"Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to You, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal; that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’"

The Bible teaches us that we cannot save anyone. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 49:7-9,

"No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him—For the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever—That he should live on eternally; that he should not undergo decay."

Second, the Bible teaches that we cannot argue or reason a person into saving faith in Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:21 "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."

Third, the Bible tells us that we do not have any life in ourselves to bring a person’s human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God. Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing."

If we cannot save any one, if we cannot argue or reason a person into saving faith in Jesus Christ, and if we have no life in ourselves to bring a human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God, then why does Jesus command us in Matthew 28:18-20 to "GO THEREFORE and make disciples of all the nations"?

Thirty years ago I was on a college campus sharing the Gospel. I walked up to a man sitting on a bench and said,

"Hi! My name is Dale and I am out today taking a survey on this booklet titled What Is Eternal Life? I wondered if I could take a few minutes of Your time and get your honest reaction to it?"

With a negative grunt, he said "Sure! Have a seat." I sat down and proceeded to explain to him from the Salvation Tract what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. When I got to pages 11-12 of the Salvation Tract which challenged Him to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, he said to me,

"I am an atheist, I do not believe in that stuff. I am waiting for a friend and had some time to kill so I went ahead and let you have your say, but no I am not interested."

I asked him if he understood the content of the Salvation Tract? He said he did. I then asked him if ever he decided he would like to receive Jesus into his heart as Savior from his sins and as Lord of his life, would he know what to do? He said he did. I then thanked him for his time and asked him if he would like to keep a copy of the Salvation Tract to read for himself. He said sure. I handed him the tract and said "Have a nice day" and went on.

Five years later I was walking out of church when this man walked up to me and said,

Man: "Do you remember me?"

Dale: "Do I know you?

Man: "Five years ago you came up to me on a bench on a college campus and shared the Gospel with me through a Salvation Tract. When you challenged me to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord I told you at the time that I was an atheist and that I was not interested. You left a copy of the tract with me and went on. However, after that day I could not get out of my mind the Word of God you shared with me, it haunted me day and night for months. Finally, I came to the conclusion that what you shared with me was true, but I was not sure what to do, but I remembered that you left that Salvation Tract with me. I pulled it out of my drawer and reread it. When I came to the page explaining how to surrender my life to Jesus Christ, I got down on my knees and received Jesus into my heart as Savior from my sins and as Lord of my life. I have been walking with Jesus ever since."

What is Evangelism and what is success in Evangelism? EVANGELISM is explaining to a person from the Word of God what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. If you have done that then you have had a successful time of Evangelism whether the person accepts Jesus Christ or not.

One of the main reasons Christians do not get involved in evangelism is because unless they can be assured immediate conversion of the hearer, they feel they are a failure, or that they do not have the gift of Evangelism. As a result, when they do not see immediate results they become quickly discouraged and give it up.

While our ultimate goal in Evangelism is to bring a person to saving faith in Jesus Christ, success in Evangelism is simply educating a person about what the Bible teaches about the creation, constitution and fall of man, and God’s full salvation for man through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Paul wrote in, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"

Evangelism is sharing from God’s Word with a person about the claims of Jesus Christ, how He died for their sins, was buried and then raised physically alive from the dead three days later as absolute proof to these claims. Finally it is then explaining to the person that even though Jesus died for their sins, his death does not become theirs until they receive Jesus Christ of Nazareth into their heart as Savior and Lord. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:11-12 "And the witness of God is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

So while our ultimate goal in Evangelism is to bring a person to saving faith in Jesus Christ, success in Evangelism is simply explaining to a person what it means to be a Christian and how to become one whether the person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord or not. Why? I will explain why in a minute. However, this and this alone is Evangelism.

Sharing the Gospel is not a spiritual gift. Sharing the Gospel is the most loving thing we can do. What then is the Gift of Evangelism? When I was a sophomore in High School, God called me to the ministry. I did not know God at this time, I was not yet a bornagain Christian. However, so strong was this calling and conviction that I spoke to my Monsignor of the Catholic Church I had been raised in about this conviction. He suggested that I transfer from my secular High School to the Catholic High School in town where I could began preparing for the ministry.

While there I decided maybe I ought to read the Bible. I started with the New Testament. As I did I came across some astounding statements by Jesus. For example, in Matthew 5:27-28 Jesus said "You have heard that it was said ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." My Catholic faith taught that there was what they called venial sins and mortal sins. Venial sins God pardoned, but mortal sins if committed more than three times, as the stand up comic would say, "That’s it, everybody out of the pool!" In other words if you committed more than three mortal sins you could not be saved. Jesus was saying that in God’s eyes you are not guilty of adultery just because you have committed it physically, you are guilty of this sin if you live it out in your heart. Another passage states in 1 John 3:15 "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal spiritual-life abiding in him." In this passage God states that you are not a murderer just because you carry out the act of murder, you are a murderer if you have hate in your heart toward your brother.

I thought to myself "There isn’t anyone who has reached the age of 16 that has not committed adultery in his heart a few hundred times if they are normal." I then realized that If I took my faith literally and Jesus’ words in the Bible literally that I could not be saved! I was going to hell! Jesus’ disciples came to this same understanding and said to Jesus "Then who can be saved?" (Matt 19:25). Jesus replied "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt 19:26).

I had been raised in a Christian religion and so knew Jesus had died for my sins and had risen physically from the grave, but no one explained to me how to receive this free gift of God through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ. One day while riding my bicycle home from school I stumbled onto my salvation in Jesus by accident. I prayed,

"Jesus, my life is far short of what I want it to be and I am sure it is far short of what you want it to be, but this is Dale, I cannot change me. Jesus, if You want to change me, here is my life, it is Yours to do with whatever you please. Come into my life and save me!"

Paul wrote in Romans 10:13 "For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." That day Jesus did save me and gave me eternal life and assurance of salvation and began to change my life.

For the next eight months he slowly stripped me of my religious self-strife and brought me to a place of rest.

Matthew 28:11-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

Next, He began to deal with me as a believer about His desire for me to share His love and forgiveness with others. Like many of you, the idea of going out and talking to a total stranger about Jesus Christ petrified me. I think the reason was, first, I simply did not know what preaching the Gospel meant, and, second, when I thought about someone sharing the Gospel, I pictured someone like in the movies standing on a bench screaming hell, fire and damnation. Somehow that just did not appeal to me, LOL.

Not knowing what to do, I went on a fast to seek Jesus for boldness to speak for Him. The end result of my prayer and fasting was not God hitting me over the head with a Christian magic wand and saying "Go out and preach boldly Super Christian!!!" No, that is not what He did. What He did was bring into my path a protestant bornagain Christian who had just gone through an Evangelism Training Program. I asked him what they taught him? He said,

"I learned, first, what the Gospel is, how to share the Gospel in love, how to lead a person into saving faith in Jesus Christ through prayer, and how to disciple a new Christian so that they will succeed in their Christian walk."

I knew this was Jesus’ answer for me. To make a long story short I too went through this training program of Evangelism and learned what the Gospel is, how to share the Gospel in love, how to lead a person into saving faith in Jesus Christ through prayer, and how to disciple them so that they would succeed in their walk with Jesus. I did this during the summer between my Junior and Senior years of High School. During my last year of High School I managed to share Jesus with just about every student on campus. Many of these students came to saving faith in Jesus Christ and some continue to serve Jesus in the ministry today. When it was time to graduate, my Senior class voted me the most radical student of my Senior Class for sharing the Gospel on a Catholic High school campus, lol. Right!!!!

Once I had been trained in how to share the Gospel in love and knowing Jesus wanted me to use my free time for this, I made a commitment then to the Lord as a believer to use my free time for the rest of my life to share His love and forgiveness with others.

After eight years of faithfully doing this, Jesus came to me in my spirit and said to me in the tradition of Matthew 25:14-30,

"Well done good and faithful servant. Because you have been faithful in little, I am going to put you in charge of much. You are an Evangelist, Overseer, Teacher."

But wait a minute? Hadn’t I been faithfully sharing the Gospel now for eight years? Why now was Jesus giving me the Gift of Evangelism? You see like most of you I thought at that time that the Gift of Evangelism was preaching the Gospel. The fact of the matter is that since that time thirty-four years ago nothing has changed in the way I present the Gospel. Why then did Jesus give me the Gift of Evangelism then? Eventually the Lord led me to Ephesians 4:11-12 which states "And He gave. . . some as Evangelists for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ." As a bornagain believer I had been faithfully sharing the Gospel with others with my free time. Now Jesus was giving me the Gift of Evangelism so I could motivate, train and equip God’s people to go out and do the same. You see sharing the Gospel is not a spiritual gift, it is the loving responsibility of all bornagain Christians and the Gift of Evangelism is training and equipping you so that you can go out and successfully share Jesus with others. Therefore, the Gift of Evangelism is not for the lost, but for the redeemed.

What then is an Evangelist? An Evangelist is someone the Lord has anointed to preach the Gospel as a full time vocation. Sharing the Gospel, however, is the loving responsibility of anyone claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

What then is involved in bringing a man or woman to Saving Faith in Jesus Christ? There are three ingredients:

• The Word of God,

• The Holy Spirit,

• And the Will of the individual.

"For the word of God is spiritually-alive and energetically-effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the conscious-reasonings and intentions of the heart."

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the Bible is not just words on a page, another novel; the Bible is God’s Word, God’s truth. Because it is, when we go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men, God backs up His Word with the presence, power and conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

"All Scripture is given-by-inspiration-of-God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

God speaking through Isaiah in Isaiah 55:11 states "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." God promises us that when we share His Word with men that His Word will not return void, it will accomplish what He sent it forth to do.

Paul again wrote in Romans 10:17 "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Men do not come to saving faith in Jesus Christ by our trying to argue or reason with them. There is only one way a person comes to have saving faith in Jesus Christ:  when they HEAR the Word of God.

When I came back to my High school campus in my Senior year I got permission to go to the religious classes and share with the students about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The first couple of classes I went to I thought the way to reach these students was to reason with them, to use heady illustrations and try to impress them with my intelligence. The end result was rather than the students expressing a desire to receive Jesus Christ into their hearts as Savior and Lord, instead when I came to that point in my discussion, the only response I got was a lot of loud snoring. I had put the poor students to sleep.

Before I went to the third class, I decided to try a different approach. I took my New Testament and went through it and highlighted key passages. I then spent the entire time in class reading these passages to the students which talked about the fact that man is a sinner and cannot save himself, that the wages of sin is eternal separation from God, and how Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross is God’s only remedy for our sins and how we receive this free gift of salvation by receiving Jesus Christ Himself into our hearts as Savior and Lord.

When I came to the time to invite them to receive Jesus into their hearts as Savior and Lord, rather than hearing loud snoring, instead I saw wide eyed students with their hands up asking lots of questions. Even after the bell rang they stayed around and asked more questions.

The second ingredient in Christian conversion is the presence, power and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn’t call us to save anyone, because we cannot save anyone. All He calls us to do in Evangelism is to share the Gospel, the truth of His Word with men and women.

Once while sharing the Gospel on a college campus I came up to a man who claimed to be a psychology major. We had the following conversation:

Dale: "Hi, my name is Dale and I am out today taking a survey on this booklet titled What Is Eternal Life? I wondered if I could take a few minutes of your time and get your honest reaction to it?"

Psychology Student: "I know what happens when a person is bornagain."

Dale: "Really! Please share."

Psychology Student: "Well, when a person goes to a religious meeting and hears a religious message, he gets worked up emotionally. When that happens a chemical reaction takes place in the brain which causes brain synapses. This causes a sense of euphoria which the person interprets as his being bornagain."

Dale: "Well then, may I take a few minutes of your time and share with you how to have a brain synapses?"

Psychology Student: "Sure!"

You see, I was not there to argue with him about what he believed or did not believe or to try and prove to him that I was right and he was wrong, I was there to explain to him what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. That I did successfully and thus had a successful time of evangelism. Why?

Jesus said about the work of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-11,

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because Satan the ruler of this world has been judged."

Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:17 "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit came to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment; and the Apostle Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit’s sword for doing this is the Word of God.

You see, until we do our part, share the Gospel, the Word of God with men, the Holy Spirit cannot even began to do His job which is to convince them that what we are saying is true. That is why Jesus does not call us to reason or argue with people that what we are saying is true because that is the job of the Holy Spirit.

Why is it then that not everyone we share Jesus with immediately accepts Him? There are many reasons: if they are hearing this message for the first time, the Holy Spirit has not yet had time to convince them that what we have shared with them is true. The Apostle Paul wrote in, 2 Corinthians 13:1 "Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses." Again He wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 "But examine-test-scrutinize everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good." Even the Bible teaches us that we are not to be gullible. We are not just to accept something because a man said it. The Bible teaches that we are to seek confirmation of the message we are hearing. Again, this is the job and work of the Holy Spirit. After we share the Gospel, the Holy Spirit then steps in and confirms God’s Word we have shared with them as being true. This takes time, this is a process.

However, the Bible also commands us in 1 Peter 3:15 "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." So yes we are to prepare ourselves to give honest answers to honest questions about why we believe what we believe, which is why you need to submit yourself to the gift of Evangelism which is going through an Evangelism Training Program. However, sharing why we believe what we believe, and arguing with someone why we are right and they are wrong are two different things. Yes, we are to give honest answers to honest questions about the validity of our Christian faith, but it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convince them that what we are saying is true.

After we have shared the Gospel with a person, Paul then commands us in 1 Timothy 2:1-4,

"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

I shared the word of God with this man through my salvation tract What Is Eternal Life? In the mean time I daily prayed for him that Jesus would by the presence, power, and convicting work of the Holy Spirit convince Him that what I shared with him is true. The Apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." A person coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ is a process. It takes time for the Holy Spirit to convince them that what we are saying is true. However, God’s Word promises us in Galatians 6:9 "And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary."

One year I did some intensive evangelism work between two college campus that had over 15,000 students on each campus. During the Fall semester I went out daily and shared the Word of God with students. I sowed the seed of God’s word, watered, fertilized and weeded. I did this for four months without seeing anyone come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Then the Spring semester started and one morning during my quiet time the Lord spoke to me and said "Dale, it is time for a harvest!" The next week I led six students to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

However, The Bible also warns us in Ecclesiastes 11:4 "He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap." Sometimes Christians wonder why they never lead anyone to saving faith in Jesus Christ. When they do not, they think "Oh! Evangelism is not my gift." However, the reason why they are not leading anyone to saving faith in Jesus Christ is because they are not sowing the Word of God in the hearts of men with their free time. As a result neither are they reaping. Can you imagine if a farmer got up at the beginning of Spring and looked out over his land and said "Yep! I have a really wonderful piece of farm land," and then went back into his house but did not sow seed for a crop, did not water it or fertilize it or weed it? When the time for harvest came, he would have no crop to harvest.

Bringing people to saving faith in Jesus Christ is no different. We must sow the word of God in men’s hearts, water, fertilize and weed. When we do, God promises us that He will allow us to participate in the harvest, He will bring men and women to us who are ripe and ready to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and allow us to see them bornagain.

The third and final ingredient in Christian Conversion is the will of the individual. I shared the Word of God with this man on the bench through my salvation tract. In the mean time I prayed for Him that the Holy spirit would convince him that what I shared with Him was true. The Holy Spirit then spent months convincing him that what I shared with him was true. Finally, it was time for him to make a decision. He pulled the Salvation Tract out of His drawer, reread it, got down on his knees and prayed the prayer of salvation that is in the Salvation Tract and surrendered Himself to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and received Him into his heart.

As this man walked away from me at church that day, the Lord spoke to me in my heart and said "Dale, no matter what a person’s reaction is when you share the Gospel with them, you are never wasting your time. My Word will not return void without accomplishing what I sent it to do.

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is spiritually-alive and energetically-effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the conscious-reasonings and intentions of the heart."

Now I am a Holy Spirit Baptized Christian who believes in the power of the Holy Spirit. I have a 450 page textbook dedicated to the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit,²⁶⁶ but in light of this story about how this man came to have saving faith in Jesus Christ, can you see why I choose to use a Salvation Tract like What Is Eternal Life? when presenting the Gospel to people one on one on the field? You see I can just talk and share the word of God with a person on the field and often do when it is appropriate. However, when I am talking to a total stranger on the field like the man I gave as an example in this article, since he claimed to be an atheist and was not interested, he was not asking me for my name and phone number to contact me later for more information. Since I had shared the word of God with him, in time the Holy Spirit would have been able to successfully convince him that what I had shared with him was true. However, when he became convinced the message was true, he would not have known what to do? However, because I did leave him with the Salvation Tract, he was able to pull it out of his drawer, reread it, and when he came to page 12 of What Is Eternal Life? he was then able to know what to do and did: received Jesus Christ into his heart as Savior and Lord of his life. Not only that, but the Salvation Tract also gave him assurance of salvation, told him what he needed to do to grow in his relationship with Jesus and about the importance of Church fellowship. Also in the back of the tract was information about who to get in contact with once he did.

So, if we cannot save anyone, if we cannot argue or reason a person into saving faith in Jesus Christ, and if we have no life in ourselves to bring a human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God, then why does Jesus want us to use our free time to share the Gospel with men? He commands us to share the Gospel with men because the sword of the Holy Spirit is the word of God; and until we do our part, the Holy Spirit cannot even begin to do His part which is to convince them that the Word of God we have shared with them is true.

Paul wrote in Romans 10:13-15,

"For ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then shall they call upon Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!’"

Again He wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2,

"And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—for He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you’; behold, NOW is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, NOW is ‘The day of salvation.’"

What does Jesus want you to do?

1. First, He wants you to PRAY and commit your free time to Him to share the love of Jesus Christ with Men.

2. Second, if you have not already done so, you need to go through an EVANGELISM TRAINING PROGRAM and learn how to lovingly present the Gospel to Men.

3. Third, Once you are trained, you need to MAKE A COVENANT WITH JESUS to spend a certain amount of your time in a week to go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men.

Pray right now this prayer with me and commit your free time to Jesus to share His love and forgiveness with men.

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that Heaven is more real and permanent than this earth. For this reason I commit my life to invest in Your Kingdom by using my free time to share the love of Jesus Christ with men and for study and training to that end. I do this by faith and trust You to lead me to what I need to know and do in Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name, amen.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:16 "Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you."

So! What are you waiting for? Go and begin this Evangelism Training Program so Jesus can use you to bring men and women to saving faith in Him.

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