Hello

What did Jesus say about evangelism?  The first thing he said was to pray.  You’ve heard Jesus said: “the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few”?  Well, he didn’t say it as a call to evangelism, he said it as a call to prayer.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  (Matthew 9:36-38)

So, Jesus tells us to pray that God will send out people to encourage others into a loving relationship with Him: the loving relationship that all his human children were made for.

But what if God wants me to get out there and talk to others about him?  ‘Evangelism’, or ‘witnessing’ may sound embarrassing, even scary.  Don’t worry.  Trust God.  If he wants me to do it, he will give me whatever I need to do it, and it won’t be embarrassing or scary.

I heard a brilliant talk once about evangelism. It was given by a friend, Rick Fletcher, who I have come to respect deeply.  Rick practiced as a lawyer for 11 years and his main point was that, in a court of law, testimony is evidence.  Rick said that all God wants his servants to do is be witnesses, provide testimony or, to put it very simply, just talk with others about our heavenly Father’s love for us and our walk with Him.  The evidence we provide in our testimony may convince others that we really do mean what we say.

One very important thing: when we talk to others, they won’t be interested in hearing how good our church is, or what a great person our pastor is.   They’ll be interested in hearing about our walk with God and how good that is.  I can’t emphasize this enough.

Of course, a very important part of the evidence we present to others is the way we live our lives.  If we live our lives in obedience to Jesus’ commands, loving our neighbors and treating others the way we like to be treated, people will be much more likely to listen to what we have to say when we talk about our walk with God.  It is particularly important that we love our fellow Christians.  Jesus said:

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

So, there may be little point in talking to others about our walk with God, if we are less than loving towards any of our sisters and brothers in Christ.

In the early church the good news spread rapidly, and mostly it spread through ordinary Christians talking about their experience of God. They talked with neighbors, with people they met in the market place, with fellow workers, with anyone they happened to meet.

We can do this too. We don’t need organizations, funding or buildings. We just need to pray and talk.

Remember the most important thing about evangelism, we must pray that God will send out the laborers.

I’ll finish with something I remember from many years ago.  I grew up in a strongly evangelical church.  One man in our church was incredibly shy.  Talking to him was embarrassing because he very rarely said anything in response to a question or comment – he just smiled and nodded.  During one Sunday service, members of the congregation were encouraged to stand up and tell everyone about our experiences of sharing the gospel with others during the week.   Everyone was very surprised when our shy brother stood up to speak.  He shook and stammered and told us he had been praying for some time that God would strengthen him and enable him to share his faith with his work colleagues.  And one day this week, one of his colleagues had stopped by his desk and asked him whether he had been converted.  Realizing that God was answering his prayer, he began to tell his colleague about how he had given his heart to Jesus.  The man listened attentively for a while and then interrupted with a hand gesture and said “I meant, ‘Have you been converted to natural gas?’, but go on with what you were saying.”

May our loving Father bless you and strengthen you in whatever he has for you to do.

Jesus is Lord.

Peter O

 

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