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1 Corinthians 9:11
"If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?"

Evangelism:
The Time Is Now!

Section 2, Chapter 1

The Importance of Prayer
Before Evangelism

Chapter Illustration

Page 2, Back to page 1
Study Questions

I believe that most Christians fear of witnessing centers in self-dependence in witnessing. What do I mean? I mean that they believe that the burden of bringing a person to Christ rests on their shoulders rather than on Christ's. The end result is that they crumble under a burden Jesus never intended for them to carry. Jesus has not called us to make anyone accept that the Gospel message is true. All He has called us to do is TO EXPLAIN TO A PERSON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND HOW TO BECOME ONE. If you have accomplished that, then you have accomplished what Jesus has called you to do. He has not called you to be responsible for how the person responds to that message. Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, stated it this way: Success in witnessing is sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.

When You approach Evangelism this way, it becomes enjoyable. All the pressure is off. If a person says No! in hearing the Gospel, that is okay. If I explain to the person what it means to be a Christian and how to become one and at the point of decision he responds, "I am comfortable where I am at," that is okay. The pressure is off because I have accomplished what Jesus has called me to do which is to explain to the person what it means to become a Christian and how to become one. It is not our job to make the person believe that our message is true. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convince the person that the message is true. The pressure is on Him, not you. But the Holy Spirit cannot even begin to work in the person's heart until You and I plant the seed of God's word in their heart by simply sharing it with them. That is your job. It is not your job to argue them into believing that what you are saying is true. Now of course in love in response to the honest questions of the person we are sharing with, we give all the honest answers they need to see that Christianity is the truth and the only answer to their needs, but only in loving response to their questions, not to argue them into believing that what we are saying is true.

Apart from our dependence on Jesus through prayer, we cannot be fruitful in Evangelism because we do not know what is in man's heart and mind and therefore cannot know how we need to prepare ourselves for our work on the field. When we try to act out of our own strength and intellect and try to argue a person into believing the Gospel, we in fact end up becoming a stumbling block to the Gospel and end up hurting people in our Evangelistic pursuits. Proverbs 12:18 states, "There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." And again in Proverbs 13:10, "Through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom." The problem is that often what people throw up as their excuses for rejecting the Gospel is not the issue at all. The real issue can be any number of things: to justify an immoral lifestyle, the pursuit of illegitimate political power, the pursuit of a selfish self-centered materialistic lifestyle, not the argument for rejecting Christ they are presenting before you. The end result is you fall into their trap and waste time arguing with them over something which is not the issue at all, just a smokescreen to divert you away from your intended purpose and calling in Evangelism which is to explain to the person intelligently what it means to be a Christian and how to become one.

If we are to be effective in our Evangelistic pursuits, along with the need of training, before we go out on the field, we need to humble ourselves before God in prayer and ask Him to free us from ourselves. We then need to acknowledge our total 100% dependence on Him if we are to be effective at all on the field. We need to surrender our wisdom and knowledge to Him and let Him decide what aspects of our training and education apply to any given situation and when. Jesus said about His Holy Spirit,

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and Bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:26).

This is what Jesus was talking about in Luke 12:11-12 when he said,

"And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense, or what you should say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."

Why? Because only Jesus knows what is truly in the heart and mind of the person we are sharing the Gospel with and what is truly necessary to say that will release their faith to see that Jesus is the truth and the only answer to their life and needs. We do not. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 64:6, "For the inward thought and the heart of a man are unsearchable." They are unsearchable for man, but not for the Holy Spirit.

When we properly prepare ourselves beforehand through study (2 Tim 2:15, 1 Pet 3:15) and then through prayer surrender that knowledge to Jesus, He assures us that when we go out on the field He will through His Holy Spirit bring back to our memories at those moments what part of our study and training applies. The end result will be that we will be assured of being as effective as is possible in any given witnessing situation as Jesus wants us to be.

Yehovah speaking through Zechariah states, "‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" says Yehovah of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). The Apostle Peter wrote,

"But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15)

The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15,

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth."

The Bible plainly tells us that we are to study to show ourselves approved, to be ready to have an answer for everyone who asks us why we hold the faith we do. Concerning the act of saving faith, John H. Gerstner writes concerning inspiration,

"One may have knowledge without faith, but he cannot have faith without knowledge. he cannot experience as God something or someone of which he knows nothing."^2/29

At the same time, however, the Bible also tells us that it is not by intellect or might but by God's Spirit that men are brought to Christ. Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." This passage is often used incorrectly to justify the perverted teaching about predestination, that God has determined some to be saved and some to be lost. But that is not the context of what Jesus is saying here. Jesus made this statement to the Jews who prided themselves in their knowledge of God in the Old Testament through Moses. In the next verse Jesus tells them, "It is written in the prophets, ‘and they shall all be taught of God." Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.’" Jesus explains to them that knowing the law does not bring them to salvation, but knowing the Person behind the law does bring them to the means of their salvation. He explains to them that if they knew Yehovah, the Father, behind the law, they would turn to Jesus because the Father always draws those who know Him to His Son: Jesus Christ. The reason why they did not recognize who Jesus was and turn to Him was because they did not know Jesus’ Father. All they had was an academic knowledge of the Word of God. Christianity is not knowledge of the Word of God, Christianity is relationship with the Word of God: Jesus, the intent of the knowledge of the Word of God.

This is a seeming contradiction here, but the Bible does not contradict itself. What Zechariah is telling us in this earlier passage is that it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to open men's eyes to see that what we are saying about Jesus being the Truth and the only answer to their life and needs is the truth and that because it is the truth they need to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives. Therefore, we start with sharing the Word of God which tells us we need to enter into that relationship to be saved, but having that knowledge is not enough; we need the power of the Holy Spirit to quicken to the hearer that what we are saying is true. This is what Jesus was talking about in John 6:63 when he said,

"It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life."

The word in the Greek here is zwopoiew. It is a compound word: ζαω meaning: alive and ποιεω meaning: to make, create = to create or make alive. We start with the knowledge of God. Why? Because without the Word of God the Holy Spirit has nothing with which to create life from. It is the work of the soul which shares the Word of God. This is a necessary first step in the process of Evangelism. But though our souls are alive, they have no ability to create or give life. This is what Jesus is talking about when he states that the flesh profits nothing. It is the work of the Holy Spirit which causes that Word we share to become alive and then bring Life to the hearer.

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