus’s message with them. I have trained others to reach them with the gospel, and in this book, you will learn the same basic approach. The need is just as urgent as it was during Lebanon’s bloody civil war because we remain in a spiritual war against a common enemy, Satan. The Bible says that the devil has blinded the minds of unbelievers to the truth of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4), and this includes most of the followers of Islam, one of the three major monotheistic faiths. Our calling is to fight not with bullets and bombs but with the life-giving, Spirit-empowered words of the gospel (2 Cor. 10:4)—that Jesus died and rose again, that whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins and eternal life (John 3:16–18; 1 Cor. 15:1–8).

The need is enormous. Millions of Muslims have never had the opportunity to hear the words of Jesus. The Bible is banned in many Muslim countries, or it simply isn’t accessible. Hosting a Bible study or importing Bibles can be a crime in some Muslim-majority countries. Most have controlled media that do not allow objective reporting on Christianity or Christian teachings. It is a shame that, in our twenty-first-century age of information, millions have no access to the message and teachings of Jesus.

And for those Muslims who have heard about him, negative and false information about Jesus and Christians abounds, often told to them by their imams and religious leaders. For example, Muslims often hear, Christians worship three gods. In many countries, Christ followers are still called kafir, an Arabic word meaning blasphemer. How will Muslims give Christ a chance if they have such a distorted view of the teachings of Christianity? This book will help you respond effectively to some of these common misperceptions so that the gospel gets a fair hearing.

In the providence of God, the world is changing, and the Muslim world is not exempt. Many Muslim groups continue to claim that Islam is a peaceful religion, but there has been a crisis in Islam since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Never before had such a massive terrorist attack been televised for all to see. Nine years later, in December 2010, Arab movements of political and social change began, resulting in the collapse of political structures and the start of civil wars. Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa are now dying at the hands of other Muslims. Additionally, the refugee crisis in places like Syria and even in the heart of Europe is creating much upheaval, and many Muslims feel hopeless about the future.

Amid all the upheaval in the Muslim world, a new movement is growing. Unprecedented numbers of Muslim people groups have been turning to the Lord Jesus in recent years. Southern Baptist researcher David Garrison calls it a wind in the house of Islam.¹ Many Muslims are looking for access to the Injeel, the New Testament. This movement is vigorously opposed by many Muslim leaders on talk shows and satellite television, is banned by governments and Islamic regimes, and yet is being used by God’s Holy Spirit to help bring home many lost sheep.

Muslims who manage to obtain a copy of the Injeel and read it for themselves are ecstatic to learn of its principles of justice, grace, and mercy. The concept of the equality of all people in the sight of God is refreshing to Muslim refugees escaping from sectarian wars. The Bible is clear that, before God, we all need salvation, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, Sunni or Shiite, Arab or non-Arab. God loves all people!

It has been my privilege to serve among Muslims for the last thirty years. I have read the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, in Arabic more than thirty times. I hold a master’s degree in Islamic studies and have had the privilege of speaking to Muslims about the teachings of Jesus in countries across the Muslim world. Nearly thirty years ago, I founded Crescent Project to nurture transformational conversations between Christians and Muslims, and God has been faithful. I authored eleven books that bridge the gospel to the Muslim mind and heart.

In the last thirty years of ministry, so much change has taken place throughout the Muslim world. From Indonesia to Morocco, from Somalia to Kosovo, Muslims are seeking a message of hope. I have seen Muslims read the Bible and begin comparing it to the Qur’an, their religion’s holy book. After reading the Bible, which speaks of God’s nearness and love, many prefer it. Muslims are also comparing the lives of Jesus and Muhammad, Islam’s founder. It’s not surprising that a sincere comparison of Muhammad’s life, captured in Islamic tradition, does not stand up to the Bible’s faithful depiction of Jesus as the sinless Messiah sent by God. But whose life could bear such a comparison?

For these and many other reasons, God is clearly on the move among Muslims in our day. My hope is that this book will help you to get involved in meeting the needs of Muslims and obey Christ’s Great Commission among them. It will inform and equip you in your role in Christ’s harvest among Muslims. It will give you a solid foundation for sharing the gospel. It will give you simple, practical steps for reaching out, including pointers for opening spiritual conversations and for answering frequently asked questions.

Along the way, I’ll share from my own and others’ experiences of the Lord of the Harvest at work, revealing himself to Muslim students, professionals, refugees, and converts, changing their lives for eternity. At the end of each chapter, I have included a small section called 55 Seconds for Change. It is my hope that these brief applications change your perception and ignite in you a desire to take concrete action in sharing Jesus with Muslims.

Yes, God is moving among Muslims—perhaps even the precious people created in God’s image who live in your community. This book will help you grow in love for Muslims, in your concern about Islam, and in confidence that Jesus Christ can and will use you to guide Muslims into his kingdom of light.

Part 1

WHY SHARE WITH

MUSLIMS?

Chapter 1

JESUS’S COMMAND

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

—MATTHEW 28:18–20

The Great Commission of our Messiah, Jesus, was his last instruction to his beloved disciples. Jesus, the son of the Virgin Mary, the incarnate Word of God, commands one final task: to go and teach all the nations. The Messiah does not ask his disciples to subdue nations or conquer peoples. He simply says that they are to teach anyone willing to listen, anyone who wants to obey the teachings, anyone who seeks to be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This command is all-encompassing; it includes the world’s Muslims as objects of his saving love.

This simple command turned the world upside down. The followers of Jesus multiplied rapidly and spread across the Roman Empire. The disciples obeyed Christ’s command and proclaimed that a Savior had come, regardless of the religious and political landscape they were in.

KEY WORDS FROM THE GREAT COMMISSION

A careful study of some of the key words in this command yields deeper insights that will help us as we engage our Muslim friends and neighbors in conversations about the good news of Jesus.

1. All Authority

The word translated all here is pas, which can be translated every, each, or every single one. Our Messiah has received every single authority from the Father.

Jesus has power over political authority, social authority, spiritual authority, and natural authority. Jesus can change anything according to his will. Anyone who stands against Jesus will be removed. Jesus is building his family. God is actively involved in human affairs to help bring about the knowledge of salvation to all people.

When we share the gospel with Muslims, we aren’t going on our authority but on Jesus’s authority. Jesus the Messiah conquered sin, Satan, and death. Anytime we share the gospel, as he has commanded us, we are doing his will. When Jesus’s followers share his teachings, we are doing this in the authority of the risen Messiah. In witnessing to Muslims who are presumed resistant to the gospel, I have seen his authority repeatedly. We can trust that Jesus will save whomsoever he wills.

The leaders of the first century rejected the Messiah Jesus. Those leaders, whether political or religious, ridiculed our Savior. No one watching the crucifixion could possibly have believed that Jesus had any authority or power. Yet Jesus prophesied about his authority and position, declaring with courage and determination that he is the cornerstone.

Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it