Witnessing to a Lost World

My Messed Up Presumptions

I love watching street evangelism videos on YouTube and one of my favorite things to watch is a channel called ‘Apologia Studios.’ They are a Reformed Evangelical Church that runs street evangelism ministries all throughout Arizona and Utah, targeting mainly Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. Their main pastor, named Jeff Durbin is also one of the largest players there is in the pro-life movement, recently even being interviewed by our US Congress to give an analysis as to why abortion is wrong. They do a lot of amazing work, however them being Reformed they always have far more bluntness in the way that they Evangelize than most churches out there. For those who do not know, the term ‘Reformed’ in a modern church setting often times is a synonym to the name ‘Calvinist.’ If you don’t know what that means, think predestination, the idea that God only saves those who he predetermined would be saved. Essentially it’s the belief that free will does not exist, rather all is the will or God. Here is what I think is important to note regarding that, they are blunt on truth and they pitter patter around excuses to be living in sin far less than most Evangelical churches. To the point it might often make us in the Free-Methodist church cringe at what is often times regarded as a lack of tact. Regardless, the LORD uses their ministry to reach a lot of people and do a lot of good. The video I watched caught my attention because it was labeled in such a way that I genuinely thought the street preaching pastor would be put in a situation of having to call the police. It was titled ‘WATCH: Pastor vs. Transgender Atheist,’ a catchy title of course, but also knowing the bluntness of the Reformed movement, I figured ‘painful’, ‘harsh’ and even possibly ‘violent’ as words that came to mind when I saw it. Boy, could I have not been more wrong. In the video the Pastor begins speaking not to someone who is trans, but just to a group of atheists. He does the same things he often does to atheists, showing them that the atheist worldview is incoherent, purposeless, and downright immoral. If you want to see how he does so I would tell you to simply watch the video, he does a better job doing it than I could explain it; but then the the trans woman steps onto the scene. She very quickly asks the Pastor “I am a trans man (or a woman who believes she is a man) am I going to hell because of this?” I want all of you in your seats to take a moment and reflect on how you might answer a question like that, after all with the growing movement in our country it is not a stretch to assume you may have to answer that question to someone who walks through our doors in the near future. The scary reality is, how you answer this question could determine if that person ever gives Christianity a shot.

Now, of course, she is living in sin, and I would never tell you to lie about that for the sake of someone’s comfort. However, I can tell you that even I would have done spiritual harm had this woman asked me prior to watching this video. I would’ve said “no, you are going to hell because you reject Christ.” Though this answer true, it is unhelpful. If that’s how you would’ve answered her please listen to what I’m going to share. But before I tell you what I now think the correct way to answer this question is; I want to share with you a couple misunderstandings I had that formulated my answer before. Misunderstandings I think many Christians have, one that if we change, the answer to the question becomes glowingly obvious. It all boils down to how we view the state of mankind, and the assumption of self-righteousness.

The State of Mankind

When we speak of the State of Mankind there are two important things to consider I think. First is the state of mankind before the fall, and second is the state of mankind after the fall. Before the fall of mankind the world was perfect. We are told in Genesis that God called all things in Creation ‘good,’ except for the state of man being alone; which God then fixed by gifting Eve to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Showcasing God’s love for mankind in making us compatible as man and woman. The world was a perfect utopia, no natural disasters, no illnesses, no sin, and no death. However if you remember back to the story of the fall this state of mankind lasted only for about 2 chapters before mankind broke away from God deciding that their way was better. In an attempt to become like God man disobeyed and rejected God’s warnings in the Garden; the crime? Being unsatisfied with how much like God we already were; being made in His perfect image. This caused a downward spiral of events for mankind that resulted in every evil horrible wicked thing we see in our world today. All because Adam and Eve fell from God, and sin entered into all of mankind as a result. That was the state of mankind until Jesus died for our sins and redemption was found to be within reach through Him and Him alone. This relationship between Adams sin and Christs redemption is laid out in Romans 5:12-21 Romans 5:12-16

Romans 5:12–16 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

Romans 5:17–21 ESV

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When sin entered the world every single person thereafter was born into a nature that was by default in rebellion against God, meaning that there is no Good that we can do until we come to God. We can only do Evil because our nature is against God and Good comes from God. If we are not of God then we are not capable of doing anything Good. Meaning that the transgender we convince to stop being trans, while neglecting to share the gospel with- they’re still committing Evil- it’s just an Evil we find less offensive. First we must come to God, then we can do Good. This order or operations is important because it’s why our conversion is referred to as a ‘rebirth’ by the one who granted it to us in John 3:3

John 3:3 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Our first birth was one of the corrupted flesh, our second is one of righteous spirit, the Holy Spirit. But here’s an important question that addresses the current ‘state of mankind’ well, one that most Christians answer wrong. ‘Does this mean that after our rebirth we are righteous?’ Unless we are speaking from God’s perspective, the answer is no. See, we are righteous in the eyes of God as we are told in Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is because while Jesus was dying on the cross He took on all sin, not just the sin we had committed up until that point. We are told this in Hebrews 10:12

Hebrews 10:12 ESV

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

Jesus sat down because His atonement was final and universal. There was no need for Him to die once for every sin you ever commited because He was enough the first time He did it. However when we look at the relationship that Paul had with righteousness we see that the battles we face with our flesh even as Christians keep us from ever being truly ‘righteous.’ We find it in Romans 7:19-25

Romans 7:19–22 ESV

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

Romans 7:23–25 ESV

but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Even once we are saved, we still suffer from the same sinful nature we suffered from before we were saved. This is the state of mankind and will be until Christ returns to finish setting up His kingdom; when we will all be made truly righteous permanently. Until then, the only thing that separates us from the world is that our unrighteousness is in a continual state of forgiveness. So then, what really makes you better than the trans woman, the drunkard, the addict, or the homosexual? Nothing that you do, which is why assuming we are more righteous than others is so dangerous. That leads me to the second point.

The Assumption of Self-Righteousness

The Church has a history of assuming those who outwardly struggle and display their sin are more sinful than us, who primarily struggle internally or even hide our sin. This, however, is not the case. As we just talked about we are no more righteous than the world, only unlike the world, we are not condemned. This is because the forgiveness we have found on the cross, and only because of that forgiveness. So why do we feel so darn willing to tell the world just how condemned they are? Here is what Paul has to say on the issue: 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

1 Corinthians 5:9–13 ESV

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

So then, if we are called to stand up to the trans woman in this video, or the drunkard, or homosexual, or even the pedophile and tell them all of the reasons they deserve to go to hell, than why is Paul blatantly telling us that this is a teaching that is for the members of the church; and not the world? Better yet, what if the world that rejects God, maybe doesn’t care what He has to think of them. So why bother telling them what God has to think of them? Even if we were more righteous than the world, what good does it do to tell the world this? Imagine for a second that you were in a race and finished first place. Then the second place person walks up to you as you are about the mount the podium to except your prize, looks you dead in the face and tells you “in my heart I know that I really won, therefore I deserve that first place prize.” You would probably find it laughable; yet this is what the world sees when we say things like “you are going to hell for rejecting Christ.” Cause guess what, they don’t believe in Christ, they don’t believe in Hell, and your analysis of them, however correct it may be, does nothing to change that.

What are we doing here when we do this then? A couple weeks ago a close friend of mine, I’ll call her Reiley, asked for my advice because she was struggling with fornication in her relationship. As I walk talking to her she said something that stuck out to me. Now for context, I met Reiley about 4 years ago now when she was struggling with a meth and heroine addiction. With the support of her family, we managed to convince her to go into rehab where she gave her life to Christ and has since been clean. Every few months I try and check in on her to see how she’s doing. This time, she opened up more than she has in the past and said “I feel like whenever I’m able to find the strength to set aside one addiction for the sake of Christ, there’s another one waiting to grab hold of me again.” It was then I realized she’s struggling like this because the Christian Church has failed. We have been programmed to treat the symptoms, and not the actual illness of a heart that is struggling to truly relinquish control over to God. Jesus has a harsh word to say to people who do this in Matthew 23:23-24

Matthew 23:23–24 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

We are so overly concerned with what we want the world to look like that we have forgotten there is a cure to the band-aids we are trying to place on society. Telling them what they ought not do, or what we find offensive or how God feels about things that they often have zero care about, or not enough understanding to realize the dangers of. I mean honestly ask yourself a question here, what is better for Gods world, to forcibly wipe out all of the trans, homosexuals, alcoholics, druggies or abusers by force? Or by winning their hearts to the LORD and gaining more children to fill God’s coming kingdom? Both fix the issue; but one does so permanently- and this is the weightier matter Jesus was speaking of.

Witnessing God

So then, the only cure that can solve the problems we see in the world today is to begin to actually follow the last command we are told Jesus gave us before his ascension. It is found in Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We call following this command Evangelism. However, we must be more careful on how we do it; because the answer that I gave to the question this trans woman asked shows just how messed up my presumptions about the nature of mankind were. The idea that I am inherently less sinful than her, that I reject God less in my heart simply because I have found forgiveness in the arms of the LORD. We are all in the same boat when it comes to our sinful nature, no one of us better than the other and that applies to the lost as well as the found. So, what is the right answer to the question? The gospel. The good news. The righteous loving justice that God showcased to us on the cross. When the trans woman asked the question ‘I am trans, am I going to hell because of it?’ The Pastor in that video looked to this woman and said that even he was worthy of going to hell, because yes, all mankind is worthy of going to hell. The sin she struggles with is no more fifthly than the sin I do. Her short comings are no more short than the areas of my life I fall short in every single day. As a father, I fail, as a husband, I fail, as a child, I fail, as a person, I fail; and so do you. But, God loves us so much, that even though we fail- we might be made whole by the sacrifice that Jesus offered for us. The sacrifice of the only person on earth ever to not fail- yet willingly took the punishment set aside for all those who did, were, and would. Now, this is absolutely paraphrasing what the Pastor said, he was continually interrupted and taken off course by follow up questions to every point. But the truth he was speaking was just that. Do you deserved condemnation? Yes, but guess what, so does every single person who has ever and will ever walk the face of the earth with one exception. The very person who faced the consequences of your condemnation for the soul purpose that you wouldn’t have to.

I hope you see what this means. In my last sermon I said it in my prayer but it’s something I love so much that it wont be the last time you hear me saying it. The cross showcased that in the face of our rejection of God, God would rather experience the consequences of our actions than to watch us experience them ourselves.

This is the cure to the lost world- this is what Christ told us to go and spread. Notice that the Pastor in the video did not negate that what this woman was doing was sin, we don’t have to do that in order to witness to a lost world. In fact to do so would be a disservice and a lie. He simply changes the focal point of the conversation off of what we do, and onto what He did. Imagine that- doing what God said to do is the cure to getting people to look how God wants them too. I know it sounds obvious, and if you are wondering why I would even bother bringing this up than Im happy you are part of the crowed that already got this- I wasn’t. We as humans I think assume that we are responsible for making the visual change in people’s lives and forget that God can do it without our help altogether.

Application

When I was 15 years old I got my first job working as a journalist for a newspaper called ‘The Deer Park Gazette.’ During this time I was really into politics and being a journalist is what I thought I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It might have been where I ended up had God not intervened. I wrote a series of articles called ‘The Peoples Voice’ wherein I would read bills proposed and passed by the Washington State legislature and summarize them in simple terms for those who weren’t interested in reading all of the crap jargon that congressmen use in order to confuse people. During this time I had the opportunity to interview our district legislators, and seeking to get more voters I asked the question ‘why do you think that voting is important.’ One answer stood out to me, Joel Kretz (one of our legislators at the time) said firmly ‘If you don’t vote, then you lose the right to complain about the outcome.’ I think that applies here too. If you are unwilling to set aside the issues you have regarding your assumptions of sins, and the state of mankind so that you can affectively witness the gospel to the lost world, and be the solution to the problems we see today; What right have you to complain about the lost world acting lost?

My daughter has a very treatable form of cancer called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Imagine after I heard her diagnosis instead of getting her on treatment that has a 98% cure rate, I simply decided she will instead die a slow a painful death. Then 3 weeks later I walked up to you complaining about how awful my life was as I was watching a curable illness take the life of my child. You’d accuse me of hypocrisy and child abuse. Yet this is how we today handle the world when it comes to sin. Unwilling to lift a finger to the only cure- yet demanding the symptoms just go away. So be apart of the cure, witness the gospel to someone, anyone, everyone. Theres one last reading I want to do as a little encouragement to those who are scared to do just this. It is found in Matthew 25:14-30

Matthew 25:14–20 ESV

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’

Matthew 25:20–25 ESV

And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’

Matthew 25:25–30 ESV

so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The parable given here is a parable about sharing the Gospel message. The talents represent the Gospel message, and the interest collected on it represents an increase in the number of believers. God has given us these ‘talents’ too, these Gospel seeds to go and plant so to speak. If we do nothing with them we are acting in disobedience to God. Rest assured though, we don’t have to do much work with them. I want to highlight a verse here for you to ponder as you go through this week. Matthew 25:24-25

Matthew 25:24–25 ESV

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’

God does not need us to reap the harvest of the Gospel. He just tells us to sow the seeds- meaning if all you can do is have a 5 min conversation with someone about what you mean when you say the words ‘God Bless,’ God can use that to increase the yield of His harvest far more than you could ever possibly imagine. Just don’t do nothing with it, do something with it, and do something with it as often as you possibly can. Just because you might never see it brought into fruition does not mean it was a waste of time. So get out there and sow for the one who reaps, go out there and be part of the cure, go out and make disciples of nations (starting in Colville)- and may God be with you as you do. Let’s pray.