Who should tell my Friends and Family about Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
From time to time we hear statistics about how people first came into church membership. These figures trace back to the Institute for American Church Growth, which asked 10,000 people about their pilgrimage. What led them in? Answers were: Special need, 2 percent; Walk in, 3 percent; Pastor, 6 percent; Visitation, 1 percent; Sunday school, 5 percent; Evangelistic crusade, 5 percent; Program, 3 percent; Friend/relative, 79 percent.
Turn with me to John 4:31-38
In our day and age people want to be left alone concerning religion, even though they need a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ plan however is far different than the initial reaction people often give when the feel someone wants to convert them to faith in Jesus Christ
Jesus wants us as disciples to be those actively involved in evangelism.
As we work at winning souls we will discover that indeed there are people who are ready to come to Christ
You are Essential to the Proclamation of the Gospel (Vs. 31-34)
You are Essential to the Proclamation of the Gospel (Vs. 31-34)
Doing God’s will and finishing God’s work is more important than even eating.
When Jesus made this statement He had just finished talking to the woman at the well about her soul.
“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
The purpose of witnessing is to make something manifest that is hidden. Calvin said that it is the task of the church to make the invisible kingdom visible. We do that, first of all, by the proclamation of the gospel—by evangelism. But we also do it by modeling the kingdom of God, by demonstrating justice in the world, by demonstrating mercy in the world, and by showing the world what the kingdom of God is supposed to look like.
R. C. Sproul
One Preacher said: During one service I was complaining to the Lord about the lack of attendance: "Lord, attendance is just not what I'd like it to be." This was the Lord's response: "My son, attendance is not what I'd like it to be in heaven." That was the last time I complained to the Lord about lack of attendance.
You Know the Harvest is Evident? (Vs. 35)
You Know the Harvest is Evident? (Vs. 35)
The harvest is evident.
Look around you and you will see people
Who are in great need for Christ
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Just before Jesus saw the need of the people
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
It is our privilege to have world evangelism as a passion, not our responsibility to have as a burden.
You are Being Evaluated (Vs. 36)
You are Being Evaluated (Vs. 36)
Those who labor at bringing people to Christ
will be rewarded.
“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.
Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap holiness. Holiness is a harvest; whether we reap it or not depends almost entirely on what and where we sow.
John Stott
You have been told what is Expected (Vs. 37-38)
You have been told what is Expected (Vs. 37-38)
We are expected to reap!
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
God is doing through the gospel what he always intended to do. He is sowing good seed in the world, and preparing to reap a harvest of human lives recreated to reflect his glory.
N. T. Wright
Conclusion
Conclusion
“Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. “Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.
‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’
One of the most malignant by-products of the debacle in contemporary evangelism is a gospel that fails to confront individuals with the reality of their sin.
John F. MacArthur
But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.